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Trump Pushes Offshore Drilling In California, California Rejects Offshore Drilling Push; Park Police Investigating "8647" Vandalism On National Mall; Preparations Underway For UFC Fights At White House; Study Finds Newbies Excluded From AI Job Opportunities; SpaceX Raises $75 Billion in Biggest IPO of All Time. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired June 12, 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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ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Strait of Hormuz shut down. Gas prices spiked. The Trump administration ordered Sables pipeline to start producing again by invoking the Defense Production Act, a law that gives the president emergency powers to influence domestic industries to help national defense.
MICHAELSON: You can see and hear that pumping is underway right now. Sable says as soon as the Defense Production Act was invoked, they were ready to go.
MICHAELSON (voice-over): There's a sign at Sable that now reads, quote, wells flowing, sales meter rolling American oil from American soil.
Sable is ramping up to produce 200,000 barrels of oil per day, according to the Department of Energy. Which is a small offset compared to the 15 million barrels of oil per day lost for the global market in the Strait since the war in Iran began.
MICHAELSON: Critics say you started a war that was unnecessary in Iran and now you're able to give handouts to oil companies because of that. What do you say to that?
CHRIS WRIGHT, U.S ENERGY SECRETARY: The war in Iran is critical. This is how you end Iran's nuclear weapons program. And of course, this is not a handout. There's no federal money that's gone into this project at all.
MICHAELSON: Sable's going to make a lot of money off of this opening. No?
WRIGHT: The federal government's going to make a lot of money off this. Sable might make a lot of money on this. They spent two thirds of a billions of dollars to buy this option to maybe make some money.
MICHAELSON: Back on land, Katz is skeptical. ALEX KATZ, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE CENTER: This only
benefits the executives in the oil industry who are friends with the Trump administration. And it puts everybody else in harm's way.
JIM FLORES, CEO AND CHAIRMAN, SABLE OFFSHORE CORPORATION: We're not the enemy. We're the solution.
MICHAELSON (voice-over): Jim Flores is Sable's CEO. He tells me much of the oil from this pipeline is being used to fuel jets at Los Angeles International Airport. He says ensuring the pipeline's safety is his top priority.
FLORES: All production offshore California can be safe. It can be diligent. It needs to be regulated.
KATZ: As long as we have offshore drilling, we're going to have spills in the ocean.
MICHAELSON (voice-over): California Governor Gavin Newsom's team calls Secretary Wright a, quote, shilling for the oil companies.
MICHAELSON: He would say, though, why shouldn't we invest in the energy of the future, clean energy, green technology, instead of what he would call the energy of the past?
WRIGHT: Because we've spent $10 trillion of subsidized and mandated money globally in the last 20 years. And wind and solar are 3 percent, not 30, 3 percent of global energy, just a little over 3 percent in the United States.
MICHAELSON (voice-over): The Trump administration is currently considering a five year plan to expand oil drilling off the California coast for the first time in decades.
DOUG BURGAM, U.S. SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR: President Trump on drill, baby drill means energy abundance. It means more energy.
WRIGHT: American oil and gas production practices are the cleanest and safest in the world. When you don't produce it here, it doesn't make demand for oil go away, just means it's produced overseas.
MICHAELSON (voice-over): Elex Michaelson, CNN, off the coast of Santa Barbara, California.
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SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now, California Governor Gavin Newsom says President Trump illegally invoked the Defense Production Act to revive what Newsom calls a dirty offshore drilling platform. But despite the lawsuits, Sable continues to produce more oil.
U.S. authorities are investigating giant grass markings of the numbers 86 and 47 on the National Mall. Critics have used the numbers to signal opposition to President Trump, but his administration has interpreted them as a threat. The DOJ indicted former FBI Director James Comey in April for posting a picture on Instagram showing the numbers spelled out in seashells. Footage from earth cam shows 8647 slowly appearing at as dead grass on the national mar over the course of a few days. The U.S. Park Police says they've collected samples for testing.
Now preparations are underway in Washington for this Sunday's Ultimate Fighting Championship fight hosted on the White House grounds. Events are scheduled all weekend. Our Sunlen Serfaty previews what we can expect.
