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CNN Live Event/Special
CNN Headlines: Rescuers Race To Find Survivors As Death Toll Rises From Twin Quakes In Venezuela; U.S. Official: Iranian Strike Hits Vessel In Strait Of Hormuz, Impacts Movement In Key Waterway; Trump & Speaker Johnson Meet Amid GOP Stalemate Over Priorities. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired June 26, 2026 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:29]
BRAD SMITH, CNN ANCHOR: A desperate search for survivors after those devastating quakes in Venezuela. The death toll continues to climb.
A major vote today in Texas that could bring mandatory bible lessons into public schools.
And --
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go, go, go, go! Go, go, go!
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SMITH: A police officer gets some help in the middle of a chase. We'll watch that body cam video that's coming up.
And Team USA saw its first loss of the World Cup. And it came down to the last kick. So, what are the players saying about it?
Good morning, everyone. I'm Brad Smith. This is CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS.
We begin this morning in Venezuela.
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SMITH: The terrified cries of a woman searching for her father in the wreckage of his home. Oh my God, she is saying in Spanish. And later she described to CNN the devastating conditions as something from a war.
The frantic and ever more urgent search for her father and countless others, it all continues this morning. So far, we can confirm at least 235 people have died as a result of this system, with thousands more injured following the back-to-back earthquakes that just rocked the country Wednesday evening.
And the window to reach survivors is quickly closing as first responders sift through the rubble like you're seeing here. This is in the capital of Caracas and throughout the country that they're continuing to do this rescue work. And one aid worker is telling CNN. Search and rescue is now an around-the-clock operation, and, quote, so many that are accounted for that are unaccounted for. Now. Many people lost everything, and there is an urgent need for aid and shelter. The world is responding, with many countries pledging support.
Mexico is rolling in troops to assist and elite American rescue teams are deploying to Venezuela. The Trump administration announced $150 million in aid, along with other military and resources.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We took over Venezuela in less than one day, and the oil is flowing, and we're getting along with them great. We're going to, by the way, help them with their big -- they had a tremendous earthquake last night that you read about massive, like a massive in Caracas. But we're going to help them out.
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SMITH: And now, to the firsthand accounts. And they are truly stunning here. One American in Venezuela describes what they experienced to CNN's Erin Burnett.
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JASON WANG, EARTHQUAKE SURVIVOR: It was right at 6:05 p.m. I was waiting in line to go back down the mountain by using the cable car, and I was actually next up to board the cable car. I was recording myself going into the cable car, and all of a sudden, like the building started shaking and the floor started moving. And then mass panic, like everyone that was in line inside the building, we were all running for the one exit. It just happened so fast.
Yeah, the shaking lasted about I mean, it felt like a long time. I think it was up to a minute and we didn't know what was going on because as you mentioned, the cell phone got cut out. I couldn't look up any information, couldn't call for help. So, we were pretty much on our own after that.
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SMITH: And that was American Jason Wong, who told Erin Burnett that he had to walk nearly six miles in the dark to reach his hotel and watch this video that he took along the way. People using hatchets, machetes, anything that they could in the dark, trying to clear a path to safety.
For more information about how you can help Venezuela earthquake victims, CNN.com/impact is the website to visit. And then you could also, if you are in the U.S., text QUAKE to 707070.
Well, President Trump's former national security adviser, John Bolton, is back in federal court today, where he is expected to plead guilty over mishandling sensitive national security information. This is a rare win for the Justice Department amid its prosecution of President Trump's political enemies. Bolton has agreed to pay a $2 million fine and could face up to five years behind bars. The investigation into Bolton was formally opened during the Biden administration, but it picked up momentum last summer when investigators searched Bolton's home in Maryland and office in D.C.
New this morning, Iran is blasting joint U.S. Gulf allies and their statement critical of Tehran's activity. Now, Iran's Foreign Ministry says that the statement by the Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Gulf Arab foreign ministers was, quote, "irresponsible and provocative". The statement discussed the need to address Iran's threats, including its ballistic missiles and drones.
