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Egypt Struck for First Time in U.S.-Iran War; U.S. Strikes Iran as War Widens to More Countries; Iran's Revolutionary Guard Says Strait of Hormuz to Stay Closed; Poland Blames Russia for Firing Missile Into Its Territory as Moscow Unleashes Deadly Attack on Ukraine; Blanche's A.G. Confirmation in Jeopardy Before Senate Recess. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired July 30, 2026 - 13:30   ET

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

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[13:31:59]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Pakistan's foreign ministry says it's doing the utmost to bring U.S. and Iranian negotiators back to the table as their war appears to be expanding through the Middle East. U.S. Central Command says it carried out heavy strikes against Iranian targets overnight.

Iran says it will continue to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed. While Egypt now says a key port for energy shipping was struck by a drone for the first time since the war began. With us now to discuss, Senior Fellow of Middle East Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, Steven A. Cook.

Steven, great to see you as always. So far, no one has claimed responsibility for that attack on that Egyptian port. I wonder what you make of it, though.

STEVEN A. COOK, SENIOR FELLOW, MIDDLE EAST STUDIES, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: Oh, I think it's clear it can be traced back to the Houthis, Iran's proxy in Yemen. And I think the Iranians are sending a message that they can strike well beyond the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf. Egypt has not taken any damage in this war so far. And this is a message that the Iranians are perfectly capable of widening and expanding this conflict.

SANCHEZ: Egypt so far has not sort of jumped on either side of this conflict, though a representative from the Egyptian government made the case that this sort of thing can tilt the scales. Do you see them getting more involved, perhaps, if there are more strikes on their territory?

COOK: Well, perhaps. But the Egyptians have to be very, very cautious here. And they have been part of the diplomatic effort to bring this conflict to an end. But of course, this strike is very, very close to the Suez Canal, which is extraordinarily important to Egypt's economy.

This is a debt-ridden country. Any kind of expansion of this conflict that would adversely affect traffic through the Suez Canal is going to have profound ramifications for Egypt's economy.

SANCHEZ: Well, further south on the Red Sea, you have the Bab el- Mandeb Strait, which the Houthis have been threatening. They've become more engaged in this conflict. How do you see their importance playing out as it appears that this war has the potential to widen?

COOK: Yeah, the Houthis have become fully engaged in this conflict. They've been hitting Saudi Arabia. There's a conflict within a conflict --

SANCHEZ: Right.

COOK: -- between the Houthis and the Saudis. But they have blocked Saudi shipping through the Mandeb Strait. And the Saudis have been sending shipping up north through the Red Sea and through Egypt's Suez Canal. And that's perhaps one of the reasons why we see this damage in the Port of Damietta, which is not that far from Suez.

SANCHEZ: So when it comes to these U.S. retaliatory strikes overnight, do you think this latest round will be effective in getting the Strait of Hormuz reopened? What is different between these strikes and the ones that we saw a couple weeks ago?

COOK: Boris, this is like Groundhog Day. It seems like the same thing happening over and over again. The president threatens to escalate. He undertakes military operations. And the Iranians respond. I think the Iranians feel that they're in a very strong position. They don't have a lot to gain from negotiation and are demonstrating their willingness to expand the conflict.

SANCHEZ: On that question of what they have to gain in negotiation, Pakistan, as you heard a moment ago, said they are working hard to revive negotiations. What does that entail? What will it take to actually get both sides to the table?

COOK: Well, I think that the action right now is between the Pakistanis, the Iranians, and the Omanis over figuring out some arrangement for the Strait of Hormuz.

[13:35:00]

And then the hope is to move from that back to the Memorandum of Understanding that was signed in mid-June. There doesn't seem to be a lot of Iranian interest in this. Again, I think the president and the U.S. military has signaled that they are starting run out of munitions, which puts the Iranians in a much more powerful negotiating position.

