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CNN This Morning

Emergency Declared As Residents Flee Wildfire In Spokane County, Washington; Washington National Guard Mobilized To Spokane County Wildfire; Multiple People Dead, Other Injured In Shooting At In-N-Out In Twin Falls, Idaho; Trump Says Iran Strike Canceled To "Rapidly Make A Deal"; Homemade Bomb Attack At Moscow Restaurant; "Sopranos" Actor Vincent Pastore Dead At 80; Lindsay Clancy Trial Moves Into Second Week; Trump, Interior Secretary Defend Reflecting Pool Vandalism Probe; Trump Pushes For "Anti-Weaponization" Fund, Blanche Confirmation; Tuesday, Michigan Dems Vote In Contentious Senate Primary; Stevens And El-Sayed Make Final Pitch Before Tuesday's Primary. Michigan Dems Vote In High-Stakes Senate Primary; New York Sues Prediction Market Giant Kalshi; Piece Of SpaceX Rocket Set To Crash Into The Moon At 5,400 Mph; Democrat Face Split Between Progressive And Moderates; Ugandan Veterinarian Protects Mountain Gorillas By Helping Local Communities Thrive. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired August 02, 2026 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:28]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to CNN THIS MORNING. Here's what's happening now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRENT DALLMAN, HOME THREATENED BY FIRE: This is a nuclear bomb going off in our neighborhood.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: A wildfire emergency right now in Washington State. Thousands of people are being forced to leave their homes. Several fast-moving fires are burning and power outages are widespread. The Washington National Guard is being called in to help. A major with the guard says that he thinks that we're going to be in shock by what we see when the sun rises.

Also out west, several people are dead, others injured in a shooting at an In-N-Out Burger in Idaho. We have the video of the chaotic scenes and the latest on what happened.

Plus, breaking news overnight deja vu in the Iran war. President Trump again announces that he's calling off an imminent attack and claims progress in talks again. We have a live report on the last minute talks that may have played a role.

And later, a SpaceX rocket is on a collision course with the moon. But that's not a bad thing. Well, because science. We'll explain.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLACKWELL: Sunday, August 2nd. Thanks for being with me. I'm Victor Blackwell.

We'll begin with the breaking news this morning. Washington State's governor has declared a state of emergency as Spokane County battles three massive wildfires. The Washington National Guard has been mobilized.

Just after midnight, more than 3,000 acres have already burned, up to 5,000 structures were threatened by the Old Trails Fire. That's according to a Washington Department of Natural Resources spokesperson.

Thousands of people have been forced to leave. Several areas in the Spokane area are under the highest level evacuation order. Many evacuation shelters have been opened, and Avista Utilities data shows that more than 13,000 homes have lost power.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DALLMAN: It's pretty devastating, but we're just -- we feel so sad for everybody that's in the path of that because it's uncontrollable at this point.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Never have I seen a fire this close and coming over the ridge like that. And it's -- I mean, it's devastating.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: The Washington State Commissioner of Public Lands says the area that's burned is roughly half the size of Rhode Island. CNN's Chris Warren is here with me now. I mean, this has been a very active fire season, but this is now affecting lives and homes and it's getting really dangerous.

CHRIS WARREN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: The wind is such a huge factor in this. You can see that in the video from the interviews. The leaves are rustling around.

What makes it so scary, Victor, is you can think the fire line is over there, right? Meanwhile, a home could start burning over here. The wind can take the embers and drop them in other spots. And you see that with the video as well. Not every home is burning in some of that video.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

WARREN: The embers can start new fires well beyond the fire line. That's how they can spread so quickly. So, it's so scary.

The danger not over yet. Some improvement here. The worst of the fire weather now moving into Idaho, Montana and parts of Wyoming. While getting a little bit of a break across parts of eastern Washington there is a lot of smoke. There has been smoke here for weeks. It is going to be hanging around for a while. You can see that with the near surface smoke forecast. East of the Cascades, even west of the Cascades, we're going to see some of that smoke lingering around, a testament to the number of fires and the size of the fires.

The green on the map here showing slightly cooler temperatures for eastern Washington. So, we're looking well to the east of Seattle, almost in Idaho is where Spokane is located. And the heat, though, will be coming back.