Now, in the meantime, no one has claimed responsibility for a strike that hit a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz. But a U.S. official is blaming Iran. A British shipping organization says that there were no casualties, but the vessel was damaged. It happened just as traffic was restarting in the key waterway, following a framework agreement between the U.S. and Iran to begin talks to end the war.
The incident also forced the U.N. to pause its evacuation of about 11,000 seafarers who were stuck in the strait due to the war.
Well, more than five million Texas public school students could soon be required to study Bible stories in class. The Republican-controlled State Board of Education is expected to approve the curriculum today, weaving lessons from kindergarten through high school, including David and Goliath, the Sermon on the Mount and the Book of Job. Supporters say that it's about teaching history and literature. While critics argue it blurs the line between church and state.
House Speaker Mike Johnson is sending lawmakers home early as Republicans remain deadlocked over President Trump's Save America Act. Now, this bill would be a federal overhaul of elections. And President Trump and some hardline GOP members are now threatening to pause other legislative goals until the measure is signed into law.
Now, this comes as Trump refuses to sign the Housing Affordability Act. Now, here's what CNN political commentator S.E. Cupp had to say last night.
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S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It's bonkers. I have never seen politics performed this poorly. It's crazy to go out of your way to deny your party the bragging rights to go home to their constituents. They've been dying to go home with some positive news. They had it. They could go home and take a big victory lap on this very important issue. And Trump is just so paranoid and obsessed and fixated on the rigged elections that he was willing to throw his own party under the bus
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SMITH: Johnson met with Trump for hours Thursday afterward, and the president urged the holdouts to stop grandstanding and end the stalemate. Even his own party isn't convinced. Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, who lost his seat after Trump campaigned against him and endorsed his opponent. Massie is saying what election fraud?
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REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R-KY): I think it's ironic that we control the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court and the White House, and we're yelling election fraud. I mean, we want all the damn elections and we're in charge. And what are we doing with it?
The problem is we're wasting our opportunity that the voters gave us. And the Republicans are going to pay for that in November. It will be an absolute shellacking if they don't wake up.
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SMITH: All right. Now to this, a crazy and viral video drawing the attention of the FAA, it shows a Boeing 777 plane flying just feet above the ground and very close to people standing on the tarmac at a Texas airport. It's flying over a runway at the private Horseshoe Bay Resort Airport, with its landing gear raised. It later landed in Fort Worth, Texas, about 200 miles away.
The company released a statement that the plane was conducting a low- pass flight in a manner that does not reflect their standards, but that it was undergoing a pre-delivery test flight. Flight tracking data shows that the plane dropped to about 100 feet above the ground.
The FAA generally prohibits flying below 1,000 feet in populated areas and 500 in rural areas. The agency is looking into it, and there is no air traffic control tower at the airport, but the pilots communicate on a shared radio frequency. The pilot warned them of the low approach.
Happening today, a jury is set to return for the trial of the man accused of setting the deadly California Palisades fire. Jurors are waiting on further instructions after they told the judge that they are unable to reach a unanimous verdict on any of the three counts against the 30-year-old suspect.
CNN's Nick Watt reports with more.
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NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That is the prosecution team leaving court. We heard from the jury after 13 hours of deliberation that they cannot --and they underline the word "cannot". They cannot reach a unanimous verdict on any of the charges against Jonathan Rinderknecht. This 30-year-old former Uber driver, who is accused of setting the fire that became the Palisades fire that destroyed 37 square miles of L.A. and killed 12 people.
Now, the judge then said to the jury in a note, is there anything the court can do to help? The answer came back no.
So, the prosecutors, defense and the judge are going to take overnight to try and figure out what steps they take and in what order. But this could be heading to a mistrial. And if that happens, the government then has to decide, do they try again?
The evidence in this case is entirely circumstantial. That was always going to be the issue. Jonathan Rinderknecht was on that hill. He had a lighter in the glove box of his car, but nobody saw him like that fire. There's no video of him lighting that fire. And he did not confess to lighting that fire.
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SMITH: CNN's Nick Watt there. Thank you, Nick.
We've got lots more to come on CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS. Devastating scene at a house fire as police try and save a woman trapped inside. And attorneys for Alex Murdaugh request a change of venue for the retrial related to the murders of his wife and son. The latest in that case, straight ahead.
