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America Votes; FIFA World Cup; Aired; Economic Hardship. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired June 24, 2026 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:33:18]

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN ANCHOR: All right, welcome back. Let's get you back on US politics. In South Carolina, CNN is projecting State Attorney General Alan Wilson will be securing the Republican nomination and the governor's runoff.

This is a victory over Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette, who was originally endorsed by President Trump. But as our Dianne Gallagher reports, she wasn't the only candidate getting the President's backing.

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson will win the state's GOP gubernatorial primary runoff, the CNN decision desk projects beating Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette. Wilson's campaign called it a "massive comeback" after he initially finished second place in the primary before what looks to be a resounding victory in Tuesday's runoff.

Now, it was Lieutenant Governor Evette who initially got the much coveted Trump endorsement in this reliably red state. However, after that June 9th primary, it appeared that the momentum seemed to swing Wilson's way as nearly all of his former rivals, including US Reps. Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman, got behind him to endorse him.

He thanked them on stage Tuesday night. Perhaps the biggest indicator, though, that there was momentum shift was this 11th hour co- endorsement from President Donald Trump that came just days before the runoff. The President obviously hedging his bets. Two candidates, two endorsements, you can't -- after he'd had a rough couple of goes in Georgia and in Iowa with gubernatorial endorsements.

Now, Wilson thanked Trump even though he wasn't the initial endorsee, saying that he believed the President saw his campaign was a campaign of a fighter. Wilson will now be favored in the general election. He faces off against Democrat Jermaine Johnson. The last time the Palmetto State elected a Democrat was 1998. Dianne Gallagher, back to you.

[04:35:16]

SANDOVAL: The World Cup group stages, they seem to be heating up ahead of the upcoming knockout round. Earlier, Colombia won their match against the Democratic Republic of Congo, 1-0, in a critical game for Group K. In other action on Tuesday, Ghana held England to a 0-0 draw in Boston. A missed header late in the game giving English striker Harry Kane a chance to score, but he kicked the rebound shot high and out of play as you see there.

Meanwhile, in Houston, Portugal steamrolled Uzbekistan despite a slow start of the tournament. Superstar Cristiano Ronaldo getting pretty hot in this one, actually scored two goals in Portugal's 5-0 blowout. Ronaldo has now scored a goal in six separate World Cups, setting a new FIFA record.

And starting today, the group stages will be holding six matches per day in the lead up to the knockout rounds. You see what we expect in the coming hours. Some of the most highly anticipated games, they include Scotland's showdown against Brazil. That's happening in Miami, and that's followed by Mexico playing on home soil against Czechia.

This World Cup, it does mark the first time that Scotland has qualified in nearly 30 years. And Scottish fans, known as the Tartan Army, they are taking over American host cities with plenty of infectious joy and kilts, and bagpipes. Last week, they actually ran some of the Boston bars out of beer. And on Monday, they helped pack the stadium for a Miami Marlins baseball game.

Earlier, I did have the chance to speak with Hamish Husband, who is a veteran member of the West Coast of Scotland Tartan Army. He shared what makes this group so special and what he's looking forward to ahead of tonight's match.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HAMISH HUSBAND, A VETERAN MEMBER, WEST COAST OF SCOTLAND TARTAN ARMY: It started in 1928, we had an annual game against England at Wembley and we had the Wembley clubs. And then this kind of changed in 1998 when we played the opening game against Brazil at the World Cup. And that's when the modern Tartan Armies just grew and grew.

And it was based around bars and we have traveled around Europe. And I humbly suggest, strongly, that we are the most famous fans in Europe. And we're not only football fans, soccer fans, we are actually, we believe, the first international charity in the world. It's the Tartan Army Sunshine Appeal.

And when we made our donation in Boston last week, it was at 112th. And from 2003 to now, we have donated over GBP 350,000.

SANDOVAL: As you mentioned, Scotland's team, it needs at least a draw against Brazil to secure the next round. We also heard from Coach Steve Clarke recently. He said that he grew up with a love for Brazil. I mean, why wouldn't you? It's such an iconic team.

But come tonight's game, he will be loving Scotland even more. I wonder just how memorable a moment do you expect, during the game, just seeing your team share the pitch with Brazil?

HUSBAND: Actually, our first match against Brazil was in 1966, before they went to the World Cup in England. And the big connection with Brazil was in 1982. We played them in the World Cup of Spain. And although they beat us 4-1, and there was this amazing bond that seemed to emerge between this massive country, the most major country for salt soccer, for football, and this tiny nation of five and a half million people.

