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What We Know with Max Foster

CNN Poll: Americans Frustrated With Trump's Priorities; Trump: Iran "Going To Get A Beating" After Strikes Targeting U.S. Forces; U.S., Saudi Arabia Launch Strikes On Iran-Backed Militias In Iraq; Extreme Heat Fuels Blazes In Spain And France; Rescue Efforts Ongoing After 6.8 Magnitude Japan Earthquake; Fauci Refused To Answer Questions After Ongoing Statement. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired July 29, 2026 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:36]

MAX FOSTER, CNN HOST: New CNN polling shows just how frustrated Americans are with Donald Trump's presidency.

This is WHAT WE KNOW.

Sobering news with Donald Trump in the new CNN opinion poll just out today about America's opinion of him, and the job that he's doing. The poll finds

a record high, 73 percent of U.S. adults say President Trump hasn't paid enough attention to the country's most important problems. There are plenty

of other troubling numbers in there for the president too, including news that his support is sagging with independent voters, and they're the ones

who helped put him into the White House two years ago.

No word of the CNN polls will come up in President Trump's speech today, which is due to begin any minute now, we'll bring you highlights. He and

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy are announcing a major renovation of Dulles Airport near Washington, D.C. But we'll be listening to see if he

does have anything to say about a litany of higher profile issues facing his administration, including the on again, off again conflict with Iran,

perhaps those attacks in Iraq, too.

Let's go into this with Stephen Collinson.

I mean, the headline numbers are bad, aren't they, Stephen? But what really did you pick out from these?

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah, the headline numbers are bad, and the timing is even worse, I think. Let's face it,

we're three months away from the midterm election, which will be essentially the first big national referendum on Donald Trump's second term

by American voters.

These numbers don't give him much time to improve his position. And I think there will be very worrying to Republicans who are having to run with

Trump's record, and obviously they will cheer Democrats.

The things that stood out to me most were obviously that 34 percent approval rating for Trump. That is equal as low as it's ever been. It

equals his number when he left office after the Capitol riot in 2021. That shows you, I think, just how dire these numbers are.

And it also stood out that the number for Republicans who strongly approve of Trump is 78 percent. That sounds pretty good, but that is also the

lowest he's been among Republicans. So that shows not just some -- I think, erosion of Trump in his political base, that has to worry Republicans

across the country when they think about turnout and they think about enthusiasm, because those two things are very hard for an incumbent party

in midterm elections to drive up. And when they do badly, it's generally because there's not that much enthusiasm for the party or for the

figurehead.

The other really worrying thing I think for Trump is that on three issues Iran, inflation, and gas prices, which figure to be some of the biggest

issues in the midterm election he's below 30 percent approval on all of those. That is a terrible number, and I think it shows the pressure on

Trump domestically to get out of the Iran war.

And obviously, Iran can read these numbers just as well as anybody else, and I think it's been clear throughout this war that it's been dialing up

and dialing up the pressure on Trump politically because it think it will start to affect his choices militarily and strategically.

FOSTER: Just seeing that the immigration approval rating pretty awful as well and that's meant to be his key domestic issue, isn't it?

COLLINSON: Right. I would say immigration and the cost of living those are the two issues that got Trump reelected immigration is always the issue he

comes back to when he's in trouble because it's one that the Republican base really likes, the idea of tough enforcement. But those killings of

some American citizens by ICE agents, the scenes of citizens or undocumented migrants being pulled off the streets by uniformed federal

agents, I think all that has taken a toll more broadly in the electorate.

So, immigration I think is less of a safe haven for the present than it has been in his successful presidential campaigns.

FOSTER: Yeah, it's interesting.

Stephen, thank you so much for bringing your thoughts on those numbers.

Now, for the first time, Saudi Arabia is publicly confirming that it conducted strikes with the U.S. in the war against Iran, raising fears of

an even wider conflict.

[15:05:10]

The joint strikes targeted Iran-backed militias in Iraq. The U.S. calls it a strong response after attacks on U.S. forces and Saudi oil facilities. An

Iranian-aligned militia in Iraq says at least 20 people were killed.

Donald Trump, meanwhile, using very frank language to threaten a beating for Iran after a surprise attack on American forces. U.S. Central Command

says Iran launched multiple ballistic missiles that were all intercepted. Iran says it targeted U.S. military sites in Jordan.

We're joined now by Kevin Liptak. He's in Washington.

