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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson

Trump Lobs Insults At WHCD, Attacks Press And Familiar Foes; Trump Delivers Hour-Long Speech At Rescheduled Press Dinner; Source - Trump Meets Advisers As He Weighs Escalation In Iran; Trump Takes Aim At Lebron James, Says - Maybe He's A Racist; Paramount Takeover Of WBD Delayed Due To Pending Lawsuits; Saudi Arabia Strikes Houthis In Yemen After Red Sea Attack; Cockroach Protestors Demand Indian Education Minister Resign; Indian Prime Minister Faces Challenges Amid Youth-Led Protest; SpaceX's Starship V3 Rocket Makes Successful Test Flight; Aired 12-1a ET

Aired July 25, 2026 - 00:00   ET

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

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ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR: On the CNN app. And thank you for watching Newsnight. Tomorrow morning, be sure to catch Table For Five at 10:00 A.M. Eastern Time right here on CNN. In the meantime, the story with Elex Michaelson is next.

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

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: I'm Elex Michaelson. "The Story Is" President Donald Trump who lobbed insults and attacked familiar foes during lengthy remarks at the White House Correspondents' Dinner Friday night. It was rescheduled after a shooting incident in April, and the event saw tighter security along with a much smaller guest list.

The President appeared to doze off periodically while some of the awards were presented to people who had reported negative things about him. But he then delivered a speech that ran for an hour and four minutes and was very Trump. He talked about his ballroom, declared his intention to run for President again, which was a joke, wore a Trump 2028 hat to sort of joke with the crowd, took aim at perceived enemies, including singers, other politicians, and multiple journalists in attendance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: But Karoline may have one of the hardest jobs in the White House. She has to deal with all of you all of the time, and you could be very difficult. You could be very, very difficult people, but I'm probably being a little bit oversensitive. Sometimes I really do think that some of you don't like me. In fact, I read a report. I get 93 percent negative publicity. 93, so how the hell did I win the election by so much? Think of it. I don't think that's true. I can't believe it's 93. In the 80s maybe, but not 93. But this place is the -- really the largest group of Trump derangement syndrome people ever put together at one time, I suspect. (END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Joining me now to react is Elisha Krauss, Conservative Commentator and Op Ed Writer for The Washington Examiner, and Will Rollins, former federal prosecutor and former Democratic U.S. House Candidate. Welcome back to both of you. This whole thing was a little odd because of the shooting at the last one. I was there for that in Washington, much smaller crowd, sort of the elephant in the room. And something the President addressed. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: From the earliest moments after the attack on our dinner last April, I knew we had to reschedule this event as soon as possible. We had to do it very quickly, and we met very quickly. And we figured something out, but the attempted mass murder at the Washington Hilton, that's what it could have been, was an assault on our democracy itself. Very serious situation. Many of you were there with me and some showed extreme bravery like Pete Hegseth, Stephen Miller, Tom Hallman, really?

They were standing on tables and most of you were under the tables, OK? But --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: So that was his way of sort of nodding people. He did --

ELISHA KRAUSS, CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATOR: Fact check. True.

MICHAELSON: Have a lot of classy moments, where he sort of celebrated some of the journalists in the room and said nice things. Said that he would have given a tougher speech back then, but because of that, he was a little nicer to people. But there were moments where you saw a coming together.

KRAUSS: I just, I don't know. Maybe it's because I work with Adam Carolla and some other great comedians a few times a week now, but it's like there's so many missed opportunities. It's like when I tune into SNL, I'm like, maybe I'm remembering the good old days of SNL of, like, Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig, like those types of people. And I'm like -- can it be funny? Can it be funny? And then it ends up not being funny, I feel like I wasted my time. This is kind of like what that was. Like, there are so many liners. Like, as a mom of four with a toddler, a teenager now, he could have been like, Karoline, she has two kids at home that are under two-years-old. You guys are more annoying to her than her whiny toddler. Like, there are just lines that should write themselves that could have been delivered that I feel like he kind of missed out on.