We have had this affinity with Brazil for decades now. I'm not sure if the Brazilians really understand and reciprocate it, but it's quite amazing. We feel this empathy towards Brazil. Now, if you take Brazil and Argentina, they are the major, major soccer countries in the world. And I just feel that tomorrow night we'll be equal partners until the game starts, that is.

SANDOVAL: You've attended some matches now, as you point out, for decades. What makes this particular World Cup tournament so unique, based on your experience attending these matches?

HUSBAND: Right. The background is that, two years ago we played in the European Championships and 200,000 Scots from a population of 5.5 million went to Germany. And we lit up the tournament when we qualified in November on a dramatic night at our national stadium.

I wasn't coming, I thought, because we get so much negative news about the USA. And then I went home after the match and my wife said, here's a glass of champagne. I take it, you're going to America. You're a man of no principles.

[04:40:12]

Of course I was going to the US. But there was a bit of trepidation because you have to understand back in the UK, back in Scotland, so much negativity about this USA, this magnificent country of yours. And so when I set off from Glasgow, it seems weeks ago, and I landed in Boston. And when we landed, the locals were saying, why are you all here? Why are you wearing kilts? Is there a conference on?

And what took us viral wasn't so much a game against Haiti, which we won, was the Boston Red Sox, where I don't know if there was 10,000 of us there. And we had a fan match in the stadium led by the bagpipes. And suddenly, we were embraced not only by Boston, but the USA and the world.

Because I've done interviews with Brazilian TV and Australian TV, they don't want to know about our soccer players. They just want to know about us, where we came from, where is this? And what I would say is, what they want to know is what is the Tartan Army about, because you've got the Dutch fans with their orange and they do this daft dance, and the Norwegian fans are doing the rowing, but that's all preplanned.

We are spontaneous. We just come and have a good time

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: Well, later today, Germany's chancellor will be hosting several European leaders for talks on Ukraine. And this is ahead of next month's NATO summit. And this also comes as Kyiv intensifies its drone strikes on Russian military targets in occupied Ukraine and in Russian-controlled Crimea. Let's go now to CNN's Sebastian Shukla, who joins me now live from Berlin.

So, Seb, in the face of Russia's efforts to essentially undermine support for Ukraine, just how important will this meeting be and what do we expect to come out of it?

SEBASTIAN SHUKLA, CNN INTERNATIONAL FIELD PRODUCER: Yes. Good morning, Polo. This meeting, the E5 meeting, is a format that has taken place for some time, but at a much lower level. It tends to be at ministerial level or even adviser level. What we're seeing today, what will happen in that building behind me in the Chancellery, is the heads of state of the five biggest, most prosperous nations in Europe, Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Poland, will all be coming here to discuss the upcoming NATO summit which was taking place in Ankara at the beginning of July.

And obviously, Polo, at the moment, the topsy-turvy, tumultuous nature of the NATO alliance and particularly the relations that it has with the United States is incredibly strained. And the message that the leaders want to put out to the world today, and particularly to the White House is that, the Europeans have taken note of what the White House and what the President has been saying that they must do.

Which is, they must increase defense spending, they must increase their own capabilities to be able to defend themselves, and they must reduce their reliance on the United States. And the US, including the secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, said last week that the US is reviewing its force posture in Europe and on the continent. So they are needing now to get their ducks in a row here.

I should add that the secretary general, Mark Rutte, is going to be attending this meeting too. He's appearing virtually. And I think the choreography behind this as well is very important because the secretary general is in Washington, DC. He has a meeting with Donald Trump later this afternoon.

He is going to be meeting and talking with the E5 leaders ahead of that meeting. And the idea is, is that following the discussions in the Chancellery here, he is going to walk into the Oval Office and be able to tell Donald Trump exactly what was discussed. And that there is a message emanating from Europe that they are talking about the messages that have been coming from the White House and that they will now be relayed, hopefully, to smooth a path for a very, very successful NATO summit, which would be very similar, hopefully an outcome to the one that we saw in Evian with the G7 last week, Polo.

SANDOVAL: Yes. What a day to be watching this. Sebastian Shukla joining us from Berlin, thank you so much for that.

And coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM, US sanctions and an oil blockade, they are crippling Cuba's tourism industry. When we return, we'll take you to Havana, show you how locals are being affected by this.

