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Northeast Braces for Life-Threatening Flash Flooding; SpaceX Stock Tumbles After Biggest IPO in History; Crews Race to Control Wildfires in Europe Before Heat Wave Hits; Kyiv: 30,000 More North Korean Troops to Fight for Putin. Aired 3:30-4p ET
Aired July 28, 2026 - 15:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:30:00]
ELISE LABOTT, HOST, COSMOPOLITICS ON SUBSTACK: President Trump really doesn't know what he wants to do. My understanding is that there are talks going on, not at a very high level, but technical experts between the Iranians and the U.S. are going on. Both sides really want to de-escalate negotiations.
But, you know, President Trump wants certain things from the Iranians. The Iranians aren't willing to give them yet. But it's really, I would say, it's less about the nuclear issue and more about the Strait of Hormuz and keeping those waterways open.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Elise Labott, always appreciate your perspective. Thanks so much for joining us.
LABOTT: You bet.
SANCHEZ: Of course. So right now, a powerful storm system is moving across the northeast, putting cities like New York and Philadelphia at the center of a serious flash flood threat. Tens of millions could see a month's worth of rain in just one night.
Your forecast is next.
[14:35:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: We're getting a closer look at the devastating tornado that ripped through northeast Wisconsin about 24 hours ago. A driver captured the moment that power lines and trees came crashing down across the road. A very scary scene there.
And now the storm that spawned that powerful tornado is moving east. We have CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam, who's tracking all of this for us. What do you see in there, Derek?
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Look, I wish I had better news for you, Brianna, but there's a large population density on our east coast that is under the threat of some serious flash flooding going forward into this evening and then once again into the day tomorrow. So this is the multi-day excessive rainfall threat. You can see it's centered today across the tri-state area but now extended into portions of western Massachusetts into southern Vermont.
Tomorrow, that bullseye kind of shifts a little further to the east, maybe southern New England. Let's talk about what's happening now because the radar lighting up like a Christmas tree, just as we anticipated, but it's getting very active because it's pulling in a lot of moisture from the Atlantic. So let me just kind of break this down for you because we have numerous flood warnings or flash flood warnings ongoing across portions of New Jersey, even into Pennsylvania, southern New York and central Pennsylvania.
But there's two different areas of heavy precipitation. This initial batch and then a secondary batch that's going to develop behind us. This is kind of a one-two punch for this I-95 corridor here right along the five boroughs of New York City.
They're going to get a heavy wallop of rain here in the next 10 to 20 minutes or so and then we saturate the soils, we saturate the environment, we get that secondary round behind it that could cause more flooding concerns into the later evening time frame, roughly about eight o'clock tonight around the greater New York City area. So there's that secondary band. You can see the flood warnings in and around central Pennsylvania.
These have been known to produce two to three inches per hour and they're still just starting to organize, kind of congeal, and really start to concentrate that moisture into this area. So look at the available moisture in the atmosphere, plenty to work with. That means it is primed and ready to produce this excessive rain in a short period of time and Brianna, not to mention we have a chance of severe weather tonight as well.
Can't rule out damaging winds and isolated tornadoes with ongoing severe thunderstorm watches.
KEILAR: Yes, that is bad news. Time to get prepared. Derek, thank you for the latest there.
Still to come, trillionaire no more. We'll tell you how much money Elon Musk has lost as SpaceX stock continues to fall. Next.
[14:40:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: After soaring into the stratosphere, the stock price for SpaceX is coming back down to earth in a big way. Now, just six weeks since the much-hyped IPO that made Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire, SpaceX shares are down about 50 percent from their peak.
Let's bring in CNN's Dave Goldman. David, how much of a loss is this?
DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR REPORTER: Yes, well, for Elon Musk, it's pretty significant. It's around $600 billion. But what's $600 billion between friends?
He's still worth over $700 billion. And to put this into perspective, look at how he compares to some of his peers. I mean, he's at $700 billion.
Larry Page, number two, worth almost $300 billion. That is a lot of distance between number one and number two. But you can see that SpaceX's IPO has basically been on a slide, the stock declining significantly, around 30 percent since the IPO, one of the worst performances for a new IPO in history.
This is significant. And the reason why we're seeing this has everything to do with AI and almost nothing to do with rockets. SpaceX spent last year almost $13 billion on AI.
And just in the first quarter, it spent almost $8 billion. You can really see those expenses ticking up. And that has translated into massive losses at the company.
$5 billion last year and just in the first quarter alone, more than $4 billion of losses because of AI. And so the question is, well, how much longer can it sustain these losses? Well, we are starting to see the stock tick up just a little bit today.
But remember, AI has sustained these massive stock rallies that we've seen. Now that investors are getting a little fidgety, a little nervous about whether or not we've overinvested in AI, it's bringing SpaceX down with it, Boris.
SANCHEZ: Those data centers in space and on the moon can't come soon enough. Dave Goldman, thank you so much for that update.
Still ahead, temperatures are soaring in France and Spain as firefighters battle some intense wildfires. Hundreds of thousands of residents remain under evacuation orders. We've got the latest details in a live report when we come back.
[14:45:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: Happening now, France has issued a heat warning in areas hit hard by unprecedented wildfires. And that's really bad news because the heat makes conditions worse for crews who are fighting to gain control of these raging fires. And in eastern Spain, crews are facing an added danger.
Unexploded munitions left behind from the country's civil war nearly a century ago. CNN senior correspondent Melissa Bell has more from the devastated Bordeaux region of France.
MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Closer and closer to Bordeaux, the Gironde fire has spread, as daunting by its size now as it is by its ferocity. Here on the fire's southeastern front, the fight continued on Monday to try to reign it in. Dash water bombers sweeping in from the sky to try and douse the flames that the fire trucks couldn't reach.