WILL ROLLINS, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Well, to his credit, he does he does have some good jokes in there, but I think part of the reason it's gotten less funny over the years is because they've taken away the comedians from the White House Correspondents Dinner because he got pissed off when Michelle Wolf roasted him. And all the prior presidents were willing to sit there and take some jokes, right? He can dish it out, but he just can't take it. And it's too bad because he is funny a lot of the time, not all of it, but he does --

MICHAELSON: And he seemed especially funny when it was clear he was reading off of the prompter some jokes that likely were written for him, including this one about the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I hope that everyone finally got to enjoy their entire very delicious beef tenderloins, very special beef. And I want you all to know that Bobby Kennedy, who's right here, personally ran over the cow in his car.

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And he cut it up, and he brought it here for you to eat tonight. So it's very fresh.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Of course, that is an incident to Bobby Kennedy actually running over animals in the past in his car.

KRAUSS: See behind the joke it is a hint of truth.

ROLLINS: Yes.

KRAUSS: Like, everybody laughs because of --

ROLLINS: Do you do hay one with a raccoon? That's my question. I don't know how you marinate that. I still don't know.

MICHAELSON: Yeah. He'd referenced the raccoon as well as part of this. See, that was the funny part. But then he would go off script and then do these long sort of meandering takes that did not necessarily work in the room.

KRAUSS: This ain't his crowd. No offense. You all ain't his crowd. Like, I don't know that he there's anything that he could do --

MICHAELSON: I think in connection it'd be very funny.

KRAUSS: But I don't think that there's anything that the President could have done to make that crowd slap their knee, laugh out loud, they prepare in the --

MICHAELSON: They laughed at Bobby Kennedy.

KRAUSS: Because it was a joke at Bobby's expense. I think if there's any joke at the expense of the audience, who's actually there, there's very few professionals who can make that work.

MICHAELSON: Well, speaking of that, there was a moment, of course, when Barack Obama was President, was on stage, and he got a lot of laughs for making fun of Donald Trump. And Donald Trump was in the room that's been played over and over again. There's been so much speculation that that was the thing that made Donald Trump run for President. Trump said not true.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: There's one time in particular when Barack Hussein Obama hosted it. Do who that is? And he hit me hard, but actually he hit me with respect. And I have watched this clip thousands of times they keep playing it, because they think that was evening I decided to run for President. It was not. In fact, I loved the evening. I looked at my wife. I said, can you believe in all these people? That's all they're doing is talking about me. I love this dinner.

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ROLLINS: Well, I definitely believe that. I think, the issue is he is actually funny at times, right? And Judd Apatow --

MICHAELSON: Very funny at times.

ROLLINS: His theory of who wins presidential elections is the funniest candidate wins. I think the problem for President Trump is he just cannot take a joke, right? So he can give it out, but he just won't have a comedian come back in and roast him. And I think if he had some self-deprecation, he actually could win people in the middle. I'm not somebody who just says everything that he does is wrong. I agree with some of the things that this President does, had I been elected, have tried to actually get something done in a bipartisan way with him, but that part of his personality just isn't it.

KRAUSS: I think that we are so used to Barack Obama can be funny. George W. Bush, we were saying off air, like the guy --

MICHAELSON: Very funny.

KRAUSS: Is very funny. He has that kind of, like gift of bringing light to situations. I've heard that from numerous people and people that worked with him. But I think that we're forgetting, and I'm old enough to remember, the lauding and the praise and the groveling of comedians and of Hollywood and of the media of any time there's a Democrat in office. So then when they maybe self-depreciate once or twice, we're like, oh, yay, good for them. But they were on every single cover of every magazine, on every single night show with, like, Jimmy Kimmel and Colbert and all these people telling him how wonderful he was even when he wore the brown suit. And so I think that in Trump's defense, he's kind of used to everybody hating him, and he's like, why do I got to be nice to you guys? I'm going to say what I want to say.

MICHAELSON: Well, and but yet this time, for the first time in a long time, decided to go at all. And he sort of talked about his relationship with the press, including how good he's been for some in the media.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: You people have no idea how lucky you are when I'm gone. You're all going to be broke. Your business model is going to be finished. No. It's true. When I'm not around, you're going to be broke. There's not going to be anybody to report on. Nobody gives a damn about anybody else.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROLLINS: I mean, there --

MICHAELSON: There kind of is some truth there. You look at the numbers.

