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Zelenskyy Appeals for More Defenses Following Kyiv's Attack; Mexican Influencer Killed by Gunman During Livestream. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired August 06, 2026 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:08]

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Hi everybody, welcome. I'm Polo Sandoval, live in New York, and this is "CNN Newsroom."

The U.S. and Iran remain on different pages, but Gulf natures say that they are close to reaching a deal on the Strait of Hormuz.

An investigation is underway in Mexico after a TikTok influencer was shot dead during a live stream.

And seaweed blanketing coastlines across the Caribbean and Mexico again. I'll speak to an expert about the environmental consequences as one government takes some serious action.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from New York, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Polo Sandoval.

SANDOVAL: We do want to begin with Ukraine's President as he pleads with allies for more air defenses, or at least new sanctions against Moscow. He spoke after more than two dozen Russian missiles hit the Kyiv region, but Ukraine was unable to shoot down a single one.

At least 17 people were killed and dozens wounded overnight into Wednesday. Ukraine currently facing a shortage of U.S.-made Patriot interceptors, which can shoot down some of Russia's most advanced missiles.

Across the border, Russia's oil industry facing more attacks from Ukrainian drones. I'm going to show you some of this video of a new strike on a refinery about 250 kilometers northeast of Moscow. The regional governor calling it the largest drone attack the area has ever seen, claiming that Russia shot down all 88 Ukrainian drones.

For more on all of this, I'm joined by Oleksiy Sorokin out of Kyiv. He's the deputy chief editor at the Kyiv Independent. Oleksiy, it's good to see you again.

OLEKSIY SOROKIN, DEPUTY CHIEF EDITOR, KYIV INDEPENDENT: Thank you for having me.

SANDOVAL: After that deadly Russian missile strike, a series of missile strikes from the previous night, give us a sense of what the last hours have been like where you are. Have you seen another night of attacks?

SOROKIN: Well, thank God last night was peaceful in Ukraine. Not all over Ukraine, in Kyiv specifically, obviously.

At the front lines, Russians continue to attack. And at some other cities, like Odessa, a Russian bombardment is daily, unfortunately.

SANDOVAL: What has made Russia's ballistic missile attacks especially deadly in Ukraine for the last several days and weeks, really? I mean, we have seen sort of these escalated attacks, and unfortunately so many Ukrainian civilians getting caught in the middle of it.

SOROKIN: Well, unfortunately, ballistic missiles are the hardest missiles to shoot down, right? So Ukraine can still shoot down drones, cruise missiles. Also, when Russia launches drones or cruise missiles, there's more time to prepare. And the ballistics, the only valuable solution to shooting them down is the Patriot interceptors that right now Ukraine doesn't have.

And President Zelenskyy has been actively pushing the U.S. to provide licensing for Ukraine to produce Patriot missiles, because we know that everywhere there's a major shortage of Patriot missiles due to the conflict in the Middle East, and so on. And unfortunately, Ukraine is still getting a no from the U.S. And right now, there is no other option for Ukraine than to just bear with those attacks that Russia's launching every two, three days.

SANDOVAL: Yes, let's actually stay on that topic, Oleksiy. As you mentioned, President Zelenskyy has been pleading with nations, if they cannot get those air defenses, then at least they should be able to manufacture their own. And it's already been almost a month since President Trump's NATO summit promised to allow Ukraine to manufacture Patriot interceptors, which the U.S., as you mentioned, is low on.

Has the glimmer of hope that we saw from that Trump statement about a month ago, has it faded for Ukrainians? Do they think and do they expect that the U.S. and other partners will deliver on that promise?

SOROKIN: Unfortunately, Ukrainians don't know, because President Trump later said that there's no agreement yet. So he changed his opinion again, unfortunately.

[03:05:02]

But the selling point here for Ukraine is that with Ukraine producing missiles, it will free up the Americans to produce their own missiles and use them wherever they want. And also, Ukraine is pitching different forms of contracts, right? Ukraine can produce missiles only during the war or during the next few years.

So there's multiple avenues that Ukraine can take. And unfortunately, the U.S. is currently not budging here. And the main issue is that every day that the U.S. holds on with the licensing, more Ukrainians die because of Russian attacks, right?

Obviously, the missiles are not going to be built tomorrow. The assembling production lines, producing those missiles is a really long process. But at least Ukrainians will understand that in the future, they will have some kind of defense.