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SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Octagon built chairs in place and fight bell ready to be rung. The south lawn of the White House now transformed into a massive UFC fighting arena.
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: This will be the greatest show on Earth.
SERFATY: The live televised event coinciding with Trump's 80th birthday on Sunday has drawn an unprecedented effort to make it happen, just steps away from the People's House. Court documents submitted as part of a lawsuit attempting to delay the event, revealing eye popping details how the logistics, size, scope and price tag have all swelled, including the help of now seven federal agencies. A cost of more than $60 million paid for by the UFC, including the grandiose over 100 foot arched lighting grid dubbed the Claw, a substantial volume of perishable food and 494 porta potties brought in for the crowd.
Hundreds, staff and more than 700 subcontractors and roughly 4,000 people coming to the lawn with more than 125,000 guests overall, much larger than the President originally predicted.
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TRUMP: We're going to have a UFC fight. Think of this on the grounds of the White House, we have a lot of land.
SERFATY: UFC frontman Dana White.
TRUMP: The great Dana White, he's building a literally a stadium, a 5,000 seat arena right outside the front door of the White House.
SERFATY: Has been a close ally and friend to President Trump for over 25 years.
DANA WHITE, CEO AND PRESIDENT, UFC: This guy has been a really good friend to me, and that's the bottom line. Donald Trump and I, who happens to be the President of the United States, is one of my very good friends.
SERFATY (voice-over): Appearing at the last three GOP conventions to help Trump target young male voters.
WHITE: My fellow Americans, it is my honor to introduce the 45th and soon to be 47th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.
SERFATY (voice-over): White getting a high profile and laudatory audience today with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: President Kennedy announced that we were going to put a man on the moon and return him safely to the earth. No one thought that was possible, and we did it. We are a nation founded on doing what no one else dared to do. And at some level, that's what this whole company what UFC has been.
SERFATY: Amid scrutiny of his unprecedented access to some of the nation's most sacred landmarks.
REP. JIM MCGOVERN (D-MA): Let's get back to work to actually helping hardworking people in this country.
SERFATY (voice-over): And the UFC's private gain.
SEN. ALEX PADILLA (D-CA): There's no pushback by the Republican majority. They have nothing to say about a UFC ring being built on the lawn of the White House. Really?
SERFATY (voice-over): After a series of hostile greetings at sporting events, including the NBA Finals in New York this week, it may be the one sport left where President Trump receives a welcome audience.
JOE ROGAN, PODCAST HOST: He should stick to the UFC. They're going to boo him everywhere.
SERFATY (voice-over): Sunlen Serfaty, CNN, Washington.
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ABDELAZIZ: A tornado watch has been issued for nearly 7 million people in eastern Illinois, northeastern India and parts of Michigan. Thunderstorms in the area are capable of producing strong tornadoes, hail and possible wind gusts up to 75 miles per hour. Severe storms already produced multiple tornadoes in northern Illinois on Thursday. At least one person was killed after he was struck by a fallen tree in Iowa. In total, nearly 20 million people across seven states under tornado watches in the Midwest.
Now to SpaceX. It is set to make history. Still to come, how much money the company is expected to raise with its stock market debut.
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ABDELAZIZ: You ask almost any American these days and they'll tell you prices are going up.
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BILL HOWARD, CHICAGO RESIDENT: Gas is through the roof. Things cost so much nowadays when it comes to groceries. I mean, anywhere from eggs, milk, you know, just the borderline things to live nowadays.
LO ANDERSON, CITY UNVERSITY OF NEW YORK STUDENT ENGAGEMENT COORDINATOR: To be honest, I feel like the statistics, while they are grave, are only capturing a slice of what's happening. I think it's actually much worse on people's pockets and practically in real time. We're talking about students who have to choose between paying for the train, paying for their rent and continuing on into the next semester.
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ABDELAZIZ: At the same time, paychecks are not keeping pace for many households. That's putting more pressure on people's wallets, of course. New data shows inflation in the U.S. rose to 4.2 percent last month. That's its highest rate in three years.
That could prompt the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates elevated or even raise them further, a move that President Trump has repeatedly opposed.