ROLLINS: Yeah. I mean, presidents have had, right, fraught relationships with the media. This media has had a very interesting relationship with this particular president. But I will say the criticism that he's lobbed at them back makes you wonder why the guy got involved in politics in the first place. And I think on a more serious note, he can tell all the jokes he wants at this Correspondents' Dinner, but when you go out and have the Justice Department subpoena reporters or you really personally criticize reporters to such a degree that you're trying to intimidate them and you're worried about actually free and fair criticism that all presidents have had to endure, that's something that's a little bit more serious that I think that, should be called out and that he needs to, as the leader of the free world, actually back up with words and deeds.

MICHAELSON: Well, they talked about Jack Smith tonight, called him a bad prosecutor, said a lot of very mean things about Kaitlan Collins, our colleague here on CNN, made fun of Jake Tapper tonight, made fun of other reporters that had won awards. And we saw in the room as he did that, we saw some cutaways of the crowd sort of silent and uncomfortable in this room. These were certainly not lines meant for the people in this room.

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Maybe it is for some folks, outside of the room. This is some video of Ose, the mentalist who had to perform at, like, one o'clock in the morning. No, it was like 11 o'clock at night because this thing went so long, but he was the choice instead of the comedian tonight. But in terms of Trump and the media, he also is somebody, though, that watches everything.

KRAUSS: Yes.

MICHAELSON: That that, loves talking to reporters in a way that certainly Joe Biden never did.

KRAUSS: For sure. At least the guy's available to you and transparent, right? Compare especially compared to past administrations.

MICHAELSON: Well, available and transparent are not always the same thing.

KRAUSS: No. Well, I'd say he's a lot transparent.

ROLLINS: He's super honest.

MICHAELSON: Those are not always the same.

KRAUSS: Definitely more true. But he's definitely more transparent than the Biden administration. I would even argue --

MICHAELSON: He that speaks more to the media than the Biden administration.

KRAUSS: I would even argue the Obama administration. I mean, Obama is a guy and I don't know if I have an NDA or not, but I remember in another -- in a past life when I worked in talk radio, him threatening conservative news organizations and mocking talk radio hosts and conservative bloggers and all of these things and saying, fine. When I'm president, I'm never going on your show if you let this person keep talking about me that way. It is, I'd agree that it's wrong. A free and fair press, First Amendment, is something I advocate for all the time, including on, liberal college campuses where they want to shut me up every single semester. But I think that it is we can't -- it's -- it is both sides do this, and unfortunately, the left often does it much, much more.

ROLLINS: 100 percent. Well, I think both sides definitely should engage with each other more. And I give you credit for going on to campuses that are hostile, right? I mean, we need more of that.

KRAUSS: It's lot of fun.

ROLLINS: I give Pete credit for going on to Fox, right? Where a lot of Democrats won't go on to Fox. Like, we need more dialogue like that. I do think when it comes to press, though and leadership, there's comedians, right? And then there's the President of the United States. And when you attack the media the way that the President of the United States is doing it, that sets a tone for the whole country and leadership in government, right? I'm all for standup comic specials, like funny people going and roasting at the Correspondents' Dinner. But for the President to attack the media the way that he has, again and again, it's not a great tone to set for the leader of the free world. And we can keep comedy to be comedy and politics a little bit maybe more normal, right?

MICHAELSON: Well, jokes are one thing, but sort of -- there are some moments where there were no laughs that went with the lines. And those are some of them that are concerning at a moment that is so fraught for the media for so many different reasons based off of what's happening in our business. You guys are sticking around. You'll be back with us next hour. There's a lot more to get into with you, including some of the politics news of the day. Look forward to seeing you then.

But we want to get to some other, news happening right now. President Trump briefly mentioned Iran during the speech, and by briefly, we mean, like a few sentences, as he is weighing whether to ramp up attacks or keep pushing for diplomacy. A source tells CNN that the President met with top advisers and cabinet officials today to discuss a potential escalation of the war. The bombing appears to have paused tonight after 13 straight nights of U.S. air strikes against Iran. This, as President Trump says, that Iran is getting more serious in ongoing talks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: There's a military exit where we just keep going just the way we are, and we can even make it a heavier dose, and it's knocking out everything they have. Or there's a smarter strategy, and that's you make a deal, and they want to make a deal. I just don't think they're ready yet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: For more on this, let's bring in retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and CNN Military Analyst Cedric Leighton live in Washington for us. Colonel, it's the first night without strikes in two weeks. Why is that? What do you make of that?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yeah. I think it's very interesting, Elex. And we were speculating earlier, that -- the -- we might actually be seeing something during the White House Correspondents' Dinner, but it actually did not happen. So it goes to show you that the -- I think there's some possible surprises in store, but I also think there may be some back channel things that are happening that may lead to a kind of a cessation of military activity, at least on the part of U.S. central command at the moment. Now that doesn't mean that they aren't going to ramp things up maybe tomorrow, maybe the day after, maybe three days after. But for the moment, there's this pause, and I think part of it has to do with some movements by mediators both from Qatar and from Oman that are trying to find some middle ground here. But that's that might be a tough thing to do. But also the President's comments earlier today were pretty clear that that he was at least trying to pull back on the throttle at this particular moment in time.

