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Trump on Iran, They're Not Ready Yet for a Deal; 11 People Escape from Crashed Seaplane Moments Before It Catches Fire; Today, CDC Expected to Release New Measles Case Numbers. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired July 24, 2026 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, oil prices shooting up as war in Iran ratchets up. President Trump now says he's not ready to strike a deal at all, and is considering a massive attack.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A packed seaplane crashes into the water. You can see the fiery remains. How 11 people managed to make it out alive.

And wildfires trigger a mass evacuation of an entire peninsula packed with summer tourists. The problem, there's only one road out.

Kate is out today. I'm John Berman with Sara Sidner, and this is CNN News Central.

SIDNER: Breaking news this morning, the U.S. and Iran trading strikes overnight in conflicting reports. Did Iran reject a U.S. proposal for a new ceasefire? The New York Times says yes. Iranian state media says no. But right now there's no side, either side is backing down and heading towards diplomacy. Iran claiming it targeted U.S. military bases in multiple countries in the Middle East overnight, while U.S. Central Command said it carried out its 13th straight night of attacks on Iran, military targets, it says.

Iran state media reports at least four people were killed. President Trump told Axios he's considering a, quote, massive attack on Iran, bigger than ever before, he says. He does not sound ready to cut a deal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: We're doing very well against the Islamic Republic of Iran. We're doing extremely well. They would like to do something, but I say they're not ready yet. They need more of the same.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: CNN's Betsy Klein live for us at the White House this morning. Where are we here this morning?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, Sara, it's been 13 consecutive nights of these U.S. strikes on Iran, and this diplomatic off-ramp appears to be further away than ever. And it comes, as we are learning according to two sources familiar with the matter, that U.S. intelligence agencies have recently assessed that these types of strikes that the U.S. has been carrying out against Iran are unlikely to shift Iran's negotiating position.

Meanwhile, The New York Times, as you mentioned, reports that Iran has rejected on Thursday a ceasefire proposal that was carried to Tehran by Iraq's prime minister, who recently met here at the White House with President Trump.

Now, we don't know exactly the substance of what was in that ceasefire proposal. However, Iranian officials tell the Times that they were not interested in a temporary deal that would not resolve the question of who has control over the Strait of Hormuz, of course, that critical oil thoroughfare. Meanwhile, Iranian state media pushing back on that. They say that report is diversionary and misleading.

So, I've asked the White House for clarity this morning on whether they think Iran is taking this seriously. Haven't heard back yet. But in President Trump's view, as you saw, Iran is not ready yet, in his words. The president has limited options here. He can continue to the status quo of these strikes that we're seeing every single night, or he can escalate with the possibility of boots on the ground. That is something that he has telegraphed is also a possibility.

But Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told The Wall Street Journal in what I think was a very revealing comment that the strikes are going to continue until they come to the table in what President Trump deems a meaningful way, again, according to Leavitt, interesting wording there.

But we know that the president is increasingly frustrated by this conflict. He had promised that it would be over within a matter of weeks. It's now hitting its five-month mark. The price of gas steadily ticking up, now $4.10 a gallon, all of this weighing on President Trump with just three months to go to those midterm elections. Sara?

SIDNER: Yes, there is a lot to consider here. Betsy Klein, thank you so much for walking us through it this morning. John?

BERMAN: All right. Breaking overnight, a seaplane crashed into the water off the coast of Washington State. All 11 people on board were able to get out just minutes, though, before the plane went up in flames. Some of the pictures we're seeing are just extraordinary.

CNN's Brynn Gingras here with all the details. Brynn, what are you learning?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and I want to show this video again because it's pretty remarkable. I mean, see how it lands here, this emergency landing.

[07:05:01]

It's very unclear at this point, John, why it had to make this emergency landing.

But right here you can see all these people on board. There were 11 people in total, ten passengers and one pilot. Boats, you see this one, this isn't a Coast Guard boat. This is just a boat of, you know, someone who was in the water at the time trying to rescue these people. And thank goodness, because everyone was able to get off the plane before you see it erupted in flames. So, I mean, just a pretty remarkable emergency landing into a rescue.

Let's hear some of the dispatch audio that was going on at this time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have (INAUDIBLE) people on board with multiple injuries. There are at least six other people, people that have emerged from others, we are still waiting on information from them.

Those two boats that are out have a total of ten people, four on one, six on the other, and they've heard (INAUDIBLE) possibly up on the beach near the crash.

(END VIDEO CLIP) Yes, so a little bit more details of what happened here.