So, we've had this strong language, but it is interesting to see a joint operation with the Saudis, isn't it?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Right. And it's interesting to see the Saudis come out and say in real time that they had joined in

these offensive strikes. It's the first time that we've seen them do this over the course of this war. And it really shows how that kingdom too is

trying to balance this message of deterrence. to the Iranians, but also trying to wind this conflict down, de-escalate tensions, try and get the

region back on a more stable footing.

Now, what the Saudis said is that this Iran-backed militia in Iraq had been repeatedly firing on oil facilities inside Saudi Arabia. The U.S. said that

it had fired off more than 30 drones over the last few days, but it does just show how there's another front now opening in what is now a multi-

front conflict. You have Iran itself, which has been relatively quiet. You have the Strait of Hormuz, you have the Houthis in Yemen, and you have all

of these military installations, American military installations around the region. that Iran has been firing on, including overnight.

And this was striking as well. It was a change in the pattern that we've seen from the Iranians. They were not responding to an American attack.

They were firing preemptively, and it does seem to indicate that they are ready to restart the hostilities, even though President Trump insists that

they are begging for a deal and want to return to the negotiating table.

Now, in response to that Iranian attack, the president does seem to be setting the stage for escalation. He said in that phone interview with Fox

that we're going to beat the effing shit out of them. We'll be hitting them hard. They're going to get a beating.

But he also said that the attack came as a surprise, that the Americans only had a matter of minutes to prepare themselves to respond. And they

were able to respond. They shot down the ballistic missiles.

But it does come at a moment when you hear these concerns boiling inside the administration about the stockpiles of the interceptors that they are

using to defend themselves. That had been a concern. throughout the conflict, but really heating up last week as the president was considering

escalatory options. And one of the reasons is they know that the Iranians will retaliate with increased fire at these American positions.

There is a fear that the U.S. will struggle to defend itself if those stockpiles continue to diminish. And so, another predicament that the

president finds himself in as he tries to wind down this war, he is both going to have to respond to this somehow, but also try and get the Iranians

back negotiating table, and it's not quite precisely clear how he plans to do that.

FOSTER: Kevin Liptak, appreciate it. Thank you so much.

We're now going to go to the wildfires, the devastating wildfires hitting parts of Western Europe, because in southwestern France, almost a quarter

of a million people have now been evacuated, including in the Bordeaux region. Firefighters appear to be gaining the upper hand, but high

temperatures remain a problem. Challenging conditions could continue through the weekend.

Melissa Bell joins us from the Bordeaux region of France.

I mean, no one's pretending this is going to be over quickly.

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: French authorities are saying that the fire, the 42,000-hectare fire, the Gironde mega fire,

has been stabilized but not fixed. What that means is that it hasn't particularly progressed in terms of area of surface over the last 24, 36

hours, but they continue to fight it within because you've had these very hot temperatures up to 42 degrees in some parts of France. And what we've

seen are some flare ups of the fire within that area.

And that has meant fire firefighters getting back to try and stamp them out, helped by locals who've again been very much involved using their

pickup trucks, their tractors, their jerry cans mounted on those to try and help the firefighters in their efforts. Essentially, it is such a large

area and it continues to smolder. It is extremely hot. Flames pop up in different parts and continue to threaten homes.

We've also seen the return of some of those more than 20,000 people who were displaced, some of them were allowed to return home, about a third of

them.

[15:10:01]

Many of them still haven't been able to get home. Those who have found either homes that were devastated or in parts of the forest that were

devastated. Others have found homes intact because they'd been evacuated as a matter of precaution. So there has been that solace, at least for those

who are able to get back to their homes and find them unscathed but still the fight continues.

Again, until authorities tell us that it is fixed it means that it can continue to progress at the whim of whim of winds and high temperatures and

within it the vegetation is such the nature of the vegetation the nature of this fire that has been so extraordinary in its ferocity means that on very

hot days like this the flare-ups are inevitable. The question is now what happens over the next couple of days, even as firefighters continue to

battle this emergency here in the Giron region, we've seen as a result of those very hot temperatures another heat wave.

We've had so many of the course of the season that picked up. We've seen fires start in Burgundy. The fire that was on in the south of France has

again fared up today.

So, they're fighting these fires on multiple fronts. But this one is the one that is really preoccupying French authorities. And for now, the fight

is far from over -- Max.

FOSTER: Melissa Bell, near Bordeaux, thank you for that update.

