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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson

U.S. Officials Says Trump Is "Focused On Making Iran Pay"; Trump Admin. Request $87.6 Billion In Pentagon Funding; Arizona To Hold Primaries For Governor, House Seats; Yang: U.S. Should Stop Taxing Labor, Start Taxing AI; Cockroach Party Demands Reforms to Education System; UNESCO Weighs World Heritage Bid for Ancient West Bank Ruins; Lessons From a Kids' Summer Robotics Camp; Smoke Lingers in Parts of the U.S. From Ontario Wildfires. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired July 21, 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]

MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): unraveled along with bribery and match fixing scandals. All this despite Chinese leader Xi Jinping, himself an avid fan, making soccer a national priority.

VALERIO: So there are no multi-million dollar contracts here. As soon as all these guys are done work, they pack up their things, drive for hours, put on their cleats and come here because of their love of the game.

VALERIO (voice-over): While Tong and his team step onto the pitch for the final, the entire community gathers at the stadium near festive performances and bustling night markets. But above all, they're here to cheer on their home team. That's the side in red taking on Tong's team.

CHEN XUAN, CUN CHAO FAN (trough translator): I first got to know soccer because Cun Chao came to my hometown. Before that, I didn't really know much about soccer.

WANG YANG CUN CHAO FAN (trough translator): Cun Chao is more about getting ordinary Chinese people involved in soccer. It helps everyone learn about the sport.

VALERIO: The Cun Chao phenomenon began in southwest China only a few years ago. And ever since, it's been people from doctors to delivery drivers taking to the field and entire communities turning these matches into festivals.

VALERIO (voice-over): Cun Chao offers what money and mandates struggle to produce. Local stars playing for the communities, cheering them on. And just before the eve of the World Cup final in Fuping, it all came down to this, heartbreak. A 1-nil loss for Tong's team.

TONG ZEHAO, AMATEUR SOCCER PLAYER (through translator): Winning and losing are both part of the game. It's normal and we can accept it. We'll come back and fight again next year. VALERIO: So for a country that is still someday searching for World Cup glory, they didn't stop believing in the game. They just found another way here to love it.

Mike Valerio, CNN Fuping County, China.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks for watching the first hour of The Story Is. The next hour starts right now.

The Story Is the Middle East, why President Trump may not be ready to pursue a new cease fire with Iran despite the recent deaths of three U.S. service members.

The Story Is cockroaches on the streets of India, why this political movement has thousands of people protesting in New Delhi.

And The Story Is Arizona's primary election. We'll break down the competitive races across the state, which will be underway in the last few hours, and whether President Trump's endorsement could impact the results.

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

MICHAELSON: Thanks so much for watching The Story Is. I'm Elex Michaelson live in Los Angeles.

Tonight, the top story is retaliation by President Donald Trump against Iran for the recent deaths of U.S. service members in the Middle East. Earlier, U.S. Central Command announced the completion of the tenth consecutive night of strikes. Iran's state media reported explosions in the country's southern region along the Gulf of Oman and near the Strait of Hormuz. On Monday, the Pentagon confirmed that nearly 100 U.S. service members have been injured in the past two weeks. That announcement comes after CNN reported that the U.S. military has been slow to disclose injuries to troops in the war. Mediators between the U.S. and Iran have floated a 10-day ceasefire in an effort to try to get the two countries back to the negotiating table.

The White House wouldn't say if it would accept a pause in the fighting but acknowledged that diplomatic efforts are ongoing.

The U.S. military has identified the two soldiers who were killed in Iranian strikes in Jordan. Nineteen-year-old Army Private Isabella Gonzalez died in Friday's attack on a Royal Jordanian air base. First Lieutenant James Feehan died a day after the strike. He was 25 years old.

The White House says President Trump is expected to attend a dignified transfer of the U.S. service members killed in the war with Iran. Their bodies will be transferred to Dover Air Force Base on Wednesday.

We're joined now by Benjamin Radd, senior fellow at the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations teaching as well at USC. Welcome back to The Story Is. Good to see you.

BENJAMIN RADD, SENIOR FELLOW, UCLA BURKLE CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: Thank you, Elex.

MICHAELSON: So you have been talking with us for months about this concept of an endurance test between the United States and Iran.

RADD: Yes.

MICHAELSON: We have seen President Trump speaking often about the United States decimating Iran's military capability. If that's really true, how is it that they are able to continue so many strikes, including some that killed and injured U.S. service members?