SANDOVAL: And what you mentioned is really important. And you think that in Ukraine, there is that understanding that in a best-case scenario, where the U.S. and other partners would at least permit that licensing to manufacture either the defense systems or components, that this would not be immediate impact, that this would take, as you pointed out, up and running.

SOROKIN: Yes. In the best-case scenario, we're looking at six months. And that's really optimistic.

So if Ukraine is able to build production lines, the first missiles will come next year. The problem here is that, according to my sources and the Kyiv Independent sources, the U.S. is not willing to commit to this because they think that the Russians can get a hold of the technology, which is not true, because if you build a Patriot missile and it shoots down missiles over Kyiv, there's no Russian territory anywhere near and there's no Patriot missiles near the front lines.

So that's just not an argument. But unfortunately, that's something that's holding the U.S. to provide those licenses.

SANDOVAL: Yes, six months would be an eternity when the wartime shortages are happening right now. Oleksiy Sorokin, thank you so much for that update. We wish you and everybody else there continued safety.

Thank you.

SOROKIN: Thank you.

SANDOVAL: Well Iran is pushing back on President Trump's claim that negotiations are underway. A senior Iranian official now says that there are no talks with the U.S. over the Strait of Hormuz, and calls the claim false.

Iran is, however, talking with Oman, and their ongoing negotiations have led to some progress over the Strait of Hormuz. In fact, a senior Gulf official says that there is a 50-50 chance that Iran and Oman will reach a deal by Friday.

Iran says that the two countries are close to finalizing a proposed framework. Iran's foreign ministry says that they have now agreed on the geographical coordinates of a proposed safe shipping route for commercial vessels.

In the meantime, President Trump insisting that the U.S. does have massive amounts of munitions, despite sources telling CNN that some key Pentagon stockpiles are dangerously low. I want to go now to CNN's Leila Ghargozlou, joining me live from London. So Leila, just tell us where things stand at the moment.

LEILA GHARAGOZLOU, CNN PRODUCER: Yes, so as we've talked about over the course of this week, there is this agreement kind of floating about between Iran and Oman over possibly finding a pathway in and around the Strait. Now, we're hearing from the Iranians that there could be a deal quite close.

As you mentioned, there's this Gulf official who said that it could be a 50-50 chance, which, you know, in this particular conflict doesn't give us a lot to go off of, because things could go either way, so much so that we even heard the President just yesterday talking about potentially re-escalating if talks don't go that way. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We were all set for the biggest attack since World War II, and they called me and they said, please don't do it, let's talk. And then they don't, they said, we never said that. We are talking, let's see what happens, but they respect us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GHARAGOZLOU: Now, as we've heard President Trump throughout this war, starting in February, say this time and time again, it's obviously unclear whether he's ever going to hit Iran in that way.

But there is seemingly these paths for an off-ramp or de-escalation that are coming up, whether it is with the U.S. directly involved or not. The fact that we're having an Iran-Oman, even bilateral agreement, potentially come out can ease a lot of the tension that we're seeing in the region. So it will ultimately be a good thing.

Now, we did also hear from J.D. Vance, the vice President, who said that talks with Iran were inevitably going to be messy. And this is something that people have said time and time again throughout this conflict, saying it's never going to be easy. When that MOU, that memorandum of understanding, went into place, one of the key issues that people had with that MOU was that it was really vague and it wasn't going to give enough time for really difficult talks that were inevitably going to be messy.

[03:10:08]

So we're kind of seeing two messages come out of the U.S. around these talks. And obviously the Iranians are saying, you know, we're not talking to the Americans at all. This is going to be a bilateral agreement with our neighbors over our sovereign territory, Polo.

SANDOVAL: Let's talk a little bit more about Iranian leadership. Have they been speaking to the kinds of pressure that their country is under? I mean, there are the pre-war sanctions, the blockade, of course, and months of this conflict.

GHARAGOZLOU: Yes, we've seen a lot of pressure put on Iranian leadership, given how this war started, at the very beginning we saw the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, assassinated in one of these strikes by the U.S. and Israel. And since then there's been mounting pressure on the Iranian government despite the fact that they have come together and had been quite cohesive for the majority of the war.