GINGRAS: Again, it's not clear what caused this emergency landing. But this plane a Kenmore Air seaplane, this is a plane that people often take to take between the different islands there in Washington State, took off at about 4:30 at Lake Union near Seattle, and was going to Roche Harbor, which was a hundred mile trip, about 45 minutes in. That's when this emergency landing had to happen. Everyone was able, as I said, to get off, got into Coast Guard boats, got into passenger boats that were in the water at the time.

Some -- one critical injury that we know of right now, head injuries, lacerations, some broken bones, but, again, everyone hopefully is going to be okay. But just a remarkable story of how these people all survived this. And, yes, the plane --

BERMAN: The images are extraordinary.

GINGRAS: It's incredible.

BERMAN: I mean, right now we're looking at the aftermath here.

GINGRAS: Right.

BERMAN: But to see that seaplane there, and the pilot clearly trying to set it down, like must have known what was going on, trying to set it down, maybe even set it down close to shore so people could survive. But then all the help that they got to get out before this happened, before the plane.

GINGRAS: I mean, so quickly. And, again, thank goodness the Coast Guard did respond quickly, but there were boats in the water, so they were able to get to them quickly before, yes, this happened. BERMAN: Well, extraordinary luck, I should think, and maybe skill for the people on board.

Brynn Gingras, thank you very much.

All right, breaking news this morning, the FDA announced a new outbreak of the food-borne parasite causing explosive diarrhea. This is in addition to the current one affecting thousands across the country.

A shootout between police and a murder suspect brings traffic to a standstill on a busy highway.

And for the first time, we are hearing what was inside the ransom note sent to Savannah Guthrie for her mother, Nancy. It read, quote, her life is in your hands.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:10:00]

SIDNER: All right. This morning, rising measles cases could put the United States on pace for its highest level of the highly contagious disease in decades. There have been dozens of outbreaks across multiple states this year, raising concerns about vaccine rates, especially among children. The CDC is expected to release an update today after reporting nearly 2,300 confirmed cases nationwide last week.

Experts are warning the U.S. could soon lose its measles elimination status, and that's a milestone that was achieved back in 2000.

CNN Medical Correspondent Meg Tirrell is here with me now. Give me some sense of where we are now, because this is really disturbing for something that really had been eradicated not just a couple years ago.

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, exactly. These are not trends we want to be seeing. So, if you just look at the trajectory of measles cases we've recorded over the past couple years, 2023 was a more typical year we've been seeing, you know, in the last 25 years since this was eliminated in the United States.

Started to tick up in 2024 and really took off in 2025. We had that big outbreak in Texas. Then we said we started to see in October another big outbreak in South Carolina start to take off. And now, just about halfway through the year, we're already starting to approach surpassing that record that was set in 2025. That's a 35-year high for measles cases, back to 1991.

So, where are these measles outbreaks happening? Well, we obviously mentioned Texas. That one ended. South Carolina was the biggest that we saw. That ended in April, approaching a thousand cases. But there are ongoing measles outbreaks right now.

So, there's a really big one at the border between Arizona and Utah. That one has been simmering since August of last year. And that's important to note because the way we determine whether we maintain our measles elimination status for a year or more. So, if we get to that milestone, that's how we lose elimination status.

There's also a big outbreak going on right now in Pennsylvania, another one in Virginia. So, you see these kinds of things just bubbling up everywhere.

And just to give you some perspective, going back to 2010, this is how many cases we've had in these past two years. So, we're really seeing this kind of explosive moment right now for measles, which is obviously the opposite of what you want to see.

SIDNER: Is this all sort of being linked to skepticism of vaccines parents not getting their kids vaccinated, not getting their selves vaccinated? What is this linked to?

TIRRELL: I mean, measles is the most contagious virus that we know of, and public health people will compare it to kind of like a wildfire. And wherever there's kindling, somebody who doesn't have immunity, either through previous infection or through, more safely, vaccination, you are going to see outbreaks.

And just to give you a perspective, this is before the COVID pandemic. 95.2 percent, that was the national average, you know, the national vaccination rate. So, you want to stay above 95 percent to avoid outbreaks, to get herd immunity for something like measles.

[07:15:02]

Now, in the 2024-'25 school year, that had fallen to 92.5 percent nationally.

But, of course, it's much more important what is happening at a local level, and check out this. These green states are the only ones that have a 95 percent-plus vaccination rate among kindergartners. That's for that same school year according to the CDC. These red states here, less than 90 percent vaccination rates on a state level.