That increase is driven largely by the rising cost of oil. And after Wednesday night's U.S. strikes on Iran, Tehran said it is completely closing the Strait of Hormuz until further notice. That move could drive gas prices for further up even higher. They already are. The national average is now $4.13 a gallon. That's up from just below $3 a gallon before the start of the war.
Now SpaceX is set to make history with the largest IPO ever in its Wall Street debut. On Thursday it is set its opening price at $135 a share. The space technology company said in its filing that it's planned plans to sell 556 million shares of common stock, generating $75 billion. CNN's Paula Newton has that story for us.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Flight directors go for launch.
PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From ground rattling rocket launches to a record shattering NASDAQ IPO, investors are suiting up for SpaceX under ticker symbol SPCX, space industry investors call it a transformative event.
CHAD ANDERSON, FOUNDER, SPACE CAPITAL: I don't think that there is a comparable company to benchmark Space X against. I think you have to go back to the 1900s and the vertically integrated industrial giants like Standard Oil, Ford to sort of understand the magnitude of what's happening here.
ELON MUSK, CEO, SPACEX: Welcome to Space X.
NEWTON (voice-over): It's been a supersonic ride from Space X's early days to this IPO.
MUSKL That's my office over there.
NEWTON (voice-over): Elon Musk founded the company back in 2002. 24 years later, SpaceX generates billions in revenues from its satellite Internet service Starlink and its rocket contracts with the U.S. government, one of its largest clients. It is, however, currently unprofitable with 2025 losses of some $5 billion. Some Wall Street watchers fear turbulent times for the stock.
WILLIAM COHAN, FINANCIAL JOURNALIST AND FOUNDING PARTNER, PUCK: I would personally stay away from it because it's too risky. It's too highly valued already compared to the underlying business. The good business in here is Starlink. But will it grow sufficiently to justify which probably by then will be a two and a half trillion dollar valuation? Two, $3 trillion valuation? Possibly. I doubt it.
NEWTON (voice-over): Space X however, believes the sky's the limit. Its IPO prospectus sees a head spinning. $28.5 trillion in potential revenues. It's looking to build a network of artificial intelligence data centers in space. And it will work to perfect its next generation starship rocket.
GARRETT REISMAN, FORMER DIRECTOR OF SPACE OPERATIONS, SPACEX: I don't think it's possible to understate how important starship is. A whole economy is waiting for this vehicle to be able to do all kinds of new things in space. People are designing large satellites right now that need starship to get there.
NEWTON (voice-over): Elon Musk himself is a true starship believer.
MUSK: This is a spaceship that is designed to make life multi planetary, to carry millions of people across the heavens to another planet.
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NEWTON (voice-over): Musk has a lot of money riding on SpaceX's IPO as it rockets him to trillionaire territory. His biggest corporate payout, however, comes later when and if SpaceX establishes, get this, a permanent human colony on Mars with 1 million inhabitants. Sky high perhaps pie in the sky ambitions for a company that has caught the attention of global investors hoping for heavenly returns. Paula Newton, CNN, New York.
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ABDELAZIZ: New York's Tribeca Film Festival has become the first major festival to accept a live action film generated by art artificial intelligence. The two brothers who made "Dreams of Violets" have tech backgrounds. They say the film is about the large anti-government protests in Iran in January and other events over the last few decades.
Now, AI has been criticized over fears it could cost actors and screenwriters their jobs, but the brothers say it was used mainly to protect identities, generate video and to switch the voices of some characters. Take a listen.
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ASH KOOSHA, FILMMAKER: It was quite shocking. We didn't think this is going to be accepted this far into the traditional legacy model, but when it did, it actually proved that point. And the story is more important than the way it's made. The way it's made is a discussion to be had.
For us there is a process before making an AI film. First you have to have a good intention to tell a story, not to just use the technology to make a point with the technology.
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ABDELAZIZ: As artificial intelligence booms, more people are turning to job opportunities in the industry. But new research shared first with CNN shows that employment in AI is often reserved for those with more experience, not for younger job seekers. CNN's Matt Egan takes a closer look at those numbers.
