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U.S.-Iran Talks Postponed as Lebanon Clashes Strain Agreement; Ukraine Launches Largest Attack on Moscow of Full-scale War; Blue Material Peeling from Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool; Blue Matter, Algae Plague Reflecting Pool Amid $14m Renovation; Burnham Wins Parliament Seat as Pressure Mounts on Starmer. Aired 9-9:45a ET

Aired June 19, 2026 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN HOST, CONNECT THE WORLD: This is the scene in Beirut, where fresh attacks in Lebanon by Israel have put the U.S.-Iran

talks on hold and have drawn criticism from U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance. It's 04:00 p.m. there, and it's 02:00 p.m. here in the afternoon in London.

I'm Christina Macfarlane. This is "Connect the World". Also coming up, on Thursday, Ukraine launched its largest drone attack on Moscow since the

start of the war. And in the UK, pressure on Prime Minister Keir Starmer after the arrival wins a seat in parliament.

Now, only a day after it was signed, the U.S.-Iran agreement is facing its first test. Here's what we know today. Planned talks in Switzerland between

Tehran and Washington have been called off for now. This follows a new wave of deadly Israeli air strikes in Lebanon, sparked by a Hezbollah attack

that killed four Israeli soldiers.

That's despite the agreement declaring an end to the conflict on all fronts. Now CNN is hearing Tehran wants guarantees that hostilities in

Lebanon will end before resuming negotiations. U.S. President Donald Trump suggests the Memorandum of Understanding with Iran amounts to what he calls

an unconditional surrender.

Let's go straight out to CNN's Betsy Klein, who is in Washington. So, Betsy, one day after the U.S. and Iran signed this Memorandum of

Understanding that begins a 60-day negotiating period, the planned talks in Switzerland are called off for now, and the vice president has canceled his

trip.

So, what's the view on all this today in Washington, and where does that leave the agreement?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, Christina, I think we really cannot overstate how challenging this next round of negotiations is

going to be. This Memorandum of Understanding signed between the U.S. and Iran kick starts this 60-day negotiation period on some of the thornier

remaining issues.

And there is so much to discuss here, but Vice President J.D. Vance planned Thursday night departure for Switzerland, where he was going to start those

more technical discussions on what happens to Iran's nuclear material, was postponed. A White House official telling CNN they are quote, prepared to

depart at the first available opportunity.

But the root issue here really is the continued violence in Lebanon, that Israel carried out a wave of deadly strikes on Friday, that coming after

Hezbollah targeted an attack that killed four Israeli soldiers, even though this U.S.-Iran agreement was supposed to end this conflict more broadly.

Iran is now asking for guarantees that the hostilities will end before these talks can begin. And I asked if the U.S. is prepared to help ease

that process, move it forward. Is source familiar with the matter telling me that Hezbollah violated the ceasefire? Israel, they say, has agreed to

let it be, which was related to the Iranians, and it's up to Hezbollah to stop.

Now we've also learned, according to an Israeli source, that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not plan further retaliation at this time. But it's

unclear if all of this is going to be enough to get those talks back on track. Now, all of this as we are learning more about this process.

Now beyond that 14-point Memorandum of Understanding what was agreed to there. There are some more secret negotiations and things that have been

agreed to. Vice President J.D. Vance characterized that as gentlemen's agreements and said that some of them are in writing when asked by our

colleague Kristen Holmes yesterday.

Now, this includes more specifics on the way forward on Iran's nuclear program, but nothing is finalized yet. And it's also very possible sources

say, that the negotiations are never going to be able to reach a final agreement. So, we are watching all of this closely to see what the next

steps are, of course, the U.S. delegation standing by to potentially depart on that trip to Switzerland. We'll see if that happens this weekend.

MACFARLANE: Yeah, and I think many are still taking stock of what was said by Vice President J.D. Vance in that very bullish press conference

yesterday, when he strongly pushed back on Israel, on Israel's leadership, the idea that they should be questioning the U.S. on their stance.

Has there been any response, direct response from Israel to those comments today?

