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U.S. Military Says It Shot Down Multiple Iranian Drones; Kennedy Center Wants More Time to Remove Trump's Name; SpaceX IPO Largest in History; Voters Decide if Switzerland Should Limit Its Population. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired June 13, 2026 - 04:00   ET

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

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SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hello and a very warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and all around the world. I'm Salma Abdelaziz in London. Let's get into the headlines.

An agreement between the U.S. and Iran to end the war may be closer than ever. We're going to go live to the Gulf with what we know and still do not know about a possible diplomatic breakthrough.

And the Kennedy Center has missed a court ordered deadline to remove the president's name from the building. We'll tell you why next.

Plus, a U.S. military strike kills a top leader of the Tren de Aragua cartel. Details on that operation, carried out alongside Venezuelan forces.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Salma Abdelaziz.

ABDELAZIZ: The U.S. military says it shot down multiple Iranian attack drones near the Strait of Hormuz not long after the White House had expressed confidence in a looming agreement. Now it could be signed by the end of the week and it would set off more than 60 days of negotiations.

But both sides are giving conflicting details about what would be actually included in this framework agreement. A senior Trump administration official says Iran would fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz while the U.S. would end its blockade on Iranian ports.

The official also said the agreement would lead to the dismantling of Iran's nuclear program and the destruction of its nuclear material. But Iran's foreign minister says all of that still hasn't been worked out yet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ABBAS ARAGHCHI, IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): Now the topic of the nuclear issue has been postponed to five agreements. So there are different reasons for this and now we cannot discuss that. The demands were not acceptable, so there are issues, on which we could agree.

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ABDELAZIZ: Now Iran says the agreement would also include sanctions relief and a plan to resolve the conflict in Lebanon and all other fronts. For more, we're joined by CNN's Leila Gharagozlou. She is live from Abu Dhabi.

Good morning, Leila. It's lovely to have you here today. I want to begin by asking you about this leak of the draft agreement. It was apparently leaked to semiofficial Iranian news agencies. I know you speak Farsi.

What was in that leak and why did it make president Trump mad?

LEILA GHARAGOZLOU, CNN PRODUCER: Yes. So Mehr News, one of Iran's state media outlets, posted what they said were the 14 points of this memorandum of understanding.

And as part of that, the top one was the permanent and immediate secession of war on all fronts, including Lebanon, which we know is a red line for Iran and has been a point of contention between the U.S., Israel and Iran.

Even earlier this week, we saw exchange of fire between Iran and Israel over Lebanon, specifically. Alongside that, there was the lifting of the naval blockade, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the suspension of sanctions on oil, petrochemicals and products and the unfreezing of these contentious frozen assets that Iran has.

Now the list goes on and on. It was very favorable to the Iranian side. Obviously, it is published in Iranian state media. And this did set president Donald Trump off on Truth Social.

He posted rather quickly, saying that this was fake news and really just said that this was not the way that it was going to go and took really serious issue with it.

Now what was really interesting about that post from president Donald Trump is that, just about 10 minutes after we heard from Iran's foreign minister, who posted on X, saying basically that this media speculation was incorrect.

He wrote very specifically that the Islamabad memorandum of understanding has never been closer. Pending its final finalization, the media should refrain from entering speculation about its content. And he said that the public would find out what was in the MOU in due course.

Now @realDonaldTrump account on X reposted this post from Abbas Araghchi, in essence, kind of giving it extra legitimacy. And then we had vice president JD Vance also post, echoing the same sentiment. So it's interesting because you're really seeing both sides trying to protect this MOU at a very fragile time.

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And you really saw Abbas Araghchi come very quickly to also push back on those speculations in Iranian state media and kind of calm down President Donald Trump in the meantime. So we're really going to have to see where things go.

Now we, as you said, have heard that it could be signed as early as Sunday. The Iranian side says that this could be a little bit early. We have to still see. There's still some elements of this that need to be finalized. And as you know, with this particular conflict, every hour counts and things can change very, very quickly. Salma.

