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Pentagon Identifies Soldiers Killed in Jordan; Qatari-Gifted Plane Sent for Upgrades; U.K. New Prime Minister Starts Today; Gulf Coast Braces for Tropical Storm; Funeral For Nolan Wells Today; Trump Jr.'s Investment Firm Soars. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired July 20, 2026 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[09:00:00]

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: International Criminal Court. The law is very clear as it relates to not, you know, not being able to touch Netanyahu when he comes to New York. OK for the mayor to question and have his very good legal counsel weigh in. But I think when they do so they will say, Mayor, you don't have the ability to do it no matter what you may personally believe with regard to the active warrant for Mr. Netanyahu.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: That's what lawyers and billable hours are for. Doesn't mean that it will not be eventful if and when the prime minister comes here in the fall. That will, no doubt, be a big deal.

Thank you very much, Joey.

JACKSON: Always.

BERMAN: A brand new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, the rising human and economic toll of the war with Iran. Three U.S. service members killed over the weekend. The Pentagon just identifying two of them, as the escalating conflict sends gas and oil prices rising again.

And a CNN investigation. The financial holdings of an investment firm that counts Donald Trump Junior as partner have soared to billions of dollars in President Trump's second term.

Plus, the U.K. has a new prime minister again. Andy Burnham making his first remarks as the new British leader. What he's vowing to do.

Sara and Kate are out today. I'm Bianna Golodryga, with John Berman. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BERMAN: All right, and breaking this morning, the U.S. has launched new strikes on Iran as the human and financial toll is rising. At least 17 Americans have now died in this conflict. This weekend, CENTCOM says one service member was killed in Iraq while trying to detonate a downed Iranian attack drone. After an attack in Jordan, the Pentagon has now identified the first soldiers killed in action since March as First Lieutenant Tyler James Feehan, a 25 year old from Hawaii, and Private Isabella Gonzales, a 19 year old from Texas. Remains have been recovered in the search for another service member still missing. So it is possible, again, that that death toll could increase by one very shortly.

Also this morning, gas prices back up over $4 a gallon on average nationwide.

I want to get to CNN's Kevin Liptak at the White House.

Kevin, will these setbacks, frankly, spur any shift in direction from the administration?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: You know, you heard President Trump last night saying that the U.S. would respond to these deaths. But I think both of them, both the incident in Jordan, but also this incident in Iraq, really underscore that Iran very much retains its missile and drone capabilities. It's sort of puncturing President Trump's claims of total military dominance. But it also seems to suggest that Iran is building up its ability to evade U.S. air defenses. And so, it does, I think, deepen the quandary that President Trump now finds himself in as he tries to find a path out of this conflict.

You know, the rising casualty count comes amid this back and forth between the two sides, escalating strikes last night. CENTCOM saying that it carried out the ninth straight evening of military strikes against Iran. And you see the -- both sides of this increasingly going after civilian sites, including water desalination plants, roads and infrastructure in southern Iran. Today, I'm told by a U.S. official that the United States is sending more firepower to the region in the form of F-16 and F-35 fighter jets, as well as additional aerial refueling tankers.

At the same time, what you're hearing from diplomats engaged in this is that the door does remain open for some sort of negotiation. You heard the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who's traveling in Asia, saying that the door is open and that Iran had communicated, quote, "directly and through multiple channels," that they, too, are open to negotiations. You also heard the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, say that "negotiations could begin when you have achieved reliable battlefield and strategic gains," suggesting that there could be efforts, even though they're very hard to detect at the moment, to try and get this back on track in a way that would avoid this conflict from spiraling completely out of control.

John.

BERMAN: Kevin, I understand you've got some new reporting this morning on this new plane the president has been using as Air Force One. And I should note that I misspoke last hour. The CNN reporting on this is that this plane simply does not have the same defensive capabilities as the other Air Force Ones in use. Please explain.

LIPTAK: Right, right, right. And President Trump is actually weighing in on this. He was asked about it last night, standing underneath the very Qatari-donated plane. It was actually one of the first times that he had flown on it after we had learned when he returned from Turkey a couple of weeks ago that it does, in fact, lack some of the security parameters that were on the original Air Force One.

[09:05:08]

And when the president was asked why he was flying this plane without anti-missile defense systems on it, he said that it does have a lot of capabilities, but that they're going to, quote, send it to have it maxed out and that it would take about a month.

