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U.S. Military Says It Shot Down Multiple Iranian Drones; Top Leader of Tren de Aragua Killed in Strike; Albanian Protesters Want Luxury Development Stopped; FIFA World Cup; Kennedy Center Wants More Time to Remove Trump's Name; David Hockney, Celebrated Pop Artist, Dies at 88. Aired 3-3:30a ET
Aired June 13, 2026 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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LYNDA KINKADE, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the U.S. and around the world. I'm Lynda Kinkade.
Just ahead, the U.S. and Iran appear to be closing in on an agreement. Each side is saying something different about what it might contain.
An alleged drug cartel leader killed by a U.S. military strike. U.S. President Trump says the action was coordinated with Venezuela's government.
And a U.S. victory in the World Cup, it happened on home turf in L.A.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Lynda Kinkade.
KINKADE: We begin this hour in the Middle East, where Iran has launched a fresh wave of attack drones. The U.S. military says it shot down several drones that were trying to disrupt commercial shipping near the Strait of Hormuz.
And it comes as the U.S. and Iran say they're closing in on a potential agreement. Sources telling CNN that they could sign it as soon as Sunday in Geneva. The White House is optimistic and Iran says an agreement has never been closer. But there are still conflicting details about the framework coming out of Washington and Tehran.
For more, I want to welcome CNN's Leila Gharagozlou, who joins us live from Abu Dhabi.
Leila, good to have you with us. So the U.S. has suggested the agreement could be signed in person. Iran is saying it could be happening remotely.
What exactly do we know about where things stand? LEILA GHARAGOZLOU, CNN PRODUCER: Yes. So over the last course of the 24 hours, we've had quite a lot of speculation over this deal and this memorandum, this MOU. The Iranian state media outlets published what they said were the 14 points of this MOU.
And we've also heard from American sources and other sources about what they believe are in this MOU.
However, Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, really poured cold water over this yesterday, posting on X, saying "The Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding has never been closer.
"Pending its finalization, the media should refrain from entering speculation about its content."
And he went on to say that all details would be shared with the public in due course.
Now this is a really interesting post for a number of reasons. One, he's really directly talking to Iranian state media as well as foreign sources, who have been speculating. But it came just about 10 minutes after president Donald Trump posted on Truth Social, calling the Iranian news reports, "fake news."
His post, Abbas Araghchi's post was then reposted by the @realDonaldTrump account on X and was also echoed by president vice president JD Vance's post also on X.
And when you look at these two posts together, you start to see a much clearer picture of how close we really are to an agreement and how they're trying to protect this MOU until it is signed.
Now Abbas Araghchi and other people have said that there are still issues that need to be resolved and they're expecting these to be resolved in the following 60 days after this MOU is signed.
Now when it comes to when this MOU will be signed, we are hearing that it could be signed as early as Sunday. The Iranians have said that it is unlikely that we see this signed on Sunday. There are still some things that have to be worked out. So we're going to have to see what happens over the course of the next couple of days.
As you know, with this particular conflict, just a couple of days, just a couple of hours could change everything. Lynda.
KINKADE: Exactly. And we've seen that happen quite a few times now. Of course, Israel is not part of these negotiations but directly relevant strategically.
Could Israel add a real risk to any agreement?
GHARAGOZLOU: Yes. So as far as the Iranians are concerned, Israel absolutely can be a risk to an agreement. If you remember, Israel was very against the JCPOA, that key nuclear accord.
And they were really key to lobbying president Donald Trump to pull out of that JCPOA, which, for many people, seems to be what initially led us to what is now a collision course and led to this eventual war.
Now just when we were seeing these kind of back-and-forth posts between Donald Trump, vice president JD Vance and also Abbas Araghchi, we did see prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu also post, saying that, as long as he is prime minister of Israel, there would be no nuclear weapons in Iran.
And he said that this current conflict has basically kept Iran from getting those nuclear weapons. So he is weighing in on this. But to the Iranians' point of view, it is absolutely a risk to this agreement.
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And they're going to have to, to some degree, put their trust into president Donald Trump to curb Israel. Now whether president Donald Trump will do that or not is unclear.
KINKADE: All right. Leila Gharagozlou in Abu Dhabi for us, thanks to you.
A top leader of one of Latin America's most notorious criminal gangs has been killed. President Trump says Nino Guerrero, who led the gang known as Tren de Aragua, was eliminated in a U.S. airstrike.
The group originated in Venezuelan prisons but by now it operates in many places in North, South and Central America and is believed to be involved in a long list of crimes. Rafael Romo reports.