Leila Gharagozlou, thank you so much for explaining there the attempts to control the media leaks around this in a very secretive process here around the signing or the completion of this memorandum of understanding. Thank you so much.

Now president Trump had said that the U.S. was close to reaching an agreement dozens of times before. But CNN national security analyst Alex Plitsas explains that it is different this time around.

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ALEX PLITSAS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I'm still hearing the same consistent messaging now. I've spoken to you today. Pakistani officials, regional mediators, U.S. officials at both the Pentagon and the State Department, the White House, as well as the Iranian back channel.

And I'm getting the same thing across the board that we are very close to a memorandum of understanding. My understanding and speaking to these officials is that the details have largely been worked out.

But it was the sequencing of events that was the problem and particularly because the Iranians were looking for money upfront without concessions. But one of the senior Pentagon officials I spoke to today stressed that.

He said, "I need to make it clear to you that this is a performance- based deal here, that the Iranians are not going to get anything unless they're performing and executing their responsibilities under this."

And there's a lot of this back-and-forth that's really kind of face- saving -- there's not really another way to phrase it -- with the public rhetoric that we're seeing. And even the comments that were just made, you played by the foreign minister. Well, we get the details of the nuclear issue in Phase 2, which is true.

But at a high level, the agreement, hey, we're going to give up the highly enriched uranium. We're going to agree to some moratorium on enrichment has to be reached in this phase before you get to the next one.

So it seems like we're closing in on a pretty high level agreement here. Still a lot of work to be done. It'll trigger a 60-day period of negotiations but definitely a lot further along than we've been to date.

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ABDELAZIZ: Now to Latin America, where a top leader of one of the most notorious criminal gangs has been killed. President Donald Trump, says Nino Guerrero, who led the gang known as Tren de Aragua, was eliminated in a U.S. airstrike.

Now the group had originated in Venezuelan prisons but by now it operates on both sides of the Atlantic and is believed to be involved in a long list of heinous crimes. Rafael Romo has the story for us.

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RAFAEL ROMO, CNN HOST AND U.S. CORRESPONDENT: For several years, the criminal group known as Tren de Aragua has terrorized South American countries, including Venezuela, its country of origin, as well as Bolivia, Colombia, Chile and Peru, according to law enforcement officials in the region and the United States.

In the last few years, this transnational gang moved into the United States, CNN initially reported in June of 2024, based on interviews with an FBI official and a former Venezuelan police officer.

Law enforcement officials accused alleged members of the gang of multiple crimes, including creating an alleged multi-state human trafficking ring, forcing immigrant women into prostitution.

There was also the mysterious killing of a former police officer in south Florida in attacks by alleged Tren de Aragua members against police officers in New York. In any case, the death of Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, also known as El Nino Guerrero, is indeed a significant blow to the criminal organization.

The U.S. Justice Department said in December of 2024, when it indicted him, and that Guerrero has been the mastermind of Tren de Aragua's evolution from a Venezuelan prison gang into a transnational terrorist organization.

That committed countless acts of violence, extortion and drug trafficking all over North America, South America and Europe.

In making the announcement about the execution on Truth Social, president Donald Trump said the strike was coordinated closely with, he said, our friends in Venezuela, with whom we are working very well.

His post included a video showing a green roofed building disappearing under a cloud of billowing smoke, caused by a massive explosion. In a later post on X, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the strike was conducted earlier this week in collaboration with Venezuelan security forces. Only days into his new administration in February 2025, president

Trump designated Tren de Aragua as a terrorist organization -- Rafael Romo, CNN, Atlanta.

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ABDELAZIZ: In Washington, the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts says it needs more time to comply with a judge's order to remove Donald Trump's name from the building.

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Now Trump had hand-picked a board of trustees, voted to install his name, to honor the president in December. That was after he made sweeping changes to the center's leadership in programming but it immediately drew criticism as well as a legal challenge.

Of course, a federal appeals court upheld a judge's order requiring the center to remove president Trump's name by midnight on Friday. But the Kennedy Center missed that deadline. Justice Department attorneys representing the center say the work is ongoing but thunderstorms in the area had caused delays.