KLEIN: No, but I think the fact that Netanyahu has agreed in some capacity to limit this response to Hezbollah really underscores how President Trump,

his administration is applying very aggressive pressure on Israel.

[09:05:00]

So again, something we're watching very closely as for what the next steps are going to be, Christina.

MACFARLANE: All right, Betsy Klein, there. Appreciate it. Thank you. Well, this week Ukraine launched its largest drone attack on Moscow since the

start of the full-scale war. Video shows a huge explosion and black smoke rising in the air after a key oil refinery was hit.

Moscow's Mayor says Russian air defenses shot down nearly 200 drones bound for the capital. Earlier, CNN's Sebastian Shukla spoke to my colleague

Salma Abdelaziz about those attacks.

SEBASTIAN SHUKLA, CNN PRODUCER: Well, if we focus on the attacks, firstly, Salma, some of the images that we saw coming out of Moscow yesterday can

only be described as near cataclysmic, apocalyptic in ways, in pictures that we've not seen coming from Russia before.

Those huge plumes of black smoke shrouding the city was a reminder to Moscow and to the Kremlin in particular that the Ukrainians have been able

to develop weaponry and long range drone warfare and missiles so significantly that they are really able to hit Russia and Moscow at its

heart to be able to remind the Russian people that yes, despite what the president tells them on TV.

There is a major war that they are fighting, and it may not be one that they are necessarily winning. The kind of back and forth, the moving

picture in the race to arm themselves against each other in this war moves almost on a daily basis. What we see -- appear to see at the moment is that

the Ukrainians are really the ones with an upper hand here.

But both sides are trading blows like this against each other, Salma, and it's becoming now one of the questions is, do the Russians have enough air

defense systems to be able to defend themselves and their people? And now the other question also turns to whether President Putin reacts and what

his retaliation will be?

It appears to be that he is kind of running out of options militarily here without doing something that is potentially incredibly drastic, but I want

you to also take a listen to what the Ukrainian President had to say about the attacks yesterday and what he is calling for from the Europeans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE: We have the tools and they are strong enough to put Russia on path where diplomacy becomes the only

choice. We all see that Putin is now relying on one lasting thing constant missile attacks. And he has ballistic missiles, so we need anti-ballistic

capabilities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHUKLA: The European, Salma, as you mentioned, are having a meeting today, a summit in Brussels, where the heads of state are coming together, and

Ukraine is going to be one of the major topics of debate. I've been speaking to a couple of EU diplomats in Brussels who've kind of been

telling me that the mood in Brussels has changed very significantly.

And as a result of some of these attacks, those pictures from Moscow just yesterday, because they feel that the Ukrainians have the upper hand here.

There is now no longer a mood in Brussels where the Ukrainians may need to sue for peace to a certain extent.

They feel that actually now is not the time to engage Moscow at all, whilst they feel that more sanctions, continued drone strikes like we have seen

from the Ukrainians, and support from the Europeans in procurement of weapons and military products may well be the way to go.

There is debate that is starting to percolate through, about whether Europe should reengage Moscow in some way, and a lot of that is connected to the

Iran deal too, where the focus of the Trump Administration has been so far so focused on the Middle East. Now that, that deal may be in the rear-view

mirror.

There is a feeling, and we saw it from the G7 that the focus of the White House and of Donald Trump may be coming back to Ukraine, and the Europeans

now need to get their ducks in a row, Salma.

MACFARLANE: Well Israel's far-right Minister of National Security is pushing for more intense Israeli strikes on Lebanon after Hezbollah killed

four IDF soldiers. Itamar Ben-Gvir says, quote, for every tear shed by an Israeli mother, a thousand Lebanon mothers should cry.

All of Lebanon should burn. Well, Hezbollah, meantime, is accusing Israel of escalating violations of a ceasefire. Inflamed hostilities in Lebanon

are making the tenuous negotiations between the U.S. and Iran even more shaky. Let's bring in CNN's Nic Robertson, for more from Lucerne,

Switzerland, where that meeting was set to take place.

