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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson

Scandal-Plagued Platner Captures Democratic Senate Nomination; Tehran Targets U.S. Forces In Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait; Steve Hilton Advances In California Governor Race; U.S. House Passes $70 Billion Bill to Fund ICE, Border Patrol; Protesters Torch Cars, Buildings In Belfast After Knife Attack; Xi Jinping And Kim Jong Un Seek Stronger China-North Korea Ties In Rare Visit; Students Reflect On School Year Without Cellphones; Students Reflect on School Year without Cellphones; Reuniting with Habiba, One Year On; U.S. Senator Chris Murphy on "Crisis of the Common Good". Aired 1-2a ET

Aired June 10, 2026 - 01:00   ET

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

[01:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SERENA WILLIAMS, 23-TIME GRAND SLAM SINGLES CHAMPION: And missed one in practice. But yes, that was a little embarrassing out there. But you know, the good news is we can do better. I can do better.

VICTORIA VANESSA, PROFESSIONAL TENNIS PLAYER: I don't know about. You did great. Both could always -- there's always room for improvement. You know.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: Williams and Mboko advanced the quarterfinals. But when asked about playing doubles at this year's Wimbledon, Serena said, quote, it's a day at a time. Remember, she's 44 years old.

Thanks for watching the first hour of The Story Is. The next hour starts right now.

The story is in Iran, new military action after a U.S. helicopter is downed.

The story is in Maine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRAHAM PLATNER, U.S. SENATE DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE: Redemption is not just some simple or easy destination. It's a journey.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: A big night at the polls for Senate candidate Graham Platner, but could he soon be replaced as the Democratic nominee?

And the story is in California. I go one on one with Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy. Why he says our society isn't focused on the common ground.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Los Angeles, The Story Is with Elex Michaelson.

MICHAELSON: We begin here with breaking news from Iran. New video just in of strikes and counter strikes happening in the Middle East. Let's see this. Look at it here.

Iran says it launched attacks on U.S. targets in the region following U.S. strikes on Iran in response to the downing of an Army Apache helicopter. This is the first time we've seen this video just coming into CNN. This footage here appears to show a bright flash coming from the direction of the U.S. 5th Fleet Naval Facility in Bahrain where the cause of the flash was not immediately clear. Iran said earlier that it launched a drone attack on the 5th Fleet headquarters in the area.

The Jordanian military says it intercepted five missiles from Iran after Iran said it had targeted a U.S. base there. All this after the U.S. military launched what officials called self-defense strikes against Iran. U.S. Central Command says those strikes are now complete. CNN's Ivan Watson joins us now from Hong Kong.

Ivan, I thought this was supposed to be a ceasefire. Certainly doesn't feel like it.

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's very fiery, that's for sure. Look, there's a lot of messaging going on as these enemies are also firing deadly munitions at each other. When the U.S. military's Central Command put out its statement saying that it was carrying out operations, as you pointed out, it described it as self- defense strikes for what it says was Iran's downing of an Apache attack helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz on Monday night, the two pilots survived that they were rescued out of the sea.

So the U.S. military says that US Air Force and Navy fighter jets that they bombed ground control stations, surveillance radar sites and Iranian air defense near the Strait of Hormuz. So these are areas like Qeshm Island, Bandar Abbas and Jask County. And it followed up by saying this was a proportional response.

And then we have a U.S. official telling CNN, this is kind of a warning. President Trump himself told ABC News that this was a response for the helicopter downing and that there was still an opportunity for negotiations between the two sides to continue.

So that's the message that Washington sending. Hey, we did this to retaliate, and now we're done. OK, let's get back, apparently to the negotiating table. The question is, how will Iran respond? And we're seeing that they fired back.

MICHAELSON: Washington essentially trying to say, OK, you did that, we did this, we're done. We checked our boxes. What do you read into the fact that Iran fired back? It doesn't seem to be particularly good news for that negotiation.

WATSON: You know, I heard retired Colonel Leighton describe it as an escalation ladder. So the U.S. says we're retaliating for the helicopter. Iran then goes, okay, you bomb us now we're going to fire a bunch of missiles and drones at your targets. They say they fired at the headquarters of the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet in Bahrain, which was targeted in the first days of the war in March.