After a brief break we're going to see the heat return. Winds are also relatively calm this morning. Going to be picking up later this afternoon. While other parts of the west absolutely baking under this heat dome here.

Los Angeles back into the lower 90s. Get into the desert is going to be -- into the 100 and teens. You might think, well, yes, this is, you know, the time of year where it's hot and it's the desert. It is hot. Yes, but usually not this hot.

And we're going to see record breaking heat. Heat alerts, which include even a lot of Arizona still for parts of Montana as well. So, in Phoenix normally it's about 106.

[06:05:01]

So you're well above that, about 10 degrees hotter than that. Los Angeles also seeing well above normal temperatures. And this heat is going to be hanging around.

It's not just the daytime highs, Victor. It's the overnight lows. That's when things really get into the dangerous category. Because if you don't have air conditioning, it's difficult for the body to ever cool down.

BLACKWELL: All right. Chris Warren, we'll check back with you, especially on those fires throughout the show.

Several people are dead and others injured after a shooting at an In- N-Out Burger. This happened in Twin Falls, Idaho. Here you see employees in those red aprons and paper hats running when the shots were fired. Here's how one witness described what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAYLYN SANCHEZ, WITNESS: As I was running, I faced the shooter head on and he pointed the gun at me. And I ducked behind a white car just to have some sort of coverage. I saw a pistol on a gun case. I'm guessing that was his. And I didn't have anything to defend myself, so I grabbed the gun and I pulled it back.

It was jammed, so I just felt helpless. And I saw the truck in front of me. So I ran as fast as I could, and I just threw it, got in the car and we left.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BLACKWELL: The local police chief says the suspected shooter died after he shot himself. Officials have not provided the exact number of deaths, but told CNN earlier that at least three people had been killed. It's not clear if the suspect was included in that count.

New this morning, President Trump says that he's agreed to a request from Iran and other countries in the Middle East to hold off on any new attacks on Iran. But the president also made clear that the pause is conditional. He says it depends on the two sides being able to rapidly reach an agreement.

He says the proposed deal would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and, in his words, bring an end to Iran's nuclear threat. The president also says that Israel supports the pause in military action.

At the same time, Iran's foreign minister is warning that any new American attack would trigger what he called a forceful response. But for now, there have been no new U.S. strikes inside Iran for several days.

Let's go now to CNN's Clare Sebastian in London. This is a pattern we've seen where the president has said he's going to hit Iran very hard, then calls it off for potential progress in talks that don't come. What are we seeing this time that might make that any different?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not a lot at this point, Victor. I can tell you, though, that the level of sort of fear and heightened sense of concern in the region going into this was such that Trump's own state department was warning Americans to consider leaving the region or to make plans to do so, should there be an escalation. So, this was a fairly sudden climb down from that. But as you say, we've seen it before.

He claimed in that statement, and a lot of what's in that statement on Truth Social, we really only have Trump's word for it at this point that Iran and other Middle Eastern countries had asked the U.S. to back down, because he said the perimeters of a deal have been agreed to and claiming, of course, that he was doing this for the future benefit of the world.

We don't have any official response from Iran as of yet, but picking through the Iranian media coverage, the semiofficial Fars News Agency has quoted a source saying that no agreement has been made to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Again, no official response to this as of yet.

But in general, the Iranian media coverage as the country has woken up this morning, has been to use this as a way to emphasize U.S. weakness. That same Fars semiofficial news agency, in a quote there saying, Trump the fool has run out of steam.

Separately, another news agency, the semiofficial Mehr News Agency, in a post saying, Trump once again backed away from his hollow threats and presented his retreat to the world as a favor. So they are banking this as a sort of political victory to some extent here.

In terms of why this happened, and this isn't officially mentioned in Trump's post, there does seem to be -- to have been an intervention from Saudi Arabia. We now have an official readout of a call that the Saudi crown prince made to Trump on Saturday, where he stressed the need to prioritize dialog to reduce escalation. The importance he talked about of making every possible effort to achieve calm. That paves the way for diplomatic solutions that followed on that call from a visit to the White House in the past week by the acting defense minister.

So, Saudi Arabia is increasingly concerned. They are, of course, increasingly vulnerable, facing now a blockade of the Red Sea by Houthi rebels in Yemen, as they have had to reroute their oil exports to the Red Sea.

