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Economic Impact of World Cup?; U.S. Targets Iranian Bridges; Trump's Teleprompter Operator Involved in Insider Trading?; Lettuce Served at Taco Bell Tied to Regional Parasitic Outbreak. Aired 10:30a- 11a ET

Aired July 17, 2026 - 10:30   ET

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

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: But what the CDC has recently identified is that shredded lettuce served at some Taco Bell locations in five states in the Midwest have been tied to the regional outbreak in that area.

[10:30:07]

And those five states are reporting the largest cluster that we have seen so far of these cases. So, in that Midwest outbreak, we know that more than 1,600 people have gotten sick with illnesses tied to this shredded lettuce; 94 of them have been hospitalized.

And the CDC is now warning people, do not eat shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell locations in these five states, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and West Virginia.

Now, Wolf, Taco Bell has provided a statement in response to this outbreak. And Taco Bell says -- quote -- "Based on ongoing conversations with public health officials, and out of an abundance of caution, Taco Bell has taken immediate action to voluntarily remove potentially impacted lettuce from a supplier in select states. The affected ingredient from our supplier is being indefinitely removed from our supply chain nationwide and will be replaced within 24 hours in select states."

And, Wolf, the FDA also says that it is working directly with the supplier to determine if this contaminated shredded lettuce has been sent to other places as well, because, like you said, Wolf, outside of that Midwest outbreak, there are other cases popping up in other states.

So those cases are still under investigation also. So this is an active ongoing outbreak that health officials are continuing to investigate -- Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: So, if people come up with these symptoms, exploding diarrhea, as it's being called, what should they do?

HOWARD: That's right.

So definitely call your doctor if you do have the symptoms of cyclosporiasis, like you said, Wolf, watery or explosive diarrhea, nausea, fatigue, and monitor your symptoms, because some of the people that have been hospitalized, their symptoms led to dehydration, which can lead to hospitalization.

So drink lots of fluids, monitor your symptoms, and call your doctor and also let them know if you have recently eaten shredded lettuce.

BLITZER: Yes, good point.

All right, Jacqueline Howard, thank you very, very much. Very disturbing development unfolding.

Also, just ahead: intensifying attacks, Iran ramping up its retaliation following a week of U.S. strikes, as the conflict shows absolutely no signs of de-escalation.

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[10:37:04]

BLITZER: Happening now: Andy Burnham has been confirmed as the new leader of Britain's governing Labor Party, clearing the way for him to take over as prime minister. Burnham will become the country's seventh prime minister in a decade following Keir Starmer's resignation. He will formally step into the role on Monday.

And the NTSB now believes that last year's deadly helicopter crash into the Hudson River was caused after hitting a flock of geese. The report says it found bird feathers in the chopper's rear rotor blades. The full report is expected to be released by the end of the year. A family of five and a pilot died in that crash.

And, in California, one of America's most famous streets has been swallowed up by a massive sinkhole. Look at this mess on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. It's the aftermath of a 100-year-old pipe bursting, which has caused intense flooding throughout the area. The mayor says no one was hurt. There's no word on how long repairs could take.

Also happening now: President Trump's teleprompter operator is now under investigation by federal regulators for potential insider trading. Sources tell CNN that Gabriel Perez traded on Kalshi and -- the prediction site, then flagged those transactions as possible allegations of insider activity to authorities.

The profits from those trades are more than $90,000. The money is now frozen. CNN has reached out to Perez for comment.

Here with me in THE SITUATION ROOM is CNN's senior reporter, Marshall Cohen.

Marshall, what exactly was Paris trading on?

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Wolf, these are called mention markets. They are very popular on these prediction sites, because you can bet on what people are going to say, the CEO at an earnings call, the broadcasters at this weekend's World Cup final, and, of course, President Trump and what he's going to say at his speeches and rallies.

Traders like it because you never know what Trump is going to say, unless, of course, you're the teleprompter guy. And that's kind of the problem here. It creates a real vulnerability for insider activity.

So, as you mentioned, Kalshi, the prediction site, flagged this and referred it to the CFTC, which is the federal regulator that oversees these markets. Now, the White House condemned this, but stressed that the staffer, Gabriel Perez, is cooperating.

Listen to what Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary, had to say about it yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I'm aware of the report. The president is too. I spoke with him about it. He believes it's deeply unfortunate and, frankly, a disgrace. And the individual that was cited in that report is complying with the CFTC. This individual will no longer be here. He will be on paid administrative leave.

I'm sorry, without pay. The administrative leave is unpaid, to be very clear.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[10:40:00]

COHEN: OK, so he is on unpaid administrative leave while this investigation continues.