RADD: Yes, that's a big question. I think it either points to the fact that the U.S. has not decimated Iran's offensive capabilities or the United States doesn't have the ability to protect its assets, its troops using defensive capabilities, munitions, interceptors, things of that nature. Either way, it's a deficit in the U.S. operation and the way this is being run and it's a cause for concern.

MICHAELSON: In terms of the nuclear fight, this is the beginning of the war. It was -- we were told this was all about eliminating Iran's nuclear capability. We don't hear very much about that anymore.

[01:05:01]

RADD: No.

MICHAELSON: Where is that at? Where is Iran's nuclear capability?

RADD: That's why we're even here. It's because the concern for Iran's nuclear enrichment program, its development of sophisticated weaponry to carry a nuclear payload, it's why the United States intervened, why Israel intervened. And yet all of this has been put aside in the name of pursuing a policy that can open up the Strait of Hormuz and do so in a way that allows cargo ships to transit safely. And even if a deal is reached, there's a ceasefire, it's only to get us back to where we were in January, which is when the straits were open, the strait was open. But it does not address the nuclear issue, which is repeatedly being kicked down the road.

MICHAELSON: And of course, that nuclear issue was something that was dealt with with the Obama deal with Iran, something that President Trump's own secretaries of state and defense in the first term said you should not get out of. And yet he did. And the whole purpose of that was to have monitoring on Iran's nuclear capability, have eyes on it. Right now we don't have any eyes on it, right?

RADD: We don't have it. The international community doesn't. The Europeans, others. There are mechanisms to do this. Now we're relying on satellite technology to -- for us to see what's moving and what isn't.

Maybe spies, local assets that can give some feedback. But that's not perfect. And it doesn't give us a full picture. MICHAELSON: Yes. Because President Trump often talks about we decimated their nuclear capability. Do we know if that's even true? I mean, it's hard to know, right?

RADD: What we know is that they can't access the enriched uranium that they have. It's buried under mountainsides. We've seen satellite footage showing them trying to regain access to these facilities. We've seen trucks moving, large amounts of soil, cranes. But that's all -- that's all we know.

We don't know what we don't know. And that's the concern.

MICHAELSON: Yes. Let's put up a headline from cnn.com up on the screen that says that key Republicans are skeptical as Trump administration scrambles for more defense money. And this reporting basically gets at this idea that the White House is having to go to Congress and to ask them for more funding. Now, they never went to Congress to get a declaration of war in Iran. So these Republican senators are having to potentially sign off on a war that they never signed off on in the first place and own it at a time when the war has become really unpopular.

RADD: Yes.

MICHAELSON: Talk about the dynamic that's happening in Washington and how that could impact the war efforts.

RADD: So already the president has bypassed the war powers process. Congress has not acted to invoke the War Powers Resolution, which would put a ticking clock on the president's ability to conduct the war without congressional compliance. So given that's the case, where does the money come from? It comes from money that's already been set aside for the Pentagon for other uses. But now we're seeing depleted U.S. stockpiles, we're seeing a need to resupply the military to continue fighting the war for a indefinite period.

The pressure is there on Republicans to comply and go along with this and give the White House what it needs. But at the same time, then, the question becomes if you're not going to check the president, if you're going to give him what he wants, then you also become a co- owner of whatever the outcome of this is. That could prove consequential come -- you know, the midterm elections when the American public decides what is the price that we've paid, not just in terms of dollars but in terms of lives and other resources and did this pay off? So far, it's hard to make that case.

MICHAELSON: And of course, President Trump had made the argument this would be a short so that that would potentially be over by the time of the midterms. But increasingly it's looking like this thing could go on for a long time --

RADD: Well --

MICHAELSON: -- including up until November.

RADD: Now he's comparing it to Vietnam. He's saying, look how long -- this is -- this is not as long as Vietnam was and it won't be. So that's sort of the standard now that he's holding it to.

MICHAELSON: Ben Radd, thank you so much.

RADD: Yes.

MICHAELSON: Of course, the president who ran against the concept of forever wars and ran against the idea of getting involved in some of these conflicts. We appreciate your perspective.

Yemen's Houthi rebels are posing a new threat to the world's oil supply. The Iran backed militant group has declared its own maritime blockade on Saudi shipping, effective immediately. CNN's Kristie Lu Stout live now with the latest on this. Kristie.