So that, I think, along with the Iranian threats of retaliation, the concerns around the dwindling U.S. stockpiles of interceptor missiles, which they use, of course, to defend U.S. allies in the region and U.S. military assets against Iranian retaliation, that may have brought us to this point. But obviously, he is saying Trump in that post, that this is contingent on a deal happening fast. And we don't see a clear pathway to that at this point, Victor.

[06:10:00]

BLACKWELL: All right. We'll see if anything happens this weekend and what the definition by the president of rapid actually is. Clare Sebastian for us in London, thanks so much.

So this morning, investigators are trying to figure out who was behind a deadly bombing at a restaurant. This happened in Moscow.

Authorities say an unidentified woman carrying a homemade bomb tried to get into a private event yesterday, but the device exploded before she could get in. Two people were killed, including a security guard who stopped her and a customer attending that event.

Officials say the woman carrying the bomb also died. Twenty-one people were injured. Investigators believe that the bomb may have been detonated remotely, and preliminary reports suggest that the woman may not even have known what was inside the package she was carrying.

Ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, the D.C. reflecting pool investigation is now turned into a political blame game. The president has now weighed in. The president is pointing fingers at a couple of top officials.

Plus, a primary day showdown is just days away in Michigan. We'll have more on the Senate race that everybody will be watching.

Also, researchers are standing by for this week's lunar collision, calling it a once in a lifetime science experiment. We'll explain the secrets of this rocket moon crash. Maybe they'll unlock.

And as we go to break a look at the busiest airport in the world. Now, it's 6:00 a.m. in Atlanta. So not too busy, but it will pick up later today. Good morning. CNN THIS MORNING will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [06:16:19]

BLACKWELL: Headlines for you this morning. Actor Vincent Pastore has died at 80 years old. He was born in New York. Vincent was best known for his role in the HBO hit series "The Sopranos," played Salvatore, the best friend of Tony Soprano, who becomes an FBI informant. Pastore often played gangsters with a career dating back to the 1980s and roles in "Goodfellas" and "Awakenings." He has one daughter, Renee Pastore.

The Lindsay Clancy triple murder trial will continue tomorrow morning after an emotional first week. Patrick Clancy took the stand against his ex-wife, and the jury later visited the crime scene.

Now, Lindsay Clancy is charged with three counts of first degree murder in the deaths of her three children in 2023. Defense lawyers say that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and extreme mental illness at the time. She faces life in prison if she's convicted. Join us for live streaming coverage on "CNN ALL ACCESS" when the trial picks up tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m. Go to CNN.com/watch.

President Trump doubling down on claiming vandals damaged the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool even after his own justice department said there was no basis in the claims and said it was instead a rushed renovation. The justice department has dropped charges against former Olympian David Hearn, who they accused of vandalizing the pool.

U.S. attorney Jeanine Pirro claimed other government departments withheld key information in the case, but Interior Secretary Doug Burgum pushed back against that claim, and he sided with the president and said that vandals were responsible.

President Trump now says that he will push to get Congress to approve that $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund if the Senate won't confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general. Now, the controversial fund would be used to compensate people who say they were wronged by the Federal government, including some involved in the January 6th Capitol riot. CNN's Julia Benbrook has the latest.

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Over the weekend, President Donald Trump took to social media and appeared to put his controversial $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund back on the table.

I want to pull up this post for you now. In it, he said that if he doesn't get the support needed to approve Blanche, that he will keep him as acting attorney general and, quote, "push hard to get the Anti- Weaponization Fund" passed.

That fund has been at the center of resistance to Blanche's nomination as Republican Senators John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina have indicated they will withhold their needed votes unless they get written assurances that that fund will not be resurrected. And as recent as Friday, Trump himself said that he believed that the fund was dead. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: Do you agree with the acting attorney general that the anti-weaponization fund is dead, and why not just put that in writing?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, it is dead, but you know I wish it weren't to be honest with you. I think people were horribly treated, horribly abused. This has nothing to do with Todd. This was me, horribly abused. And I'd like to see them compensated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BENBROOK: So on Friday, Trump said that he believed that the fund is dead. On Saturday, he said he would push hard for the fund if Blanche is not confirmed. Tillis did respond to those most recent comments, writing on Saturday afternoon, quote, "despite comments as late as yesterday that the fund is dead, President Trump clearly intends to resurrect the payout pot for punks either by inappropriately establishing another bogus fund or pushing Congress to vote for a bill that the majority of Republicans in the Senate would be against."