And, to be clear, this is the CFTC. It's the civil regulator. There's no indication of a criminal investigation at this point for these allegations.

And for full disclosure, Wolf, CNN has a partnership with Kalshi. We use its data to cover major events, but editorial employees like you and me are not allowed to use prediction markets.

BLITZER: No more prediction markets. OK, good. Good.

COHEN: Yes.

BLITZER: We're also learning that TRUTH Social is now selling Wall Street firms quicker access to posts from President Trump that move the stock market potentially. How would this work and what's going on with this?

COHEN: Pretty controversial announcement yesterday from the president's social media company that, yes, they're going to start selling access to commercial institutions, Wall Street companies to get early looks at his tweets instantly after they come out, before other people who don't pay for the service.

They say this is going to start being rolled out August 1. And, look, obviously we all know that, when the president speaks, it has the power to move markets, and it does. He's tweeting about Ira. He's posting about tariffs with other countries. These are valuable insights.

It's not necessarily unheard of. Other companies do sell these API data feeds to Wall Street regularly, but, of course, these other companies don't financially benefit the president and also don't create a potential conflict of interest for the White House.

BLITZER: Interesting stuff.

All right, Marshall Cohen, thank you very, very much.

Also overnight, the U.S. expanding its attacks on Iran with a wave of new strikes. Video out of the southern part of the country shows a damaged bridge ablaze, one of several pieces of infrastructure Iranian state media now says were targeted by U.S. forces.

Let's discuss this and more with CNN senior military analyst the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander retired Admiral James Stavridis.

Admiral, thanks very much for joining us.

Many of these bridges in Iran that were targeted by the U.S. were on routes connected to the city of Bandar Abbas, which is home to an Iranian military naval base, as you well know. What is that signal to you about the U.S. strategy that's unfolding right now?

ADM. JAMES STAVRIDIS (RET.), CNN SENIOR MILITARY ANALYST: Two things, Wolf.

First, it is going to attempt to cut off, to kill the assets that could be used to close the Strait of Hormuz. I have been to Bandar Abbas before the revolution. Obviously, it's a very important naval port for the Iranians, and cutting it off has high military utility.

So, point one, go after the places where the Iranians have weapons systems that help them close the strait. Point two, in general, going after infrastructure like bridges, roads, puts economic pressure on Iran. I think that is part of the administration's strategy here to get Iran back to the table.

In a phrase, what they're doing is escalate in order to de-escalate, meaning go after economic targets, military targets, put pressure on, more attacks, with the hope that you can then de-escalate and the Iranians will come back to the table. That's the strategy.

BLITZER: And, as you know, Iran is now retaliating big time with attacks on various U.S. military assets across the Gulf region.

The Iranian military claims it targeted a U.S. air base in Qatar and, for the first time, a U.S. base in Syria. It also says it destroyed a long-range radar system and several U.S. refueling aircraft. If all of this is true, Admiral, how does this impact the U.S. military's abilities in the region? STAVRIDIS: So far, we have sufficient combat power in order to

overcome the level of strikes you're seeing from Iran. And let's be honest here about the numbers. The U.S. is launching dozens and dozens of strikes a day at this point, far less than during the initial wave, but 100, 200 strikes a day.

Iran is responding with 10, maybe 15 strikes. So, over time, that's going to favor the U.S. military capacity to continue these strikes. However, it does show the Iranians are increasing their ability to go after their neighbors. That ought to concern us, because, if they start going after Gulf oil and gas infrastructure, that will have big economic downside for the Western economies as well.

BLITZER: Yes, so far, they're going after U.S. military sites in these friendly Arab Gulf nations like the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, elsewhere in the region. These are all very close friends, allies of the United States.

The U.S. has major bases in the United Arab Emirates and in Qatar at Camp As Sayliyah, the Al Udeid Air Base. I have been to those facilities. They're really home to much of the U.S. military's Central Command in that region.

[10:45:09]

And the Iranians keep attacking those U.S. sites. This is very significant, isn't it?

STAVRIDIS: It is, indeed.

And I want to draw a line under one other kind of troubling item that's surfacing, and that is Iran starting to talk about closing not the Strait of Hormuz, which they have effectively done, but closing what is called the Bab al-Mandab.

It's at the very bottom of the map you're showing, at the bottom of the Arabian Peninsula, the bottom of the Red Sea. They have got the Houthis there, who have capability to attack commercial shipping. If you close that choke point, that closes effectively the Suez Canal, right under the word Israel on your map.

That is a major global choke point, just like the Strait of Hormuz. If the Iranians can push the Houthis into doing that, you have opened a new front, a western front, if you will, in this war. So, that is one to watch and one to be concerned about in the weeks ahead.