[14:50:00] Nearby, at the local summer hotspot that is the Bassin d'Arcachon, pleasure boats have given way to Black Hawk helicopters brought in from the Czech Republic. Just some of the resources provided by European allies.
CMDR. MATHIEU JOMAIN, GIRONDE FIREFIGHTERS (through translator): Given the scale, the response can only now be European and even international in the face of climate change and its consequences, amongst them major forest fires like these.
BELL: This is the Cap Ferret Peninsula. Its population grows in the summer tenfold, which means that when it was evacuated on Friday, 40,000 people had to flee along the single road that leads back to the mainland, leaving behind this eerily quiet holiday paradise and a huge economic shortfall.
BELL (voice-over): The Peninsula's camping grounds now reminders of how quickly the fire brought a sudden end to so many summer holidays.
Melissa Bell, CNN, the Cap Ferret.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: Our thanks to Melissa Bell for that update from Europe.
Now to some of the other headlines we're watching this hour. A judge in Los Angeles has ruled that there is enough evidence to move forward in the murder case against singer D4vd. Prosecutors say the musician, whose legal name is David Anthony Burke, killed and dismembered a 14- year-old, Celeste Rivas Hernandez, to prevent her from disclosing details about their relationship before the release of his album. D4vd is pleaded not guilty. His attorney maintains the evidence will prove his innocence.
A judge set his arraignment for August 31st.
Now to a story two people will be telling for the rest of their lives. The pilot of this small plane was taking his nephew for a ride when he was forced to make an emergency landing on Huntington Beach in Southern California.
The pilot says they were in the air just five minutes when he saw the propeller malfunction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE BREMNER, PILOT: It just called Mayday, Mayday, Mayday that we were, we lost our engine and then we were making a forced landing on Huntington Beach in front of the smokestacks. And he acknowledged the Mayday and then we had to get busy landing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Thankfully no one was hurt. The FAA and NTSB are now investigating. And TSA agents in Alabama making a wild discovery. They found stolen
Civil War era cannonballs inside somebody's checked baggage. Look at this. Five of them were wrapped up in paper towels, the largest one about the size of a grapefruit.
It turns out a child had taken them during a trip to a nearby Civil War fort turned museum. The TSA officer who found the cannonball said he was concerned he might be holding a live munition. It turns out though no explosives were found.
I said this last night, they kind of look like giant meatballs, but maybe it's the afternoon and my appetite is widening.
Stay with us. We'll be right back after a quick break.
[14:55:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with President Trump in the Oval Office today as he says that North Korea is once again preparing to come to Russia's assistance on the battlefield.
KEILAR: Zelenskyy says Pyongyang plans to send tens of thousands of additional troops to fight alongside Vladimir Putin's forces in the war on Ukraine. CNN senior international correspondent Will Ripley reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At a cemetery for North Korea's fallen soldiers this weekend, Kim Jong-un, his wife and daughter, walked past the graves of Korean War dead. Now, Ukraine says Kim could send 30,000 more North Korean troops into another war.
For Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kim sent more than 100 soldiers to march in Moscow's Victory Day parade in May. South Korea and Western militaries estimate more than 10,000 North Korean troops helped Russian forces recapture the Kursk region.
And soon, Putin may be getting something even bigger from his partner in Pyongyang, says Ukraine's President Vladimir Zelenskyy. set to meet President Trump tomorrow in the Oval Office, a White House official says.
"Russia wants to bring in another 30,000 North Korean troops," Zelenskyy says. Adding Ukraine's military has solid reports, preparations are underway to receive them. He says they're headed to southwestern Russia, about 150 miles from Ukraine's border.
Zelenskyy says Kim may also be sending several ballistic missile launchers. North Korean missiles are a lethal part of Putin's war machine. Ukraine says they're growing more accurate with every strike.
"Russia is helping North Korea learn how to wage war, improve its weapons, and gain real combat experience," Zelenskyy says.
Kim built a new war memorial in Pyongyang with thousands of graves and space for many more. Ukraine's military estimates more than 6,000 North Koreans have already been injured or killed fighting for Russia, part of Putin and Kim's deepening anti-West, anti-U.S. alliance.
A drastically different outcome than the vision of Kim's grandfather, North Korea's founder Kim Il-Sung, who once hosted former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
MIKE CHINOY, FORMER CNN BELJING BUREAU CHIEF: And I recall Kim Il-Sung saying to me, we want to have good relations with the United States. That's all gone now.
RIPLEY (voice-over): Former CNN Beijing bureau chief Mike Chinoy made 17 reporting trips to North Korea. He says after Trump's diplomacy collapsed, Kim made a hard pivot to Russia and never looked back.
CHINOY: And I don't think he's interested anymore in having that kind of relationship because I don't think he trusts the United States.
RIPLEY (voice-over): Instead, Ukraine says, Kim is betting big on Moscow, a bet that could soon mean another 30,000 North Korean troops fighting for Russia.
RIPLEY: Despite thousands of North Korean troops fighting for Russia, only two are known to have been captured alive. Ukrainian officials say that's because North Korean soldiers are under orders to avoid capture at all cost.
[16:00:00]
Kim Jong-un has even praised what state media called soldiers who self-blasted with grenades rather than surrender. Ukrainian forces say some North Korean soldiers have shouted Kim's name before pulling the pin on a grenade, choosing to die instead of being taken prisoner.
Will Ripley, CNN, Taipei.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: Our thanks to Will for that.
SANCHEZ: There's still plenty more news to come. "THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt starts right now.
END