Now, since we've seen talk of an agreement or a deal, we've seen a little bit more of a fracture amongst Iranian leadership, particularly with the reformists and the hardliners. We've heard from Masoud Pezishkian, the President, really speaking about the hardship that the country as a whole is going through because they are being put through this war, either by decisions that the Iranians are taking or by, you know, the U.S. and Israeli strikes that they've been experiencing.

We have immense joblessness in Iran. We have an economy that was already struggling before this war. That's only gotten worse with the pressures of both the bombing campaigns but also the blockade.

So there's a lot going on there. And we do see slight fractures and fissures between the Iranian government officials themselves. Now, as of now, the people who are kind of leading these talks and leading the country do seem to be on the same page, but there is this very strong hardliner element to it that is trying to derail any sort of potential peace talks.

SANDOVAL: Leila Gharagozlou, as always, thank you so much for your reporting live from London.

Well residents in the Greek town of Porto Germeno, actually. They are returning to find their homes destroyed by the wildfires.

Authorities ordered evacuations as the fast-moving blaze approached. This was once a lush coastal paradise. Well, the village is now described by one resident as hell, charred walls, collapsed roofs and debris, and really all the remain of some of the homes there.

The government announced that it would provide funding for the rebuilding efforts. And residents there are pretty much just picking up the pieces.

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KATERINA EFTHIMIOU, RESIDENT OF PORTO GERMENO, GREECE: I feel very sad. It's the house that I grew up as a child. All my summers here with my grandmother, my aunt and my parents, and I feel very angry.

I feel those two things. I feel very sad and very angry because the life as we knew it in this beautiful place, it's not going to be the same.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: Activity in Guatemala's Fuego volcano is calling down a bit after days of eruption that force hundreds of people to flee their homes. But authorities say that it's still dangerous.

Built-up material is collapsing at the rim and could create more pyroclastic flows, which is a deadly hazard during volcanic events. Guatemala's disaster agency warning that the forecasted rain could possibly trigger some fast-moving mud flows.

The volcano is about 50 kilometers outside the capital, Guatemala City. It's been spewing lava and ash since Monday.

It's estimated that the volcano has impacted nearly 30,000 people in the area in some way. In the next hour, I'll be speaking with a representative for World Central Kitchen about how their relief team is working to help the affected families, as well as the first responders.

FIFA's President Gianni Infantino getting a big boost of support in his effort to remain in power after his short-lived and highly controversial plan to sell off commercial and operational rights to the World Cup. The proposal set off outrage across global football associations, especially in Europe. And it also prompted a crisis meeting in Morocco.

But now, according to a newly released statement, Infantino has retained the backing of FIFA's secretary-general and other members of the association's management. The statement also acknowledged that mistakes were made.

Infantino is up for re-election early next year, but former Portuguese star Luis Figo says that he must go. In an editorial, he called Infantino's conduct the lowest and most deceitful he's ever witnessed. He also wrote, "if the scheme was a no-brainer, why not be honest about the fact that it was going to give you a $30 million a year job at the end of it?"

[03:15:05]

And still ahead, a Mexican social media influencer shot and killed in the middle of a live stream that we know about the brazen murder.

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SANDOVAL: We are tracking a major security operation that's underway in Mexico after a social media influencer was shot dead during a live stream. Cesar Gastelum was streaming outside of a fast food restaurant on Tuesday when authorities say he was shot by two people on a motorcycle. Investigators are trying to figure out if the attack is related to social media posts referencing a criminal group.

[03:20:07]

Now the murder happened in the city of Culiacan, where Mexican cartels have been clashing since at least 2024. Mexico's President is demanding those responsible be arrested.

CNN's Isabel Rosales with more.

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ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is 23-year-old Cesar Gastelum streaming live on the social media platform TikTok with two friends. They're all dressed as delivery drivers outside a fast food chain for what seems like a prank.

Seconds later, this motorcycle stops near the group. The shooting took place in Culiacan, the capital of Mexico's Sinaloa state.

Authorities there say Gastelum was killed in the incident and that a large police operation is underway. Gastelum had nearly 600,000 followers on TikTok and was known mostly for his comedy videos. Fellow social media star Alejandro Fierro was one of the two friends with Gastelum when he was shot.

He'd been posting on his own Instagram ahead of the live stream and was among the first to pay tribute to Gastelum. In a powerful message, he said he couldn't make sense of it and was heartbroken.