[06:20:05]

He added that he does consider Blanche qualified for this role, but that Trump's reversal here will not help the process. He said that he hopes things will be worked out by Tuesday. That's when the Judiciary Committee has scheduled a meeting for a potential vote on Blanche's nomination, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Julia Benbrook, thank you so much. So, be sure to watch CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION" later this morning. Dana Bash will sit down for a live interview with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. She'll also speak with Republican Congressman Jim Jordan. "STATE OF THE UNION" begins at 9:00 a.m. right here on CNN.

Next, a legal battle is brewing over prediction markets. Why New York is going after Kalshi and what it could mean for the future of other prediction markets.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:25:18]

BLACKWELL: Today, the two Democratic candidates for Senate in Michigan will make their closing arguments ahead of Tuesday's high-stakes primary. Congresswoman Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed will both be out campaigning.

An establishment backed moderate facing off against a progressive favorite in one of the nation's most important battleground states. The primary could give us a strong indication about where the Democratic Party is headed.

Joining me now to discuss is political editor for The Detroit Free Press, Emily Lawler. Emily, good morning. Thank you for being with me.

EMILY LAWLER, POLITICS EDITOR, DETROIT FREE PRESS: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: This is now the most expensive Democratic primary in history. You're out talking to voters. With all the voices coming into the state, what are you hearing from those who will actually make the decision on Tuesday?

LAWLER: Yes. I mean, I think Michiganders are pretty used to there being a moment in every election where there's all eyes on Michigan. So, I think people understand the importance of what they're deciding and have some really strong viewpoints in favor of both of the candidates.

And, you know, we've certainly talked to some voters who are really enthusiastic, and on the progressive side, some voters who really want some deep change here, and some who are uncomfortable with the levels of money -- the outside money that's come in on Haley Stevens' behalf.

BLACKWELL: Yes, that's something that, obviously, Abdul El-Sayed has pointed out. And in a post in which she responded to that Congresswoman Stevens included the line, everyone in America understands that you want to blame all of your problems on Jewish Americans. That's been getting some reaction in the state. We also know that Dr. El-Sayed responded to that. Talk to us about how this is being received in Michigan.

LAWLER: Yes. I mean, I think, obviously, Michigan has a rich history of Jewish engagement, Jewish voters. We also have this rich history of Arabic American voters. And you saw that kind of come to a head in 2024 with the uncommitted movement, that sort of ballooned nationally, but was seeded here in Michigan.

So, you know, I think that tension has existed, but certainly this race is one that's just bringing it to the forefront again. And people are, you know, I think interested in how a future senator would handle foreign policy.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Representative Stevens has the endorsement of the current governor, former governors, the retiring senator, former senators, the attorney general there. And that's just the party within the state. There are a lot of people outside of the state who also endorse her. El-Sayed has his endorsements, too. But from the establishment inside the state, what would an El-Sayed win mean for Democrats on Tuesday?

LAWLER: Yes. I think it's no secret that there's been a tension within the Michigan Democratic Party between sort of the more progressive flank and the more moderate traditionalists that have sort of carried the party for a long time. You know, you look at someone like Gretchen Whitmer or Elissa Slotkin who are sort of, you know, these moderate figures who have gained national prominence.

And so, I think Michigan has seen one kind of electoral success. And there's this part of the party that just wants to see a different kind of electoral success. And we saw that at the Democratic Party's convention earlier this year, the endorsement convention, where some more progressive candidates won out. And the turnout was really pretty progressive in that regard.

But there are some big institutional backers looking at Abdul El-Sayed too. The UAW is classically a pretty important endorsement in Michigan and they went with him.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Likely Republican Senate nominee, Congressman Mike Rogers, former congressman. He's going to be waiting for whoever wins on Wednesday.