They say crews expect to complete the removal in the coming hours. Now a short time ago, you can see the pictures there, workers used a tarp to essentially cover and block the view of their progress, while people in the crowd chanted, "Shame."

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not America. This is not America.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Also, you're going to cover up the Constitution.

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ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): It's been 32 years since the U.S. last hosted the World Cup. American fans were out in force in California, bringing that energy to Team USA's opening game against Paraguay on Friday.

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ABDELAZIZ: And the home squad did not disappoint, dominating the South American underdogs from the start, beating them four goals to one.

Now earlier in Toronto, co-host country Canada had battled Bosnia- Herzegovina to a 1-1 draw. And in the coming hours we will see six more countries face off in Saturday's games in the cities across the United States. CNN's Coy Wire was at Los Angeles stadium for Team USA's big win.

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COY WIRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The atmosphere was electric, like a Super Bowl crowd that found the turbo button. It was a sellout, 70,000 plus, bringing the volume from the jump.

And the celebrity spotting almost as entertaining as the match. Katy Perry sang before the match. You had Beckham, Tom Cruise, Halle Berry, Kareem Abdul Jabbar and then Christian Pulisic took center stage.

Captain America forced an own goal early, then threaded a ridiculous nutmeg assist to Folarin Balogun. And as for Balogun, the man came in, firing a laser off the left foot a brace before halftime to make it 3- 0.

In a statement for the U.S. Now Paraguay scored once, tried to make it ugly. The Americans made it look beautiful, scoring again through Gio Reyna. Four goals most ever by Americans in a World Cup game. Flo Balogun says this is something he's visualized.

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FOLARIN BALOGUN, U.S. FORWARD: I visualized, you know, my debut, you know, in the World Cup scoring. But yes, you know, the reality did surpass that with scoring two goals. And, you know, the second goal was a fantastic goal as well. So you know, as I said, a very dreamy, dreamy night.

CHRISTIAN PULISIC, U.S. FORWARD: To be in America, having this crowd around us, seeing the red, white and blue, all the -- all our red and white striped shirts in the crowd. It's awesome. I mean, here in the USA, chants it's really pushing us forward. So we just hope it continues like that. And I'm sure it will. We're just thankful for it.

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WIRE: The U.S. played with swagger already. More goals in this World Cup than all four of their games in the last one combined. Mauricio Pochettino's squad looked like a team that's not just playing in a World Cup, they are planning to make some noise in it.

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ABDELAZIZ: It was a historic day on Wall Street. Elon Musk's SpaceX debuted on the Nasdaq. We will break down the record breaking numbers, right after the break

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ABDELAZIZ: Elon Musk has become the world's first trillionaire after his space technology company, SpaceX, made its debut on Wall Street's Nasdaq market. The company's IPO exceeded expectations, finishing the day at over $160 a share. That's more than 19 percent higher than its opening price of $135.

SpaceX is now valued at over $2 trillion, making it the sixth most valuable publicly traded U.S. company. As for Musk, his personal net worth is now estimated to be around $1.26 trillion.

I want to bring in Ryan Patel. He is a senior fellow with the Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University.

Thank you, first of all, for staying up so late for us from L.A.

RYAN PATEL, GLOBAL BUSINESS EXECUTIVE: Good to join you.

ABDELAZIZ: Great to have you. I want to ask you, you know, this was a blockbuster debut, of course, the shares gained 19 percent as you -- as we said. But this is a company that posted a net loss of nearly $5 billion in 2025.

Why on Earth would you buy shares in this stock?

PATEL: Well, this is one of the -- it's just not just about hype. It's really, if you think about it, it's really three companies under one ticker. So if you go into that last number, let me break down a little bit behind it.

If you think of -- they've got the launch in the space infrastructure, right, Falcon starship. But 60 percent of its revenues come from Starlink. Right. That's the global broadband network. And that's the profit engine. That's over half, as I mentioned, of its operating income.

