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Source: IDF Preparing To Expand Operations In Lebanon; Netanyahu: Israel To Increase Military Pressure On Hezbollah; Source: U.S. Supports IDF Operations Against Hezbollah. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired May 26, 2026 - 04:30   ET

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

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[04:32:24]

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN ANCHOR: An Israeli source is telling CNN that the Israeli military is now preparing to expand its operations in Lebanon in coordination with the United States. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posting some footage on social media on Monday on the plan to intensify strikes against Hezbollah. Here's part of it.

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BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (voiceover): But we are not taking our foot off the gas pedal. On the contrary, I said we need to push the gas pedal even harder. We will strike them. But what this now requires from us is to intensify the blows to increase the force. We will strike them decisively.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: And we're also learning that Israel is pushing to renew strikes on Beirut to target senior Hezbollah figures there. A U.S. official has signaled that the White House supports Israel's continued operations against the Iran backed militant group.

And as Russia swarms Ukraine's front lines with drones, Ukrainian forces are proving their ability to adapt to that challenge. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh shows us how they do it and also gives us an up-close look at the dangers that they're facing.

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NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): They call this the road of life, but it's about survival. It is safest on foot under skies ruled by tiny killer drones targeting any vehicle.

WALSH (voiceover): This no pretty much all over the front lines, tiny bits of fiber optic cable used to connect drones to their controller and go on for tens of kilometers. Stopping the jamming before.

WALSH: A Russian drone above. The Ukrainians open fire. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Follow him. Stay in the doorway.

WALSH: They hit it.

WALSH: That's the impact. And you have to split out because the drone will try and target groups of individuals. Sometimes one, two, three, you find.

WALSH (voiceover): We're doing Sasha and Bogdan's usual walk along this road between two Ukrainian positions, but it takes five hours and we are buzzed by attack drones 14 times.

[04:35:07]

WALSH: The battlefield has completely changed in a matter of a year. Nobody drives cars on this road unless you have to. Nobody drives in tanks. That's outgoing artillery.

These robots used for resupply. Up ahead, we can see people repairing the nets, a kind of key protection. But these used to resupply food, ammunition all around the front line.

WALSH (voiceover): The next one is right on top of us. They hit it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm interested.

WALSH (voiceover): That gray streak. And it falls, whirling down, but it hasn't detonated. Debris drifts. There's been no blast. So we are alive.

It may have been a recon drone, but flew like a Russian attacker. Down the road is the Constantinople front, where the Kremlin's advance has been slowed to a crawl at the enormous cost across the front of 35,000 Russian dead and wounded a month, says Ukraine. We arrive at the bunker to rest a moment and see the drone trophies. But we have to get back.

As soon as we emerge, they are above us again. This is the new warfare. Hide, shoot at the sky, run, fire drones back.

WALSH: Have to walk in, but also walk out.

WALSH (voiceover): The buzz stays with you, ringing in your ears for hours later. No respite. The gray smoke. Perhaps it hit the net.

WALSH: That was close. Loud. You could hear the shrapnel landing on the tarmac, clearly targeting that armored vehicle.

WALSH (voiceover): It is hard to see how this grind is a win, but it is Ukraine on foot, robots in support, automation replacing scarce, troops holding ground. The drones never stop, but neither does Ukraine adapting, learning engineering this new warfare and hoping any edge sustains long enough to put Russia in reverse.

(END VIDEOTAPE) WALSH: Look, we're not at the stage here where it seems as though

Ukraine is actually winning the war. But the overarching sense of dread of the past year or so that they were losing, inevitably, that's certainly gone.

And it's their use of technology to bridge the acute manpower crisis they're facing. It's their deep strikes inflicting pain in the heart of Russia's motherland. And it's also, I think, at times, Moscow's pain and problems appear to be acute, if not at times worse than that of Kyiv. A real sense of a change in the mood here in Ukraine's favor. Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Kyiv, Ukraine.

SANDOVAL: So, on the way, the latest numbers showing a sharp decline in tourism to the United States. Still ahead, some of the reasons international travelers may be looking elsewhere for their vacations.

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[04:41:50]

SANDOVAL: Welcome back. So the average price of gas in the U.S. it $4.50 a gallon and that's making this Memorial Day holiday the most expensive for drivers in four years. But apparently that didn't stop Americans from hitting the road this past weekend. You see, AAA estimated that a record breaking 45 million people were on the move either by plane or by car, and also that more pain at the pump could still lie ahead.

AAA warning that gas prices are likely to remain elevated as the summer travel season gets underway. US tourism is also down 5.5 percent in 2025 as international travelers look elsewhere for their holiday travels. Tourists are now citing several deterring factors, including presidential rhetoric, public involvement in wars, and also mounting travel fees. CNN's Natasha Chen has more on how that sharp decline is actually affecting the economy Here in the U.S.