We found this call with supporters. This is June 15th, in which he makes an argument that he feels like he's going to be in good shape. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE ROGERS (R), MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATE: If he wins I think we're in good shape. I mean, I think he is so radical. I think he's going to lose, you know, big parts of the west part of the state. We think we can do well in part of the southeast part of the state. I think we'll do well if he in fact is the nominee.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: And speaking of Abdul El-Sayed there, El-Sayed's argument is that he can excite Democrats. How excited are Republicans in the state?

LAWLER: Well, Mike Rogers has the advantage of being able to build a war chest without having a primary opponent. So, you know, he's been able to sit back and do that and engage on future strategy regardless of who he's running against.

[06:30:04]

So I think, you know, the Democrats have had a really sort of bruising primary here. And I think they'll have to regroup a little bit, and Mike Rogers seems ready to hit the ground running.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Emily Lawler, thanks so much.

And Tuesday, be sure to get the latest on the key primary races across the country, including the consequential gubernatorial and congressional races in Michigan.

See who will advance. Get election results. All night, Tuesday, on CNN and the CNN app.

Prediction markets are really exploding in popularity, and they're letting people put money on everything, from politics to pop culture, the economy. But a legal fight between New York and Kalshi could determine whether those platforms are treated like financial markets or something much closer to gambling.

CNN's Marshall Cohen explains.

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER (on-camera): Good morning, Victor. Pretty big developments coming from New York, where the attorney general has filed a significant new lawsuit against the very popular prediction market, Kalshi.

Now, the lawsuit filed Friday by New York's attorney general, Letitia James, claims that Kalshi is operating an unlicensed casino in the state and needs to shut down. State authorities also are looking for $36 billion in potential damages. Kalshi denies any wrongdoing, and this is really just the start of what could be a very long and arduous legal battle. Let me read for you a little bit of what the two sides have been saying.

Letitia James, the Democratic attorney general, said this. New York's gambling laws protect children from underage betting and help combat gambling addiction. No matter what they call themselves, prediction markets like Kalshi are gambling platforms, plain and simple. That's her view. That's her quote.

But obviously, Kalshi, on the other side of this, strongly disputes that statement. They have argued, and they believe that federal law backs them up, that they are not gambling. They are a financial market, trading derivative swaps like commodities, and that they should be regulated only by the federal government, and they do hold a federal license to do business.

Here's what a spokesperson for Kalshi said in response to the lawsuit. Quote, it's sad to see this type of political theater from the leadership in our state. States can't just shut down a federally licensed exchange. This would also just hurt New Yorkers who would be driven offshore.

Now, Victor, look, this is just one lawsuit among dozens of cases playing out across the country that are deciding the legality of these prediction markets and how they're going to be regulated. We've seen so far judges in three states actually shut down Kalshi from operating in its borders. That would be Michigan, Nevada, and Washington State.

But Kalshi has prevailed in some other places as well, such as Arizona, New Jersey, and just this week, Minnesota, where they successfully blocked the state from enforcing the first-of-its-kind ban on prediction markets. There are so many moving pieces here. Most experts do think that this eventually will be a question that the Supreme Court will have to settle.

One more thing, Victor, for full disclosure, CNN has a partnership with Kalshi. We use its data to cover major events. But CNN editorial employees like you and me are not allowed to trade on prediction markets.

Victor?

BLACKWELL: Marshall Cohen, thank you.

A SpaceX rocket is about to leave its mark on the moon this week. What we could see here on Earth when some space junk crashes into the lunar surface. And if you're heading out, remember, you can stream our show from anywhere in the U.S., right from the CNN app. You can also go to CNN.com/Watch.

And as we go to break, well, this is nice. Sun's coming up. They're in Chicago, final day of Lollapalooza. Good morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:38:46]

BLACKWELL: This week, a SpaceX rocket is set to crash into the moon. It could kick up some dust that might be visible here on Earth.

Since January 25, after completing its mission, a portion of a Falcon 9 rocket has been orbiting high above the Earth. Now it's just days away from slamming into the moon at 5,400 miles per hour.

Joining us now is Steven Hauck, Chair of the Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences at Case Western Reserve University.

Thanks so much for being with me. Typically, we hear rocket crash and think accident, oh no. But this is something that planetary scientists are looking forward to.

Tell us what we can learn from this and why this impact is worth studying.