That's going into, you know, the other parts of the SpaceX, AI, X and the massive AI data centers. And so to me, that is what people are looking at. So again, Starlink generates over $11.4 billion of revenue in 2025. So it is profitable.

And I think that's what you're looking at when people are investing in these things. And let's be honest, retail investors wanted to get in.

And that's what we saw, the big bump. It wasn't so much that it was the hype, it was other banks, Goldman Sachs and others, really pushing the number up, too, when they put these analysts estimates out there as well.

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ABDELAZIZ: But many people will say, look, this isn't just about investing in SpaceX or Starlink or the future of this company. It's about investing in Elon Musk himself, the individual.

What do you say to that?

PATEL: Well, I mean, I think there's going to be parts of that as well, right? I mean, that's -- you're betting on entrepreneur led aspects. And we do see that. I think what I think the hype is, too. And if you if, again, you look at what other people are not just betting on the product but what changes in industry.

And I think that's what's so exciting about, you know, the space industry. And I think that's where you're getting not just those who are pushing for Elon but also those that are interested in the industry itself.

And, you know, they are leading. When you think about the satellites, I think they own, you know, they, you know pushed out 86 percent of the satellites that are out there. That launch was through them.

So I think there's, there's a lot of multiple things. Obviously Elon has, you know, been successful with the stock public market with Tesla. And now here's another one.

ABDELAZIZ: But what goes up must go down.

Are we looking at a bubble that has to burst here?

PATEL: Well, I think what we're going to see -- and you know this is what happens with any IPOs that come out -- over the next six months to a year, you're going to start seeing these earnings calls that come out.

You know, you see that, you know, the valuation that you just mentioned, over $2 trillion, it's way above, you know, what the outlook is compared to other tech companies.

So I think, for me, you know, looking at what they're going to, you know, their burn rate through their cash flow, you know, what else are they doing?

I mean, I don't want to say it's going up but, for the next couple of days, in a couple of weeks or even months, you're going to see the hype still be there and then get back to reality when the earnings calls per quarter start to hit. People are going to pay attention you know, of those numbers now.

ABDELAZIZ: And speaking again of Elon Musk, the man I have to ask this. I'm in London. We're very close to what just happened last week in Belfast with Elon Musk quite literally pushing, egging on these far right rallies that were forcing brown and Black people out of their homes.

He is a controversial figure, to be generous with the statement.

Are there any moral concerns here?

Is there a moral compass for stakeholders, underwriters, banks?

Or is it just money, money, money?

PATEL: Well, no, I think, you know, yes, we live in a capitalist society. I think there is some -- there is risk to that, when you have an entrepreneur that is outspoken like him. Stakeholders take all of that into consideration and they have to.

Now if we've seen what's happened with Tesla and you make that assumption here at SpaceX, does he have probably a lot more leeway than other CEOs?

He absolutely does.

And for whatever reason that we've seen that, I think there'll be more scrutiny under this just because of the valuation and how it's already top six. But to your point, stakeholders and governance and risk. And again, he owns majority of the company.

So that also, the way that it's structured does mitigate some of these pressures that he may have gotten or other CEOs get from other boards and governance and the risk behind it, too. So no, I think that's a great point.

I think the markets can't ignore that as well. And I think, you know, it'll be interesting to see what happens over the next at least six months.

ABDELAZIZ: Thank you so much, Ryan Patel, for that excellent breakdown.

Polls will start opening Saturday night for a landmark referendum in Switzerland. Voters will decide whether the country will limit the size of its population. It is a proposal pushed by a major right-wing party and it argues that Switzerland is facing a population explosion which is draining its resources.

But as Sebastian Shukla reports, opponents say there would be a steep price to pay for voting yes.

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SEBASTIAN SHUKLA, CNN PRODUCER: The faces of Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping on opposition billboards ahead of a divisive vote on immigration in famously neutral Switzerland. Break with Europe now, the posters ask provocatively and become like these three.

On Sunday, the Swiss people will vote on a simple question. Should the country's population be capped at 10 million? If it passes, Switzerland would be forced to limit its population in the coming decades.