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RAFAEL ROMO, CNN HOST AND U.S. CORRESPONDENT: For several years, the criminal group known as Tren de Aragua has terrorized South American countries, including Venezuela, its country of origin, as well as Bolivia, Colombia, Chile and Peru, according to law enforcement officials in the region and the United States.
In the last few years, this transnational gang moved into the United States, CNN initially reported in June of 2024, based on interviews with an FBI official and a former Venezuelan police officer.
Law enforcement officials accused alleged members of the gang of multiple crimes, including creating an alleged multi-state human trafficking ring, forcing immigrant women into prostitution.
There was also the mysterious killing of a former police officer in south Florida in attacks by alleged Tren de Aragua members against police officers in New York. In any case, the death of Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, also known as El Nino Guerrero, is indeed a significant blow to the criminal organization.
The U.S. Justice Department said in December of 2024, when it indicted him, and that Guerrero has been the mastermind of Tren de Aragua's evolution from a Venezuelan prison gang into a transnational terrorist organization.
That committed countless acts of violence, extortion and drug trafficking all over North America, South America and Europe.
In making the announcement about the execution on Truth Social, president Donald Trump said the strike was coordinated closely with, he said, our friends in Venezuela, with whom we are working very well.
His post included a video showing a green roofed building disappearing under a cloud of billowing smoke, caused by a massive explosion. In a later post on X, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the strike was conducted earlier this week in collaboration with Venezuelan security forces.
Only days into his new administration in February 2025, president Trump designated Tren de Aragua as a terrorist organization -- Rafael Romo, CNN, Atlanta.
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KINKADE: Well, protests in Albania continue over a planned luxury cost to development linked to the family of U.S. president Donald Trump. Demonstrators want the plans stopped and government officials to step down. CNN's Isa Soares reports.
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ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Albania isn't for sale. That's the message from protesters day after day, showing up by the thousands outside the office of the country's prime minister, Edi Rama. Protesters also calling for his resignation and Rama so far isn't budging.
Protesters are angry over a planned luxury resort linked to U.S. president Donald Trump's daughter and son-in-law Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner that would transform some of Albania's uninhabited coastal land and protected wildlife areas into hotels, apartments and villas.
ARDIT CARMI, PROTESTER: No Albania is going to afford one, 2,000 euros a night. It doesn't make any sense. We also have no idea how this is supposed to benefit us.
SOARES (voice-over): Ivanka Trump says she thinks the project has tremendous potential for Albania podcaster David Senra, the idea originated from genuine love for the area.
IVANKA TRUMP, DAUGHTER OF PRESIDENT TRUMP: Over the course of many years, we developed the opportunity to help realize its potential and transform it but with a lot of restraint and care because the land is so beautiful that really the architecture has to be fully integrated into it, almost rise from it.
SOARES (voice-over): That's where protesters disagree.
What started as protests to protect the environment have exploded into massive anti-corruption protests, with demonstrators accusing the government of selling the country to the highest bidder.
Protesters also won legislation repealed that fast-tracks projects like these and allows them to bypass environmental protections.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Politicians should be afraid of the masses. They are here to serve us. They are not there to make whatever they want and to sell our land and our greatest assets to foreign interests.
SOARES (voice-over): Prime Minister Rama says the project will go ahead and be a big boost for tourism in the country.
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He told me protesters are being stirred up by what he calls fake news.
EDI RAMA, ALBANIAN PRIME MINISTER: There is not such a thing like a Trump family Ireland. These are all stories that, of course, get traction but can't be far from the truth.
SOARES (voice-over): But the reality in Tirana is protests are growing in size and scope, with protesters saying they won't back down until Rama is gone.
A movement that began with preserving flamingos now taking flight into something much broader -- Isa Soares, CNN.
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KINKADE: Ukraine and Moldova will kick off their accession talks with the European Union Monday. That's because 27 current members agreed Friday to go ahead with those negotiations. Ukraine and Moldova have been calling for a pathway to join the E.U. for years, especially since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Well, polls will start opening Saturday night in a landmark referendum in Switzerland. Voters will decide whether the country will limit its population. It's a proposal pushed by a major right wing party, arguing that Switzerland faces a population explosion, which is draining resources.
But as Sebastian Shukla reports, opponents say there would be a steep price to pay for voting yes.
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SEBASTIAN SHUKLA, CNN PRODUCER: The faces of Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping on opposition billboards ahead of a divisive vote on immigration in famously neutral Switzerland. Break with Europe now, the posters ask provocatively and become like these three.