Spanish officials warning of tough days ahead with strong winds and high temperatures there. The country's prime minister said the next 12 hours

will be decisive. But for now, amid a brief respite in the scorching heat, firefighters in Spain appear to be making some gains as well. Though some

evacuees have returned home, officials say residents should remain vigilant in light of changing conditions.

CNN's Pau Mosquera has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAU MOSQUERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now, having in mind that the two most important wildfires that were raging across western Madrid and the southern

part of Evila province are now stabilized, what the firefighters are racing against the clock to do is to try to 100 percent control them. But this is

going to be a little bit difficult, Max, because we now have been impacted by the fourth heat wave of the summer. And thermometers here over the day

have reached the 37 degrees Celsius, which is around 99 degrees Fahrenheit. And with that conditions, it's very easy to meet flare ups all around this

area. And this is why the authorities are asking the population to not to get here and above of all not to get with any material that can ignite --

Max.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Our Pau Mosquera there.

Turning now to southern Japan, where at least 14 people have died in Tuesday's 6.8 magnitude earthquake. An urgent search and rescue operation

underway as a partially collapsed shopping mall. At least three people remain missing.

CNN's Kristie Lu Stout has more on that scene.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the mood at the moment, as you can imagine, is quite somber, with the survivors of the earthquake

anticipating more aftershocks to come. They're hearing about the risk of landslides. And, of course, temperatures are very hot right now there in

southern Japan, which is affecting not only them, but also the urgent rescue work that is underway. The race is on to find survivors, especially

there in the shopping center that partially collapsed in an explosion after that massive 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck southern Japan on Tuesday.

This is an earthquake that has taken the lives of at least 13 people. Dozens of people reported to be injured. Tens of thousands of homes are

without power and electricity right now. At least 300,000 individuals have been sent to evacuation centers.

And you're looking at live pictures there of one scene we've been looking at, watching very closely. There are rescue efforts underway at this

shopping center. And apocalyptic scenes of what happened after the earthquake, an explosion ripped through, exposing just steel beams there,

sending debris absolutely everywhere.

And we also have, in addition to the aerial footage of this shopping center, which is a massive shopping complex, some 200 stores are there, we

also have dash cam video. And that will show you the moment of the explosion. And according to one eyewitness, they said that the explosion

was deafening.

Officials are looking into an investigation. It is believed because they sensed gas and the smell of gas was present. It is believed that a gas leak

is to blame. That needs to be confirmed, though. Also, it's not clear how many people remain trapped in the rubble.

Now, we are also monitoring the rescue effort at a nearby paper factory, where there was a massive sort of industrial-sized chimney fell down,

extensive damages there, several people unaccounted for, rescue efforts ongoing.

It was not that long ago in 2016 when this southern prefecture of Kamamoto had a devastating earthquake that took the lives of hundreds of people. Of

course, this prefecture, in addition to the prefecture of Japan, lies in the Ring of Fire, the sort of U-shaped zone in the Pacific Rim of these

volcanoes, of these ocean trenches that is susceptible to this type of earthquake activity, so much so that around 20 percent of the earthquakes

that are magnitude 6.0 or higher take place in Japan.

[15:15:20]

This is sadly a community that's no stranger to devastating tremors like this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Kristie Lu Stout there reporting for us on that devastation.

Now, some unexpected twists and turns today in the long-awaited showdown between Dr. Anthony Fauci and U.S. Senator Rand Paul over the origins of

the COVID-19 pandemic. The former top infectious disease expert invoked his constitutional right not to testify today during a tense Senate hearing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): Can you explain to the committee why you chose to fund this dangerous research in China?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, FORMER DIRECTOR, U.S. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY & INFECTIOUS DISEASES: On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to

answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution. Speaker 7 PAUL: In the red folder on your table is a copy of Section 192 of Title II of the U.S. Code. Your counsel has been provided a copy as well. That

section makes it a crime for a witness appearing under subpoena to refuse to answer any questions pertinent to the question under inquiry. Do you

have that in front of you?

FAUCI: On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.

PAUL: Let the record record that the witness has refused to answer whether there's a folder in front of him based on his Fifth Amendment right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Dr. Fauci's attorney was escorted out of the hearing after Paul accused him of being disruptive. Fauci led the U.S. government's response

to the virus for years, Paul. has accused him of lying under oath, allegations that he has always denied.

CNN's Adam Kankrin joins us from Washington.

I mean, how does Fauci explain this? Because, of course, he's known for being so open on camera.