MICHAELSON: You mentioned this a little bit. I mean, a lot of this day has been filled with speculation that there was about to be a major escalation in the war efforts, that there were things that were happening behind the scenes that made a lot of the experts think that.

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Do you see visible signs of a possible escalation? What are you hearing from your sources?

LEIGHTON: Yes. So one of the things that we have noticed in the last few days is that aircraft, the aircraft movement so you've had, B-1 bombers moving into the theater or at least close to the theater. You have had, over the last few days, have had fighter jets, F-16s and F- 35s moving into The Middle East. So that would be an indicator that you are preparing for something and getting ready to possibly conduct offensive operations. And then you also have some activities by the other parties, the other side, in this case, Iran and the Houthis. The Houthi, proxy group in Yemen that is supported by Iran, they've been active and have, according to some reports at least, gone after targets in Southwestern and Western Saudi Arabia. So there is that kind of activity going on, but so far the U.S. has not gotten involved in that.

MICHAELSON: Well, as we have seen a few different times on late Friday nights, early Saturday mornings, sometimes those are the moments when we've seen these military escalations. It happened in Venezuela. It happened when Iran first launched. Don't have any indication that's going to happen tonight, but we got to keep, our eyes open to see if it does in the coming hours. Cedric Leighton, thank you so much for being with us on those nights and being with us once again here tonight.

LEIGHTON: You bet, Elex. Thank you.

MICHAELSON: Now during his speech, President Trump did not mention the service members killed during the conflict in The Middle East. The Pentagon website that tracks war casualties has still not been updated with the correct numbers. It lists 14 deaths in the war with Iran, excluding four soldiers who were killed just last weekend. The number of listed casualties was correct earlier in the week.

Pentagon officials deny there was an intentional effort to mask the war's toll and blame the changes on technical issues. Sergeant Michael Swinton is one of the names no longer listed. Defense department says he was killed on July 19th at an airbase in Northern Iraq during a controlled detonation of an Iranian drone. His widow spoke to CNN's Erin Burnett earlier and called Swinton a big teddy bear who loved to crack jokes and spend time with his four-year-old daughter.

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ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: The Pentagon does say it's a glitch. Has anyone spoken to you about this or told you anything about it?

JAMIAH GONZALEZ-SWINTON, WIFE OF SGT. MICHAEL SWINTON, KILLED DURING IRAN WAR: Nobody has reached out yet. Well, I kind of don't have words for that.

BURNETT: Yeah.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Officials now say a substance found in the van of a man shot and killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Texas was not illegal drugs. The Harris County District Attorney Office announced the test results on Friday. An I.C.E. agent shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during a traffic stop in Houston on July 7th. In a warrant filing, the FBI said it believed that a white powder found in the vehicle was illegal drugs. Family's attorney suggested it was salt, which Salgado Araujo used to make a homemade electrolyte mix.

President Trump taking shots at LeBron James with some heated words from the Oval Office will dive into those remarks and some big career news for the king after the break, plus why Paramount agreed to delay its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery for quite a while. Details next.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where do you stand on LeBron versus Michael Jordan as the best ever?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Well, Michael Jordan's a guy that's a friend of mine. Play golf with him. He's a really good guy. And I think LeBron is maybe he's a racist, but maybe he doesn't like Trump. I don't know. But I only like people that like me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Those comments, the latest in a year's long feud between President Trump and NBA Star LeBron James. President saying, "Maybe he's a racist." LeBron has been a vocal critic of the President and his administration, including endorsing Trump's democratic opponents in his past elections.

President Trump's remark follow a pretty major announcement from LeBron James earlier in the day. CNN World Sports' Patrick Snell has more on that.