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Elex, this is big. We have a potential new global shipping choke point. Yemen's Iran backed Houthi rebels, they have announced a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia, effectively opening up a new front in the Iran war which will introduce further impacts on global trade and energy supplies. We have the map. Let's bring it up and let's zero in on the strait in question.

This is called the Bab al-Mandab Strait. It is a key export route for Saudi oil, especially now during this month's long effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. And the full closure of this strait, the Bab al-Mandab Strait, that would reduce global oil supplies by 7 percent. Now, the Hormuz crisis had already reduced supplies by about 10 percent. Now, in a statement, the Houthis said that they were declaring this, quote, "a maritime embargo against the criminal Saudi enemy, based on the equation of eye for an eye, effective immediately."

And they said that they added that this was in response to, quote, "an unjust and oppressive siege by Saudi Arabia on Yemen."

[01:10:04]

Now, we have also gotten a response from the Saudi led coalition of Yemen. They said that they're taking steps right now to protect ships in the Red Sea. And they also issued this, this from the spokesman of the Saudi led coalition in Yemen, quote, "All Houthi threats against transiting vessels will be dealt with swiftly and firmly," unquote.

Of course, all this happening as the fighting continues between the United States and Iran. We learn from U.S. Central Command saying that there are more strikes against Iranian targets. We also learned from the U.S. President Donald Trump that Iran would pay for the deaths of American servicemen.

In addition to that, we've learned that nearly 100 service members of the U.S. military have been injured since July 7th. Now, meanwhile, on the shipping front, according to the U.K. MTO, we know that a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz has been hit by a projectile. And in regards to maritime traffic in that strait, it remains muted at best with very minimal movement. Back to you.

MICHAELSON: So Kristie, what does this all mean for all of our gas prices?

STOUT: Yes, we were just discussing this, you know, in the newsroom. Someone even quipped a second straight has entered the chat. What does this mean? Look, when that announcement came out, not only about monitoring the situation of Strait of Hormuz, but that Houthi announcement, we looked at the price of oil immediately. The price of oil went up, but it's still, it's pulled back somewhat because traders are focusing on diplomatic hopes, they're focusing on diplomacy.

Yesterday we were reporting about the price of oil had topped $90 a barrel, Brent crude. You can see right now it's $88.51 a barrel. West Texas, the U.S. benchmark is now at $82 a barrel. But if we look at gas prices in America, they remain elevated. They have now hitting above four, four dollars a gallon.

Also, keep in mind average gas prices, they are a lagging indicator. Back to you, Elex.

MICHAELSON: Yes, we do not need another round of that. Kristie Lu Stout, thank you for that from Hong Kong.

Now we go to The Story Is, the weather, tropical storm Bertha moving across the northern Gulf with warnings now in effect for parts of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. The storm expected to track west along the coast before making landfall late Wednesday.

While Bertha is not expected to significantly strengthen, forecasters say that heavy rain, coastal flooding and gusty winds could impact communities from the Florida Panhandle to Texas.

Greece is bracing for a three day heat wave. Temperatures are forecast to climb to as high as 42 degrees Celsius or 107 degrees Fahrenheit in some mainland areas. Visitors to Athens top tourism sites braved that heat. Many tried to stay cool by seeking shade or using fans and umbrellas. Others, like this American tourist, relied on a positive attitude.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's very hot in Athens, but it's been hot back home as well. We've had a little bit of a heat wave, so trying to drink plenty of water, keep hat on my head and just having the best time we can.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Meteorologists expect the soaring temperatures to persist at least through Wednesday.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says shredded iceberg lettuce sourced from Mexico and sold by Taylor Farms is still at likely source of the cyclospora outbreak. The parasite has sickened thousands of people in at least five states with diarrhea, dehydration and cramping. On Sunday, the FDA said a lab test of Taylor Farms iceberg lettuce was a false positive not long after the company had voluntarily recalled lettuce shipped to 27 states. Earlier today, the FDA clarified that the false positive does not change the agency's basis for its ongoing investigation of the outbreak.

Still to come, the Cockroach Party protests. How a youth led movement with a unique name is trying to change India's education system.

Plus, voters in Arizona primary go into the polls in the hours ahead. Our panel here discuss Trump's pick for governor Andy Biggs and the growing divide in the Democratic Party over socialism. Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:18:31]

MICHAELSON: South Carolina Senator Darline Graham plans to run for a full six-year term in November. She was appointed last week to serve out the final months of her brother Lindsey Graham's current term after his death. Lindsey was running for reelection. And a special primary in August will now determine the Republican nominee in the general election.