Now, he didn't specify what kind of upgrades might be coming to this new plane, and it's also not clear that its realistic a month would be enough to make it airworthy in the way that the previous Air Force Ones are. You know, if it had only taken a month, it's not clear why they wouldn't have done that so far or why it's taken the better part of a decade to get the additional two Boeing 747 retrofitted by the Air Force to fly as Air Force One. But he does seem to be making a tacit acknowledgment there that that Qatari-donated plane does not contain the same capabilities that the old Air Force One did.

John.

BERMAN: Yes, and it really draws into question his claims that when he was not able to fly on it in Europe it was because he wanted to send it to a bunch of bases so people could take a look at it. That just seems to be simply not true.

Kevin Liptak, at the White House, thank you very much.

Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: All right, with me now is CNN political and global affairs commentator Sabrina Singh.

Sabrina, let's pick up with this plane. The president saying is being maxed out now. And the president is saying that it was going to be sent to visit bases in Europe seems to have been a falsehood since he himself did not fly home on that plane and he was in Turkey, which obviously shares a border with Iran at the time. Just how much of a security vulnerability at a time of war is a plane that is not equipped to protect the president of the United States right now?

SABRINA SINGH, CNN POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Well, it's clear it was a vulnerability when he was coming back from Turkey, that the Secret Service, along with the U.S. military, decided that he needed to fly back on the original Air Force One. I don't think it's a surprise that we've seen this president kind of peddle some of these lies about the security of the airplane. I mean he's very proud of this. He's very proud of the gift. But it's also an embarrassment that the fact that it cannot fly with the security protocols that it needs to in order to keep him safe.

So, it does need to continue to be retrofitted. Again, we're talking about millions and millions of taxpayer dollars going into this new aircraft where, frankly, we do have an old one that is available and able to fly the president wherever he needs. GOLODRYGA: Is a month a realistic timeframe to get it to where it

needs to be?

SINGH: I think that's very tough. I mean, our Air Force is incredibly skilled, and I have no doubt they are going to do everything possible to expedite the timeline to retrofit Air Force One. But a month is a quick turnaround. And we do have other aircraft that have been experiencing delays by Boeing because it takes so much time to ensure that these aircraft are able to secure the president.

GOLODRYGA: Let's talk about the latest in the war with Iran. As we've been reporting, three U.S. service members killed over the weekend. Two of them have been identified. Our thoughts, obviously, are with their loved ones and family members. But "The New York Times" reports that Iran has hit U.S. forces in Jordan three times in the week before Friday's deadly strike, injuring dozens and damaging helicopters as well. The Pentagon disclosed none of this. We've seen no briefings from the Pentagon since May. It stopped updating the injury count, which we believe now passed 400.

You held that podium. What is the line between operational security and disclosing to the American public vital information, like those who have been injured?

SINGH: Well, first, just on the three service members that lost their lives. I mean, obviously, this is just such a horrible day for the families. And, of course, the building, the Pentagon. This is, you know, our teammates that have been lost. And so, it's really hard. And so my, you know, my condolences go out to everyone involved.

Second, I mean, pivoting to what the Pentagon should disclose from the podium or just from U.S. Central Command. When I was at the podium during the Biden administration, you know, we were have -- we were experiencing attacks from Iranian proxy groups in Syria and Iraq. And we did have injuries from our men and women serving in uniform. And we read those out as often as we could. Sometimes data comes in a day or two later. Many of the injuries that our men and women were facing in uniform are TBI, traumatic brain injury, and sometimes those injuries come not the same day of the attack, but can come days, weeks, even months later.

And so, I think when it comes to the line of operational security and transparency, disclosing that our service members have been injured, that is a right that the American people deserve to know. When our all-volunteer force are putting their lives at risk for American freedoms, they deserve to know how and if our men and women are safe.

[09:10:01]

And so, I do find it discouraging that we have not heard more from the Pentagon. And frankly, this is exactly why you need these daily briefings, or at least weekly briefings to disclose. You know, here are the service members that were injured. Some have returned to duty. Some are continuing to receive medical treatment. That's not an operational security risk.

GOLODRYGA: I believe the defense secretary and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs will be briefing lawmakers on Capitol Hill this week.

Sabrina Singh, thank you so much.

John.

BERMAN: All right, new this morning, Britain's new prime minister, Andy Burnham, entered Downing Street for the first time, welcomed by staffers with applause. Just moments earlier, he gave his first speech as the country's new head of government, the seventh in ten years.