SANCHEZ: I want to ask you about China and their denial of a Reuters report that Beijing would send hundreds of shoulder-fired air defense missile launchers to Iran. CNN already reported that U.S. intelligence believed that something like this was in the cards. What would be the impact of these weapons on the battlefield?

COOK: Well, I think the Chinese have been more involved in this conflict than people would like to admit. I think after last summer's operations against Iran, they helped rebuild Iran's air defense systems. And I think this is on par for the course. I think from the Chinese perspective, bogging the United States down in the Middle East is a strategic interest.

What these shoulder-fired missiles would do, obviously, threaten helicopters and aircraft and drones operating in and around the Strait of Hormuz.

SANCHEZ: Is there much the U.S. can do to stop it?

COOK: Unless the United States is willing to get into a direct conflict with the Chinese over this, I think it has diplomatic means only at its disposal.

SANCHEZ: Steven A. Cook, always appreciate the perspective. Thanks so much for joining us.

COOK: Thanks so much.

SANCHEZ: Appreciate it.

So earlier today, NATO and Poland scrambled military aircraft when a missile apparently fired by Russia landed deep inside Polish territory. The strike came after Moscow launched deadly long-range attacks across Ukraine that killed at least nine people. CNN's Nick Paton-Walsh is following the latest.

We should note that parts of this report may be difficult for some viewers to watch.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: It's a complex task for Poland to respond in a way to something. The intentions of Russia around which are obviously unclear. Now, there are a lot of coincidences here that need to be examined. This is a cruise missile that flew 90 kilometers into Poland, meaning for several minutes it was being presumably seen on Russian radars, Polish radars, F-16s scrambled by Poland and other aircraft.

They didn't actually intercept it. It seems to have crash-landed, leaving a 10-meter-wide crater. That is a remarkably deep incursion. Secondly, it's an incursion that happened about 31 miles to the north of where Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, and Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy have met just a matter of hours earlier.

That's something of a coincidence, and it also comes to after weeks of warnings in which Western officials have been concerned about Russian escalation. We really can't divine Russia's intention here. Was this a deliberate test of NATO's resolve and defenses with something relatively new here? We've not seen a cruise missile landing in NATO territory really for years here. Unprecedented. Or is it simply one of 70 missiles fired by Russia that night going astray or being caught in some kind of jamming, potentially, going off course?

But this ultimately, many Russian analysts say, is part of the strategy sometimes to see what Russia can indeed get away with. And indeed, if this was an accident, use it to observe the nature of NATO's response. And while Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk has said he does not believe Poland was the target here, it's clear that the Russians will be observing the nature of NATO's response here.

Jets scrambled, but no interception. And Poland has publicly been under pressure because of its decision to supply some Patriot missile interceptors to Ukraine, who urgently need them to its east, leaving perhaps its own stocks low, joining a global shortage of these exceptionally vital interceptor missiles.

And so, this is clearly a moment in which NATO have to simultaneously show resolve and resilience to prevent this from being something Russia tries again, if indeed it was intentional by Russia, while at the same time not sounding the alarm for domestic clamor for some kind of more muscular response. That itself a complex task. But yet again, also emphasizes the nightly threat Ukraine indeed is under.

Seventy missiles fired, the number of ballistic and cruise missiles fired by Russia now exceptionally high compared to a matter of months ago. And of the 280 drones fired, Ukraine says they intercepted 260. Still, a death toll of at least nine, six of whom from one family, the Voronovs, living not far from Kryvyi Rihin in the Dnipro region.

Their house hit, four children amongst the dead there. Part of a civilian toll that is growing, I think it's fair to say. The month of July, the deadliest since April 2022, 427 Ukrainian civilians killed.

Russia clearly escalating the toll it wants to take on Ukrainian civilians here. The number of missiles, ballistic and cruise that it's using against Ukraine, perhaps sensing a gap in their interceptor capability, they are well-known public here.

[13:40:00]

Zelenskyy in Washington, desperately hoping to get more interceptors. They want to make them themselves. That hasn't actually happened yet.