Darline Graham had never held elected office before.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. DARLINE GRAHAM (R-SC): He cared about the people of this state. I've worked for almost 30 years for the people of this state.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: I'm going to talk about that in a minute.

GRAHAM: I feel like I can do it. I feel an inner peace about it. Will it be difficult? Yes, absolutely.

HANNITY: So you're in?

GRAHAM: Yes, I'm in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Tuesday's Election Day in Arizona with a number of primaries that could help determine the balance of power in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Republican governor's primary is another one to watch. President Trump's pick is Congressmember Andy Biggs. The question is, will Arizona voters nominate another deeply MAGA candidate after losing several statewide races with similar nominees?

Let's bring in our panel. Susan Shelley is an opinion columnist with the Southern California News Group. She joins us on the right. And on the left is Ian Calderon, the former California State Assembly Majority Leader, also founder and CEO of the advocacy firm Majority Advisors. Welcome to you both.

Susan, welcome to the show for the first time.

SUSAN SHELLEY, OPINION COLUMNIST, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA NEWS GROUP: Thank you so much, Elex. A pleasure to be with you.

MICHAELSON: Great to have you. And great to have you back, Ian, as well.

[01:20:01]

I want to put up a headline from the New York Times. "Can Arizona Republicans moderate enough to win back the state?" Susan, basically the premise here is that in the past they nominated Kari Lake, they nominated Blake Masters, candidates that were seen by many in the state as too far to the right, and then they ended up winning the primary but losing the general election. Is that something you're concerned about?

SHELLEY: Well, Andy Biggs has a long career in Arizona politics. He didn't just come from something on the outside. And I think he probably has more ability to connect with voters than some of the other candidates, perhaps. And really it's going to be about the issues.

They can call somebody MAGA, but let's talk about border security and whether people care about that and let's talk about all the issues, taxes and the rest, and whether voters care about that rather than just label people and then argue about the labels.

MICHAELSON: Yes, we've seen Arizona sort of a red state that has moved purple as of late Governor Hobbs, a Democrat there now.

IAN CALDERON, FOUNDER AND CEO, MAJORITY ADVISORS: Yes, I mean, I think the big issue for Republicans and specifically Andy Biggs is a Freedom Caucus member is can he -- can he escape Trump's orbit when he's facing Governor Hobbs, assuming he makes, you know, out of the general -- out of the primary to the general. And when you're taking a look at a state where 22 percent of the electorate is Latino and, you know, Trump is underwater, Republicans underwater, Andy Biggs in particular is underwater by 31 point -- points with that electorate, There's a lot of ground that he's going to have to make up, and it's going to be a significant challenge, I think, for him, even though Hobbs, when she ran, won by less than 1 percent.

MICHAELSON: Less than 1 percent. And as we know, there's a whole lot of Republican voters in Arizona, Susan.

SHELLEY: There certainly are. It's a very purple state. And it's really important that the candidates connect with the voters on the issues that are on their minds this year.

MICHAELSON: And so the Republicans sort of having this battle within the party on how MAGA to be or not to be. And the Democrats, meanwhile, are having this battle among kind of how socialist to be or not to be. You've got an interesting opinion column in the LA Daily News, Southern California News Group, I want to put this up on the screen, that talks about your pushback in terms of socialists. It says, "How socialists use the guise of good intentions to loot America." What do you mean by that? What's your main point?

SHELLEY: Well, the main point is that the idea of socialism, like all collectivist philosophies, communism and the rest is that everything produced in a society kind of belongs to everybody. And the government's job is to distribute it. And what that does is reverse the incentives. That creates a situation where the more you work, the less you're entitled to the money you earn. Who's entitled to it? Everyone who did nothing to earn it.

And gradually that causes stagnation. Capitalism produces a surplus. People can live on that for a while, but eventually there are people who didn't go to medical school and who didn't pursue their invention or couldn't get investors for it. So the people who were earning and producing and creating the wealth stopped doing that. And gradually socialist societies just stagnate.

MICHAELSON: Are you concerned about that, Iain?

CALDERON: No, I'm not concerned about it. I mean, you know, your -- it was an interesting article and an interesting premise and an interesting point, but I think, you know, she's saying, take a look at what happens to the people that are in power once they get that power. And what she's doing is she's conflating, saying, when you get a, you know, comparing a bus subsidy along with an exhibit as that being looting.