CNN's Max Foster outside Ten Downing Street.

No, it's not Max at all. Breaking news. Breaking news.

ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Surprise.

BERMAN: Anna Stewart outside Ten Downing Street.

Great to see you.

Tell us -- tell us about yourself. No, tell us about what you just saw because, look, it's, frankly, a pretty, pretty regular sight there outside Ten Downing Street.

STEWART: Yes, it's a bit of a revolving door situation I'd say at number Ten Downing Street. Ten prime ministers -- sorry, seven prime ministers in just over ten years is rather a lot. Keir Starmer, outgoing today. He was here for two years, which is actually a pretty long tenure here in the U.K.

Now, what do we know about Andy Burnham, the new prime minister? He is known as king of the north. He's been mayor of a big city called Manchester for nearly a decade. Before that, he was a Westminster politician. He's got gift of the gab. He's very easy going. He ad libs. And we saw that very much in the speech he set out today on arriving here at Downing Street. No podium. He just had microphones on a stand. No scripts. No looking at notes. He ad-libbed the whole thing and was incredibly personable. He also recognizes that it's time for a reset in politics.

Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDY BURNHAM, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: It requires my generation of politicians to raise our game and rise to the new challenge. Britain needs to show the world that we can regain our stability once again. And that is our challenge, to make politics work, to make it work better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEWART: Now, this prime minister has been appointed by his party without any leadership contest. Obviously, there's been no general election. This means that we don't really know where Andy Burnham stands on many areas of policy, particularly a big area like foreign policy. He hasn't been grilled by journalists over his plans. And plans is what we need.

In terms of policy announced today, very broad-brush, devolution. He wants more power to come out of Westminster and be given to regions around the U.K. He wants utilities to be nationalized. Things like water. He wants a re-industrialization. But these are very broad- stroke areas. We're expecting to get more detail in the days to come.

BERMAN: Really interesting to see the lack of the lectern outside Ten Downing Street, because it's kind of been a cliche outside the building, representing the changing, the frequent changing of the guard there, literally. So, maybe he just didn't want that picture of the podium, empty or otherwise out there.

Very good reporting. Anna Stewart, thank you very much. And it was very nice to see you and not someone else.

All right, a new storm in the gulf that could hit the coast with heavy rain and tropical storm strength wind gusts. The latest on where it's headed.

We're standing by for funeral services for the 18 year old whose mysterious death has raised many questions.

And firefighters rescued a dog that jumped into San Francisco Bay.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:18:23]

BERMAN: All right, happening now, a tropical depression heading to the Gulf Coast. You can see it right there. Heavy rain, flood threats, powerful tropical storm force winds all possible. The National Hurricane Center monitoring what will likely end up as Tropical Storm Bertha.

CNN's Derek Van Dam is with us now for the latest on this.

What are you seeing, Derek.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. And, John, that could happen as early as 11:00 Eastern Time. We're watching this very closely because we're starting to see a little bit more of a defined circulation center. It's clearer now we've put together the radar and the satellite.

There it is right there. And even a little bit of lightning on the southern fringe of that. That gives me that impression that this thing is kind of trying to get a little bit more organized.

Of course, the hurricane hunters, they are currently flying and sampling within the center of this storm all the different quadrants. This will give us crucial data, help it feed into that 11 a.m. update. If they need to upgrade this, it will become Bertha, and that will be the second named tropical storm of the season.

So, we've got these tropical storm watches in place just east of Apalachicola, right to the border of Mississippi. This does officially, from the National Hurricane Center, keep this a tropical storm. We don't want to sleep on this because, of course, we've got very warm waters across the gulf, in the upper '80s right now. So, it won't take much to get organized, but there's a lot of things working against it, including strong wind shear, a lot of dry air from the north. That's why you see a lopsided storm, and that is why you see the bulk of the precipitation staying just offshore even though there is a flash flood threat.

This high-pressure system, located across the central part of the country, helping steer it to the west over the coming days. But it's also introducing that drier air and also a little bit of wind shear.

[09:20:01]

Those don't work well together with developing hurricanes. So, that's why you see this kind of asymmetrical look to the system.

However, it could get very breezy, right along the peninsula, or rather the panhandle of Florida, as we head into New Orleans for the second half of the workweek. And, of course, this is such a low-lying area. So, one to three feet of localized storm surge is a potential with this developing system.

John.

BERMAN: Developing system named Bertha. And as the Grateful Dead say, "Bertha, don't you come round here anymore."