Plus, some crushing health news from tennis legend Chris Evert. Details when CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS returns.
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[05:16:08]
SMITH: The Supreme Court's conservative majority handed President Trump a pair of major victories towards his agenda on immigration.
CNN's Paula Reid breaks down the rulings from SCOTUS.
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PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: The Supreme Court Thursday, handing President Trump two major wins related to his efforts to curb legal immigration. In one of the cases, the court gave him the green light to continue rolling back temporary protected status for Haitians and Syrians who, under a program that was aimed at helping people who were leaving countries that had seen upheaval, gave them, for example, work authorization.
But after this decision, hundreds of thousands of people could now lose those rights. Now, this whole case came about because this effort to rescind these protections was challenged, arguing that it was based on racial animus. But the Supreme Court finding that there was a race- neutral reason for pursuing this policy, and again, giving the administration the green light to proceed.
In a different case, they're giving them the green light to resume a controversial policy of physically blocking people at the border so that they cannot cross the border and then claim asylum. Now, this is not a Trump-specific policy. This began under the Obama administration. It was formalized under Trump one, rescinded under the Biden administration.
And while the current Trump administration does not rely on it after this decision, they could potentially try to re-up that policy. So two big wins for President Trump at the Supreme Court, but they still have some outstanding decisions related to President Trump's executive power, including his efforts to limit birthright citizenship, and also questions about who he can and cannot fire, as well as other sort of Trump-adjacent questions about transgender students in sports, and also some questions about mail-in voting. So, we'll be watching all of those next week.
Paula Reid, CNN, Washington.
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SMITH: All right. Thank you, Paula.
Attorneys for Alex Murdaugh the disbarred South Carolina attorney accused of killing his wife and son are asking to move his retrial. His legal team says he cannot get a fair trial in the same place where the original case was heard. Murdaugh is being retried after the state Supreme Court overturned his 2023 double murder convictions. His attorneys are also requesting an independent review of DNA evidence and access to a secure laptop to prepare his defense. A hearing is scheduled for Monday.
Still to come on CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS, the saga around the reflecting pool with the algae in D.C. roars on. The latest development ahead.
Plus, later, an incredible match between the USA and Turkey. Despite last night's loss, Team USA is moving on to the next World Cup round. We've got the details ahead.
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[05:23:27]
SMITH: The Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool will be drained and repaired after the Fourth of July. That is according to court documents filed by the National Park Service. Video shows fencing that has been installed around parts of the pool amid a heavy presence of National Guard and federal park police at the site. An Interior Department spokesperson said the fencing was put up due to upcoming fireworks and because of recent claims of vandalism.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is fulfilling a key campaign promise with a freeze on rent for nearly a million rent-stabilized apartments. Last night, the people of New York celebrated during the New York City Rent Guidelines Board when they approved the freeze of one- and two- year leases. Now, this move, it pauses rent increases on more than 40 percent of all apartments in New York City's five boroughs.
This is a major policy win for the mayor just six months into his term. Mamdani called it a historic victory for New York City tenants, and he says this is the first ever freeze on two-year leases.
Tennis legend Chris Evert says that she will miss Wimbledon this year after her ovarian cancer returned. The Hall of Famer shared the news on social media, saying that she has already had surgery and will begin chemotherapy in the coming weeks. Eighteen-time grand slam singles champion and remaining a prominent voice in the sport as an analyst, Evert, one of the largest figures, no doubt in tennis.
Well, the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii is still erupting and the USGS is giving us an aerial tour over the active volcano.
CNN's Patrick Cornell has more
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PATRICK CORNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If you've ever wanted to stare directly into a volcano, this is your chance. The USGS is giving us this cool view of Kilauea. Well, not cool hot magma, whatever, you get it.
Scientists took an aerial tour over the very active volcano at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, even making a short stop landing on the crater floor to collect lava samples from episode 49 of the historic ongoing eruption. They expect episode 50 to go down very soon.
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SMITH: Straight ahead on CNN Headline Express, the search for survivors intensifies in Venezuela after deadly earthquakes rocked the country.
And facing criminal charges. A rising NFL star is arrested after police say he planned an attack on three men. The latest on that coming up
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