YVAN PAHUD, SWISS PEOPLE'S PARTY (translated): Ultimately, what we want is to protect what we love, to ensure that Switzerland remains a wonderful place to live in.

SHUKLA: At the geographical heart of Europe, the Swiss nation has roughly doubled in size since 1950, surpassing 9.l million people in 2025, over a quarter of those being foreign nationals.

JURG MULLER, DIRECTOR, AVENIR SUISSE: The Switzerland is attractive. The economy is running well. The bulk of migration is coming from the European Union, this is based on the agreement of free movement of persons.

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SHUKLA: The vote is also another example of European right wing parties tapping into immigration anxieties. On the YES campaign's website, under a heading titled, the loss of culture and identity, a woman in a hijab appears holding a Swiss passport alongside the phrase "creeping Islamization" and a story about people from North Africa.

DELPHINE KLOPFENSTEIN, SWISS GREEN PARTY (translated): It is utterly xenophobic. Ultimately, it makes scapegoats out of foreigners as if they're the answer to all of society's ills. It is dangerous because it is deceitful.

SHUKLA: There is also heavy pushback from the business community. An umbrella organization for the sector called it the chaos initiative and said, what at first glance looks like a solution to immigration issues turns out to be a dangerous boomerang on closer inspection.

The initiative poses a massive threat to Switzerland's prosperity, supply and stability. A yes vote would also set up a showdown with the EU as the result would be legally binding.

JURG MULLER, DIRECTOR, AVENIR SUISSE: I think in the short term, not too much will happen because the referendum is set up with these thresholds that are not hit yet. But then in the long run, the implications are, yes, possibly quite wide reaching.

SHUKLA: Once the population hits 9.5 million, the government would be forced to limit asylum and stop family reunifications. Once it reaches 10 million, it would be obliged to withdraw from any commitment to principle of free movement and thereby set it on a crash course with the European Union -- Sebastian Shukla, CNN, Berlin.

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ABDELAZIZ: We're going to take a quick break. For our viewers in North America, I'll have more news in a moment. For our international viewers, "CNN CREATORS" is next.

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ABDELAZIZ: Welcome back to all of you watching in the U.S. and Canada, I'm Salma Abdelaziz in London.

Now sources tell CNN the U.S. and Iran could sign a potential agreement as soon as this Sunday in Geneva. The White House is optimistic and Iran says an agreement has never been closer. But there are still conflicting details about the framework coming out

of Washington and Tehran. Tensions are still high in the Middle East, where Iran has launched a fresh wave of attack drones. The U.S. military says it shot down several of those drones that were trying to disrupt commercial shipping near the Strait of Hormuz.

Our White House correspondent, Alayna Treene, has more from Washington.

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ALAYNA TREENE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I've had several conversations on Friday with White House officials, Trump administration officials. And they argue that they do believe they are closer to finalizing a memorandum of understanding with Iran than they have been.

Now I know that this is something that has been said, particularly by president Donald Trump, 39 times in recent weeks throughout this ceasefire. But I think what's interesting about this is you're hearing the same type of encouraging sentiment from foreign leaders as well.

One, the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, shared on Friday that he believed that they were closer to a deal than they ever had been. And then there was this from the Pakistani prime minister, who, of course, has been one of the leaders in mediating these talks.

He said that they can confirm that a final, agreed-upon text of the peace deal has been reached and that Pakistan is working closely with both sides to finalize the next steps.

Now, look, I do want to share what we've been told from senior administration officials about exactly what is in this deal. I know that some of this is being contradicted by the Iranians. But they argue part one would be the immediate reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to pre-war levels.

And in return, the U.S. would end its blockade on Iranian ports. Obviously, that was going to be crucial to any initial agreement here. It would also lead to the dismantling of Iran's nuclear program and, specifically, it would include the United States going in and obtaining Iran's highly enriched uranium.

Senior administration officials told me and other reporters today on a call that that enriched uranium would be destroyed on site and then taken out of the country.

The third part of this is financial compensation for Iran. Now Trump officials are arguing that there would be no type of monetary compensation, any money being exchanged or given to the Iranians until they show that they are complying with the other steps outlined in this broader framework agreement.