We've seen that there were air raid sirens there, and we've seen a flash, no confirmation of damage. They also claim to have fired ballistic missiles at an air base that they say houses U.S. F-35 fighter jets in Jordan. And the Jordanian military has confirmed that it downed five missiles. No injuries reported, no damage around the area where that air base would be.

Also reports of Kuwaiti air defense going off against some kind of hostile projectiles.

[01:05:04]

So we have a retaliation to the American retaliation. And then the question is that the end, or will the Trump administration feel an obligation to retaliate to Iran's retaliation, which would put this very shaky ceasefire in a whole new level of fragility?

MICHAELSON: Ivan Watson, thank you for that. Let's expand on what Ivan was just talking about with our CNN national security analyst, Alex Plitsas, who is also the director of the Counterterrorism Project at the Atlantic Council. Alex, thanks for being with us.

You know, you have some fresh reporting on just how close all the sides were to actually reaching a memorandum of understanding before this latest round of escalation. What are you hearing now?

ALEX PLITSAS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes, so reports that were coming in from mediators in the region confirmed what our colleague Fred Pleitgen was hearing on the ground in Tehran, as well as our White House correspondent, that the United States and Iran were fairly close to a memorandum understanding. We've heard the White House say that multiple times over the last several months, but it appears we're actually pretty close.

And our colleague David Sanger had also reported earlier that the last couple of pieces that needed to come into place were a few elements around the nuclear issue that were just about to be finalized. And all of this was just before the Israelis had struck in Beirut, which then triggered that cycle of violence that we saw the other day.

Now, earlier, obviously we saw the pilots that had been down and we saw the retaliation over the last few hours. Still unclear if that's completely disrupted the negotiations.

MICHAELSON: Now, in terms of those pilots being down, one of the amazing things is that they were rescued by an unmanned -- unmanned surface drone that essentially picked up the pilots and then they were all good. So clearly nobody was at risk because there's no people inside this drone. What do you make of how that works? And also sort of what a landmark moment that is for the history of military warfare.

PLITSAS: So certainly a first in having an unmanned system perform this rescue operation. My understanding in speaking to U.S. officials is that this unmanned surface vehicle that was, you know, put in patrol, for lack of a better term, on the surface of the water there, was then repurposed last minute to then go ahead and go grab these pilots.

So a little bit of ingenuity and thinking on the part of our folks down at U.S. Central Command who determined that they could use this asset to go ahead and do that. So it was repurposed and actually moved both of those aviators to another location to where they could be picked up out of the water because to your point earlier, it was too dangerous to send either manned aircraft or helicopters into that area. And so it prevented us from having to put additional force at risk in it. Reflective of where we're going in the future of warfare.

MICHAELSON: Yes. I mean, it sort of opens up a whole new can of worms on how to do things. And the good news here, it was able to save two lives, which is really extraordinary. Alex Plitsas, thanks for staying up late with us. We really appreciate it. Always great to talk with you.

PLITSAS: You, too. Thanks for having me.

MICHAELSON: It is election night in America and results are rolling in following the latest rounds of high stakes U.S. primaries. In Maine's Senate race, CNN projects that Graham Platner will secure the Democratic nomination. He'll face incumbent Senator Susan Collins in what's expected to be one of the most closely watched battles of the November midterms.

But Platner's winning win comes despite several scandals looming over his campaign, which he once again addressed in a speech to supporters. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PLATNER: Now, the national pundits, the political establishment, they keep looking for that one story, that one headline, that one moment in my life that they can define the campaign by. But in trying so hard to understand me, they failed to understand that this is not about me at all. This is a movement about us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: In South Carolina, CNN projects longtime senator and staunch Trump ally Lindsey Graham will once again secure the Republican nomination. He will face off against Democrat Annie Andrews in November.

And one week after we were all together doing California's election night in America, we finally have a projection in the governor's race. Trump backed Republican Steve Hilton will advance, set to face off against Democrat Javier Becerra, who has now been endorsed by California's current governor Gavin Newsom and basically the entire Democratic establishment in like 15 minutes tonight. Here to help us unpack all of.