PATRICK SNELL, CNN WORLD SPORT: Well, LeBron James has made his decision, and it's a shock one. The basketball superstar announcing a move to the Philadelphia 76ers after eight seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers. Now the 41-year-old face of the NBA even revealing he'd contemplated retirement before choosing the sixers as his next challenge. James is the league's all-time leading point scorer, and on Friday, he took to X to say, I thought I was done when the season ended. I wasn't ready to announce it, and I knew I needed some time to really decide, but I was pretty sure I played my last game. I still truly love this game, and I have more to give.

The four time NBA champion has signed a two year $8 million contract with a player option according to his agency Klutch Sports Group. This is going to be his fourth NBA team in his storied career. LeBron has won NBA championships with the previous three, the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Miami Heat, and the Lakers. James adding, this is my last decision. I'm not going for money. I'm not going for family. What am I really playing for at this point? I still want to sacrifice. I still want to work. I still want to grind. I still want to compete to win, and to have a chance at the feeling of winning another championship.

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I believe I can help make the Philadelphia 76ers a championship team, and I'm so excited to energize a new fan base and start this incredible journey one last time. As his remarkable career continues, LeBron James is now preparing to enter his record extending 24th NBA Season. And with that, it's back to you.

MICHAELSON: Thank you. We'll talk more about that with Rachel Nichols in our next hour.

Now to a story that literally hits close to home for us. This is a live picture of Warner Bros. Discovery here in Burbank. This is a picture from literally our office window here, as the takeover by Paramount has now been delayed possibly until next year. In a court filing on Friday, Paramount agreed not to complete the mega merger with WBD, the parent company of us here at CNN, until antitrust trial takes place or until June 2027, whichever one comes first.

A lawsuit filed by 12 state attorneys general argue that the merger would reduce competition and hurt consumers. Paramount released a statement saying, "This is the fastest and clearest way to prove that this transaction is good for competition, good for consumers, and good for creators." A conclusion dozens of competition authorities around the world have already reached.

The U.S. is experiencing record breaking cases of measles for the second year in a row. The disease was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000. But there have been more cases recorded in the past 18 months than the previous 25 years combined. A map of measles cases among U.S. residents shows a majority of states have at least 10 to 49 cases. Experts say when the vaccination rates remain below 95 percent, there's a potential for measles outbreaks. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows more than 90 percent of cases are among people who are not vaccinated or whose vaccination status is not known. The number of measles cases increased by more than 2,000 from 2024 to 2025. And with five months left in the year, more than 2,500 cases have already been reported.

The war in The Middle East is widening as Saudi Arabia retaliates for attacks on shipping in the Red Sea. We'll go live to the region for an update next. Plus, Palestinian villages smolder after growing violence involving settlers in the West Bank. Now Israel's military says it's preparing a major operation. Nic Robertson with the special report when we come back.

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MICHAELSON: Welcome back to "The Story Is." I'm Elex Michaelson. Let's take a look at today's top stories.

South Carolina will once again hold the first democratic presidential primary for the 2028 U.S. presidential election. The Democratic National Committee's rules panel chose the state over 11 others. Supporters say the choice reaffirms the party commitment to black voters. The state also held the first democratic primary in 2024 when President Biden helped move it there.

A White House official says President Trump is set to meet his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on Tuesday. Officials spoke after the latest round of Russian strikes, which killed at least 15 people and injured more than a 100 others on Friday. Mr. Zelenskyy says one of the strikes targeted a weapons exhibit near Kyiv, which he says should not have been held.

Saudi Arabia has unleashed strikes on what it described as Houthi targets in Yemen as the war in Iran expands to new fronts. Saudi military says it was a proportionate response after another Saudi ship was attacked in the Red Sea on Friday. Yemen's Iran backed Houthis announced a blockade of Saudi shipping in the Red Sea earlier this week. For more, CNN's Eleni Giokos is joining us live from Dubai. What are you seeing? Saudi striking Houthis in Yemen. What does this mean for the war?

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. I mean, this marks quite an interesting escalation here, Elex, because I'm just looking at the Saudi civil defense expos, and they basically had put out another announcement and warning for the Yanbu government. And Yanbu Port is super important because this is release valve for the East West pipeline carrying crucial oil that goes through the Bab al-Mandab Strait. And now they say the threat has been eliminated. A little earlier this morning, about an hour ago, they said there was a threat at in Jazan, which is also very important because it has a lot of downstream oil products that are created there. That threat again eliminated, but just to your point around these vessels that have been struck in the Red Sea.