ADAM CANCRYN, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this is a real turn from folks like me who, you know, knew Fauci, have reported on

Fauci for decades here. He was often one of the most ever-present and most accessible government officials, and now obviously this is a real

significant turn in terms of just his willingness to speak.

There is good reason, though, for him taking the Fifth over 100 times over a more than two-hour hearing, the thinking being that Republicans' main

purpose here was to get Fauci to say something that they could use to advance perjury claims, to say that he had now contradicted himself and

lied and was open for a potential prosecution beyond the preemptive pardon that Fauci got at the end of President Joe Biden's term.

And so, at the end of the day, Fauci and his legal team decided not to even open that up as a chance, to just invoke the Fifth Amendment right

throughout the entirety of the hearing and avoid any risk of saying something that inadvertently might open him up to prosecution.

Now, Republicans still got a lot of what they wanted. They wanted these scenes of asking him questions even as simple as what color is his tie, did

he see the folder in front of him, and getting these nonresponsive answers. They've accused him for years of covering up the origins of the pandemic,

not being completely forthcoming about parts of the pandemic response. And now what Senator Rand Paul, who leads that committee, has said he's going

to do is refer this and vote on contempt of Congress charge next week.

And that would potentially set up the opportunity for a court showdown over whether Fauci can legally invoke his Fifth Amendment rights to protect

himself from testifying. But for now, a really dramatic, contentious kind of showdown, a rehashing of a lot of the, you know, COVID debates and

divisions that have really scarred the U.S. over the past, you know, more than six years since the virus arrived here.

FOSTER: Adam, appreciate it. Thank you.

Coming up, if you love the new expanded Men's World Cup, how much would you pay to run it? FIFA's new plan involves billions of dollars and some pretty

controversial suitors. We'll have details.

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[15:22:27]

FOSTER: After one of the most commercially successful FIFA Men's World Cups in history, President Gianni Infantino seems to be wanting to cash in.

He says there's now a plan to create a $20 billion company with private investors to run big tournaments. Many fans are now enraged, with European

football's governing body saying that privatization crosses a line. UEFA writes, football is not FIFA's to sell. None of us are the owners of

football.

Joshua Kushner, the brother of U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, could be one of the investors involved.

So, what we want to know is, has FIFA put football up for sale?

Joining us now, Jules Boykoff, a professor at Pacific University and its politics and government department chair. He's also the author of "Red

Card: The 2026 World Cup, Sports Washing, and the FIFA Greed Machine".

You seem to be the right person, certainly with a view, to speak to this. I mean, it came out of the blue, didn't it? A lot of the football federations

are utterly caught out by this. And that's one of the main issues, right, that Infantino didn't consult with the owners of the tournament.

JULES BOYKOFF, FORMER PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL PLAYER: No question that this is a bombshell that came out of the blue. And lots of soccer entities that

have power in the sphere of the sport were blindsided by this decision. They were not consulted at all. Even powerful vice presidents at FIFA said

that they learned about it through a press release.

And that just points up a tendency under Gianni Infantino's leadership at FIFA. He might have taken the lesson that essentially the men's World Cup

might be too big to fail. And this was his chance to install a number of ways of making even more money. I mean, let's not forget this tournament

reportedly brought in $15 billion in revenues. That's more money than any tournament in the history of sports. And now he wants to pivot and make

even more money off the sport.

FOSTER: Yeah, how is he going to explain that? As you say, it's got more than enough money to run the tournament, which is what everyone cares

about. I mean, there are lots of people saying football isn't a business, but it is, isn't it? I mean, we've got to be realistic about that.

BOYKOFF: Absolutely, it's a business. I mean, it's always been FIFA's thing.

[15:25:00]

They're a nonprofit organization, but my goodness, are they a profitable one. $15 billion, as I said, from this tournament alone.

And if you want to understand why this might actually fly at the end of the day, you really need to understand FIFA's clientelistic patronage network.

And what I mean by that is FIFA doles out millions upon millions of dollars to football associations around the world. Doesn't matter if you're from

France, doesn't matter if you're from Cabo Verde, you get the same amount of money.

And with that comes sort of an implicit bargain a lot of the time, is that you take the money, which by the way is not under the auspices of any form

of real deal transparency, but you take that money and you hopefully spend it on soccer, but you in turn are faithful to FIFA who gave you that money

in the first place.

What Infantino is trying to do here is ramp up the number of millions that he's going to be handing out to these federations that support this

proposal, thereby guaranteeing their support for whatever he wants moving forward.