And Nic, as we've been hearing there, swift and strong reaction this morning from Israel, from Lebanon. Where does all of this leave the chances

of this meeting taking place, moving ahead at all?

[09:10:00]

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yeah, that's where they would be in that mountaintop, the Burgenstock Hotel, behind the mountain,

they're very placid, very scenic here, and of course, precisely environment you'd want to have negotiators negotiating through that 14-point Memorandum

of Understanding, because they're isolated and separated from the pressures at home.

But it is those pressures that are at the moment stalling the situation. And how did both sides get out of this? Well, Lebanon is very clearly

saying that they believe -- Iran is saying very clearly that they believe that the United States is responsible for what's happening in Lebanon, so

they are saying that they expect the United States to put pressure on Israel, that's the implication there to end their hostilities against

Hezbollah.

Clearly, Iran has to bring Hezbollah into an end of conflict right now with Israel as well. So that's where we seem to be. That's the path to get the

talks back on to find a way to get Israel and Hezbollah to agree to a ceasefire. And sources familiar with the talks process, who I'm speaking

with, are indicating that that is something that does seem to be on track to happen.

If that happens, this is the pathway to get those talks going. How quickly could they get back on track isn't clear. The vice president has said that

he is ready to go when the conditions are right. How long would it take for Iran, for example, if such a ceasefire was called? If it was -- if that was

the track, to be confident that it's going to hold.

All of these are the open questions, but what's fundamentally clear here is as it has been over the two months of trying to get to the Memorandum of

Understanding, the status of a ceasefire in Lebanon has been central, and Iran has indicated very clearly, and most recently today, from the foreign

ministry spokesman, that if that conflict there continues, the stability in the region is threatened, which is a diplomatic way of saying Iran could

return to firing missiles.

They're not saying that, but that is sort of implicit in that statement. So, the potential is for escalation, but right now, the signals that I'm

getting from diplomats working behind the scenes is that this does seem to be on a path to take the tension out of Lebanon right now, potentially get

the U.S. and Iran mediators sitting in tables at that hotel up there, potentially within days.

MACFARLANE: Yeah, and Nic, just for perspective on this, I mean, even as the Memorandum of Understanding was signed just yesterday, or day -- was

just yesterday. We knew that point number one of this 14-point document was always going to be the biggest and the earliest test that you know this

deal was going to face, and already we've seen that it's being challenged.

Do you get any sense that the mediators, that anyone involved in putting this deal together, should have been prepared for it, for this first point

to have been challenged so quickly, and that they should have been ready for this?

ROBERTSON: I think if we go back to when the ceasefire came into place, the first one to begin the talks to get the Memorandum of Understanding, that

was the ceasefire that ended the war that had begun on the 28th of February, and that ended, I think it was the eighth of April.

There was contention then about whether or not Lebanon was included in the agreement. The Pakistani Prime Minister, the Iranians said that Lebanon had

to be agreed in the ceasefire. The United States wasn't so clear. Iran appeared to apply pressure to the situation.

President Trump put pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu, and then the hostilities died down in Lebanon. So that's been ever present, and I think

it's been absolutely from the people close to the process that I talked to, ever present in their thinking from a mediation point of view.

This is something that's been on the agenda as well, and they have been, I think, very prescient of this particular issue, to the point that last

weekend, on Sunday, when already the Prime Minister of Pakistan had said that both sides had reached agreement. Israel struck Hezbollah targets in

Beirut because Hezbollah had struck inside of Israel.

And then there was a really fast push to get those electronic signatures last weekend. Part of the reason for that was because Iran was readying to

fire, understood to be readying to fire its missiles at Israel in response for Israel's strike on Beirut. So, I think there's been a huge amount of

diplomatic effort and readiness behind the scenes to combat this.

[09:15:00]

However, it doesn't matter how big your bucket of diplomatic water is to throw on a fire, if the fire is incendiary and explosive, as this one is.

You know, you can have a whole line of buckets ready, and it just isn't enough. You have to work at it, and that does take a little time, and that

seems to be what's happening now.