NATASHA CHEN, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: 2020 Five year end international tourism numbers are in and now we know just how bad it got. I reported last summer that there were already worrying trends about drops in visitation from international travelers to the U.S. now the data shows that in 2025 there were 4 million fewer people who visited the U.S. from other countries than the year before. Percentage wise, that's the worst single year drop in two decades, with the exception of the 2020 pandemic. That's not just bad news for the tourism and service industries, who suffered an $8 billion loss compared to 2024.

That's according to the World Travel and Tourism Council. It's also a problematic indicator of how people abroad view the United States. It affects our soft power, our diplomacy. While we saw an increase of visitors from Mexico, there were decreases from a lot of other countries, most notably from Canada.

I talked to several would be travelers from different countries, including John Stewart of Ontario, who would normally be at the Indy 500 on Memorial Day weekend, but not this time. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN STEWART, CANADIAN TRAVELER: I think the tipped me over the point of just no return there, the Greenland stuff and 50 first state calling Canada to join the U.S. and then the war and now he's just struggling to get out of that with some, some semblance of logic which doesn't seem to prevail. And then it's just I don't really want to hang out with that crowd at the moment.

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CHEN: Canada might be entering a rebound phase now with April seeing a slight uptick in visitors by car for the first time in more than a year. And the World cup games might help host cities a bit. But overall, the recovery might low. And the National Travel and Tourism office predicts inbound international travel won't reach pre pandemic levels until 2029. Natasha Chen, CNN, Los Angeles.

SANDOVAL: Join me now to help unpack everything you just heard. Is actually joining us Live from Charleston, South Carolina is travel expert and spokesperson for Going.com Katy Nastro.

Katy is always great to see you. Thank you so much for joining us.

KATY NASTRO, SPOKESPERSON, GOING.COM: Thanks so much for having me.

SANDOVAL: Katy, let's begin with what appears to be this troubling sign when it comes to tourists visiting the U.S. As Natasha just mentioned, Canadians, they're thinking twice about making plans to travel to the U.S. are you seeing the same from. From travelers in other countries and why?

[04:45:12]

NASTRO: Yes. You know, look, April numbers just recently coming out, dip of 14 percent year over year. And, you know, I think we have to look at the bigger picture. That really started last year when we started noticing this slide occur in early 2025, really the first time that we had seen any depression since the COVID-19. And, you know, that's a combination of numerous factors.

You know, we in the U.S. have always marketed ourselves to the world, and it had never really been a problem. But now the flip, the script is being flipped. We're actually now seeing the world marketing itself away from the U.S. Administration rhetoric, border crackdowns, real geopolitical aggression is shaping how the U.S. is viewed. And last year was the first time that we really saw that in terms of international inbound travelers, specifically starting starting from Canada. And yes, really shaping this international inbound picture, almost like a ripple effect.

And so, you know, all of that combined with now we're seeing higher prices just to travel in general. It's really putting a damper on that international inbound tourism that, you know, especially with the World cup coming up, we were really relying on. SANDOVAL: And ultimately that still actually comes with a cost. I mean, when you look at 4 million fewer foreign visitors traveling to the U.S. compared to 2020, 2024, I mean, that's already led to an $8 billion decrease in spending here in the U.S. Do you think that trend is going to continue?

NASTRO: Yes, look, it's really tough to forecast out, especially. Especially because we had no idea that this Iran war was going to impact jet fuel and the cost of the pump so aggressively. You know, nobody really could have predicted that. And so, it's likely that this is going to take years, as the U.S. Travel association has stated, to really see that rebound back.

Now cautiously optimistic that the World cup really can help drive some international inbound tourism, even on late in the game, so to speak. But, yes, this is going to take some time to really see these numbers start to come back in the way that we've always expected them to see again. You know, it is really feeling like the U.S. has a PR problem when it comes to inbound travel.

SANDOVAL: So that covers people traveling in. Let's shift now to people traveling out. Given the affordability issues. You touched on them just now.

U.S. airfares, gas price hikes that we just discussed a little while ago. What are some Americans now opting to do when it comes to their travels this summer. Are there may be cheaper destinations, cheaper ways of traveling? Are they changing their travel habits?

NASTRO: Great question. And it's something that we're continuing to monitor and look at the baseline. People are still traveling. However, we are noticing that there is now a tale of two travelers occurring.

You have that traveler that is unfavorable and willing to pay and is paying a premium price to travel because travel is, you know, part of their sort of DNA at this point. However, then there's the average traveler that maybe travels once or twice a year and is feeling the pinch the most. They are either trading down in the way of accommodations, they are limiting the amount of trips they're taking, or scaling back on the days that they are traveling and the type of travel they are using. Memorial Day is a great example of how we've seen this happen in real time.