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MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Many workers have anxiety about AI these days. They fear that this technology is coming for their jobs. But this new research suggests that the more immediate worry should be who gets to do the work that AI is creating. Because Corporate America and major companies around the world, they are racing to fill AI related jobs.
Unfortunately, though, junior workers are being left behind in this hiring spree. These corporate job openings are often reserved for those with deep experience, not beginners. The vast majority, 71 percent of AI related job postings by S and P 500 companies on LinkedIn are for senior level positions. That's according to new research shared first with CNN from the AI Driven Enterprise, a research group that tracks how companies are deploying AI.
So 71 percent are for senior level roles, just 13 percent for junior positions and another 16 percent are for middle tier roles. So what do we mean by AI related jobs? Well, the researchers, they comb through tens of thousands of job postings projects and they focused on roles that include everything from data scientist and AI trainer to prompt engineer.
And what they found is that these AI jobs, they really do cater to experts. And to some extent this makes sense, right? Companies, they're nervous about AI too and they're looking for experienced talent to guide them through this fast moving and disruptive change. But this really does underscore the challenging situation facing younger people.
Right now, AI is the hottest part of the economy. Normally the way in would be entry level jobs, but big businesses, they don't want newbies right now. And we know it's been hard for recent college grads to get a job. The unemployment rate for recent college graduates in the US is 5.6 percent as of March. That is significantly higher than the pre COVID rate of 3.6 percent.
And research from Stanford University has found that employment for younger workers has been 7 stagnant since late 2022. That's when ChatGPT took the world by storm. Younger workers in occupations exposed to AI they have suffered a 6 percent drop in employment, while older workers have experienced a 6 to 9 percent increase.
Bottom line, yes, AI is going to wipe out some jobs and it's going to create others. But for now, it appears that many of those jobs being created are reserved for those with exceeding experience and those without experience, they're on the outside looking in. Back to you.
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ABDELAZIZ: Mexico got the World Cup started and what a fiesta it was. But it's about to be a party in the USA and in Canada. We'll check in on all three host countries, next.
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VALERIA LEON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Mexico City's iconic SO Galo has transformed in this football temple. This is the largest conference of the tournament, big enough for 50,000 people. Here visitors from all over the world had brought their music, culture, traditions to celebrate this opening match with thousands of Mexicans and of course tourists in this Mexico City.
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ABDELAZIZ: That's CNN's Valeria Leon in the Mexico City fan zone. Mexico's team is celebrating a dominating performance in the World Cup's opening match. After a star studded opening ceremony, the Mexican men overcame South Africa 2 nil at the iconic Aztec Stadium.
Mexico is hosting 13 of the tournament's 104 matches. Earlier a sports analyst weighed in with some takeaways from day one. The other two World Cup co-hosts will hit the pitch later today. Canada will face Bosnia and Herzegovina in Toronto and Team USA will go toe to toe with Paraguay. Both countries will have their own elaborate opening ceremonies.
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The California Hurricanes are one game away from their first Stanley Cup in 20 years. Jordan Staal scoring here as he led the canes to a 4 to 2 win over the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday. Staal, who plays center, has no notched goals in five straight games, the fifth player to have a five game goal streak in these Stanley Cup finals.
The North Carolina team last won the hockey championship in 2006. They now lead the best of seven series three games of two with game six on Sunday in Las Vegas.
No World Cup matches are being played in London, but this city kicked off its celebrations with one of the most unforgettable songs associated with the sport of football on Thursday. That's opera singer SeokJong Baek performing Nissan Dorma from the terrace of the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.
He was joined by the Royal Opera Chorus decked out in football jerseys of course. The Aryo (ph) from Puccini's Turandot was performed at the 1990 World Cup by legendary Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti. It's climactic cry of Vincero (ph), meaning I will win has been linked with football ever since.
Taylor Swift can now add hall of famer to her long list of credits. The pop superstar was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York on Thursday. She received the honor alongside fellow inductees including Alanis Morissette and Kiss co-founders Jennifer, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. Swift is the youngest female songwriter ever inducted into the hall of Fame.
Thank you so much for watching us. I'm Salma Abdelaziz. CNN Headline Express is next.
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