Well, if we want to talk about looting, why don't we talk about Trump and him selling his Truth Social posts to bankers faster than anybody else? You know, and his posts are moving markets. You know, one is a theory, the other is a receipt. And so I just think that, you know, we can -- we can fearmonger all we want, but the reality just isn't playing out that way.

MICHAELSON: Well, I mean, it's not just -- it's now no longer a theory in places like New York. I mean, we see what it's like to have a democratic socialist mayor. It may be no longer a theory. In places like Los Angeles, there's many democratic socialist members of the city council here. There may be a democratic socialist mayor. I mean, how do you respond to that?

SHELLEY: Well, you can see it in rent control, for example. Why would anyone want to own and operate an apartment building? Why be a housing provider when they're going to not cap your expenses, not give you a break on property taxes or anything else, but they're going to capture what you can charge for rent, and they're going to make it more difficult to evict people who aren't paying? Why would you go into that business?

MICHAELSON: Yes.

SHELLEY: And then you're going to have less and less housing available and higher and higher rents and so and so.

MICHAELSON: Right. I mean, because Mayor Zohran Mamdani said we're freezing the rents, which sounds great if you're paying the rent, but not great if you're collecting the rent and expecting that for your business.

[01:25:02] CALDERON: But people are also looking for a break. I mean, things are so economically difficult right now. It doesn't matter whether it's a blue state or a red state. And people are looking for voices that are going to support them, support an economic agenda that's going to allow them to survive, to support themselves and support their families.

MICHAELSON: You've talked some about the dangers of AI and what could happen, what could mean for workers. We had Andrew Yang on last hour here on The Story Is. Here's some of what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW YANG, FORMER DEMOCRATIC U.S. PRESIDENT CANDIDATE: Yes, we make it really difficult and expensive and cumbersome to hire humans. And then if I replace you with bots, I don't pay those bots taxes, and the AI company doesn't pay taxes. That's going to be devastating for our government and its ability to pay its bills and distribute the gain. So we should be taxing the bots and the agents and we should be reducing taxes on human beings.

We should make it so that if a company hires a person, we're not getting hit with a tax bill. We're actually getting rewarded and the person is able to take home more.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Because now you have a situation where if you hire a person, you got to pay payroll taxes and Social Security taxes and pay their health care and all the rest of it. And if you hire an AI bot, you don't have to pay for any of that. So he's saying maybe we change the tax code to try to level that out. Good idea?

CALDERON: Actually, and I -- and I actually talked about this on my Twitter and I got in a little back and forth with Mike Gado (ph), who is another guy who comes in and speaks on the show every once in a while. But I do think that there is a universal basic income conversation that will happen in this country. Not too long ago, a couple of months ago, they were actually having a conference in the Bay Area where Bill Gates and Vinod Khosla, a lot of the big guys that are big names in finance and in AI, they were talking with each other. And not only were they saying that they think that there's going to be an economic collapse in the next 12 to 18 months, but they were saying 50 percent displacement of the labor market.

MICHAELSON: Fifty percent?

CALDERON: Fifty percent. And that is going to lead to significant civil unrest that could result in actual looting and result in burning of things like data centers.

MICHAELSON: You look skeptical, and I know your whole mission is fighting back against taxes. You sort of, when you hear what Andrew Yang is saying, let's change the tax code. What goes through your mind? SHELLEY: Well, he can take it up with the labor unions. One of the reasons it's so expensive to hire people is because there are all these different things in the labor code that you can get sued over if you don't do it correctly. So he can take it up with the unions and he can take it up with the people who have raised taxes for various social programs. But what concerns me about this, this argument on AI, is that no one is seeing all the things that could be done that are not being done right now because it's not affordable.

So, for example, just to take the legal profession as one example, it's so expensive to do the compliance for a business. It's so expensive to sue somebody who comes after you in a way that's something that's a liability.

MICHAELSON: Yes.

SHELLEY: If you have AI reducing those costs, there will be all these people who are able to do things that we can't see right now because they can't do it yet.

MICHAELSON: But are you afraid of what Ian was just talking about? This idea that 50 percent of people could be displaced.

SHELLEY: I don't believe it. I don't believe it. For one thing, AI has no sense of humor and until it can do comedy, it's not a real brain.

MICHAELSON: OK, I guess we'll leave it there. Susan, Ian, great to see both of you. Thank you so much.

SHELLEY: Thank you.