You know, for the first year, we'd seen the smallest growth according to AAA, in the way of air travel and road travel numbers. The biggest year over year growth was in that other category. Think trains, buses, cruises. And that is really a signal of typically those are more affordable options on average.

And it's likely that we continue to see this trend throughout the summer. You know, domestic airfare, just for an example, is up 20 percent according to our going data. And so that is giving these average travelers a choosing point. Do I travel this year or do I travel this summer at all?

Or can I reformulate my trip? So travelers are definitely being creative if they're feeling the pinch.

SANDOVAL: Katy Nastro, thank you so much. As always, some important information for travelers around the world to keep in mind ahead of what's likely going to be a very busy summer travel season. Thanks so much for getting up early for us.

NASTRO: Thanks so much for having me.

SANDOVAL: It's our pleasure. The cost of New England summer staple that also is on the rise. Still ahead, what some say is driving up the price of lobster rolls.

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[04:53:35]

SANDOVAL: The UK currently enduring its first heat wave of the year. On Monday, Britain broke its record for the hottest day in May with temperatures well over 30 degrees Celsius. Western London reaching nearly 35 degrees, which is roughly over 94 degrees Fahrenheit. And today it's also expected to be a scorcher.

And Western Europe also suffering through an early heat wave. Just look at the numbers across the board here. With most areas in the region expecting temperatures 10 to 15 degrees Celsius above normal later this week. And rising fuel costs, they are not just affecting travel.

You see, the high cost of diesel is clawing at the affordability of a summer seafood favorite. CNN's Randi Kaye explains why the price of lobster is red hot.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Okay, one more bite.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Are you willing to shell out big bucks for a lobster roll?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, not today I'm not. So I got a $7 clam chowder instead.

KAYE (voiceover): Lobster rolls are usually a popular summer item on the menu, but here in New England, some customers can't believe how expensive they are now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The great thing was that it was given to me.

KAYE: If you had to pay for it, upwards of $40 a lobster roll, is it worth it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it that? Is it that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don't even know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow. KAYE: Maine's lobster supply has been dwindling for years. And last year, according to Maine's Department of Marine Resources, they saw the lowest supply of lobster since 2008. All of that drives prices up.

PAUL BARKER, OWNER, PUALI'S: Yes. I remember when Lobster rolls was 16, 1799. At some places in the city, we're at $50. It just blows my mind.

[04:55:07]

KAYE (voiceover): Restaurant owners here say they are dealing with soaring wholesale prices and rising labor costs. And the price of catching a lobster has also put a squeeze on supply.

KAYE: In Maine, where about 80 percent of the country's lobster comes from diesel fuel, prices are up 52 percent over this time last year, according to AAA. So for lobster fishermen, they have a decision to make. Do they really want to go that far offshore, that much expensive fuel in search of a lobster?

KAYE: Oh, my goodness. I have never seen a lobster roll like this.

BARKER: Fantastic. And you can see this is big chunks of lobster. This is the lobster tution.

KAYE: The lobster tution.

BARKER: Exactly.

KAYE: How much lobster is in the lobster tution would you say.

BARKER: Almost a pound and a half of lobster right there.

KAYE: Oh, my gosh.

STEVE BARRES, WULF'S SEAFOOD SUPPLY: Fuel costs are so high. Bait is so high. Labor is so high. Maintenance of their traps is so high. So by the time they get out, they're already in the red. Live lobster are up around $2 a pound compared to last year, which translates to the higher meat prices.

KAYE: Which translates to more expensive lobster rolls.

BARRES: More expensive lobster rolls.

JEREMEY SEWALL, CHEF, ROW 34: It definitely impacted us this winter, and it just drove the cost through the roof.

KAYE (voiceover): At row 34 in the Boston Seaport, chef Jeremy Sewall says they serve about 200 lobster rolls a day in the summer months.

SEWALL: This is our warm butter lobster roll, which is by far our most popular lobster roll. So it's just warmed up in whole butter and stuffed into a toasted bun.

KAYE: What do these go for? SEWALL: Well, currently they're on the menu for $48.

KAYE: Does a higher cost change your mind about ordering a lobster roll?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not in this case, because it's a special treat. So I'm okay with it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have to pay for gas, but I also would love to eat a lobster roll.

KAYE: It's a tough choice.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is.

KAYE: In an economy like this, people may be choosing between a delicious lobster roll and filling their tank.

SEWALL: Yes. And I would say go half a tank and come have a lobster roll.

KAYE: Randi Kaye, CNN, Boston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: I'm going to miss lobster rolls. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Polo Sandoval. In New York, the news continues with CNN Headline Express.

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