BLITZER: In his address, his prime-time televised address last night, the president said one sentence, one sentence, and it was a total of about seven seconds -- we checked -- related to the war with Iran in his nearly 27-minute speech overall.

When he first announced he was going to give a televised address, I thought it would be on the war with Iran, but it wasn't. It was on election -- so-called election interference. Was that, in your view, a missed opportunity for President Trump?

STAVRIDIS: It was.

And the numbers are very clear on this. This war is unpopular across the entire political spectrum. President Trump's own popularity overall is as low as it's been throughout his two terms of the presidency. And I think Americans just don't have a sense of what's the exit strategy, what's the endgame here.

And when you start getting those questions from the public, that's the time to do that nationally televised and address and reassure people and tell them you have a plan and tell them what the next step is. That's -- I'm with you. That's what I was hoping to hear when I caught a snippet of a televised presidential address.

It's about elections. Those are important, but I think the public would at this point like to hear, what's the next move in the Middle East?

BLITZER: Yes, in his seven seconds on the war in Iran, he basically said the U.S. is winning. That was about it.

All right, Admiral James Stavridis, thank you so much for joining us, as usual.

STAVRIDIS: What a pleasure, Wolf.

BLITZER: And coming up here in THE SITUATION ROOM: Boom or bust? The billion-dollar impact the World Cup has had on the U.S. economy.

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[10:52:17]

BLITZER: The stage is now set. Spain and Argentina will face off in the World Cup final on Sunday. President Trump is expected to attend the match in New Jersey.

The final game caps off a nearly 40-day-long tournament which spanned the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Millions of fans tuned in and turned out to watch the more than 100 games. But did the tournament deliver on its economic promise?

CNN senior business reporter David Goldman is here to Make it Make Sense.

David, today's question, was the World Cup worth the cost?

DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR REPORTER: Yes, it's the key question, because there was a big promise here.

FIFA said this tournament costs almost $14 billion to put on; $11 billion of that is borne from the United States. That's a lot of money to make up. So how much is this going to generate? Well, if you ask FIFA, it was $80 billion of economic benefit across the globe and 31 almost for the United States alone.

Was that actually realized? Well, there are six million people coming to 104 matches. That's like 104 Super Bowls. Will that generate the kind of economic benefit that they promised? No. Oh, no.

OK, all right. Let's figure out what happened here. Well, tourism did not meet expectations. It was up only 0.2 percent in June. You would expect that hotel prices and airfares would be up as demand climbs. That didn't happen. Airfares were up only 0.2 percent. Hotel rates were down nearly 3 percent.

They weren't even fully occupied in some of the cities that were hosting the World Cup. What about jobs? Jobs is another key indicator. Nope; 61,000 jobs were lost in leisure and hospitality and, in general merchandise, minus-5,000. So much for all those souvenir sales that we had expected.

Retail in general was a disappointment, 0.2 percent again, consistent number there, in June, only a small lift. Now, what about if you drill in just a little bit? Well, that's where you can start to see some of the benefit. Small businesses gained 4.1 percent in sales in the cities in which they hosted compared to just less than 2 percent in the ones that didn't.

So, food and beverage sales, again, up 0.1 percent. But when you drill in, my favorite story of the entire World Cup, Boston, had this massive benefit because Scotland drank the city dry. Go, Boston. Go, Scotland.

[10:55:10]

So, the winner, of course, is FIFA, right? They gained $9 billion in ticket sales, $1.1 billion in TV revenue. But you know who else is the winner? Soccer fans, because it is now the fourth most popular professional sport. As my friend Dani Rojas says, football is life -- Wolf, back to you.

BLITZER: I love the headgear, the soccer ball, everything. You're enjoying -- like all of us are enjoying the World Cup.

Thanks very much, David Goldman.

And speaking of Cristo Fernandez, CNN Sports spoke with him about going from the set of "Ted Lasso" to the soccer pitch as he chases his professional soccer dreams. Our very own Andy Scholes, Amanda Davies, Don Riddell, and Patrick Snell, they are all breaking down the 10 biggest moments and storylines from the World Cup.

That's all part of "The Cup Conclusion," a special report airing on CNN All Access, YouTube, and Amazon Prime starting at 4:00 p.m. Eastern today.

And here's what's coming up in THE SITUATION ROOM all new right at the top of the hour.

The homeland security secretary, Markwayne Mullin, is expected to speak about the administration's efforts to secure elections.

And new details emerging about a major security breach on "The Today Show" and the intruder who targeted the host Craig Melvin. That's all new in the next hour.

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