This is CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein, who wrote today about Graham Platner in Bloomberg. We'll talk about your piece in a moment, Ron, but let's start with your big picture take on Graham Platner tonight and the -- and the number that he got given the fact that he's not really running against anybody.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, I mean, it was -- it was solid, it was strong.

[01:10:00]

And he's right that there is a movement that he has helped to kindle in Maine. But the question is whether that movement is 50 percent of the vote, right? I mean, if you look at Susan Collins, she is a true anomaly or unicorn. She is the last Republican senator, as we've discussed before, left out of the 38 in the 19 states that have voted three times against Donald Trump. She is the only Republican Senate incumbent or challenger who, according to the exit polls, won during Trump's first term in a state where more people disapproved than approved of his performance as president.

She's also the only Republican senator, according to the exit polls, who won more than 8 percent of voters who disapproved of Trump. Her superpower is that she wins a lot of Maine voters who don't like Trump, especially older women. And the risk to Democrats is that Platner's weaknesses overlap precariously with her strengths.

MICHAELSON: Your column, as we mentioned on the Maine Senate race, was entitled Maine Democrats' Platner Mess has an Escape Hatch. Democrats cannot force out Platner, but Maine's election law allows the state party to replace it if he withdraws by July 13.

Now, the outcome of this crowded primary you wrote could create a compelling argument for him to reconsider. Do you still think that after you see the outcome and describe how he potentially could be replaced?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Well, look, I mean, you can't say that Platner cannot win with Trump's disapproval in the state over 60 percent and with Collins clearly weaker than she was in 2020, because Brett Kavanaugh in the interim, who she promised would not overturn Roe v. Wade, voted on the Supreme Court to do exactly that.

So it is possible that Platner can win. It is possible that any Democrat can win, but he certainly makes it a lot to than it would be otherwise. Because, as I said, that if you look at the kind of issues that are swirling around him and the voters that are likely to be moved the most by them, they are exactly the same kind of voters who have saved Collins in the past, which are white women over 45 who don't like Donald Trump. Graham Platner doesn't want to go anywhere. His national backers like

Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, I think, are so determined to prove that their model is right on how to win races again for Democrats running populist, anti-corporate outsiders, that they are unwilling on current facts to put any pressure on him to reconsider.

But the state party, the state party, as we said, the Democrats cannot force him out. But if Platner does voluntarily withdraw, they have -- he can do so until July 13, and they would have until July 27 to pick an alternative. As I said on current facts, he doesn't want to do it. More revelations, bad polls between now and then could change the equation.

Because, Elex, it is very difficult for Democrats to put together the math to win a Senate majority without flipping Maine. If they can't flip Maine, they have to win at least three states that Donald Trump carried by double digits in 2024. And that is a tall order even in a wave year.

MICHAELSON: Almost impossible to pull something like that off.

Meanwhile, one week ago tonight, you were sitting in this chair next --

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

MICHAELSON: -- to me talking about the California election. They're still counting ballots tonight. But now we do have a projection that is going to be Steve Hilton, the Republican, against Javier Becerra, the Democrat.

Tom Steyer, the Democrat who spent over $200 million on the race, coming up just short. He's not going to make it in the top two. It will be a Democrat versus Republican race. Steve Hilton was with us last hour saying, you know, I got to make a compelling case for change to independents and Democrats.

And how do you see that race? And sort of the real challenge for him.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes, the lesson -- the secondary point first, you know, Tom Steyer not winning on the same night that Graham Platner wins underscores what I, what I said to you last week, which is that there really isn't a clear winner in the Democratic ideological battle so far between left and right.

Each side has had their successes and their failures. There isn't like an unequivocal signal coming from Democratic primary voters. Look, Steve Hilton is now running in a state where Democrats routinely, as you know, are winning 60 to 65 percent of the vote. Republicans are around 35 percent to 40 percent of the vote in statewide races. Donald Trump's approval rating is 30 percent. And Steve Hilton has basically made the same calculation that the Republican nominees did in New Jersey and Virginia last year, where they refused to criticize Trump even when he was doing things that clearly hurt the state.