Look the Houthis had put up this blockade of any vessel that is related to Saudi Arabia, saying that they will not be able to cross the Bab-al Mandab Strait. This is now the third vessel that was struck according to the reports that we've been reading, and then the Saudi led coalition striking Hudaydah Port, specific targets there. The Houthis have responded saying they mark this as an escalation for escalation.

Now keeping in mind, Saudi Arabia and the Houthis had signed a truce in 2022.

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This would mark the very first time that that truce now is being -- is majorly under threat. So we know that there's sort of war of words, that from both sides, generally speaking from The United States and Iran. But now the Saudi, the Saudi attacks specifically in Yemen really marks sort of an interesting point that we're seeing going into this weekend.

MICHAELSON: Meanwhile, Iran has been targeting the region often. How are leaders there responding?

GIOKOS: So, I mean, with lots of condemnation that we've been seeing and messaging of, we have to see a point of deescalation. And the last 13 days have been very interesting because you've had 13 consecutive nights of strikes. It seems that CENTCOM has not embarked on any strikes against Iran overnight, so that would mark a significant pause here. But just speaking to what President Trump has been reiterating this week that they're planning and thinking about striking Iran in a very big way, and Iran consistently saying it's going to be an eye for an eye. That is a doctrine, and Marco Rubio saying, look, it's going to be ahead for an eye. We're waiting to see how this transpires. But when I look at some of the strikes specifically, just over the last few days, it's been Kuwait, Jordan, as well as Bahrain that have really been the focal points.

But over the last 13 days, it's included Oman, Qatar as well. We've seen strikes in Syria as well as Iraq. There's been major concern in the region that this could widen, become a larger war where a lot more sort of transpires. The things that are on the table and a lot of military analysts are talking about this, could we see a ground invasion? President Trump was talking about the Pickaxe Mountain, Kuh- e Kolang, which is very close to the nuclear facility of Natanz. Is that going to be a target?

We've consistently seen targets against some of those port cities in Iran, and the region is just holding its breath waiting to see what happens next. Because if there is more escalation, if there isn't sort of a diplomatic off ramp, what does this mean for the wider region? And, Alex, importantly, what does it mean for the Strait of Hormuz? What does it mean for Bab-el-Mandab Strait where a new front has clearly opened up again. Also, just I want to mention that any Saudi ships, are actually under a blockade, but some Chinese owned vessels that have come from Saudi ports have been able to negotiate with the Houthis in terms of transiting.

So maritime officials are watching this very closely, but there is a threat. It is worrying, and this is going to affect traffic all around sort of the region. And importantly, it's going to spill over into the global economy.

MICHAELSON: Eleni Giokos, reporting for us on a Saturday morning in Dubai. Thank you so much for being with us.

The U.S. secretary general is about to come face-to-face with a man who was once sanctioned as a terrorist by his organization. Antonio Guterres begin his first trip to Syria as the U.N. leader in the coming hours, and he's set to meet with President Ahmad al-Sharra, a former jihadist who was under U.N. sanctions until last November. Al- Sharah toppled the long running Assad regime in 2024 and tried to reinvent himself as a more mainstream leader.

Israel's military is preparing a major operation in the West Bank following a deadly confrontation involving Jewish settlers. The IDF says the operation will target dozens of Palestinians allegedly involved in Friday's incident. The military says the confrontation began when a group of settlers entered a restricted area and then approached a Palestinian village. Nic Robertson explains what happened next, but a warning, some images in his report are graphic.

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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): What happens in the video shot in the occupied West Bank village of Tel early Friday morning is heavily disputed. The outcome is not. Four Palestinian villagers and two IDF officers were killed. Israeli officials claim the IDF was thwarting terrorists. The villagers say a group of about 20 to 30 Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian home. Villagers confronted the settlers who were joined by the IDF and armed settlers, and the shooting started. At one point of the villagers manages to wrestle a rifle away from the IDF and settlers. He is quickly killed.