And so I think a crisis of winter potentially increasingly in the mind of Ukrainian leaders here, as they see these months of summer involving so many more Russian missiles and that threat towards Eastern Europe increasing.

Nick Paton-Walsh, CNN, London.

SANCHEZ: Our thanks to Nick for that.

Still ahead, President Trump's pick to be the next attorney general may be in jeopardy. The president, though, appears to have a backup plan. Are Senate Republicans on the same page as the White House? That's next.

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[13:45:14]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Back to one of the major stories that we're following today. Senate Republican leaders postponing a critical vote to advance Todd Blanche's nomination for Attorney General after two outgoing Republican Senators who support Blanche needs say they are not going to back down from their demands for written assurance that the White House will drop its $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund.

And they also want clarification in writing on a deal that would give the Trump family immunity from IRS tax audits, including those going forward. Now, President Trump says he could withdraw Blanche's nomination until those two Senators, Thom Tillis and John Cornyn are out of office next year. Former Federal Prosecutor, Alyse Adamson is with us now to talk about this. So Alyse, that is the demand of Cornyn and Tillis.

They want this written language and they say that they're not getting it. Cornyn says that the White House is stopping this. And if that is the case, what does it tell you that more important than Trump having his guy as attorney general is for Trump's family to be immunized from IRS audits for their past and future actions, and to not clearly state that this weaponization fund is dead in writing?

ALYSE ADAMSON, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Yes, I think it raises interesting questions about the independence of the Department of Justice. And these are concerns that have been raised time and time again, pretty much since President Trump took office. DOJ usually enjoys independence, even as an executive branch agency, from direct demands from the president. So what we're hearing right now, if the reporting is true, is pretty extraordinary but not unprecedented in this administration.

Now, as to the anti-weaponization fund, the writing that the Senators are demanding is actually contemplated in the settlement itself. There is a mechanism within the settlement language that says the Department of Justice can modify or amend the terms of the agreement in writing with express consent of all the parties. So I think there's also an interesting question, why is it so hard for DOJ to do so at this point?

KEILAR: Yeah, do they not have that express consent of all the parties involved here? It's an excellent question.

Trump is saying on social media that he's open to just having Blanche serve in his Acting AG capacity until Senators Cornyn and Tillis are out of office in January. That, I guess, would be assuming the Republicans hang on to the Senate. For the sake of this discussion, though, Alyse, if Republicans did retain control of the Senate, how long could Blanche serve in that acting role?

ADAMSON: That's a very interesting question as well. So under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, the FVRA, a nominee or someone appointed as acting attorney general can typically stay in office for 210 days. The important caveat is once that person is nominated, that clock is pretty much suspended. So that means that upon President Trump's withdrawing Todd Blanche's nomination, that 210-day clock resets.

So he would have 210 days to serve, no questions asked. Then once President Trump re-nominates him and he's going through the confirmation process again, that clock is suspended. So I think the easy answer is he could be serving for the foreseeable future if President Trump does take that action and the Republicans regain control after the midterm elections.

KEILAR: Maybe Democrats regain control. Maybe, as you hear Cornyn say, there are other Republicans who have an issue with this deal that was brokered, this tax deal that was brokered with Trump. I mean, keeping that in mind, having an acting AG, what would a nomination fight like this mean to Blanche's real and perceived authority as the nation's top law enforcement officer and the possibility that he would be in an acting role?

ADAMSON: Well, I think his real authority is pretty much intact. In an acting role, he is allowed to proceed with the duties of the Office of the Attorney General. I think the more interesting question is what you just raised. His perceived authority, right now, it is pretty clear that his nomination would not be confirmed and that if not for this withdrawal, he would not proceed to confirmation.

So does that undermine the public trust of the Attorney General's Office and the authority of Todd Blanche? I would say probably, and you're also correct to flag that it is not a given that once he is re- nominated, he will easily sail through the confirmation process because the questions that are being raised are pretty real.