MACFARLANE: Nic Robertson from the picturesque backdrop of Lucerne will wait to see if they get to that hillside hotel behind you. Thanks very

much. Now, still to come, the dirty water in Washington. Any problem surfaces for this American landmark, despite a multimillion-dollar

renovation.

And Scottish football fans have made Boston their home during the World Cup. And bar owners have said they have been drunk dry.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACFARLANE: Turning now to a story where the details are literally murky. It's about one of President Trump's projects in Washington, the reflecting

pool at the Lincoln Memorial, just days after it was repainted and refilled in a $14 million renovation. There's now blue material peeling from the

bottom, as you can see there.

This comes after crews have struggled to get the algae problem under control. And despite all that, the Trump Administration says the pool is

crystal clear. CNN's Tom Foreman is joining us to delve back into the pool. And Tom, if it's not algae, it's -- what is this blue stuff peeling off the

bottom? Do we know?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We do not know what the blue stuff is peeling off the bottom. We don't know how much of it is. It sure looks like

what's supposed to be the new coating on the bottom, but we don't have any proof of that yet. And when I say we don't know how much it is, one of the

experts that we talked to about this sort of thing said, look, even if it is the blue stuff, it is an isolated problem, maybe that can be dealt with.

If it represents some broader problem, where trying to remove the algae is destroying the new sealant for $14 million and that's a bigger problem. But

take a look at this. This part down here is the most cleaned part of this multimillion-dollar pool of water. And it looks pretty good if you hit it

from the right angle back toward the Lincoln Memorial here. Get closer, it's a different story.

We're going to get to that in a minute, but now come up here. This is what has been going on hour after hour, workers out here with these sorts of

water vacuums trying to essentially just sort of vacuum the algae from the bottom of the pool here. And this isn't just in this area, that bright

green goes all the way up there toward the Washington Monument.

So really the vast majority of the pool here, and anybody can see it, that's the problem for the Trump Administration. This isn't some arcane

scientific matter. People passing by one after another are making comments. Listen to what they've had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It looks bad, I just say green, green slime.

[09:20:00]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pouring all that -- clearly didn't help. I feel for the ducks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN: And that really is the vast part of the area. Yes, they're putting ozone into the water, heavily oxygen generating it to try to stop the

growth of these algae, but I will tell you, this water comes from the Potomac River, not far away. The Potomac River, this time of year, when the

heat comes on, always has algae blooms.

This pool here has long had algae blooms. It's very hard to stop, and to go to that issue of it being crystal clear water, you just barely look here,

and you can see it is not crystal clear. There's still lots of things floating here. Algae come from microscopic spores, so there's no guarantee

that even as they're cleaning it up here that the algae aren't blooming again behind them or ready to do so, even though it might superficially

look better.

And most importantly, this whole thing was supposed to be bright and clear, and even though it was controversial, repainted this brilliant American

flag blue. See that spot of blue right there. That is about as much as you can see anywhere around the edge of this pond. And I've walked it over and

over again.

You go around the pool, there's very little of that blue color apparent, and most of it, like that, is still partially covered over with algae. That

is why this whole big project, which is supposed to be triumphant for the administration going into the fourth of July, is really anything but right

now, Christina.

MACFARLANE: Yeah, Tom, I mean it's not even going to be -- it's definitely not going to be ready for the 250th anniversary. Goodness knows when it's

going to be ready, if it keeps replenishing like you say there have a -- let's hope we see a few more of those blue chinks. Tom Foreman, appreciate

it.

They're down by the most politicized pool, I think, in history. And here in the UK, the Mayor of Greater Manchester has taken a major step towards a

possible bid to become the next prime minister, after winning a special parliamentary election in Makerfield, Thursday's vote was triggered with

the sole purpose of providing a path to 10 Downing Street for Andy Burnham, who was widely seen as the Labor politician best positioned to oust

embattled Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Starmer has vowed to fight any leadership challenge, cautioning his party against a bitter internal battle. CNN's Clare Sebastian has been following

this developing story from Makerfield, England, and she spoke earlier to Salma Abdelaziz.