And what's really worrisome is that when you go into some of these communities, these counties, these schools, you see vaccination rates that are much, much lower than that. And so that is a lot of folks who could potentially get infected.

So, now if we're looking at 2026 statistics overall, it is mostly school-aged children who have been infected by measles. 70 percent are kids under the age of 19, just 30 percent in adults. And, of course, if you look at the vaccination status, 93 percent of the cases in 2026 either have not been vaccinated or have unknown status.

And so this really is something that's being driven and can be preventable. That's why you're hearing public health people saying this is a public health failure.

SIDNER: Yes, and people forget children have died from this. This is not just an innocuous thing that it's like a problem for a few days in some kids. So, this is a really disturbing report, and I know you're watching this trend, and it doesn't look good.

Meg Tirrell, thank you, really important information this morning.

All right ahead, hails this morning after a man stabbed two people in broad daylight here in New York City, what the suspect reportedly yelled before the attacks as that investigation continues.

Also, a wild crash leaves a dangling, you see that there, holy smokes, over a wall. Wait till you see how they ended up trying to get this thing back on the ground.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

SIDNER: We have new video in this morning of a shootout between police and a murder suspect on one of Florida's busiest highways. Traffic came to a standstill on I-75 Wednesday after Florida Highway Patrol stopped the suspect wanted in connection with a deadly shooting. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come out with your hands up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Crawl out. Crawl out. Let me see your other hand. Let me see your other hand. Put your other hand where I can see it. Keep crawling. Keep crawling.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Taze him. Taze him. Taze him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Good grief. This all happened in Lee County, Florida. The sheriff's office says a suspect was taken into custody, and the investigation there, still ongoing.

All right, new body camera video out of Arizona takes us inside a home as SWAT officers stormed in to rescue a three-year-old child. A little boy caught in the middle of an active standoff. The boy's mom called 911 after her boyfriend fired a gun inside their home. Here's how it all unfolded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi. Yes, my boyfriend shot -- fired off into the wall at my house. My three-year-old son is there. I'm not though.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You up here, buddy? You're all right, buddy. You're going to be okay. Hey. Hey, buddy. You okay? Lot of stuff going on there, huh?

(END VIDEO CLIP) SIDNER: Poor thing. That toddler is okay. But police say the 40-year- old suspect refused to surrender and ended up being arrested. No one was hurt physically.

All right, in New York, police are investigating whether two stabbings are hate crimes. Officials say a 51-year-old man stabbed an Asian man and a Jewish man multiple times. Police say the attacks happened yesterday afternoon and were completely unprovoked. They say mental health may have been a factor in all this, but a scary situation there. John?

BERMAN: Yes, indeed.

All right, in Madison, Wisconsin officials have identified the man killed in a police shooting earlier this week as 38-year-old Cory Ruiz. There have been protests and calls for accountability.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The thinness of trust in the city right now did not start --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, you can shut this down. You can stop talking because we don't want to hear anything you've been telling. You're going to say the same things you all say every time a black body gets shot down in this city.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I'm angry. There's like no way around it. And while we know that there will be investigations and all of that, the thing for me is that his death is final.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Now, officers say the man was holding a knife and resisting arrest when they responded to reports of someone stealing bikes and opening car doors. Witnesses say he was shot in the head during the struggle. None of the officers involved was wearing a body camera. It is not mandated by that department.

This morning, new details about the first ransom note purportedly addressed to Savannah Guthrie just after her mother Nancy went missing. According to crime journalist Brianna Whitney, who read the note on her podcast, Crime Junkie, the sender tells Guthrie, quote, Hello, Savannah. We have your mother, Nancy. She is safe but scared. She will be held for ransom and once payment is received, she will be released unharmed. We will be holding her for a maximum of seven days.

Whitney says the note gets much darker, warning Guthrie at one point her mother's life was, quote, in her hands.

The podcast also reports a second note sent shortly after saying Nancy Guthrie had died and listing the cause as heart-related. Guthrie was reported missing February 1st. Authorities believe a masked man seen on her doorbell camera kidnapped her.

[07:25:00] Again, our hearts go out to that family.

All right, this morning we have a live look over here at oil markets. You can see Brent crude down below 100. It was up over 100 yesterday for the first time in May, down a little bit today. We are looking at the impact of the conflict between the United States and Iran and where it is headed the next few days.

And then a raging inferno engulfs a popular tourist destination. So, happening now, there are boat evacuations.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:30:00]

SIDNER: New this morning, the global oil market has been resilient, but new pressure building.