MICHAELSON: In India, a youth led movement is demanding reforms to the education system. Thousands of Cockroach Party protesters demonstrated in the capital of New Delhi seeking the resignation of the country's education minister. The party's growing popularity comes amid anger over recent exam paper leaks and unemployment. CNN's Ivan Watson has more on the movement and the party's memorable name.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Indian government has a cockroach problem. A youth protest movement that calls itself the Cockroach Janta Party. On Monday, thousands of these demonstrators descended on New Delhi, a rare mass protest in the heart of India's capital. Defying a police ban.

Police firing tear gas to stop the protesters from marching to the Indian Parliament.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hope they listen to us because if not now, then I don't know if it is -- if it's a democracy or like dictatorship.

TANI SIDHU BHARGAVA, PROTESTER: We've had bad governments, but we've never had such an evil government. Because this government is only interested in power, fame and money. They are genuinely non biological. They don't have a shred of decency in them. WATSON (voice-over): The Cockroach Party began barely two months ago with this social media post from Abhijeet Dipke, a graduate student from Boston University in response to a top judge who appeared to call India's unemployed youth cockroaches.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are youngsters like cockroaches.

WATSON (voice-over): Dipke launched the Cockroach Party demanding reform of the country's scandal prone education system and the firing of the Education Minister. That official has since called the Cockroach Party terrorists.

[01:29:45]

Last month, the Cockroach Party began a small sit-in protest in downtown Delhi. It was joined by activist and educator, Sonam Wangchuk, who went on hunger strike. On Saturday, police forcibly removed Wangchuk from the protest, taking him to a hospital.

Since then, a movement that had existed mostly online suddenly burst onto the streets of Indian cities. On Monday, India's health minister met face-to-face with Cockroach Party representatives, asking them to end their sit-in.

But they're still calling for the resignation of the education minister, a rare show of defiance that's put the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the defensive.

Ivan Watson, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: Our thanks to Ivan.

Still ahead --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZAID AZHARI, SEBASTIA HISTORIAN: This is everything for us. I cannot imagine Sebastia without the archeological site. It's like your children. You cannot, like, leave one of them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: For one Palestinian community, these ancient ruins are more than stones. They're a connection to history and identity. That connection is now at the center of a growing dispute in the West Bank.

[01:31:14]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

Let's take a look at today's top stories. U.S. Central Command says its forces have completed their latest wave of strikes against Iran. They were launched hours after President Trump warned that Tehran would pay for the recent deaths of three U.S. service members.

Pentagon says nearly 100 service members have been injured in the conflict since July 7th.

In the coming hours, Andy Burnham is set to hold his first cabinet meeting since becoming British prime minister. He replaces former leader, Keir Starmer, and is now the U.K.'s seventh prime minister in ten years.

Andy Burnham's cabinet consists of some former officials returning to Downing Street, as well as others who were shuffled into other positions.

The U.S. will send a cargo plane carrying humanitarian aid to Cuba in the day ahead. It's part of a $100 million commitment announced in May. The island nation has been rocked by a string of recent blackouts.

A U.S.-imposed oil blockade aimed at ousting the communist government has crippled Cuba's aging energy infrastructure.

One of the biggest mergers in corporate history is on hold. A U.S. judge has temporarily paused Paramount's buyout of Warner Bros. Discovery, which is parent company of CNN.

12 states requested the delay as part of a legal challenge to the deal. The judge granted them a temporary restraining order, at least until early August.

Paramount says it's confident the states' antitrust lawsuit is without merit. The states will now seek a preliminary injunction, which could freeze the merger for months.

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee is meeting this week to consider locations for World Heritage status and protection. Among them is one ancient hilltop in the West Bank that has become a flashpoint in the land dispute between Israelis and Palestinians.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond takes us there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: On this West Bank hilltop, a battle over the past will shape the future. And archaeology is the weapon of choice.

So, this is the line right here?

AZHARI: Yes, exactly. The first line of these columns, it's in Area C. But it's the Area C started.

DIAMOND: And so, what does that mean for Palestinians in this area? AZHARI: It's mean that we are losing our heart by losing this area and not having access to our agricultural fields and our archaeological sites.

DIAMOND: Sebastia is an archaeological treasure, home to thousands of years of Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman history. It is now enmeshed in the fabric and economy of the Palestinian town of the same name, but risks being cut off from it.

AZHARI: If we looked at the examples we had already, maybe they will build a wall. Who knows?

DIAMOND: It is also home to ruins from the ancient kingdom of Israel.

Archaeologists say, these ruins date back to the ninth century B.C., part of the capital city of the ancient kingdom of Israel.