And he and Hilton, although I think he is being quite effective at articulating the reasons for a lot of discontent in California. He's basically making the argument the state would better off as someone who works with Trump than stands up to him and fights him.

[01:15:04]

And I simply do not see how that argument gets more than 38 or 40 percent of the vote in California failed in Virginia and New Jersey. And I think when you look at all of the ways that Trump is putting pressure on California, from deploying ICE to cutting Medicaid, to threatening UCLA and the UC system repeatedly, I just don't think that posture is really, you know, sellable in, in a blue state, you have to say, I will stand up for the state, regardless. If Trump is doing something that helps the state, I'll work with him.

If he's endangering the state, I will fight him. But you don't hear that from Republican candidates in blue states. And I think it's going to be very hard for them until you do.

MICHAELSON: We will see if maybe Steve Hilton starts to change on that.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

MICHAELSON: He clearly needed Trump to get through to the next round. Now that he is, does Trump, frankly, give him some space to maybe throw a few of those lines in there to try to get him over the top? And does Hilton take a different approach?

Didn't sound that different when he joined us about a half hour ago --

BROWNSTEIN: No.

MICHAELSON: -- but we'll see in the weeks ahead. And if he's on a debate stage with Javier Becerra, if he's got a different tactic, he's a pretty smart guy who knows how to read a poll. So we'll see what Steve Hilton does. You'll be with us every step of the way.

Real quickly.

BROWNSTEIN: By the way, real quick. Susan Collins is the one Republican in the Senate they give that leash to.

MICHAELSON: Right. And look how that's worked out for her pretty, pretty effectively. Yes. Ron Brownstein, thanks for joining us. It'll be fun to be with you every step of the way going forward on all these races.

Let's talk about Washington now. You're looking a live picture out of Capitol Hill. Big developments there tonight. Just hours ago, House Republicans sent a $70 billion immigration enforcement package to President Trump for his likely signature.

The bill fully funds the Department of Homeland Security, including ICE and Customs and Border Protection, for the rest of the president's term. Remember, Democrats had blocked Congress from approving any money for those agencies after federal agents killed two citizens in Minnesota in January. There was that shutdown. There were the long lines at the airports, everybody, all that mess, everything to try to stop this from happening.

But in the end, that didn't work. President Trump getting nearly everything he wanted in this bill, with one big exception. A billion dollars in security upgrades for the White House that he wanted, which would have included $200 million for his East Wing ballroom project. It'll be interesting to see where he finds that money because clearly he seems pretty focused on getting that ballroom done soon.

The story is Northern Ireland on authorities there are hoping for calm after a day of violence with protesters setting fire to vehicles and homes in Belfast. Check this out. The unrest flaring after police charged a Sudanese man with attempted murder in connection with a knife attack on Monday that left another man seriously injured. This video shows bystanders rushing in to try to stop that attack.

Anti-immigration sentiment has spread to other cities in the U.K. sparking smaller protests in Glasgow and London. Police say the suspect had a legal right to reside in Northern Ireland. Authorities say their investigation into the stabbing is still in the early stages and officials across the U.K. are now condemning the unrest.

Still to come, China and North Korea look ahead to a new era of partnership. What the Chinese leader aimed to accomplish on his trip to Pyongyang. We go live to China, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:22:51]

MICHAELSON: We are learning more about Chinese leader Xi Jinping's motivations for his first trip to North Korea in seven years. He returned home Tuesday after meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The leaders agreed to strengthen ties between the two countries. CNN senior China reporter Simone McCarthy joins me from Beijing with more. Is this the visit really aimed at Kim Jong Un, or is this more aimed at President Trump?

SIMONE MCCARTHY, CNN SENIOR CHIAN REPORTER: Well, that's certainly a fair question, Elex. There's going to be a number of diplomatic calculations that are going into the timing of this trip, not only U.S.-China relations, but also North Korea's relationship with Russia. This is Chinese leader Xi Jinping's first time visiting North Korea in seven years.