By the time we arrive, the IDF has locked the area down. They say they are searching for attackers. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called a security meeting declaring we will act with full force against the terrorists, destroying their homes and accelerating settlements. A few miles from the killings, we managed to get into another Palestinian hilltop village, Far'ata. They tell us settlers attacked them a few hours ago, show us the still smoldering car country, burnt out cards, and the word revenge Ben Netanyahu written in Hebrew on the wall, which they believe refers to the Israeli deaths in the morning.

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This was a carpenter's workshop, they're telling us, and it's been set on fire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (translated): They came around noon. Several 100 settlers, this villager says. The army let them pass. They started by throwing stones and then setting fire to everything. We are standing in the village olive grove. Many of its ancient trees ripped up, he says, by settlers.

ROBERTSON: What the villagers are telling us here is that it's the economy of the village that the settlers are trying to rip out. And not just that as well, they say, look at that shrine and the fire. They're trying to destroy them culturally, erase them from the land. That's what they fear.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): They fear with current tensions running high, more attacks like this are coming. As we leave, many roads are still blocked as part of the government's response to the killings. On the highway home, a rare sight, the roadside lined mile-after-mile with cars armed settlers, and IDF troops gathering in huge numbers for the funeral of one of their fallen. Not everyone has come in mourning, it seems. Nearby, some settlers still set on revenge. Huge diggers gouging more ancient olive groves from Palestinian farms. No one expects this to be the end of the anger. Nic Robertson, CNN, in the occupied West Bank.

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MICHAELSON: Youth led protests erupt across India prompted by exam leaks after the break on "The Story Is." We'll examine what protesters are demanding.

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MICHAELSON: Protests were held across India on Friday led by opposition parties and left wing student groups. The demonstrators want India's Education Minister to step down over exam paper leaks. They're also demanding education reforms. Earlier, activists ended his 26-day hunger strike in solidarity with the protesters.

Let's bring in CNN's Rhea Mogul standing by for us in Hong Kong. What is the latest as these protests are now into the weekend?

RHEA MOGUL, CNN NEWS DESK REPORTER, SOUTH ASIA, CNN INTERNATIONAL: Well, Elex, it's been a really remarkable week just watching how much these protests have grown. What started as something that was quite contained in New Delhi has spread to other cities across India. And just over the last few days, Indian celebrities have joined in to voice their support for the students that are demanding overhauls to India's education system.

Now the latest that we have is just yesterday. Student protesters met with representatives of the government where they discussed their demands, key among them being the resignation of India's Education Minister. Now that meeting ended without a resolution, but we're told that there's more talks scheduled for later today. And really now the ball is in the government's court, because the protesters have said they're not going to back down, and they're in it for the for the long haul, and they want their demands to be met.

MICHAELSON: The Prime Minister has addressed this movement thanking them, but saying this is a big challenge to his government. How does this hurt him?

MOGUL: Well, it's really interesting that Prime Minister Modi addressed the protesters the way that he did in those two video messages that he put out over the last couple of days. Now he's a leader, and his government is one that doesn't typically respond to public criticism. And Modi has weathered a lot of civil society protest movements in his 12 years in power. And rights groups have also said and criticized Modi for what they say is a crushing suppression of dissent in India.

So the fact that he has responded says a couple of things. It says perhaps his administration underestimated just how powerful and how big these protests would get, and also that there might be signs of anxiety within the Indian government right now because they really want to contain that anger. They can't let that anger spill into something much broader and much bigger for them to really get a grip of because India's youth are one of the largest young populations in the world, and there's such a huge voting demographic for Modi.

And I also want to point out that even though Modi has weathered a lot of storms over the last 12 years, he does remain incredibly popular. He just came back to power about two years ago, although with a weakened majority. Nevertheless, he's now -- his government, in recent months has made inroads into parts of the country that have historically been quite resistant to his politics and to his ideology. So it really remains to be seen what the next steps are, how the government chooses to respond to these protesters, and what they do next.

MICHAELSON: Rhea Mogul who covers South Asia for us, thank you for your reporting from Hong Kong on a Saturday afternoon.

Back here in Hollywood where it is Friday night, actor Ryan Gosling's long running joke about his La La hand is getting a new twist.

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A redesigned poster for the Oscar winner film has now been released to mark its 10th anniversary. CNN's Samantha Lindell has that story.

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RYAN GOSLING, STAR OF FILM LA LA LAND: This is my Hail Mary, attempt to fix my La La hand.