Now again, hearing a little bit of different things from the Iranian side, they are insisting that turning over some funds or unfreezing a certain amount of funds is necessary to any initial agreement. But by and large, you are hearing all sides argue that they are

committed to this deal and getting ready for a signature. Our sources have told us that we could potentially see a signature within the next couple of days, potentially in Geneva.

But then you also heard from the Iranian foreign minister, Araghchi, that perhaps it could be signed remotely. So some of those details, I'm told, are still being worked out.

Another key component of this agreement is that it would trigger, if signed, a 60-day, highly technical negotiating period. Essentially, those highly technical talks, I'm told, are about the specifics on how to implement each part of this, including the mechanisms for going in to get that enriched uranium.

The mechanisms for ensuring that Iran agrees to this moratorium on their nuclear program. So all of that, as we are hearing positive signs from the White House and the president and also the Iranians and the mediators, we'll see if they can actually get there -- Alayna Treene, CNN, the White House.

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ABDELAZIZ: Negah Angha is a visiting fellow with King's College London and a former senior adviser at the U.S. State Department and National Security Council. She joins us now live from Frankfurt, Germany.

Thank you, first of all, for being with us this morning.

NEGAH ANGHA, VISITING FELLOW, KING'S COLLEGE LONDON: Good morning. Thanks for having me.

ABDELAZIZ: Now we understand, of course, that this is a memorandum of understanding, not a finalized peace deal.

So what can we realistically expect to be in this MOU and what are they going to kick the can down the road on with the topics here?

ANGHA: That's a great question. Look, I think right now, as you say, we're somewhere between text and signature. And both sides, the U.S. and Iranian delegations, have signaled that they're close to an agreement.

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And obviously Pakistan, who's the mediator, has said that the wording is still being finalized. You know, we're hearing that, again, the messaging that we've never been closer. But again, you know, both sides are continuously reviewing it. The details remain contested.

I think, you know, again, that the gap between a deal on paper and the peace on the ground remains very wide, especially this component of a 60-day timeline, which is quite ambitious, right.

You know, there is an element within that 60-day time period where a lot of the more technical issues, the more complicated issues, such as the nuclear issues, could get more intertwined. And it will feel like this is a political pause than, you know, potentially a nonproliferation breakthrough, which is a key component on the U.S. side.

You know, the U.S. is saying that Iran's highly enriched uranium will be destroyed or removed and that the nuclear program will be dismantled. Obviously, the Iranian officials are saying that the MOU is not yet finalized. And therefore, the future of the nuclear talks really depend on implementation of the interim deal.

And so, you know, in terms of the nuclear deal, you know, it's only as strong as its inspection regime. And that still remains a very big question.

ABDELAZIZ: And I want to ask you specifically about that enriched uranium. So we're hearing from officials in the Trump administration that the aim is to for the United States, essentially, to go in, destroy onsite.

But we're also having this exclusive reporting that Iran has taken great lengths to dramatically seal off this near bomb-grade uranium, putting tunnels, booby traps, explosive mines, making it far more difficult to extract and destroy that roughly half a ton of enriched uranium.

How can the U.S. practically do this?

And does this become a major roadblock in these 60 days of negotiations?

ANGHA: You know, again, I think it's these sorts of issues, it's these sorts of details that are going to make, you know, the deal incredibly complicated. And there's so many ways that it can go wrong.

I think, again, Tehran has essentially said that there's been no final decision on the nuclear file. They've been very clear that they do not want any of their red lines being crossed. So I think they're going to continue to play up the various cards that they seem to hold, to try to avoid a situation where there's going to be an issue with access.

You're going to need an inspection regime to gain access to those materials. And they're essentially slowing down that process for that access point. So I think when we think about all the components that could go wrong in this deal, this is one very important point that we're -- I think we're going to be encountering.

And I think there's going to be quite a few of these various components over the next few, 24-48 hours, that we're going to be faced with.

ABDELAZIZ: Now you've been involved in negotiations, of course, at such a high level. I have a logistical question here.