And now, the current Israeli government wants to use these ruins as a justification for seizing hundreds of acres of land on an archaeological site that includes ruins from many other periods in history.

The goal, an Israeli tourist site with a focus on its Jewish heritage. The man behind that project is far-right heritage minister, Amichai Eliyahu, who has, among other things, said he would be open to nuking Gaza. He says Palestinians have failed to preserve the site and protect it from looters.

In order to protect the site, why is it necessary to expropriate privately-held Palestinian lands?

AMICHAI ELIYAHU, ISRAELI HERITAGE MINISTER (through translator): The area is Israeli territory. It belongs to the Jewish people. It is not occupied.

I am not willing to have the story of the Jewish people destroyed, sabotaged, robbed, dismantled, or erased.

DIAMOND: But Palestinians say, it's Israel standing in the way of efforts to rehabilitate these ruins.

AZHARI: We tried to do a rehabilitation, an urgent and emergency rehabilitation. During the work, settlers, soldiers came, they stopped all the labors.

ALON ARAD, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, EMEK SHAVEH: So, they keep on repeating this argument that the Palestinians are destroying archaeological remains but have not shown any data to support it.

DIAMOND: Alon Arad leads a group of Israeli archaeologists fighting against what they say are the real intentions of this government and Eliyahu.

[01:39:47]

ARAD: He doesn't care about antiques. He wants to annex. It's not about the site. It's the ability to use the site as a weapon, as an instrument to take more land, to shrink this Palestinian space.

DIAMOND: The Palestinian Authority, supported by archaeologists like Arad, has filed an emergency petition to designate Sebastia as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

ELIYAHU: UNESCO can say whatever it wants. If it tries to go against the truth and invent narratives here, it will not succeed.

DIAMOND: It seems like ultimately, you are trying to strengthen Israel's position on the grounds in that territory.

ELIYAHU (through translator): The land is irrevocable. The facts are irrevocable. What are you suggesting? That we let them erase our heritage?

The facts are that this is the land of our fathers and mothers.

DIAMOND: Palestinians are also deeply rooted in this land, like the olive trees Sebastia's families have cultivated amid the ruins for generations.

AZHARI: This is everything for us. I cannot imagine Sebastia without the archaeological site. It's like your children, you cannot like leave one of them.

This is the heart of people of Sebastia and Sebastia at the same time.

DIAMOND: Jeremy Diamond, CNN -- Sebastia, the West Bank.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAELSON: You're watching THE STORY IS.

For our international viewers, WORLD SPORT is next. For our viewers in North America, I'll be right back with an amazing story about STEM education. Stay with us.

[01:41:15]

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MICHAELSON: Many factors are complicating the lives of children these days, and the rise of A.I. can make it hard to see what their futures will look like. But one mom says parents can teach their children to live a full and balanced life, that includes sports, arts and technology.

Kiki Ayers says her son Jules is learning those lessons, especially after participating in the BattleBots Junior Robotics Program this summer at MIT.

Jules Zion and Kiki Ayers join me here.

Now Jules, you're seven years old. You just finished first grade, headed into second grade. And you just spent the summer at MIT studying how to make robots. That's pretty cool, huh?

JULES ZION, COMPLETED MIT'S BOTTLEBOTS JUNIOR ROBOTICS PROGRAM: Yes. So it started in -- you had a passion project in class, and they said that you had to make a determination on whether to look into robots and basketball. And you said, I want to combine the two of them.

ZION: Yes.

MICHAELSON: Yes. And how did that go? Why do you think that robots are cool?

ZION: Because I just saw the movie of Peter Parker and he was making robots. So I want to be like him. And it was very fun.

MICHAELSON: So you saw Spider-Man? Peter Parker making robots, and you said, I want to make robots, too. Are you doing the Spider-Man thing? Do you want to show us that with your -- you got the Spider-Man (INAUDIBLE) and you thought, I want to make robots.

And so, Mom, talk to us about how you saw that passion and you found a program at MIT, one of the great universities in all of California. It was for 7- to 17-year-olds. Your kid's 7. So he barely made the grade there. Yes.

(CROSSTALKING)

KIKI AYERS, MOTHER: Yes. Yes. So when they told him to do a passion project, he said he wanted to do basketball. And I said, that's great, but what else are you passionate about?

And he told me he wanted to build robots, which was surprising to me because we never talked about that. And just looking at, you know, technology, even in L.A., when I'm walking down the street, I see robot delivery. Bots and, you know, cars driving themselves.