And a lot has changed in that time. In particular, Russia and North Korea have signed a mutual defense treaty. We have Russian soldiers that are fighting in support of Russia's war in Ukraine. Kim Jong Un has continued to ramp up his nuclear arsenal. And U.S.-China competition has only deepened.

And so for Xi, this was really an important moment to reassert China's role as North Korea's principal international partner and also ensure that it doesn't drift too far to Russia, as well as signaling to the United States that Xi still has Kim Jong Un's ear, that it has leverage in the relationship with North Korea.

And of course, we know that North Korea's nuclear program is incredibly important to U.S. President Donald Trump. It was a key focus during his first term. And so having that kind of relationship with Kim may also strengthen Xi's hand in U.S.-China relations.

MICHAELSON: And Xi dropped any mention of denuclearization. What message is he sending with that?

MCCARTHY: That has been such an area of focus in this trip. And if we compare it to 2019, which was the last time that Xi Jinping went to Pyongyang, the language is so different there. We had Xi Jinping reiterating China's support of denuclearization on the Korean peninsula. That language was completely omitted this time around.

[01:25:00]

Now, this isn't the first time that we haven't seen that language, Elex. Kim Jong Un was in Beijing for a military parade last fall. We also didn't see it stated there. There's been other documents that it hasn't been in.

But observers are questioning whether or not this is a tacit acceptance by Beijing of North Korea as a nuclear state. And remember, in 2023, North Korea enshrined its nuclear development, nuclear weapons development into its constitution. And so this may be a message from Xi that he just doesn't see this as the right moment to push North Korea in that direction.

MICHAELSON: And lastly, sort of what's the big picture takeaway from this trip, Simone?

MCCARTHY: One of the things that I thought was really interesting is that of course, there was a lot of pomp and platitudes from these two leaders, as we would expect in this kind of visit. But there was also a lot of concrete statements from Xi Jinping about the kind of cooperation that he wants to advance in this new era of relations with North Korea.

So he talked about strengthening exchange in military areas, diplomacy, law enforcement. He also talked about deepening trade and scientific cooperation, which are, of course, things that would be incredibly appealing to North Korea as a sanctions ridden and isolated state.

And so it'll be very interesting to watch going forward how some of these really concrete kinds of cooperation and exchange with will play out in the coming months and years because frankly, Elex, we did not see such level of specificity in recent meetings between these two.

MICHAELSON: Simone McCarthy live for us in Beijing, where it is now 1:30 -- 1:26 in the afternoon on Wednesday. Simone, thank you.

The story is a year without phones at school. The state of New York started banning smartphones from classrooms in May of last year. Now some students and teachers say they're enjoying the change. CNN's Clare Duffy takes a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So as usual, when I call your name, just go put it for a --

CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH REPORTER: What was your first reaction when you heard that this phone ban policy would be going into place this year?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was kind of expecting it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The phone ban was kind of inevitable.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wasn't really bothered by the rule.

DUFFY (voice-over): The students at Philippa Schuyler Middle School in Brooklyn aren't the only ones who had to get used to a phone ban this school year. It's a trend that's gaining steam around the but for these students in the nation's largest school district, the policy is getting an A plus.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The phone ban has made us a lot more socializing because normally the phone would actually provide a distraction. But now when students are bored, they have no option but to talk to each other.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of students were still a little bit skeptical about, like, putting their phones in the lockbox, but it definitely provides a better learning experience.

DUFFY: Do you feel like that you have made better friends this year?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would say in Ryan's and I class, like, everybody just, like, fit. And it's just like we got so close to a point where we don't even need our phones to socialize with each other.

JANICE BRUCE, PRINCIPAL, PHILLIPPA SCHUYLER MIDDLE SCHOOL: I've been in the system long enough to know there was a time when that was never a problem.

DUFFY: Right.

BRUCE: Right.

DUFFY (voice-over): The law, signed by Governor Kathy Hochul last spring, requires schools to store smartphones and other Internet enabled personal devices from bell to bell. And longtime educators say they're seeing an impact in the classroom and in the lunchroom.