Is it that we don't know the date and time of this signing ceremony, although it could be as early as tomorrow, potentially, because it is secretive, because it is shrouded in secrecy?

Or because diplomats are going to be working up until the 11th hour here?

ANGHA: You know, I think this is the phase where does anyone actually know what happens next of the diplomacy, right?

Not because there's no progress but because the politics around the progress are so volatile. So you have various different components within the diplomatic apparatus that are making decisions.

But you know, there's one element where, you know, you have your negotiations taking place with your counterpart. But then the other element is, you know, messaging.

At what point do you message?

At what point do you sign?

What does that signing ceremony, for example, look like?

You know, what is the domestic politics in terms of the United States?

You know, at what point are you engaging with Congress?

At what point are you engaging with the public?

And in this particular scenario, there are a lot of various details that are still being ironed out up until that 11th hour. Those discussions need to be had. Iran has made very clear that the supreme leader needs to be reviewing the deal before an approval is made.

And there's these constant delay factors that they use. So there's a lot of various pieces. It's not just the, you know, a quick signing ceremony. All various components need be taken into place if there's a discussion in terms.

And I think one of the biggest issues for this particular agreement is sequencing. So, you know, once that bit on sequencing is ironed out because Iran wants relief early.

[04:40:00]

Whereas the U.S. wants Iranian performance first, all of those components are being discussed right now. And based off of those, those engagements need to take place.

If there's an economic relief, what does that economic relief look like?

If there's a regional partner involved, would need to release the funds, you know, how do you engage with that country?

What does that mean in terms of their economics?

And so there are a variety of different layers that need to also come into play in parallel.

ABDELAZIZ: Thank you so much, Negah Angha there, for breaking down the flurry of diplomatic activity to get this memorandum of understanding over the finish line.

New CNN exclusive reporting shows the U.S. military was prepared just last month to seize Iran's enriched uranium but president Trump stopped the mission from going ahead. CNN's Zachary Cohen explains.

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ZACHARY COHEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: We're told by multiple sources that t the top U.S. General, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Dan Caine, made an urgent and secret trip to Tampa, Florida, to visit CENTCOM headquarters, which is located there.

Flying all the way back from Europe where he was meeting with NATO officials to receive an in-person briefing on an operation to potentially send the military into Iran and forcefully remove its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

Now we're told that Caine only spent a few hours on the ground at CENTCOM headquarters before flying back to D.C. and briefing president Donald Trump on those potential options.

Trump ultimately pausing any military operation to seize that uranium.

But this moment does underscore just how close the United States came to launching what has been described to us by multiple sources as a high-risk, high-potential casualty military operation and one that still remains on the table.

Even as the U.S. and Iran continue to negotiate and try to come to some sort of resolution as a result of this ongoing conflict. Now the two sides have still not yet reached a memorandum of understanding, an initial agreement to enter into technical negotiations, which would include negotiations about Iran's nuclear program.

But even so, the question of how the U.S. might remove, secure or destroy that uranium remains unclear. And administration officials telling reporters just Friday that the technical details of how to destroy or secure that uranium remains a challenge and one that will have to be worked out over time.

And that's in a situation where Iran even agrees to allow the U.S. into those nuclear facilities where this uranium is believed to be stored deep underground, buried as a result of those U.S. airstrikes just last year.

So it remains to be seen, ultimately, what will happen to Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium, whether it will be resolved, an issue resolved by negotiations between the two countries or if the U.S. military will ultimately be called upon to attempt to go in and seize it themselves -- Zachary Cohen, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ABDELAZIZ: Now president Trump and the Justice Department said they have abandoned their controversial anti weaponization fund. Up next, we'll tell you why a federal judge is not ready to take their word for it.

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ABDELAZIZ: A federal judge has indefinitely blocked president Trump's anti weaponization fund. She says she is not convinced it has been shut down. The judge has given the administration a week to put that assurance in writing something.

Acting attorney general Todd Blanche told Congress he's not going to do it. More now from CNN's Katelyn Polantz.

