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US-Iran Talks; Starmer's Career-Defining Decision; Road To The Midterms; FIFA World Cup. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired June 22, 2026 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:28]

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN ANCHOR: And to our viewers in the US and around the world, welcome to CNN Newsroom. I'm Polo Sandoval live in New York. A first round of talks between the US and Iran ends with encouraging progress after threats from Donald Trump himself nearly derailed the whole thing.

Plus, as political pressure mounts on U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, could he be close to resigning? We'll take you live to Downing Street to see what's happening there at this hour.

And a little later, Cuba's tourism sector collapsing as the Trump administration intensifies its pressure campaign on the island. A firsthand look at just how things continue to get bad.

ANNOUNCER: Live from New York, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Polo Sandoval.

SANDOVAL: All right. So let's begin in Switzerland where negotiations between the US and Iranian delegations have concluded. And mediators, Pakistan and Qatar, say that encouraging progress was made by both sides. The US and Iran, they have agreed to establish a high level committee to provide political oversight on the mediation. And both sides have also agreed to a roadmap towards reaching a final deal within 60 days.

Vice President JD Vance, who you just saw there, leading the US delegation. And just before the high stakes talks, Vance said that the US is willing to fundamentally transform its relationship with Tehran. And that statement came before the talks were nearly derailed by President Trump who was back in the United States as he threatened the Iranian delegation.

In a FOX News interview, President Trump referred to the Strait of Hormuz saying, "you close it and you won't have a country, you won't even make it back to your effing country," words from the President as they're trying to make a deal halfway around the world.

CNN's Paula Hancocks is following the very latest out of Abu Dhabi. Paula, my understanding is that these negotiations are expected to resume on Monday. What will be on tap? PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Polo, what we're expecting is

that the working level talks will continue in Switzerland this week. There's no clarification on exactly who that will entail at this point. But what we have heard from mediators is the word progress used, saying that there has been this framework agreed as to what the process moving forward will be, but also that they have opened a line of communication to make sure that there's nothing within the Strait of Hormuz that can derail these talks. So this was sort of the roadmap agreed to on the weekend.

Now, it came after a rocky couple of days. We heard on Saturday, Iran threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz because it said that the US was not keeping to its side of the deal, given the fact that Israel was still striking Southern Lebanon. We then, as you said, heard on Sunday the US President Donald Trump threatening the delegation affectedly that was sitting down to talk with his vice president. That was criticized heavily.

We heard the chief negotiation negotiator of Iran calling it desperation on the part of the US. What we're hearing from Tehran as to what they believe has been agreed up until this point. We have heard from the foreign minister, I want to read you part of his quotes on social media. Abbas Araghchi saying that there was major progress to end the Lebanon war.

Also saying, oil and petrochem exports are waived, blockade lifted, some frozen assets released, a major reconstruction and development plan launched for Iran. First real test: Lebanon de-confliction cell.

Now, this is what we've been hearing consistently from Iran, that what is happening between Israel and Hezbollah could derail these talks. In fact, we saw seven people killed in Israeli strikes on Sunday, including, according to state media, a child and two elderly people. We have been seeing Hezbollah striking against the US, excuse me, the Israeli military in southern Lebanon as well.

So that really does provide itself as a potential spoiler to these talks. We did hear, though, from the US Vice President JD Vance, pointing out that everybody knew going into these discussions it was not going to be easy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[04:04:58]

JD VANCE, UNITED STATES PRESIDENT: Peace is never easy. Peace always requires a little bit of work. It always requires a little bit of give and take. But the President of United States is committed. Not just a peace between the United States and Iran, the President is committed to a regional peace, which is why we're here working so hard to settle our issues.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANCOCKS: So of course, details are scant at this point. This is the beginning of this 60-day process where, by the end of it, the US and Iran should have a final agreement. We did hear from a US official telling CNN that the vice president was in constant meetings, constant negotiations, also saying that there were robust discussions on all elements of the nuclear deal. Obviously this is one of the key parts for the US delegation. Polo?

SANDOVAL: CNN'S Paula Hancocks with that live report from Abu Dhabi. Thank you so much, Paula.

Let's turn our attention now actually to the markets and exactly see what kind of reaction we're seeing in light of some of these latest developments that Paula was just telling us about. You could see their markets taking a slight slip in terms of do in terms of Dow and S&P futures while NASDAQ slightly up again. This is just hours ahead of the Wall Street opening bell.

We also want to take a look at some of our crude oil prices as well as WTI as well as Brent Crude Oil taking a slight dip there, perhaps with a promising hope that we are likely to see more free navigation on that crucial Strait of Hormuz as those talks and those geopolitics continue to add tension to the markets.

Let's now turn to our attention to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who's facing mounting pressure from his party to resign. And this is the Labour Party's popularity continues to plummet.