BRUCE: What happens in the cafeteria is that kids are sitting together. When you have a cell phone, you are single user, you are on your own, and the only thing that matters is what's in front of you in your hands. When you now have just humans interacting.

DUFFY: Do you see this having an impact on academics as well? BRUCE: Oh, for sure. I can tell you from last year to this year to this past year, my ELA scores went up. My literacy scores are up. So literacy has to do with reading, writing, listening, speaking, taking away the phones allow you to do all of those things.

DIANA COLLADO, 8TH GRADE ENGLISH TEACHER: They're speaking to each other a few minutes before class begins. Prior to the cell phone ban, they will be on their phones until we said, OK, now we're going to start teaching. Now we're ready to learn.

CARLA HOYTE, 7TH GRADE ENGLISH TEACHER: You get to see the interaction and how it's changed over the years.

DUFFY (voice-over): The ban was initially met with some opposition, largely from parents who argued that being able to keep in touch with their children at school was a matter of safety.

HOYTE: There's still anxiety there from the parents. They still want to be able to get in contact with their child throughout the day. It's always that what if scenario.

DUFFY (voice-over): To address those concerns, the law requires schools to provide a way for parents to get in touch with students in case of emergency.

MARK RAMPERSANT, CHIEF OF SAFETY AND PREVETION PARTNERSHIP, NYC DOE: For every one of our schools, there's a designated number where you get a direct person, a live person, in the event of an actual emergency.

DUFFY (voice-over): Other concerns included how schools would keep kids off their phones. A report published by the National Bureau of Economic Research in April found schools that used yonder pouches to restrict phones did cut down on screen time. But schools initially saw disciplinary incidents rise and reports of student well-being fall.

Although those trends reversed in later years. They also found little evidence that the restrictions benefited test scores.

[01:30:00]

Philippa Schuyler switched their approach this year.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With the Yondr pouches, there were only three stations across the entire school where you could unlock it, so when it was actually time to go, the places were so crowded.

DUFFY: New York is one of 35 states that now ban or limit cell phones in classrooms, a trend many students at Philippa Schuyler support.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I believe we can collaborate better with our phones.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I believe that more students are more engaged in learning classroom discussions, better grades like I used to get like 80. Now I get like 90. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You do gain more friendships and build better

bonds with like your friends and the people around you.

DUFFY: Clare Duffy, CNN -- New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: She survived against all odds. Now, this little girl from Gaza is thriving in her new home abroad. Little Habiba's incredible story of survival next.

[01:30:45]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELSON: Welcome back to THE STORY IS. I'm Elex Michaelson.

Let's take a look at today's top stories.

Iran says it launched attacks on U.S. targets in the region following U.S. strikes against Iran. U.S. military launched what officials called self-defense strikes in response to the downing of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter. U.S. Central Command says those strikes are now complete.

CNN projects Democrat Graham Platner will win his party's nomination in Maine's Senate primary. His upcoming race against incumbent Senator Susan Collins will be key to Democrats' efforts to flip control of the Senate in the November midterms.

The U.S. Social Security Retirement Trust Fund is running out of money faster than expected. According to the agency's Board of Trustees, the fund will be exhausted in late 2032, one quarter earlier than previously forecast.

THE STORY IS a triumph of love, life over devastating loss.

One year after being medically-evacuated from Gaza, a Palestinian girl is thriving in her new home in Jordan.

CNN's Jomana Karadsheh first brought us this story and recently caught up with the little girl and her family. A warning: some video in Habiba's story is disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The little girl that captivated the hearts of so many, on her journey to the brink of death and back. A journey that we brought you a year ago that began in Gaza's hospitals, where doctors had nothing left to save.

Habiba al-Askari, the Palestinian toddler, was suffering from a rare medical condition, with gangrene spreading in her body.

Her mother, through CNN, appealed for help. Following our report, Jordan's King Abdullah ordered Habiba's evacuation for urgent life- saving treatment.

And we're now back in Amman to visit Habiba, seeing Suhaib (ph) her only brother, and their mother, Rana (ph) again is an emotional reunion for me and producer Abeer Salman.