Gastelum's case is not unique in Mexico. A little over a year ago, another influencer, Valeria Marquez, was also live streaming when a man entered her beauty salon, shooting and killing her live on social media moments later.

Authorities said at a press conference they believe her murder was possibly linked to Ramon Angel Alvarez, known as El R1, who was arrested last week in an unrelated drug case. He's the leader of Los R's, a criminal group linked to the Jalisco New Generation cartel. Mexico's attorney general's office said he has an attorney and has not been charged in connection with the murder.

It's unknown if the cartels are behind Gastelum's assassination. Multiple groups are extremely active in Sinaloa.

The actual perpetrators and, if applicable, the mastermind must be arrested. And the reason behind this tragic homicide must be uncovered.

Isabel Rosales, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: Mexico has a plan to tackle the growing problem of smelly seaweed that's washing up on its beautiful beaches. Just ahead, I'll speak with an expert about the impact of the seaweed that's sargassum.

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[03:25:00]

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SANDOVAL: Welcome back. I'm Polo Sandoval in New York and these are today's top stories.

Iran is reporting progress in talks with Oman over the Strait of Hormuz, saying that the two sides are close to finalizing a proposed framework. Iran's foreign ministry says that the two countries have now agreed on the coordinates of a proposed safe shipping route for commercial vessels. A senior Gulf official says that there is a 50-50 chance that Iran and Oman will reach a deal by Friday.

Ukraine's President is making an urgent plea to allies to send more air defenses. He spoke after a massive strike on Kyiv, with Ukraine failing to shoot down a single Russian missile. Officials say more than two dozen missiles were launched overnight into Wednesday, killing at least 17 people, with dozens of others wounded.

Michigan's Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate says that he is ready to take on Donald Trump after attacks on his character on Wednesday. The President accused Abdul El-Sayed of hating Jews and Israel, other Republican groups have also targeted El-Sayed's race and religious beliefs. Speaking with CNN, El-Sayed said that everyone deserves to feel safe, he wants politics to embrace all backgrounds.

Well Mexico is declaring war on the growing threat of foul-smelling seaweed, known as sargassum. Up to 9000 tons of the stinky mess have been washing up each day onto the usual pristine beaches along Mexico's Caribbean coast, home to tourist destinations including Cancun and Tulum.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has a multi-million dollar plan to use some large ships to scoop up some of that seaweed before it reaches the beach. Sargassum patches are important habitats for turtles, crab, and fish out at sea, but when it washes ashore, it releases some bad odors and harmful gas.

Joining me now from Florida is Brian LaPointe. He's a research professor at Florida Atlantic University's Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute.

Brian, thank you so much for joining us. We're so glad you could join us. I mean, you've been studying the trends of sargassum for decades.

BRIAN LAPOINTE, PH.D., RESEARCH PROFESSOR, FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY-HARBOR POINT OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTE: That's right. I began my work here in the Florida Keys back in 1982 and have been monitoring sargassum, its ecology, and biogeochemistry for decades now.

SANDOVAL: As you know, it's been washing up along the Atlantic and Caribbean shores. It's especially been intensifying since at least 2011. And this year though seems to be one of the worst, with one report from the University of South Florida showing approximately 27 metric tons of it in the ocean last month alone.

In your view, in your expert view, why does this keep getting worse?

[03:29:59]

LAPOINTE: Well, the unprecedented expansion of the great Atlantic sargassum belt that formed in 2011 is no longer simply an environmental issue. It's become an ecological, economic, and public health challenge, affecting dozens of countries across the Atlantic basin.

SANDOVAL: So Brian, tell us a little bit about what this sargassum does, especially when you look at how it not only blankets the beaches, but also how it covers basically the surface of the ocean. How it pretty much suffocates any life underneath it.

LAPOINTE: So offshore, when sargassum is out in blue water, it provides a unique ecosystem that serves as habitat for pelagic fisheries and critical habitat for loggerhead sea turtles.

However, when it comes to shore in excessive amounts, it's just too much of a good thing. Our research in the Florida Keys is showing severe environmental impacts to water quality and coastal ecosystem health. The problem begins when excessive sargassum biomass inundates beaches and shorelines and begins to decompose.

This leads to discolored water, reduced light, pH, and dissolved oxygen, causing dead zones that no longer serve as viable marine habitat. And this includes seagrass beds and coral reefs.