FOSTER: And he's probably going to get some, isn't he, from some of the nations? I mean, even, I think, someone from the Czech football community

was talking about how they would probably take it there. Could he get the numbers he needs to get this voted through?

BOYKOFF: That's an open question. You've seen resistance from UEFA, the Europe's governing body for soccer. You've seen resistance from the body

that oversees North America and the Caribbean. You've seen resistance from the Asian Football Confederation.

But the truth of the matter is, like you said, there are people inside of those confederations who have said that, yeah, we'll take that money. After

all, like I said, let's not forget that this money is very little transparency put on it, so you can basically spend it on football, but who

knows what a lot of these are in fact spending it on.

The fact of the matter is that when you inject the profit motive like Gianni Infantino is trying to do here you change the game in a lot of ways

you incentivize these players to play more. You incentivize the World Cup to get even bigger.

Infantino has talked about making this tournament on 64 teams next time around. It already was more bigger than ever with 48 teams versus 32 last

time in the men's World Cup in Qatar. Now, he might make it 64.

And so when you inject the profit motive or growth for the sake of growth, you're not only adopting the ideology of the cancer cell but now you're

apparently adopting the ideology of Gianni Infantino and FIFA himself.

FOSTER: Yeah. Well, we'll see how he does he's obviously got a big plan and he's pretty bold about it And we'll see how much support he gets.

Jules Boykoff, really appreciate you joining us today. Thank you.

Still to come, he's never won an election in his life. But here in the U.K., voter recognition is pretty through the roof. Count Binface will join

me live on the program next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:31:23]

FOSTER: Now, in the final moments of trade on Wall Street, stocks are pretty mixed. The Dow losing more than 900 points today.

This is our Business Breakout.

The Federal Reserve has kept interest rates on hold after meeting with more unknowns than usual. A mixed economic picture combined with the Fed's new

pledge to end forward guidance means that economists were genuinely split on which way the central bank would go. All but three members of the Fed's

committee actually voted to keep rates where they are.

Your next meal could soon be delivered by drone. DoorDash is developing an in-house drone delivery program called DoorDash Air. The plans have been

approved by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. The food delivery company said it will build its own aircraft, but didn't provide a timeline.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the U.S. should not ban Chinese A.I. models. The U.S. government is debating how to regulate fast developing technology

from Chinese competition. Zuckerberg argues rather than banning Chinese models, U.S. companies should identify ways to overcome roadblocks to

better compete with Chinese companies.

Now, here's one of those roadblocks. OpenAI says its rogue artificial intelligence system attacked more platforms than previously thought. The

maker of ChatGPT revealed the leaked agents not only hacked into popular computer programming company, but also breached several publicly available

services and accounts. The incident has raised some alarm with U.S. lawmakers proposing an A.I. kill switch.

Hadas Gold joins us.

I mean, we spoke to you about this when we first heard about this. We're speaking about it again because it's pretty clear that an A.I. --

HADAS GOLD, CNN A.I. CORRESPONDENT: Because it's significant.

FOSTER: I know, but they didn't -- I mean, what I find amazing is how far this went without anyone realizing it, including OpenAI.

GOLD: Yeah, these models were kind of running wild for days without anybody knowing what they were doing. Hugging Face, the ones that got

hacked, were the first ones to realize something was going on. And like we said before, they actually informed law enforcement and they got it shut

down by themselves before they figured out and talked to OpenAI and OpenAI reached out to them and saying what it was.

But as both OpenAI and Hugging Face have been investigating exactly what happened. We're getting more and more details about this. And OpenAI is now

revealing that actually these models didn't just target Hugging Face. They actually targeted at least four other services, all in the -- you know, all

in the mission of trying to hack into Hugging Face to get that answer to the cybersecurity test.

Now, it should be clear that in these other four services, the breach wasn't nearly as significant as it was to Hugging Face. In some cases, the

models really just wanted to read something. So it wasn't that big of a deal, but it's still significant to know exactly all of these places, all

the tentacles that they reached in this massive hack.

We're also hearing now from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who recently recorded a podcast where he said that they have since paused training on their models

while they figure out how to secure their sandbox test environment because the issue was that the models escaped that the lab that they were being

worked in the digital lab, it wasn't secure and that there was a previously unknown vulnerability, a hole if you could think of it that way where the

models were able to escape.