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, look, I think the decisiveness of this victory, Salma, coming in well ahead of really any of the polls, they

all had him ahead, but not by this much. It was a 20-point lead over the Reform UK candidate, Robert Kenyon, in second place.

I think that strengthens his argument going forward, that he will be the guy, or could be the guy, that can change this country and that can

stabilize the Labor Party's grip on power. Now, throughout this campaign, part of what has made it sort of surreal to watch is that he has sort of

studiously avoided mentioning too much the ambitions he has to be Labor leader and prime minister, focusing really on local issues here.

I think the whole situation, frankly, was made more surreal last night by the order in which they placed the candidates on the stage, which showed

Andy Burnham standing in between Count Binface, who has essentially a trash can on his head, and another candidate dressed as a fox who is campaigning

for animal rights.

That was pretty surreal, and a surreal night overall. But as for what next, well, look, he didn't say much about this, but he made it clear in his

acceptance speech that he's going to shake things up. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDY BURNHAM, GREATER MANCHESTER MAYOR: -- but I do say to my own party, this is a final chance to change this is what people said directly to me on

the hundreds of doorsteps that I stood on. We must hear it, we must act upon it and we must get it right. There will be no second chance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: He's saying there will be no second chance, frankly, because the Labor Party is facing threats, as is frankly the Conservative Party, the

sort of edifice of this two-party system, facing threats from different parties on all sides, in particular in this constituency from the populist

right, especially Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage.

So, he is essentially saying, you know, this is the way to deal with that. As for sort of what we're going to see going forward, we expect a bit of a

lull over the weekend. Everyone is going to take a breath. Perhaps there'll be some behind the scenes wrangling, but next week Andy Burnham will set

off to London.

We expect will take up his position as a member of parliament, and at that point we could see things start to move, but nothing is confirmed as of

yet. So, again, we're still in this period of uncertainty for British politics, Salma.

[09:25:00]

MACFARLANE: Now, turning to the World Cup, and a side effect of the fans' fervor, Boston is dealing with a shortage of beer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At 150 kegs to tenants, so about four left, I think, right now until tomorrow, so that's pretty impressive. Chasing kegs about

one every three, four minutes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We sold just last week over 3000 pints of Boston Lager, equaling like 70 kegs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Bar owners are blaming the Tartan Army. They say with Scotland fans in town, they've gone through four times the amount of beer they would

sell on a normal holiday weekend.

One compared the alcohol consumption to the Champions League final, and St. Patrick's Day rolled into one. Well Scottish fans have flooded Boston for

the past week as their men's team play in the first World Cup in 28 years, and they're set to play Morocco just south of a city later today.

The pubs have been stocking up like Glasgow on a Friday night, I would say.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACFARLANE: Welcome back. I'm Christina Macfarlane in London, and you are watching "Connect the World". An update on our top story now. Israel's

military is being told to strike Hezbollah with force after four Israeli soldiers were killed by a militant group in Lebanon.

That comes after today's U.S.-Iran negotiations in Switzerland were called off. Tehran wants guarantees that hostilities in Lebanon will end before

resuming negotiations. U.S. markets are closed for a federal holiday, but we can take a quick check on oil prices. We can see that both U.S. and

Brent crude are down, but not much changed.

Traders figuring out what to make of the news that peace talks between the U.S. and Iran have been postponed. Prices have seen sharp declines this

week amid optimism that oil will once again be flowing through the Strait of Hormuz. Well Jakob Larsen is the Chief Safety and Security Officer at

one of the world's largest ship owner associations, BIMCO, and he joins me now from Copenhagen.

Thanks so much for your time. So, Marine Intelligence Firm AXSMarine says 25 commercial ships passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, and

that was the most since April. However, it is a drop in sort of -- in the ocean, compared to the pre-war levels we were at, practically and

logistically.

How quickly are these tankers going to be able to get moving, do you think? And at levels resembling what we had before the war?