SANDOVAL: What are the risks also to people? I mean, I've seen this, it smells terrible, it looks awful, but just beyond it just being, or beyond it just being an unsightly presence.

Talk to me about the risks to people, especially those who are out there shoveling this by hand. When it starts to decompose, does it release various toxins?

LAPOINTE: Yes, well, the decomposition in low oxygen levels result in toxic emissions of hydrogen sulfide, which pose public health risks. In addition, sargassum contains high concentrations of toxic heavy metals, especially arsenic, that leach into beach sand, groundwaters, and coastal waters.

SANDOVAL: Just last week, the Mexican government said that it's investing millions of dollars into tackling these algae blooms. Brian, they want to use some vessels to pretty much scoop it out of the sea and install more of those barriers, but at scooping up some 1800 tons a day, do you think that that would make a difference? And perhaps we could.

LAPOINTE: Well, I think the new plan calls for, you know, a comprehensive program that includes offshore collection, you know, out in blue water, which is guided by satellite remote sensing and modeling, but then also the use of the Navy to put together, I think, 30 miles of barriers along the beaches where they collect it with boats, smaller boats. And then, of course, many workers on the beaches to catch the sargassum and collect it that is not collected in open water.

SANDOVAL: And Brian, what seems to be fueling this is those like nutrient-rich waters of agricultural runoff, essentially, correct?

LAPOINTE: Yes, I've been monitoring the tissue nutrient levels in sargassum since 1982, so we have decades of data. And what it shows is that both nitrogen and phosphorus, the two critical limiting nutrients, have almost doubled since, say, going back to the 1960s, which are the earliest samples we've analyzed. So, as the nutrient concentrations go up in the sargassum, its growth rate increases, and at this point, it's growing like crazy.

SANDOVAL: Which means it's bound to get even worse. It's a multi- nation problem, not just affecting the environment, but the economies, as you laid out at the beginning.

Brian LaPointe, a pleasure having you on. Please come back and keep us posted on your research.

LAPOINTE: Thank you so much. I'm happy to do it, and thanks for having me.

SANDOVAL: And still ahead, you want to see the news on SpaceX supporting its first quarterly earnings as a public company, what investors liked and what they didn't like about the Q2 figures.

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[03:35:00]

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SANDOVAL: Well scientists have confirmed that part of a SpaceX rocket crashed into the moon on Wednesday. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off in January of 2025. It carried two commercial lunar landers. Well, the rocket's second, or the upper stage, had completed its mission and remained in space until it's believed that a combination of solar activity and gravity put it on a collision course with the moon.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, SpaceX posted its first earnings report as a public company, and while revenue is soaring, investors are worried about how much the company is spending. Here's CNN's David Goldman.

[03:40:01]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR REPORTER: Well, SpaceX had just a miserable day on Wall Street. It was down almost 14 percent in a single day. And you look at the numbers and you say, well, wait a minute, what gives?

Because this is a company that when it reported earnings, its sales were up 92 percent from the previous quarter. $8 billion in a quarter, that's real money.

And yes, okay, so it lost quite a bit as well, $541 million in a quarter, but that was much narrower than the $4.3 billion that it lost the quarter before, so that loss is narrowing. So what's the problem?

Well, let's take a look at some of its businesses.

Starlink, that's the signal that it beams down to Earth to provide cell service and Wi-Fi in remote areas. Well, sales were up 66 percent. This was a real consumer business, and it was the only profitable segment, but it's growing significantly.

So what is the issue? A.I.

A.I. sales are booming, growing 247 percent over the course of the past year. It's not the sales though, it's how much it's spending. And this is the big concern because in just three months, in the spring, SpaceX spent $18.4 billion on A.I. In the previous three months, it had spent $10 billion. That's a lot

of money too. And this is what investors are going to be concerned about, not just today, but going forward.

Because if it's going to continue to spend this kind of money, it's going to want to see a return on an investment, not a $541 million loss. Now, this isn't the only company that's dealing with this kind of thing, but SpaceX has kind of and also ran an A.I. at the moment behind OpenAI and Anthropic and Google. And if it's going to be posting these kinds of losses on all of that spending, well, Wall Street's going to be asking for a lot more.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: Thank you, David Goldman, and thank you so much for joining me. We'll leave you with "World Sport," and then I'll be right back with you at the top of the hour with more of your headlines here on "CNN Newsroom."

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