And had that been patched, had that been, you know, really secure environment, none of this would have happened. And Sam Altman even admitted

that this is the first security incident that he has felt what he called viscerally, and it's really made him question whether you know sort of slow

down the pace of AI development so that society can catch up with what's going on.

And now we're seeing more than 1,200 of the top staffers and scientists, including the CEO of Anthropic, signing on to an open letter calling for

the U.S. government to help develop the tools to do just that, to deliberately pace the advancement of these automated, you know, A.I.

systems so that essentially, we can catch up.

[15:35:10]

And, you know, it's like you've created the Ford Model T in 1908, and in less than two years you have a Lamborghini on the road, but you still don't

have a Department of Transportation or seatbelts or airbags installed and saying, hold on, we need to slow this down so that we can develop those

safety and security protocols.

Whether that works, I don't know. We're in a big competition with China right now, so maybe not.

FOSTER: Fascinating.

Hadas, appreciate it as ever. Thank you.

The K-pop supergroup, BTS, saying no to the Grammys. Still to come, we'll explain why the group is staging a musical protest against the award.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: One of them is the hard right leader tipped to be a future British prime minister. The other is a man with a bin for a head. In two weeks,

they'll do battle at the ballot box here in the U.K. as politics meets parody.

We are, of course, talking about Count Binface, a novelty candidate who describes himself as an intergalactic space warrior, although a comedian

called John Harvey also says on LinkedIn that he's the man behind the bin mask. The count has stood in several high-profile elections in recent

years.

Here he is next to the new prime minister, Andy Burnham, after last month's by-election that helped Mr. Burnham into 10 Downing Street. That's him on

the left, in case you didn't realize.

Next up, another big by-election, this time in the seaside town of Clacton. Nigel Farage, the leader of the Hard Right Reform U.K. Party, resigned the

seat early this month after allegations about his finances, vowing to run a game and let voters decide.

Instead, most major parties haven't fielded a candidate, meaning that Count Binface is now Farage's best-known challenger.

[15:40:00]

With about two weeks to go before the vote, the Count has released a new manifesto, and it ranges from the populist to the pretty preposterous.

On the one hand, there are pledges to force by-elections for members of Parliament who change party, or getting oil companies to pay for solar

panels. On the other hand, there are calls to make arcade games more fair, and to move the hand dryers in the toilets of a Nepalese restaurant near

Liverpool.

So, what we don't know is, what would Count Binface actually do if he somehow manages to get elected?

Joining us now supposedly from his starship -- is that where you are, Count Binface? In your starship with a bed.

COUNT BINFACE, LEADER, COUNT BINFACE PARTY: Hello, Mike. Hello, CNN.

And may I just say, I will take, with a pinch of earth salt, the rather sarcastic and sneering tone of your introduction. It's absolutely fine.

This is, of course, my starship, the Alboreto, but I've used the holodeck to create the precise look of a budget hotel in Clacton-on-Sea. I thought

you'd appreciate that.

FOSTER: It's stunning. Your manifesto, have you fine-tuned it? Because obviously, you had the one for the Makerfield by-election. Have you updated

it for this? Because you've actually statistically got a much higher chance of winning.

COUNT BINFACE: Well, thank you for that. And I'm enjoying your Jeremy Paxman impersonation. Do keep it up.

As your introduction alluded to, yes, of course I've changed my manifesto from Makerfield to Clacton, because it would be naive not to do that. It

was very clear that during the Makerfield by-election, I made it clear to voters that there was nowhere in the entire cosmos that mattered to me than

the wondrous place of Makerfield.

And now, until August the 13th, I want it to be absolutely clear that there is nowhere at all that matters more to me in the cosmos than Clacton. I

hope you got that right, along with, of course, my new policies like things like, as you say, grabber games at arcades, to be fair, so that people

actually have a chance of winning. I didn't stand on that in Makerfield. I thought that bit more of a seaside charm would garner me some votes.

And as for the one about making oil companies pay for solar panels for everyone, I don't know whether you think that's preposterous, but it was

suggested to me by a child called Jack, age 10. And I would say he knows what he's talking about.

FOSTER: We only said some of them were preposterous. We also said --

COUNT BINFACE: Yes, and you didn't say which ones.

FOSTER: No. Well, that's for the voters to decide, I guess, coming up in the election.

How are you feeling about this? Because, obviously, we had Nigel Farage who called this election. Some people said that was a mistake because then the

other parties came along, didn't they, and they said they're not going to run.