We found a totally different Habiba, a happy and chatty child.

Habiba, how old are you?

Three and a half. That's how old Habiba is now.

HABIBA AL-ASKARI, EVACUATED FROM GAZA: Come here.

KARADSHEH: Her spirit and smile almost makes you forget what she has been through -- a life-altering, triple amputation.

RANA YOUSIF, HABIBA'S MOTHER: If she arrived earlier, they wouldn't have to amputate her arms, neither her leg. Can save Habiba.

The delay of her arrival delayed everything and caused everything that happened to Habiba. May God not forgive those who were responsible. I do not forgive them.

KARADSHEH: Israeli authorities never gave a reason for repeatedly delaying Habiba's evacuation last year. As soon as she got here, doctors told us to save her life, they had to amputate both her arms and right leg.

YOUSIF: Habiba couldn't stop asking me, "Mama, where are my fingers? Mama where is my leg?"

So I told her, "Your hands are in heaven." So we had two options, Habiba. Either God forbid, you die. And I explained to her what death means. Or we amputate them so you stay alive.

So I asked what would be her choice. She said, "I don't want to die."

KARADSHEH: Habiba is excited to take us around this compound that's now home. The SOS Children's Village, a refuge for Jordanian orphans that's now also hosting families from Gaza receiving treatment in Amman.

Rana is a mother on a mission, making sure nothing feels out of reach for her baby girl. The other rock in Habiba' life has been Suhaib. His sister is his whole world and he is hers.

But beneath that brave face and warm smile is a 12-year-old boy's trauma that has in many ways been overshadowed by his sister's ordeal.

As we sit down for a chat, it doesn't take long to see that Suhaib, too, carries the hidden scars of Gaza.

SUHAIB AL-ASKARI, HABIBA'S BROTHER: What I went through cannot be forgotten. A child's mind cannot comprehend these things.

KARADSHEH: What are these things. S. AL-ASKARI: Bombardment, hunger, destruction, martyrs, bodies strewn

in front of me. When we were displaced, I would have to skip over bodies.

KARADSHEH: But its remembering how Habiba once was that breaks him.

[01:39:44]

S. AL-ASKARI: I remember how she used to run to come to me when I was carrying the water. When I was carrying the water, she would run up to me wanting to help.

KARADSHEH: He notices Habiba is looking at him. It seems he has to hold it all in.

After running around all day, Habiba has had enough of her prosthetic leg. She wants to show us her ouchie.

She feels pain. That's why she asked to take her prosthetic off.

To try and get her mind off the pain, I ask what she enjoys doing.

H. AL-ASKARI: I like to sing.

KARADSHEH: Sing me a song.

Habiba enjoys singing.

For Rana, being separated from her husband and her children from. Their father is incredibly hard. But returning to a Gaza in ruins would be a death sentence for Habiba, she says.

Habiba has found a new chance at life. She's starting nursery now. The road ahead will not be easy, but nothing seems impossible for this determined little warrior who is ready to fight the odds.

Jomana Karadsheh, CNN -- Amman.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAELSON: What a great story.

For our international viewers, "WORLDSPORT" is next. For our viewers in North America, I'll be right back.

[01:41:43]

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MICHAELSON: U.S. Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut is taking his new book on tour, "Crisis of the Common Good: The Fight for Meaning and Connection in a Broken America". It was just released in late May. In it, the senator says the key to happiness is community, relationships and love.

As you see here, I had the opportunity to speak with him right here in California over the weekend at the Writers Block Literary Series.

Here's part of our conversation.

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SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): This is a book about happiness. And it's appropriate, I think, because we are celebrating 250 years since the most radical phrase in this country's history was put down on paper.

"The Declaration of Independence" says that governments job is not to set a certain GDP, not to focus on the rate of unemployment, not to increase kids' test scores.

No, that document says government should guarantee people the ability to seek happiness, right. Government is supposed to be in the happiness business.

And what this book really says is that Trump is certainly the main character, but he is not the cause of the unhappiness epidemic in this country. He is a symptom of it that we have deliberately, over the last 50 years, call it, constructed an economy and a culture that makes it harder than ever before for people to be happy.