SAMANTHA LINDELL, CNN JOURNALIST (voice-over): This iconic movie poster has haunted Ryan Gosling for 10 years, but the movie star is finally getting the correction he's been asking for. Gosling has said in social media posts and interviews that he disliked his hand placement in the original La La Land theatrical release poster.

GOSLING: But I thought we were supposed to have our hands up, and I thought it'd be cool to put my hand like that. Even though everyone told me it wasn't cool, I was sure that that was cooler than that.

LINDELL, (voice-over): In a 2024 interview with The Wall Street Journal, he said that when he and costar Emma Stone were dancing, he didn't know the moment would become the movie poster.

GOSLING: And now when I look at it and I'm just have to see it all the time, what would been cooler than this?

LINDELL, (voice-over): Even Eva Mendez has joked that his La La hand was one of his biggest regrets, posting his attempt at a redo.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How's my hand?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's good.

LINDELL, (voice-over): To celebrate the film's 10 year anniversary, the movie will be back in theaters starting August 16th. The announcement on Instagram was posted with the caption saying "A minor adjustment, referring to the new poster." And fans were torn on their feelings about the new poster with comments like, "Gosling will be so relieved and reversed the La La hand immediately." The film won six Oscars, and Gosling received a Golden Globe for his role as Seb.

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MICHAELSON: Yeah. And photoshop has improved a lot over the last 10 years as well. Coming up, tens of thousands of people are being evacuated from a tourist hotspot in France as wildfire devastate that area. We'll have the latest from Europe plus our top stories in the United States. Coming up.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two, one.

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MICHAELSON: A Starship V3 rocket from SpaceX launched successfully on Saturday from Texas. All 33 engines lit up perfectly on the pad, a contrast to the last test in May, which had a series of engine outages. The test flight ended an hour later when the rocket made a controlled splashdown, soft but faster than expected in the Indian Ocean. Starship also deployed 20 Starlink test satellites and made contact with each of them. SpaceX called it a dream scenario.

More than 200,000 people are fleeing wildfires in Spain and France. About 0.5 of those evacuations are along the Atlantic Coast in Southwestern France. Authorities say one of the wildfires is burning so intensely, it's generating its own weather system. CNN's Melissa Bell has more from Paris.

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MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As wildfires grip this tourism hotspot in Southwestern France, locals in a nearby port watch as an ominous red sky marks the terror taking place across the bay.

French authorities ordered the total evacuation of the Hamptons like Cap Ferret Peninsula on Friday. The wildfire that had devastated thousands of hectares already doubled overnight according to local authorities. There's only one road linking the Cap Ferret to the outside world. Some 40,000 people use that to evacuate with a few 100 taking boats to the Port of Arcachon on the other side of the bay.

Not far away, another wildfire is also raging in the Lawn region around the town of Biscarrosse where 23,000 people were evacuated.

CORINNE PAILLAUBE, RESIDENT (translated): This local resident says, it's worrying, and it's worrying because the whole neighborhood where I live has been evacuated. So we're in doubt, wondering, are we OK? Has everything burned?

BELL (voice-over): Another woman from the nearby lawn region said fear had begun to spread overnight on Thursday. AMBRE DUBOS, NEARBY RESIDENT (voice-over): We're all starting to panic a little now, to be honest, she says. We spent the whole day not really knowing what was going on. And now that night has fallen and it's really red, we can feel that it's right next to us.

French President Emmanuel Macron called the situation very tense, particularly in Gironde, adding that France had requested the activation of the European Union's civil protection mechanism. France is battling 32 wildfires of varying sizes according to the interior minister, including this large one in the southern region.

SOPHIE GIANETTO, RESIDENT (translated): It really is a disaster. When you arrive here, it feels apocalyptic. It's as, if we're no longer in this world, but in another one, she says.

BELL (voice-over): Spain is also facing the consequences of successive heat waves and parched conditions with residents in some towns near Madrid also forced to evacuate because of wildfires. They've become a regular feature of European summers, but this year, the continent's forest fire information system says that it has seen far more land burnt than the annual average for the same period normally. This, after record breaking climate change driven heat waves turned the landscape into a tinderbox. Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.

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MICHAELSON: Thanks for watching the first hour of "The Story Is" on a busy day of news. The next hour starts right now.