As recently as Friday, 10 Downing Street said that Mr. Starmer would "not walk away from his job." However, on Sunday, British Business Secretary Peter Kyle told the BBC that the prime minister is considering his options. Now much of the pressure is coming from his Labour Party rival, Andy Burnham. He's widely expected to challenge Starmer after he is sworn in as MP later today.

So what's happening at 10 Downing Street, let's go live now to CNN's Clare Sebastian who continues to monitor the situation there. So, Clare, President Trump said over the weekend that we're likely to see a Starmer resignation but you're there, are there any signs that may be happening soon?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, nothing has been confirmed yet, and we see no clear signs yet that this is happening. But I will say that tone shift that we saw over the weekend did feel really significant. We've been at points like this before where Starmer's leadership has been questioned, where there's even been comments from members of his own party. This time I think it feels different.

On Friday morning, as you said, Keir Starmer was still saying he wondered he was going to run in any leadership contests. He wouldn't walk away from this. And then on Sunday, the business secretary was the one sent out. He did the rounds of the Sunday talk shows. Take a listen to how he put things.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER KYLE, BRITIST BUSINESS SECRETARY: He's also making time this weekend to try and reflect on the political challenges that he faces. Our country faces are party faces. He's also taking the time to think through what the political realities are today compared to last week, the week before.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: So the political realities here he's talking about is that, Andy Burnham, who is now the new MP for Makerfield, which is in the northwest of England, he won that seat decisively last week, demonstrating his ability to fend off a challenge from the right wing populist Reform Party, which is currently leading nationwide opinion polls and was very popular. I was there up in Makerfield, I can tell you that that was a seat that they under any other circumstances would likely have won.

He saw them off with a big majority. He's expected in London today to be sworn in as a member of Parliament. And look, the prime minister took the weekend to think about this. We don't exactly know what's going to happen yet, but it does feel here in 10 Downing Street that this could be a very big day.

And look, tomorrow is the 10th anniversary of the Brexit referendum where the United Kingdom voted to come out of the European Union. It looks like there might be some goings on already here in Downing street, and we could be looking at the sixth changeover of power for the occupant in number 10 Downing Street since that moment 10 years ago.

SANDOVAL: CNN's Clare Sebastian and your team, thank you so much for being there. Do come back to us. As you point out, it is a potentially very big day there at 10 Downing Street.

And while we wait for any of those potential developments, let's bring in CNN European Affairs Commentator Dominic Thomas, who's joining me live. Dominic, it's always great to see you. Thank you for joining us.

DOMINIC THOMAS, CNN EUROPEAN AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Thank you so much for having me on, Polo.

SANDOVAL: Of course. You just heard Clare right now in her live report as we wait to see any potential developments. For folks outside of the U.K. watching this from around the world, but perhaps weren't closely watching last week's special election in the U.K., in which Labour Party, Andy Burnham, secured that win.

I wonder if you could just bring us up to speed on how that essentially helps set the stage for this potential challenge to the leadership of Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

[04:10:08]

THOMAS: Yes. Well, I think it's very important to understand that Keir Starmer was appointed leader of the Labour Party and that, in the general election, the Labour Party came out well ahead in 2024. And as party leader, he became prime minister.

His popularity was never wonderful, but I think that in the aftermath of 14 years of conservative rule, the substantial vote for Labour in that general election pointed to the fact that people had enough with the Conservative Party and wanted for change. So he already came in to what was a difficult context, difficult situation in a highly- polarized and political environment.

Since he's been in office, he's struggled over a number of image- related problems, judgment questions, policy issues, backtracking on certain promises that he made during the campaign. And about a month ago, during the local elections, the British people expressed an overwhelming dissatisfaction with Keir Starmer, which ultimately led to a reckoning within the party as to whether he was the right person to continue to lead.

And the most popular figure in the party happens to have been Andy Burnham, the now former mayor of the Greater Manchester area. And he ran in this by election. And this by election was set up in such an ironic way that it was to vote for sort of a new Labour MP who ultimately would make a leadership challenge at the time when Labour support was collapsing.

And the far right set it up as a kind of general election issue. And Burnham walked away from this and emerged as clearly the right person to now be heading the Labour Party. So Keir Starmer either resigns right now or he will be ousted in a leadership challenge by Andy Burnham.

SANDOVAL: Yes. And I'm glad you point out how the Prime Minister has essentially been sort of paddling against the current of anti-Starmer sentiment that we've been seeing. So if we were to see this expected resignation today, perhaps again, as we wait for developments, just wondering if you could tell us what would the next few weeks look like. How would they unfold in terms of selecting a new leader?

THOMAS: Yes. Well, I think that the other important thing to point out, this is not a general election situation at this stage. The Labour Party has a massive majority. It controls who their leader is and therefore who the prime minister is.