[04:44:35] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANDOVAL: Well, Cuba's once robust tourism industry, it has been absolutely gutted by US sanctions as well as an oil blockade. This is the Trump administration tries pressuring the Cuban government. With a sharp decline in visitors, it has now wiped out a key source of revenue for Cuba's hospitality workers. Now many residents fear that harder times could still be ahead.

Here's CNN Patrick Ottman reporting from Havana.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PATRICK OTTMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You can look for tourists in Cuba, but good luck finding any these days. The colonial streets in plazas and Old Havana, one of the island's main attractions for foreign visitors, are strikingly empty.

Cuba's tourism sector is enduring the worst moment in years, if not decades, we've come to an area that should be absolutely full of tourists to see how bad it's gotten.

Rolando is trying to promote the restaurant where he works, but there's hardly anyone to make his pitch to.

You don't see any tourists?

ROLANDO, TOURISM WORKER: Maybe in this moment, 10 percent, 10 percent tourists in this square. That is the best square is Plaza Vieja, the other square in Havana, maybe 10 percent. There's nothing.

OTTMAN: The oil blockade placed by the Trump administration on Cuba earlier this year has contributed to rolling blackouts and a scarcity of jet fuel for airlines carrying tourists from Europe or Canada, which have cancelled flights. Threats of increased US economic sanctions on international hotel chains is forcing many companies to abandon the island and remove the brands off hotels they used to manage for the Cuban government.

According to official statistics, only 360,000 tourists visited the island in the first five months of 2026, a more than 58 percent drop from the previous year. The Trump administration says it is pressuring the island's communist rulers to open the tightly-controlled economy and political system.

But people like Elio and Andres, who have been playing traditional Cuban music on the street corner for nearly 30 years, are among those feeling the squeeze. When we meet them, the guitar duo had earned less than a dollar in tips that day. They told me the economy has never been this bad, even during there are no tourists.

[04:50:04]

Elio says, maybe they are only every half hour or hour. Even the famed Hemingway Trail, the bars where the American writer drank his way across Havana has gone cold. This is one of the most famous bars in Havana. You can see Hemingway's signature there on the wall. This is one of the many places he drank. He said he came here for his mojito. I've never been able to come here without there being just a crush of tourists.

We're the first customers of the day. It's a tourist trap without any tourists.

For the first time, Cuban officials say, they may allow Cuban exiles or Cubans still living on the island to manage hotels. But full ownership, so far at least, is still not permitted. The collapse of the tourism economy is a disaster for a government that spent years pouring scant resources into building hotels.

This is not only this island, this is one of the most expensive things this government here has ever built. Architects who worked on this project told me it cost more than $200 million to build this hotel, which is now empty and closed.

Still, construction continues on even more hotels that are unlikely to see paying customers anytime soon. Cubans who work in tourism are trying to anything to make ends meet. Alexander tells us he lowered prices to take a carriage ride with his horse, Napoleon, so the Cubans could afford a city tour. He still barely makes enough money to pay for his government license to work as a guide. More reforms urgently need to take place.

ALEXANDER, CUBAN TOURISM WORKER: If we don't change our system, if we don't change our economic model, we'll never survive like a human being. Every day, daily, there are problems and problems, and problems. And if we don't solve, if we don't change those things, you will never have a real future.

OTTMAN: Cuba's tourism industry has already collapsed under increased US pressure, now the fear is the rest of the island's teetering economy could soon follow. Patrick Ottman, CNN, Havana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: Our thanks to Patrick Ottman and the rest of our team based in Havana for that report. And we'll be right back with.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:56:14]

SANDOVAL: Welcome back. Guinness World Records, it is now crowned an Australian man the loudest person in the world. This is where you may want to adjust your volume a little bit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEPH MCGRAIL-BATEUP, GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS' LOUDEST PERSON: My lords, my ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Canberra.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SANDOVAL: So much for my hearing in my right ear. In his job, in his day job, 58-year-old Joseph McGrail- Bateup, he's an air conditioner cleaner but he's also the honorary town crier of the Australian capital. Guinness World Record says that he yelled the word "now" at 122.4 decibels. That's comparable to a chainsaw, a jet taking off, or even an ambulance siren up close.

He says that he lost his voice for a few days after recording his record breaking cry. Congratulations to him.

Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Polo Sandoval in New York. Our coverage continues now with CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS.

[05:00:00]