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KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Two judges this week warning the Justice Department that anti weaponization fund that Donald Trump wanted to set up, to pay taxpayer money to people he believed were victims, potentially the January 6th rioters, would be even getting money.

There are judges saying, don't try doing that to the Justice Department. The latest came in a hearing on Friday where Judge Leonie Brinkema in the federal court in northern Virginia.

She put in place an indefinite court order, telling the Justice Department and the Trump administration they could not move forward with any fund under any name that would look like the anti weaponization fund that the Trump administration tried to establish a couple of weeks ago.

Now the reason that the judges are doing this, they are saying this because they clearly just don't believe the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, or the Justice Department. Judge Leonie Brinkema, she said that there seems to be evidence that this fund actually still could happen in some way, that it could, quote, "rear its head in some other guise."

And she specifically said at a hearing on Friday to a Justice Department lawyer that the acting attorney general has been unwilling to swear to his statements before Congress that the fund wasn't moving forward.

Also the president has talked about how important the fund is to him and how he feels it should go into effect.

And then she said, quote, "When the president of the United States says he's going to be disappointed if something doesn't happen, that's a pretty good indicator that there's going to be some incentive or motive to make it happen."

So the big issue here is that Blanche, the acting attorney general, as he awaits confirmation hearings, as there's been blowback from Congress about this fund, he's been saying publicly that he doesn't want the fund to go forward and that it won't go forward.

But nobody from the Justice Department is putting it in writing outside of court arguments. Nobody said it under oath. Nobody's sworn to it. And nobody's rescinded the actual settlement agreement in Florida.

And the Justice Department hasn't had much answers when judges have asked, why haven't you done this?

And so now, Judge Brinkema, not only is she blocking that fund or anything like it from moving forward.

She's also saying that, by next week, the Trump administration has the opportunity to put sworn statements from the Secretary of the Treasury and the attorney general and another top lawyer at the Justice Department that say they are not moving forward with the fund. We'll see what happens next here.

But it is one of those things that the court action isn't over, even if the administration is trying to send the message that they're not pushing this fund forward at this time. Back to you.

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ABDELAZIZ: Live pictures from the White House. You're looking at those now where the UFC fight on the South Lawn will go ahead as planned after a federal judge rejected a last-minute bid to block the event.

The judge ruled Friday that the two people who filed the lawsuit did not have legal standing to challenge it. He also added that canceling the event would cause significant financial harm since the UFC has already spent more than $60 million on this event.

Meanwhile, the UFC kicked off festivities on Friday with a news conference introducing the fighters on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Multiple fights are scheduled for Sunday, which is going to be president Trump's 80th birthday.

[04:50:00]

A destructive and deadly stretch of storms and tornadoes battered much of the U.S. Just ahead, we'll update you on the damage and have the full weekend forecast for you.

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(MUSIC PLAYING) ABDELAZIZ: The U.S. government has released a third batch of newly

declassified files related to unidentified aerial phenomena. They offer new details of UFO sightings that intelligence and law enforcement agencies have collected over several decades.

Some of the 72 never-before-seen files are of old sightings but several are more recent and many are firsthand accounts from civilians and military personnel who reported mysterious glowing orbs in the sky.

Severe weather conditions are expected to continue in the midwestern U.S. this weekend while dangerous storms are battering the eastern part of the country. In Indiana, a destructive and deadly outbreak of 17 reported tornadoes leveled homes and buildings.

Parts of neighboring Illinois were also affected. And in Virginia, a man was killed Friday after storms took down a massive tent at a large church event. Several other people were also hurt.

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ABDELAZIZ: And here in the U.K., we are getting ready to celebrate King Charles' official birthday today. The monarch visited members of the military yesterday ahead of today's Trooping the Colour ceremony and parade.

He presented the company commanders award and promoted three members of the battalion. King Charles' birthday is actually on November 14th but the ceremony marks the birthday officially and is usually held in June when the weather is nicer. And it is today.

Thank you so much for watching us. I'm Salma Abdelaziz. We'll be back with more news after a very quick break.