STEVEN HAUCK, CHAIR DEPT. OF EARTH, ENVIRONMENTAL & PLANETARY SCIENCES, CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY: Good morning, Victor. Thank you for having me on this morning.

This is an interesting opportunity for planetary scientists because it gives us the chance to be able to see an object hit the moon that we know when it's going to happen. So it allows us to be able to be looking for it. I mean, usually when these things happen, they're asteroids or pieces of comets, pieces of dust that are hitting the moon and those happen every day. But we usually aren't observing those we don't know where they're coming from, we don't know how big they are how fast they're going.

[06:40:18]

And so this gives us a real chance to really sort of calibrate our understanding of what happens when these objects hit the moon, and the consequences of those, the possible impact flash, the dust that may be kicked ejected into the outside the moon so we high enough that we should hopefully be able to see it. And then the impact crater that we will see on the surface of the moon. Afterwards with spacecraft that orbit the moon.

BLACKWELL: And so when you say we should be able to see it are you saying that we should be able to see it, you know, maybe with a good commercial telescope or only the planetary scientists will be able to see it with those industrial telescopes. HAUCK: That's an excellent question. Impact flashes are hard to observe in general. So this particular impact is going to happen right near the edge of the moon, and it's going to be on the sunlit, the lit portion of the moon.

And so we may see if enough ejecta makes it up above the moon, we may see the plume of that. But you are going to need a probably a pretty decent set of at least binoculars most likely a telescope there are some professional telescopes that my understanding are will be aimed at it to see if they can measure it as well.

BLACKWELL: So NASA and some private companies are aiming toward this return to the moon. Is there any information that they'll learn from this intentional crash that could inform those missions to return to the moon?

HAUCK: Yes, I think one of the important things is our ability to track these objects and to know where they're going to happen. Some of the future missions that are planned for the moon, even in the next year, they will be bringing with them instruments that may actually be able to detect this, for example, seismometers that are there to measure moonquakes.

But even back in the Apollo era, when portions of those rockets, the Saturn V's impacted the moon, and those were used as a source to be able to measure quakes that happened on the moon back then. And it's really useful to be able to know exactly when and where a quake is happening. On Earth, we have lots and lots and lots of seismometers, thousands of seismometers. On the moon, we may only have one or two or three at some point in the future.

And so, knowing where they're happening will make the science that we can do all that much better.

BLACKWELL: What's the top question you're hoping that this will answer for you?

HAUCK: It's an excellent question. I think one of the things that we hope to be able to see is how well can we predict, based on the tracking that we've been able to do, exactly where this crater will occur. That'll be really useful for being able to tell where these things are happening, to be able to know the size of the kinds of objects that cause these craters as well, because we're going to calibrate that information much better.

BLACKWELL: All right, Steven Hauck, we will all be watching. Now, I don't have the great binoculars or telescopes that you have, but I will rely on the photographs that are published the next day or soon after to watch this.

Thanks so much for helping us understand what's going to happen this week.

Tonight, on "THE WHOLE STORY WITH ANDERSON COOPER," CNN's Donie O'Sullivan dives into the world of the progressive left.

Could they potentially hurt Democrats in the general election? He traveled the country to examine the left insurgency.

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT (on-camera): Good morning, Victor. Yes, a major fight happening within the Democratic Party. We're going to see it play out in Michigan on Tuesday in that crucial primary.

I spoke to two very well-known figures within Democratic politics, the legendary Democratic Party veteran James Carville, along with the streamer and Democratic socialist and far left activist Hasan Piker, both of whom have very different visions for the party.

Here's what they have to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HASAN PIKER, DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST: I think these guys have failed so publicly and so spectacularly that it has caused people to seek out alternatives.

[06:45:00]

JAMES CARVILLE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I see challenges from the quote, progressive left, unquote. And these people are too hot-headed to know that they're not popular people don't like them. They don't win elections, they never run against Republicans. They just run against other Democrats.

And their only message is, we're going to blow everything up.

O'SULLIVAN: James Carville says, this is all going to implode at the general election.

PIKER: Yes, as opposed to previous neoliberal Democratic candidacies that have been spectacular successes so far Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2016 and Kamala Harris in 2024, there are a lot of people who are just like this is not working.