On Sunday, the Swiss people will vote on a simple question. Should the country's population be capped at 10 million? If it passes, Switzerland would be forced to limit its population in the coming decades.
YVAN PAHUD, SWISS PEOPLE'S PARTY (translated): Ultimately, what we want is to protect what we love, to ensure that Switzerland remains a wonderful place to live in. SHUKLA: At the geographical heart of Europe, the Swiss nation has roughly doubled in size since 1950, surpassing 9.l million people in 2025, over a quarter of those being foreign nationals.
JURG MULLER, DIRECTOR, AVENIR SUISSE: The Switzerland is attractive. The economy is running well. The bulk of migration is coming from the European Union, this is based on the agreement of free movement of persons.
SHUKLA: The vote is also another example of European right wing parties tapping into immigration anxieties. On the YES campaign's website, under a heading titled, the loss of culture and identity, a woman in a hijab appears holding a Swiss passport alongside the phrase "creeping Islamization" and a story about people from North Africa.
DELPHINE KLOPFENSTEIN, SWISS GREEN PARTY (translated): It is utterly xenophobic. Ultimately, it makes scapegoats out of foreigners as if they're the answer to all of society's ills. It is dangerous because it is deceitful.
SHUKLA: There is also heavy pushback from the business community. An umbrella organization for the sector called it the chaos initiative and said, what at first glance looks like a solution to immigration issues turns out to be a dangerous boomerang on closer inspection.
The initiative poses a massive threat to Switzerland's prosperity, supply and stability. A yes vote would also set up a showdown with the EU as the result would be legally binding.
JURG MULLER, DIRECTOR, AVENIR SUISSE: I think in the short term, not too much will happen because the referendum is set up with these thresholds that are not hit yet. But then in the long run, the implications are, yes, possibly quite wide reaching.
SHUKLA: Once the population hits 9.5 million, the government would be forced to limit asylum and stop family reunifications. Once it reaches 10 million, it would be obliged to withdraw from any commitment to principle of free movement and thereby set it on a crash course with the European Union -- Sebastian Shukla, CNN, Berlin.
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KINKADE: Elon Musk has become the world's first trillionaire, after his space tech company, SpaceX, made its debut on Wall Street's Nasdaq market. The company exceeded expectations, finishing the day at over $160 a share. That's more than 19 percent higher than its opening price of $135.
SpaceX is now valued at over $2 trillion, making it the sixth most valuable publicly traded company. As for Musk, his personal net worth is now estimated to be around $1.26 trillion.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KINKADE (voice-over): Thirty-two years after the U.S. last hosted the World Cup, America fans were out in force in California, bringing that energy to Team USA's opening game against Paraguay Friday.
And the home squad didn't disappoint, easily beating the South American underdogs 4-1. The Americans dominated from the start, scoring three goals and seemingly stunning Paraguay in the first half.
Paraguay rallied with a late goal but couldn't bridge the gap before Team USA scored yet again.
And earlier in Toronto, co-host Canada battled Bosnia and Herzegovina to a 1-1 draw. Bosnia held the lead for most of the match but Canada scored a late equalizer.
Pope Leo had an unexpected travel delay on his way out of Spain. How the country's king helped the pontiff get home.
Plus, my conversation with one of three teen co-winners of the 2026 Earth Prize, who describes their indigenous ingenious solution for removing microplastics from water. Stay with us.
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KINKADE: Welcome back.
In Washington, the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts is asking for more time to comply with a judge's order to remove Donald Trump's name from the building.
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A federal appeals court upheld a judge's center order requiring the center remove Trump's name by midnight on Friday. But the Kennedy Center missed the deadline. Justice Department attorneys representing the center say the work is ongoing but thunderstorms caused delays.
Crews are now setting up a tarp over the building's lettering. They expect to complete the removal in the coming hours.
Pope Leo is back in Rome after a technical issue grounded his flight in Spain. The pontiff was on board an Iberia Airways flight in Tenerife when a technical problem stopped the plane from taking off.
The king of Spain offered the pope his private jet to fly back to Rome. The flight ended a historic trip for pope, in which he became the first pontiff to address Spain's parliament.
An ingenious solution to the problem of microplastics in water, courtesy of three young people from India. They're the global winners of the 2026 Earth Prize, the world's largest environmental competition for 13- to 19-year olds. Their idea is called Plas-Stick. It's a biodegradable powder made from
tamarind seeds. When added to water, it binds microplastic particles into visible clumps that can be seen and removed with a small magnet.