[09:30:00]

JAKOB P. LARSEN, CHIEF SAFETY & SECURITY OFFICER AT BIMCO: At levels before the war, I think it's going to take a while. The situation currently, the

Strait of Hormuz is that there are still an estimated 600 ships or so waiting to get out of the strait, they sit in the Persian Gulf.

And in the Strait of Hormuz itself, there is a mine danger area in the whole central part of the strait. So, it's only really the inshore traffic

zones close to Iran and close to Oman that are safe to navigate. In addition to that, we have some complexity in the sense that there are

reports that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy are announcing on VHF that the strait remains closed until the U.S. Navy has withdrawn from

the area.

So, there's a lot of uncertainty right now, and right now it's not possible to say how quickly the situation can revert to normal, but you are right,

there are a few transits going in and out, and it has been like that for a few days now.

MACFARLANE: And you've said that the situation for shipping remains volatile with the key assurances missing from the initial deal. And what do

you mean by those key assurances?

LARSEN: When I talk about assurances, what we need is assurances from the U.S. and from Iran that there is safe water to sail in for the merchant

ships. And right now, we have, I would say, indications that there are safe routes established to the south and to the north, but the main traffic

separation scheme in the central part of the Strait of Hormuz is still mined.

And in addition, you have these reports from Iran, these announcements on the maritime radio that the strait is closed, and that any ship trying to

transit the strait will be met with force. So, all in all, the situation right now is very uncertain for shipping, and we urge utmost caution and

assessing risk carefully before deciding whether to transit or not.

MACFARLANE: Yeah, and as a question mark remains over the issue of tolls and fees in the Strait of Hormuz as well beyond that initial 60-day

agreement. How concerned are you, sort of looking ahead to what that might spell?

LARSEN: Yeah, that is also interesting. I mean, if you look at the MOU, it has some wording exactly referring to the 60 days that should be toll free,

and that sort of implies that after that, tolls might be imposed. Plus, you also have an announcement made by the Iranian Persian Gulf Strait Authority

that they require mandatory insurance to be signed before transiting the strait, once the transit really get going.

And so there are again a lot of uncertainties regarding what would it actually cost to transit the street. And here I just remind everyone that

before the conflict the strait was open to all, and it didn't cost any money to transit that strait. So, I think there are some concerns here, and

there are also potential unfortunate cascading effects to other parts of the world if tolls will now be charged in other choke points around the

world.

MACFARLANE: Yeah, it's a good reality check for where we were back in February before all of this began. Jakob Larsen, appreciate you being with

us. Thank you.

LARSEN: Thank you.

MACFARLANE: And we will be back after this quick break. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:35:00]

MACFARLANE: Welcome back. Athletes from across the region are in Tunisia this weekend for the 2026 Special Olympics Middle East and North Africa

Regional Games. Team UAE is set to compete in the beach games, with athletes taking on everything from volleyball to open water swimming to

triathlon.

Among them Noor Elakhder, Head of the games. Becky Anderson met Noor in Abu Dhabi to hear how sport has changed her life.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 3, 2, 1, go.

NOOR ELAKHDER, ATHLETE: Me, follow.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR: All me follow, OK.

N. ELAKHDER: Yeah.

ANDERSON (voice-over): This is Noor Elakhder, a UAE-based athlete of determination competing on an international stage.

N. ELAKHDER: -- so --

ANDERSON: Really?

N. ELAKHDER: -- open water, tackling, running.

ANDERSON: All of them?

N. ELAKHDER: Yeah.

MILENA MITIC, TRIATHLON COACH: You can do open water 1.5k and she will do triathlon super sprints.

ANDERSON: So, she's doing a 1.5k open water swim?

MITIC: Yes.

ANDERSON: And she's never easy?

MITIC: It's for her standard.

ANDERSON (voice-over): Noor's journey didn't begin with medals. Her health had become a real challenge, and her family was looking for a way forward.

What they found was sport.

AMANI ELAKHDER, NOOR'S MOM: Sport helping her improve lung and heart.

ANDERSON: So, she had open heart surgery.