Derek Van Dam, thank you very much for that.

VAN DAM: I love that.

BERMAN: Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: Well, it is an incredibly difficult day for family and friends of Nolan Wells, a Mississippi football player who mysteriously died nearly three weeks ago during a boating trip. Today, his loved ones are preparing to lay him to rest in his hometown of Ocean Springs, Mississippi. Authorities say Wells got separated from the group that he was with on that July 4th boating trip. His body was found two days later.

CNN's Ryan Young is in Ocean Springs, Mississippi.

And, Ryan, I gather that people are starting to come together for this ceremony.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they are. We know the visitation starts around 9:00 Central Time. But already behind us, a line is starting to form. Just over here, over my shoulder, you can see the casket actually has arrived in the last ten minutes or so. And people have a lot to say. They've already been sharing in line their just general feelings. But we're also hearing that there could be a protest outside of this memorial at some point because people are upset. And so, they're not protesting, obviously, Nolan Wells, but they want to know more about the investigation, what's going on and why hasn't there been a timeline given so far?

And just to give our viewers an update on that, you know, his body was basically found two Mondays ago. And so, there's a lot of people in the community who are now asking the questions, why is it taking so long for a timeline to be provided to the community? So, there is a lot of questions about what are the next steps moving forward.

But as you can understand, today is about this young man's life. He's, obviously, someone who this community knew. There's a lot of groundswell of support from around the country for this family. And now, as you can imagine, his family is having to have one of the toughest days of their life. Take a listen to his mother talk about the emotions that she's been dealing with.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINE WONSLEY, NOLAN WELLS' MOTHER: This loss, this grief, this pain, it's different. It's insurmountable. And then it's like you get these flood of emotions all at different times. And grief is so multilayered, you know, one second I might be OK, and I can talk about things, and I can listen to his stories, and then the next minute I am falling apart and I feel like I can't breathe and I feel like there is an elephant just sitting on my chest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Yes, we know Tyler Perry helped to pay for this funeral service behind us. We also know Colin Kaepernick helped to get an independent autopsy done for the family. But at this point, we don't have those results just yet.

And we're still trying to see exactly when the family arrives. But once again, this starts at nine. Funeral services start at 11:00 Central Time. Just a lot of emotions here in a community where people really want to know exactly what happened to a young man who, less than three miles away here, played high school football. And a lot of people still remember those memories of him scoring in this area.

Guys.

GOLODRYGA: A lot of those memories will be recalled today. A family grieving, still so many unanswered questions.

Ryan Young, thank you.

Coming up, Donald Trump Jr. is just one of the Trump family members whose businesses have been thriving since President Trump was sworn in. We'll bring you the findings of a new CNN investigation, next.

And for the first time in more than 150 years, a baby is born to a sitting U.S. vice president.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:28:18] GOLODRYGA: Well, as we've seen in recent financial disclosures, the Trump family has made hundreds of millions of dollars since President Trump took office. Now, a CNN investigation has found that an investment firm where Donald Trump Jr. is a partner has skyrocketed during his father's presidency. And there's been a jump in federal contracts given to companies the firm invest in.

CNN's senior investigative producer, Curt Devine, joins us now with the latest.

Curt, what have you found?

CURT DEVINE, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE PRODUCER: Good morning.

Right, so, Trump Jr. announced he joined that firm, 1789 Capital, days after his father's re-election in 2024. And since that time, the assets the firm manages have more than tripled. So, they've grown from less than $1 billion to what its leaders say is more than $3 billion today.

And we found that ten businesses the firm invested in have been awarded more than $1.6 billion from federal contracts and grants. And so, in under two years, they got more during President Joe Biden's full term.

And that's also not counting more than $1 billion in federal money that may go to other startups the firm has invested in.

GOLODRYGA: And so, how has Trump Jr. talked about the firm?

DEVINE: Right. When asked why people should invest with 1789 Capital, Trump Jr. said this last year at a business forum.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP JR.: We understand what the administration wants to do because we helped craft some of that messaging. So, we can be on the outside but still have that understanding of what they plan to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: So, just to be clear, is there any connection between the president's son and these contracts?

DEVINE: To be clear, we have seen nothing that shows 1789 has tried to influence federal contracts. And other funds like this have invested in some of these same companies.

[09:30:03]

But government watchdogs still say this trend raises questions because taxpayer dollars are boosting companies that the firm has.