The thing that our own lives and empirical data tell us over and over again has the most to do with happiness is serving in common purpose with your neighbors for the betterment of your community.

You feel the best when you are working with others to make your community better. You feel best when you have love and strong relationships in your life. You feel best when you feel a sense of belonging to something that's bigger than yourself.

And government, to my mind, has just been focused on a lot of the wrong things.

MICHAELSON: You break it down into six cults. You call the cults of profit, the cult of everywhere, cult of technology, cult of consumption, cult of credentialism, and the cult of corruption.

Let's start with that cult of profit. And this concept that the bottom line is more important than the community.

MURPHY: The cult of profit is simply this. Why have we chosen to measure the health of our economy based only upon the question of how much profit a company is making?

I think this has left people feeling really cold, really abused, really empty that our economy doesn't care about them. All it cares about is the return a company makes.

So the book says, listen, the choice is not between profit-obsessed market fundamentalism on one hand and socialism on the other. There's something in between, something you might call common good capitalism. Capitalism that rewards companies that do more than just earn a profit.

MICHAELSON: What are you hearing from a federal perspective on social media regulation and talk about why that issue is so bipartisan?

MURPHY: When A.I. comes along, paired with social media and it is able to perform for you every human function better than you can perform it. When we outsource to the machines creativity, composition, critical thinking, even friendship. I think there's just incalculable spiritual rot that ultimately likely results in societal decay and explosion.

So I want us to understand these technologies, not just through an economic prism, but through a spiritual prism as well.

And yes, there are lots of people on the right who watch what these companies are doing to their kids and want desperately for a solution.

So I just had one of the most conservative members of the Republican Senate Caucus come to me last week and say, it's time for us nationally to adopt a version of Australia's law no social media --

MICHAELSON: Who said that?

[01:49:49]

MURPHY: -- for 16 and under. I can't tell you yet because we haven't introduced --

MICHAELSON: It's the news, come on.

MURPHY: -- we haven't introduced the bill.

MICHAELSON: Yes.

MURPHY: Well, but I'll give you an example of a bill I do have with another very conservative Republican Senator Josh Hawley from Missouri, who like -- yes, ok. get it out of your system.

(CROSSTALKING)

MURPHY: All right. All right. I knew -- I knew what that name would elicit. All right. But Josh Hawley and I have a bill that says these friendship chatbots that kids are starting to use at scale should be treated as poison, like a cigarette and banned for all kids under 18 years old.

And this is a -- this is a -- yes, that's a good idea, right.

But it all links back to the final chapter of the book. The final chapter of the book is the cult of corruption. And the reason that we aren't doing what people want us to do on these technologies is because our whole system of government is corrupt.

MICHAELSON: How can we all be a part of the solution to make the world a little more common good?

MURPHY: Serving your community, joining others in that service. It was just like a simple little reminder that that's what brings happiness. And so yes, that's what government should be doing, is making it easier for people to gain access to that kind of service, that kind of endorphin rush.

But we can all do that more often in our own lives, not just because it will make us feel better to give a little bit, maybe even just 30 minutes, an hour a day. But because it models for other people, the idea that not everything is politics.

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MICHAELSON: Our thanks to Sonnenberg Shots for shooting that more than an hour-long conversation. You can watch the full exchange right now at youtube.com/ElexMichaelson.

Still to come, how the Trump family is hoping to market and profit from the upcoming UFC fight on the White House lawn.

[01:51:33]

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MICHAELSON: President Trump's sons are using his face to sell silver and gold coins priced as high as $12,000. The medallions, being marketed as a collaboration between the UFC and the Trump Organization that's run by Eric and Don Jr.

The Web site says they were designed by President Trump. This just days before an Ultimate Fighting Championship event set to take place on the White House lawn. You see preps underway right now.

Tomorrow, though, the Knicks face off against the Spurs, game four of the NBA finals. Right after that, NBA on NBC's Bob Costas will join us live to break it all down.

I'm excited for that. See you tomorrow.

[01:56:25]

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