And I think there is a deep awareness that after five Conservative Party prime ministers, where one after the other seemed to get worse, from Boris Johnson to Liz Truss, that they're trying to avoid that sort of image of collapse within the party, they control their destiny. But having said that, Andy Burnham will have been selected by the Labour Party and not by the U.K. voters.

And I think there's a deep awareness that this process of transition needs to take place in a smooth, organized way. And that seems to be the consensus in both the Burnham camp and in Prime Minister Starmer's camp. And there's a precedent for this, Theresa May resign, but stayed in office for a couple of months.

And I think that at this particular juncture, it looks like that will be the consensus within the party that Starmer could remain at the helm, having announced a timeline to walking away as Burnham prepares a new cabinet policy orientation and so on moving forward. And so for the next few weeks, that is the most likely outcome. If that is not the choice of the path that they take, a leadership challenge could be launched. It is unlikely, unless the Labour Party decides to go through a sort of an optics process that anybody will challenge Burnham, in which case he could become Prime Minister in a much quicker timeline. But that seems to be the secondary option right now, Polo.

SANDOVAL: And as you were speaking, we're showing our viewers some live pictures out of 10 Downing Street where there is a pretty significant presence of cameras and various journalists that are set up there, obviously anxiously awaiting any potential news, potentially hear from the current prime minister. And then finally, I'd like to just pivot to something else that Clare mentioned just a little while ago in her report, which is now, hard to believe, ten years since the historic Brexit vote.

Just as you monitor the situation from your perspective, what seems to be the general sense among Brits ten years later? Have they seen any of the benefits that they were promised a decade ago?

THOMAS: So I think that the answer to that, in terms of the pragmatics, the economics, the politics, the cultural shift and so on, the answer is unambiguously no. Brexit is seen as having been a terrible decision for British politics. Having said that, what is so striking is that the issues that define the Brexit debate, primarily around immigration and distance from Europe, continue to shape British politics today.

And you have this reform far right party that keeps going on about British identity, about autonomy, about immigration, that that particular narrative has not shifted and I think continues to play a toxic role in British politics. And so, I think that's the interesting question about it that we see now even within the Labour Party, discussions about finding ways to gain proximity to Europe, to try and open up those economic channels, to try and work on educational exchanges and so on and so forth.

[04:15:33]

But it is remarkable that 10 years later, so many of the issues that shape that particular debate are today also influencing the landscape of U.K. politics.

SANDOVAL: No doubt fueling that sentiment from voters. Dominic Thomas, as always, as we wait anxiously for any potential developments out of the U.K. Thank you so much for all this insight.

THOMAS: Thank you.

SANDOVAL: And back here in the United States, there's just a few months until the midterm elections. November will be here before we know it. And the political stakes could not be higher here in the US as well. In the battleground state of Pennsylvania, three House races could help determine control of the chamber.

CNN'S John King speaking with voters about the issues that are driving their decisions at the ballot box.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Welcome to Pennsylvania and a journey through a critical slice of the midterm map. Right here in Eastern Pennsylvania, three district that run 105 miles from just outside of Philadelphia up to the New York State border. If this stretch here flips from red to blue on election night, then the Democrats are taking the House without a doubt.

Stop one, Bucks County, suburban, upscale, moderate, a short commuter train hop to Philly. Luckily, I read my gardening for dummies book last night.

MICHAEL PESCE, PENNSYLVANIA VOTER: Quick and easy, see?

KING: Michael Pesce likes his Republican congressman, yet he is almost certain to vote for his Democratic challenger.

PESCE: Big picture, Trump is the problem that I see. The President is not doing what I think a president should be doing. And that's disturbing to me. One more person in the Congress that is going to stand up to Trump, that's going to get my vote.

KING: Pennsylvania 1 is represented by Brian Fitzpatrick. He's in his fifth term. First elected in 2016, Fitzpatrick won with 56 percent in 2024, and he is one of just three House Republicans from districts won by Vice President Harris.

The first is Pennsylvania's most affluent district. The median annual income, $114,000 a year and the median home value, 440,000. Pesce was a Reagan Republican when we met three years ago, a registered Democrat now because he won't be in Trump's party, a coast guard veteran, angry at the price of a war he says makes no sense.

PESCE: I fill up my tank once a week. I was filling it up for $35, now it's $60 to fill up my tank. So that's money that we weren't spending before that we were putting to something else. And now we're like, well, maybe we can't go to do that something else.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Italian dressing, Girl Scout cookies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll take a bag.

KING: Even here, the affordability crunch is obvious. Demand at this Bucks County food bank was already up. Rising gas prices brought even more cars.