The team say it is designed to work without electricity or complicated machinery. Plas-Stick is the first ever global prize winner from India. And last hour I got to speak with one of those two young people who created Plas-Stick. Ariana Agarwal told me why she and her teammates chose to focus on microplastics.
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ARIANA AGARWAL, TEAM PLAS-STICK: We think microplastics is such a big problem in today's day and age. And creating a solution, solving it, makes us so proud and being able to present it at this stage is just amazing.
KINKADE: So you're responsible for this low-cost invention that could help remove microplastics from drinking water.
How on Earth does a 16-year old think of that?
AGARWAL: I think our school is very encouraging in that way. They really promote young in -- young innovators to create things that can solve these global problems. Right?
I think when we were working on a project together, the three of us, we saw a child literally go through this problem. They were drinking with a shared water container in rural India. Right?
And when we saw that he had access to zero filtration, we realized that we need to start something low-cost, something accessible, to remove this problem and eradicate this inequality.
KINKADE: It's really incredible. Just explain in simple terms like how the Plas-Stick works and how you came up with the idea to use tamarind seeds.
AGARWAL: Sure. so Plas-Stick, as you described it, is a biodegradable powder, right?
It's created using tamarind seeds. Tamarind seeds is a low-cost agricultural waste. So there's absolutely no other use to it.
And that is why we thought that this was the best way to use it and create something low cost and accessible and scalable. Plas-Stick works in a way where it binds and clumps all microplastics surrounding it in drinking water.
KINKADE: It's just incredible.
But how did you get to the point of tamarind seeds?
Had it been used before?
AGARWAL: So there was research around tamarind seeds but nothing had been done so far, combining the two right microplastics and tamarind seeds.
So we came across this research and we thought, oh, if this does have this binding quality, how, how would it work if we combine it with these other things to create something magnetically retrievable?
So that's how we came across tamarind seeds and we knew that it was low cost and we knew that we could scale it because it's waste. So that's how we came across it.
KINKADE: That's incredible. My 9-year-old daughter, almost 10, is a keen scientist, wants to solve the world's biggest problems.
What advice would you give her and other kids like her?
AGARWAL: Sure. So I think the biggest thing is passion. Your passion can take you places. We failed a lot when we tried to create Plas- Stick, right?
But all three of us were passionate about solving a problem that we knew could harm so many people. So I think I would tell her, stay passionate and just start doing something.
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KINKADE: Such a clever creation.
Well, a woman is in a critical condition after being bitten by a shark on one of Sydney's eastern beaches. The 35-year old was reportedly bitten on the legs and arms by a large shark about 30 meters offshore.
Local officials have closed the beaches in the area for 24 hours. The attack comes just a week after another man was killed by a shark on Australia's West Coast. He was bitten by -- while spearfishing with his family. According to the International Shark Attack File, Australia has had a record number of fatal attacks in the last year.
Celebrated British artist David Hockney has passed away. His publicist told CNN that he died peacefully at home Thursday, a month short of his 89th birthday.
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Hockney's vibrant paintings made him a key figure in the pop art movement and his works have soared in value in recent years.
He came out as gay at a time when homosexuality was still outlawed in England. Hockney famously turned down a knighthood. The artist told CNN in 2017 that he still painted up to seven hours a day because it made him feel like he was 30 years old.
Sir David Beckham was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The honor coming the same day the U.S. kicked off the 2026 World Cup. Beckham is the first English soccer player to win league titles in four different countries.
Instead of a traditional red carpet, a soccer green pitch marked the occasion. Guests included Tom Cruise and Beckham's wife, Victoria. Beckham is now the president and co-owner of Inter Miami CF and says he's proud of what the game has become here in America.
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DAVID BECKHAM, FORMER PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALLER: I've always been a dreamer but I could never have imagined that an honor like this would come to a working class English soccer player like me.
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KINKADE: Well, Britain is getting ready to celebrate King Charles' official birthday later today. The monarch visited members of the military yesterday ahead of today's Trooping of the Colour ceremony and parade. He presented the company commanders award and promoted three members of the battalion.
King Charles' actual birthday is November 14th but the ceremony marks the birthday officially and is usually held around June, when the weather is a little warmer in England.
Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Lynda Kinkade, coming to you from Atlanta. Stay with us. "CONNECTING AFRICA" is up next. Then I'll be back in -- well, I don't think I'll be back right now. I'll be back tomorrow with more CNN NEWSROOM.