Are you going to pick up their votes? What's the strategy here? Because there could be a protest vote, I guess, against Nigel Farage, and the only

place it has to go is to you.

COUNT BINFACE: That's very kind of you to say so, Mike, but actually, you're wrong again. There are actually 34 candidates. Can you believe that?

It's actually a record for a British election. It's going to be like the worst ever Comic-Con up there.

So, it's not just me, but I'm glad you think it is because, of course, yes, deep down is it is a two-space horse battle between the establishment on

the one hand and the usurper space warrior on the other.

So, yes, I'm fascinated by the fact that the other parties stood down. I'm even more fascinated that the Reform U.K. party couldn't see that coming

because there was a precedent in 2008, the Tory MP David Davis. Yes, I've done my research, Mike. You weren't expecting this, were you?

He called a by-election on himself. And again, the main parties, the Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrat -- Labour and the Tories

didn't stand. I mean, obviously, David Davis was a Tory, but you take my point.

So, actually, the fact that Farage has called this by-election is the biggest self-own, I would say, in modern political history.

FOSTER: As you say, there are other candidates, but you are the famous one. Everyone recognizes your bin. But realistically, you might -- you

know, this is how British politics works, right? This is a fair election.

What if you win? Are you seriously considering that? And what are you going to do with that position? I mean, there are local people with local

problems, and you haven't addressed all of them. I'm not trying to be a challenging interviewer. I'm just asking some very basic questions.

COUNT BINFACE: No, I relish being challenged. And that was a challenge. But that was a more respectful tone. And I admire that. We're reaching a

level now, Mike. I love it.

So yes, absolutely. But look, put it like this. If I were to be elected as the member of the British Parliament for Clacton, and it's not just

Clacton-on-Sea, but include all the towns and conurbations, Wheely, where my new HQ will be, Walton, Jaywick. I want to represent them all, and as

mad as it sounds, be more of a local champion for those humans than the current MP, or indeed the previous one, until he resigned his commission.

So, you know, that's the thing. I want to be a local champion for local people, and I tell you what. I reckon I might jam up a few tourist quid, as

well, into the game. How about that?

FOSTER: Count Binface, appreciate you joining us from your starship. And in a couple of weeks, we'll hopefully have you back to see how it all went

and how you got on with Nigel Farage --

COUNT BINFACE: Absolutely. Well, I'll invite you for tea. Tea in the House of Commons on me.

FOSTER: Possibly. Thank you so much.

We do need to tell you we have invited Nigel Farage and the Reform U.K. party for an interview in the run-up to this election. They haven't yet

responded. There are 34 other candidates, as Count Binface was saying, in total for the Clacton by-election. You can see the full list on the website

listed below. There you go.

The U.S. Senate gave their late colleague Lindsey Graham a parting gift on Tuesday. Democrats and Republicans came together to overwhelmingly vote in

favor of a bill that stiffened sanctions on Iran and Russia. The bill had been one of Graham's last priorities before his sudden death just weeks

ago.

Tuesday's vote was not the final word in the sanctions package, but it seemed likely to eventually pass. The proposed sanctions include a 100

percent tariff on any nation that buys Russian oil or gas.

Some European cities are working to help residents and tourists cool off. Rome had planned to create oasis-type areas in parts of the city.

CNN's Barbie Latza Nadeau has more now on how that failed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBIE LATZA NADEAU, CNN REPORTER: This was supposed to be a green paradise where people could cool off from the heat. The city of Rome spent

millions of dollars revamping this piazza in 2024 next to the Vatican. The plan had rows of shade trees, misting stations, water fountains, and plenty

of seating for people to cool off.

Now, a year and a half after reopening, the greenery is dead. The misting stations and the fountains aren't even here and the seating is actually too

hot for people to sit on and the timing couldn't be worse. According to AccuWeather, Rome's average daily high right now is just under 100 degrees

Fahrenheit.

City officials blame the dead trees and plants on extreme heat and as cities across Europe face another scorching summer, this piazza, this

multi-million dollar piazza, has become an example of just how difficult it is for cities to build cooling projects that stand up to this extreme heat.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Thanks to Barbie for that report. There's more after the break. We'll be back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: The K-pop supergroup BTS has made a stunning announcement they will not be submitting music for Grammy consideration this year. The

decision comes after the recording academy added a new category that includes an Asian pop music performance. BTS said their music should not be

divided by region or language. The band's sixth Korean language album debuted in March at number one on the Billboard chart.