[13:50:00]

I go back to my point about why not just modify the agreement in writing. This is about trusting the Department of Justice. They are saying this fund is dead. If it is dead, then why not make sure it's dead and buried by expressly putting it in writing? And those are the kinds of questions and that is the type of lack of trust that I think will continue to undermine his time in office unless he reverses course.

KEILAR: Yeah, why not give it an epitaph is the big question here.

Alyse Adamson, thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate it.

ADAMSON: Thanks for having me.

KEILAR: Boris?

SANCHEZ: Now to some of the other headlines we're watching this hour. UEFA, the governing body of European soccer, says it will boycott future World Cups and other FIFA tournaments, in a scathing reaction to FIFA's plan to inject private money into its competitions.

During an emergency meeting today, all 55 members agreed unanimously to the boycott. FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, announced plans to create a $20 billion subsidiary to run the World Cup and other major tournaments. One of the intended investors is a company launched by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

The Women's World Cup is next summer in Brazil and the Women's Under- 20 World Cup, which is set to start in 37 days, would be the first major tournaments affected by the boycott. We'll have more on this in the next hour.

Also, millions of Americans will be baking this weekend under an unusually strong and dangerous heat dome. We could see some of the hottest temperatures of the year in the West, setting records across at least a dozen states from California to Montana. The desert southwest could see temps up to 120 degrees, with Death Valley possibly hitting more than 125 degrees. So stay indoors and try to hydrate if you're in that area.

And finally, Howard University says more than 200 students who were unenrolled for the fall semester have now been readmitted. The historically black college faced backlash after dropping 502 would-be freshmen over unpaid tuition balances. Some students and parents said they had trouble contacting school officials, leaving them unsure of how to resolve these tuition issues.

Howard's interim president tells the Associated Press, the administration followed policies and was clear about unpaid balances being due earlier this month.

Well, coming up, the cyclosporiasis outbreak growing to the largest of its kind on record. Thousands of new cases have been reported across the U.S. We have all the nasty details when we come back. Don't go anywhere.

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[13:57:28]

KEILAR: More than 10,000 cases of cyclospora, that parasite which causes prolonged gastrointestinal issues, have been reported in Michigan since the outbreak began in May. Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said that the outbreak is under control, but 45 states have reported at least one case in what has grown to be the largest outbreak on record.

CNN's Jacqueline Howard joins us with more.

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: This outbreak of cyclosporiasis, it's still ongoing. It's gotten so widespread. When you look in the state of Michigan alone, one in 1,000 people have gotten sick. I mean, that's how big this outbreak has become.

Now, Michigan is the state reporting the largest number of cases. In that state, we do know that at least 160 people have been hospitalized with this outbreak. And this is part of the outbreak that's really concentrated in the Midwest region, including nine states total, including Michigan.

So there's also Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, along with Michigan, that have been part of this Midwest outbreak. But when you look across the country, the CDC does say that some states outside of the Midwest are also reporting a higher number than usual of cyclosporiasis cases. Across the country, cases have been reported in 45 states, more than 18,000 cases total. We know among those cases, more than 6,000 have been confirmed. More than 11,000 are still under investigation. But again, this is an ongoing outbreak.

Now, what's been done to address this? Well, Taylor Farms has recalled the shredded iceberg lettuce that has been linked to this outbreak. That recall includes some produce that has been sent to Walmart, Jack in the Box, Taco Bell, also shipments that went to food services.

But health officials are still bracing themselves for the possibility of more cases to emerge as time goes on. Back to you.

KEILAR: Jacqueline Howard, thank you for that report.

And a new hour of "CNN News Central" starts right now.

SANCHEZ: The AG nomination in jeopardy. The president lashing out at two Republican Senators who are holding up the confirmation of Todd Blanche for Attorney General. We're getting new details from the White House and from the halls of Congress.

Plus, new concerns that the war with Iran could turn into a broader regional conflict. The U.S. unleashing what CENTCOM called a heavy wave of strikes on Iran --