A. ELAKHDER: Yes, since age four, she was diabetic, she was hypocrites, she was morbid obesity on medication now.

ANDERSON: Nothing?

A. ELAKHDER: Nothing.

ANDERSON: No medication?

ANDERSON: No medication.

ANDERSON (voice-over): And through it all, Noor's had her own team behind her, her mum and her brothers pushing her through the hard days and

celebrating every finish line.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She actually swam when she was four years old, and we call her a fish in our family. Yeah, that's how good she is. And yeah,

cycling only recently has she started learning it, like a few years ago, and then immediately she's starring in the Olympics in Berlin. Like, how --

ANDERSON: How does that make you feel?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Honestly, very proud.

ANDERSON: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because I used to cycle along with her. Honestly, kudos to her coaches, and her mom.

A. ELAKHDER: I'm so proud that she had this -- strong mind. Everyone has a mission. I didn't know my mission in my life, but she showed me. If you

push me, I will do more, so I will do more also.

ANDERSON (voice-over): All that work has paid off. In 2025 Noor took on Ocean Man becoming the first Arab Athlete with down syndrome and autism to

swim 2000 meters at the event.

A. ELAKHDER: Here in Abu Dhabi, and UAE in general, I didn't struggle with when I asked to put more in -- She's welcome, she's welcome.

MITIC: She's more open with the people, more socializing, and everyone knows her now, and she's sometimes she's enjoying this being superstar.

ANDERSON (voice-over): And as she prepares to compete again, Noor is not just representing herself. She is showing what possibility looks like.

ANDERSON: And it makes you feel happy. Does it?

N. ELAKHDER: Happy for a lot of me.

ANDERSON: Happy and proud of yourself.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: An incredible young lady, an inspiring story. Now they're probably still picking up their ticket tape in New York after the city's

massive parade Thursday, honoring the NBA champion Knicks. About 2 million people lined the streets of Manhattan to celebrate the team's first title

in more than half a century. CNN's Shimon Prokupecz was one of them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a party 53 years in the making as the New York Knicks marched in their first ever ticker-

tape parade.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Historic. We had to be here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was dope. It was magnificent.

PROKUPECZ (voice-over): The NBA champions danced and cheered as they rode down the famous Canyon of Heroes in Lower Manhattan. An estimated 2 million

emotional Knicks fans packed the streets and surrounding buildings.

[09:40:00]

Screaming, for starters, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, and loudest of all for NBA Finals MVP Jalen Brunson. Some fans even camped out all night on

the parade route. Others arrived early this morning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Seeing this right here, this is just once in a lifetime opportunity. That's why we all out here right now, 2o'clock.

PROKUPECZ (voice-over): The NYPD says it deployed more than 10,000 officers. Viewing areas were filled before 07:30 in the morning.

PROKUPECZ: You've been here since what time?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 04:00 a.m. baby, 04:00 a.m. for my Knicks.

PROKUPECZ (voice-over): The festivities lasted more than three hours.

PROKUPECZ: We saw the mayor on the float with OG. Just an incredible moment to take in and to see and to watch the pure joy and happiness that people

are experiencing at this moment.

PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Many former Knicks joined the parade. Patrick Ewing and Larry Johnson and legend Walt "Clyde" Frazier, who played for the last

Knicks team to win a title in 1973. Knicks center Mitchell Robinson waved from the top of his custom pickup truck.

Celebrity Knicks fans also took part. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani released a hype video moments before the parade.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are New York City --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies and gentlemen, your 2026 NBA champion New York Knicks.

PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Mamdani presented the team symbolic keys to the city.

ZOHRAN MAMDANI, NEW YORK MAYOR: For 53 years we watched, for 53 years we waited. Now we've won.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Damn, we really did it --

PROKUPECZ (voice-over): While Alicia Keys closed out the emotional day with her iconic New York theme song, "Empire's State of Mind".

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: Amazing, I'm sure there were some saw heads waking up in New York this morning. That is, it for this hour. I'll be back at the top of

the hour, and stay tuned for "World Sport" coming up after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:45:00]

(WORLD SPORT)

END