Lisa Respers France has been joining us.

I mean, it is a huge debate this, isn't it? I mean, should it be a category in the same way as country? And surely, BTS is pretty much the biggest band

in the world. You can't really regionalize it. There's an interesting debate, isn't there?

LISA RESPERS FRANCE, CNN REPORTER: Very much so, Max, because while on the surface this looks like it's making space for diversity, a lot of the BTS

fans feel like it's actually the opposite. They feel like this is the Recording Academy's attempt to not have them compete in, say, the best

album category, which feels very unfair to the Army. That's what their diehard fan base calls themselves.

And they are standing very strongly with BTS because, first of all, this is a seismic, what they're doing, because they're not standing up for

themselves. They're also standing up for other K-pop acts. And it is really consequential because there's so many people who believe that BTS, if

anyone should win album of the year from a K-pop genre, it's going to be BTS.

They're absolutely the biggest. They have the most fans. They make the most sales. They are basically the group to beat if you're talking about K-pop.

So, for them to say, you know what, we're just not going to compete at all is a massive, massive deal, Max.

FOSTER: What feeling are you getting from the Academy? Were they completely caught out by this? Did they think they were doing a good thing

and then not even realize how to be read?

FRANCE: Well, we haven't heard from the Recording Academy yet. CNN has reached out for comment. And I think I've interviewed the president of the

Academy, and he has talked a lot about global music and how he wants to be more diverse. But that's not how this is reading at all.

And this is not the first time, by the way. Years ago, when The Weeknd didn't score any nominations, people felt it was because when you have a

diverse artist who doesn't do a music that you can shoehorn into the category that you expect. And in the case of The Weeknd, they felt like,

and by they, I mean the fans felt like they, Academy wanted him to be more leaning towards R&B and he's definitely a pop artist and he didn't get any

nominations.

And in 2020, Justin Bieber did an album which was very much R&B infused and he actually called the Academy out for nominating him in the pop category

because he was like this is an R&B album. He said it was weird to him that they would not put what was clearly an R&B project would not have it be

nominated for R&B and would instead shoehorn him into pop.

So this is a long standing and there's going to be a lot of discussion about this, Max.

FOSTER: I think it's going to be really interesting. Maybe they're not talking because they are debating how they're going to respond to it. It's

going to be interesting to see if they pull that category.

Lisa, as ever, thank you so much.

FRANCE: Thank you.

FOSTER: One of the Beatles' most important albums getting a new treatment. A special edition of "Rubber Soul" is set to release on October 2. It'll

feature new mixes of the 1965 album done by Giles Martin, son of original Beatles producer George Martin. "Rubber Soul" is a landmark album in the

Fab Four's catalogue, you may know. It marked the transition from commercial pop group to mature musicians with unbridled creativity and

freedom to express it as well.

Conservationists say Glen Affric in the Scottish Highlands, has had its first wild-born beavers in more than 400 years. Charity Trees for Life says

there are at least two babies which are called kits. Beavers are often considered natural engineers. because of how they change riverbanks and

waterways. It's hoped the wetlands beavers can act as a natural fire break over time, helping to relieve fires like these in Scotland's Cairngorms

National Park that we've had recently.

Last hour I spoke with Steve Micklewright. He's the chief executive of the charity behind the rewilding project, who explained why beavers are so

important. . [15:55:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE MICKLEWRIGHT, CHIEF EXECUTIVE , TREES FOR LIFE: Yeah, well, beavers, we call beavers kind of ecosystem engineers, if you like. What they do is

they don't like changing water levels. So, when they go into a landscape, they will often build dams which hold back water. They stop water flooding

downstream. But holding back water in places like the Scottish Highlands, which is a damp environment but getting drier, if you hold back water, the

land is wetter. And it helps with some of this kind of climate resilience, like trying to stop wildfires, which is a real problem in Scotland and

across Europe right now.

So, as well as being wonderful animals for biodiversity, they can be great for our fight against the problems that the climate change is causing us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Right. Let's just go check on the markets before we go, because the Dow is down more than 1,100 points just minutes before the closing

bell. It's about a 2 percent drop. That's pretty sudden.

It came after the Federal Reserve came out with this announcement, keeping interest rates on hold after a meeting with more unknowns than usual. No

one really knew which way they were going to go. It seems that investors aren't that impressed, though.

I'm Max Foster. There'll be more on that after the break, but thank you for watching. That is WHAT WE KNOW.

END

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