The cost-of-living crisis is completely out of control, Democrats haven't done anything about it, Republicans haven't done anything about it. There has to be a different alternative.

CARVILLE: I have one simple philosophy about politics, winning is everything stupid.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'SULLIVAN (on-camera): Victor as you can see the split, they are really summing up the debase that is happening in Michigan right now and is happening across the Democratic Party. The big question of course is which one of these candidates, which strategy is going to be the one that can win a general election when it comes to November, and of course to the 2028 presidential election.

Victor.

BLACKWELL: Donie O'Sullivan, thank you so much. "THE WHOLE STORY WITH ANDERSON COOPER: THE LEFT INSURGENCY," airs tonight at 8:00 p.m. on CNN and tomorrow on the CNN app.

Well for mountain gorillas, she's a guardian, for families in Uganda, she's a lifeline. Next, meet the CNN Hero who is making a difference for both.

And as we had a break, a beautiful shot of Las Vegas this morning. The epic story is probably made on the strip this weekend. Boy if we could hear.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:51:29]

BLACKWELL: Let's take a look at this morning's top stories, starting with the thousands of families who have been forced to leave their homes in Washington state because of these growing wildfires. At least 10 fires are burning across the state, including the old trails fire that's burned nearly 3000 acres.

Officials say several people are dead after a shooting at an In-N-Out burger in Idaho. Video shows people running away in panic after the shots were fired. Police say the suspected shooter is dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

President Trump says that he is canceling a planned attack on Iran. He cites progress in talks, but Iranian state media gave no indication that Iran had asked for the attacks to be called off or that it changed its stance on the Strait of Hormuz.

This week's CNN Hero is a pioneer in conservation. She was the first wildlife veterinarian in her home country of Uganda. She's devoted her life to protecting endangered mountain gorillas. When she realized that their survival was intertwined with the conditions in local communities, she took some action, and today she helps both gorillas and their human neighbors thrive.

Meet Dr. Gladys.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GLADYS KALEMA-ZIKUSOKA, WILDLIFE VETERINARIAN: The mountain gorillas used to be one of the most critically endangered species on earth. When I first came out here as a vet student, I realized how intelligent they were, and you know, I felt a really deep connection. I was like, wow. I felt it was so important that they're protected.

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is home to 43 percent of the world's endangered mountain gorillas. Bwindi is threatened by a lot of high human population growth. There's a lot of interaction between the gorillas and the people. We used to find that people were not hygienic.

Gorillas are picking up preventable diseases, basically, and this made me realize that you couldn't protect the gorillas without improving the health of their human neighbors.

(FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

KALEMA-ZIKUSOKA: We started the Village Health and Conservation Team approach in 2007. They do a lot of good work promoting health and hygiene practices, and now we're reaching over 10,000 households.

You can make each other sick.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

KALEMA-ZIKUSOKA: But we're not making each other sick, because you're cleaner.

Over time, we have seen huge changes, having a clean toilet, a hand washing station, a separate animal house. At the same time, we want to make sure that they're less dependent on the forest by finding them sustainable livelihoods.

You cannot keep the gorillas healthy when people next to them are poor, hungry. It just can't work. We found out that the coffee farmers were not getting a fair market price, and were still entering the forest to poach.

So, then we started to sell the coffee. We give them an above market price, and a donation from every bag goes to support community health, gorilla health, and conservation education. This is showing people that we care about not just the gorillas, but we also care about them.

Gorilla tourism has completely transformed the lives of the people here, and engaging local communities is our way of making sure that gorillas are being protected.

I always get very excited when I hear that baby mountain gorilla has been born, and as long as the communities see the gorillas as their future, the numbers are going to keep growing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: Important work. To learn more about Gladys's work, go to CNN.com/Heroes.

[06:55:03]

There's much more ahead on the next hour of "CNN This Morning Weekend, including a taste test that, I don't know kind of looking forward to. Maybe not a cookie with a line that apparently tastes like flaming hot Cheetos is a thing that exists. It has gone viral.

The reviews are hilarious and I have some. We'll be trying them this morning in the roundup.

And as we go to break, a look at, oh, hello, New Orleans. Beautiful this morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [07:00:04]

BLACKWELL: Welcome back to "CNN This Morning." Here's what you need to know today.

First, these evacuations that are happening now --