Telford straddles the Bucks and Montgomery County lines the night market, a local favorite for food, for crafts. And right now --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Say I don't want to mail in. Can I take you in and drop it off?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can take it in.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Request a provisional ballot.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

KING: -- for recruiting voters.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You want me to get you a beer? You got it.

KING: Democrat Bob Harvie will get Patty Dusza's vote to send Trump a message.

PATTY DUSZA, PENNSYLVANIA VOTER: I don't feel like he's honest, all those kind of things. Now, I'm saying that in front of my husband, which I don't usually say.

KING: Jeremy Dusza is frustrated by gas prices. Frustrated Republicans have done nothing to help with health care costs, but he doesn't blame Fitzpatrick.

JEREMY DUSZA, PENNSYLVANIA: I think he's been doing a good job. Our taxes haven't been raised up so high that we can't afford it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: A glimpse there at our first stop on our journey, that was the first Congressional District. This will be the toughest of the three districts we visited for the Democrats to win. From there to the north and the 7th Congressional District, Democrats believe, look at the margin last time. They should have a good chance here.

And then onto the eighth again, a very, very narrow margin last time. Democrats believe they have a good shot here. And guess what? Do the Democrats need to win all three, no, but two of those three at least would tell you the Democrats are off to a good start as they try to retake the House. And we'll know that pretty early on in election night because Pennsylvania is in the east. The polls close early.

So can they get two, can they get three of the Democrats having a tougher night than anticipated? We'll know that pretty early on come election night.

[04:20:06]

SANDOVAL: Our thanks to John King. And still ahead of our CNN NEWSROOM, World Cup matches they took place over the weekend as teams continue in the group stage. In a few moments, we'll give you a roundup of Sunday's games who came out on top and who suffered a defeat.

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SANDOVAL: Get ready, it's going to be another week of World Cup matches as teams battle to make it out of the group stage. Let's give you a sense of what's ahead on Monday. Argentina, they're going to be going up against Austria at Dallas Stadium, France taking on Iraq in Philadelphia, Norway and Senegal will be facing off in New Jersey, and Jordan goes up against Algeria in San Francisco. In the meantime, teams are beginning to finalize their standings in the group stages of this year's tournament. In Group H, big top pick. Spain able to soundly defeat Saudi Arabia at Atlanta Stadium on Sunday, 4-0. Japan dominating Tunisia 4-0 as well, taking it one step closer to breaking out of the group stages.

[04:25:00]

Meanwhile at Los Angeles Stadium, Iran battling it out with Belgium producing a draw there. So far, Iran yet to win a match this tournament. And World Cup underdog, Cabo Verde, stunning the world yet again by staving off a defeat from two-time world champion Uruguay in Florida. The match ending in a draw, 2-2.

And the final match of the day seeing Egypt come out on top against New Zealand, the score there was 3-1. A lot of Egypt fans taking to the street here in New York City in celebration.

And as North America hosts the World Cup, visitors are flooding cities across the region hoping to catch their favorite teams in action. Here's CNN's Rafael Romo who spoke to fans in Atlanta after Spain soundly defeated Saudi Arabia on Sunday.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What a difference six days can make for Spanish fans, especially after Monday's very disappointing draw with Cabo Verde in their first game of the World Cup. After Sunday's 4-0 victory over Saudi Arabia, they tell us their faith in the team ranked number two by FIFA has been restored. And this is a festival, a sporting event, a rock concert and a day at the park all rolled into one.

Earlier, we saw massive crowds here at Centennial Olympic Park, but many people left after the second match between Iran and Belgium. But it was mostly a sea of red here at the fan fest with fans from across the region and all over the world, including Spain, of course, showing up to support La Roja, fans who know the sport, not a soccer, but football.

And also there were many Saudi Arabia fans as well, wearing the Saudi team green color. For local fans, this is a moment to remember and to experience welcoming international visitors, telling them bienvenidos and being part of it all. This is what some of them told us earlier.

HALEY MEDVED KENDRICK, ATLANTA SOCCER FAN: Not having the World Cup here since I was a child, I want to be part of the fun in action. So came out to get to enjoy some of the fan energy and international interaction, and get to celebrate hopefully with whoever wins today and just be part of it.

ASHLEY LEDOUS, ATLANTA SOCCER FAN: I love it. I'm born and raised here, you know, and I haven't seen this much excitement really in the city in a very long time. So I'm loving it. This is awesome.

Atlanta will host eight matches during the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Two have already been played. Atlanta is one of 16 host cities for the World Cup played not only here in the United States, but also in Canada and Mexico. And the city will also host a semi final game on Wednesday, July 15th.

The FIFA Fan Fest here at Centennial Olympic park was scheduled to operate for 16 days over the course of the World Cup. And fans tell us it's the second best thing to be in at the stadium itself. Rafael Romo, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: And we'll be right back with more.

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