And I'm like, you know, whether people are prepared for it or not, we have to be prepared for technology and prepare our kids for technology.

So if I could put him in a program that helps with that, you know, ten years from now when he's off to college, it's going to be like the Jetsons around here.

MICHAELSON: Right.

AYERS: You know, I'm going to take him to the best program in the in the country, which is at MIT.

MICHAELSON: At MIT. And so you said that a lot of the kids there maybe didn't look like him. They were at the same age. They maybe didn't have the same background. And so what was the sort of the message that you took away that you may be able to give to other parents of kids in a similar circumstance?

AYERS: I would say to research things that you're not familiar with and put your kids in it. Don't be afraid of going against the norm and expose them to new things and expose yourself to new things.

Because I would have never thought, you know, about STEM. You know, I didn't grow up with that. We were very pencil and paper. They're very computer.

So, you know, just open your mind up to things that would benefit them.

MICHAELSON: So we're looking at some video now. Jules, this is your robot, right? Which you named Mad Bunny. And this was competing in the Junior Robots Competition. We've seen that on TV, sometimes the robots that take on each other as well.

What was the inspiration behind this and what was it like to battle -- battle the robots, do the BattleBots?

ZION: So the BattleBots. Yes, it was like a tie.

MICHAELSON: It was tie as they faced each other? So what's your message to other kids about why it's important to get involved in STEM and to get involved with robots and all the rest of that.

ZION: So, so it's because like robots are cool, like, they like, like they can like save people like --

MICHAELSON: Yes, robots are cool. They can save people. And that's what it's all about.

And so, and in terms of how you're thinking about this issue of A.I. and all the rest of it for your family going forward, what are you thinking?

AYERS: I'm thinking to just prepare him. He has to be prepared. I feel like kids need to get into STEM if they're going to have any type of career where they're going to make money. Even if they want to be an entrepreneur, it has to be technology-based.

Even me as an entrepreneur, I'm like, I have to think ahead. Like, how can I make my business technology based because that's where were heading towards.

So you have to stay on top of it. And I think it's important to expose them to that now because it's going to be very competitive.

MICHAELSON: Yes. And are you ready to compete. You're high five. Great job. Well done. Congratulations on the junior bots and best of luck at MIT. Don't leave us behind.

All right. Kiki, Jules, thank you so much.

AYERS: Thank you.

MICHAELSON: We'll be back with this. President Trump suggesting Canada pay damages for the wildfire smoke that's been hovering over the U.S.

Up next, details of the tensions between the two countries over the wildfires. Stay with us.

[01:49:51]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELSON: Spain's World Cup champions are celebrating their mid title in Madrid with the help of nearly two million fans. Huge crowds fill the streets to welcome the players home the day after their one- nil victory over Argentina.

The party continued well into the night with music, dancing and the players showing off their trophy on stage.

This is the second time Spain has won the men's World Cup. They also are the reigning champions of the women's World Cup.

[01:54:42]

MICHAELSON: Wildfires still burning across Canada but air quality has improved in southern Ontario as well as the U.S., Northeast and mid- Atlantic. But parts of the Midwest still dealing with poor air quality levels. And the Environmental Protection Agency has rated it as unhealthy or unhealthy for sensitive groups.

Here's more from the fire chief in Canada.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FIRE CHIEF MARK SHRUIFF, NEEBING EMERGENCY SERVICES: In northwestern Ontario, we're not strangers to forest fires. We deal with them every year. However, with the scale that we're dealing with this fire season, especially with the relatively slow start, is unprecedented.

And I think any -- if you talk to anyone in the northwest and they'll say they've never seen anything like it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Wildfires have increased tensions between Canada and the U.S., and President Trump suggesting that America's northern neighbors should pay damages for the wildfire smoke.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our air has been poisoned. I have a good relationship with Mark Carney. But, you know, we got to stop the fires up there. If we can help them, we'll help them.

But maybe they should pay us some damages or something. Or we should do some tariffs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: President Trump on Monday announced 50 percent tariffs on certain Canadian goods, including electrical equipment and machinery. But administration officials say this move is unrelated to the wildfires.

Thanks so much for watching THE STORY IS. It's been quite a night. In one show, we had General Wesley Clark, Andrew Yang and Flava Flav.

I'm Elex Michaelson. We'll see what happens tomorrow here on the show. Who knows?

The news continues right after the break here on CNN.

[01:56:13]

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