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UAE Calls for Unified Gulf Response to Iran Attacks; Iran Retaliates After U.S. Hits Military Station; Ukraine Targets St. Petersburg as "Putin's Davos" Underway; Vote Counting Underway in California Governor's Primary; Top Seed Sabalenka Struggling in French Open Quarterfinal. Aired 9-10a ET

Aired June 03, 2026 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST, CONNECT THE WORLD: Well, this is the scene at the White House where U.S. President Donald Trump is speaking about the war in

Iran. We'll tell you what he had to say about the state of talks. It's 09:00 a.m. there in Washington, 05:00 p.m. here in Abu Dhabi.

From our Middle East programming headquarters, I'm Becky Anderson. You're watching "Connect the World". Folks, also coming up, one person was killed

and dozens injured after Iranian attacks on Kuwait. We'll have the very latest on what is a major escalation in this region.

Plus, the World Health Organization set to provide an update on the Ebola outbreak this hour, as CNN reports from a remote community pulling together

to fight the virus. Well stock market in New York opens in about 30 minutes from now at 09:30 local time, and futures really indicating a very mixed

open, no real direction there.

More when the bell is rung. We begin right here. Excuse me. In the UAE, which is calling for a unified response from Gulf nations to ongoing

attacks by Iran. One person killed and more than 60 wounded by strikes on Kuwait. Officials there telling us Bahrain also targeted, marking some of

the worst violence since the ceasefire began.

It was in response, Iran says, to a U.S. strike on Iranian military station on Qeshm Island, which is near the Strait of Hormuz, that followed an

exchange of fire after the U.S. hit a ship that had been heading to an Iranian port, something that would have violated the U.S. naval blockade.

Well, as the U.S. works towards a peace agreement with Iran, Donald Trump has expressed apparent dismay over the situation between Israel and

Lebanon. Alayna Treene is at the White House with more for you. And Alayna, good to have you. President Trump, in a new interview with the "New York

Post", talking about this region, what is he saying specifically?

Let's start with that phone call with the Israeli Prime Minister that had been reported by a number of media outlets.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that's right. Number of outlets, including CNN. Look, the reporter from the "New York Post"

essentially asked the president, will you confirm that you had this very angry call with Netanyahu, where you used several expletives and other

things to tell him to essentially back off his aggression toward Lebanon and wanting to strike that Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut.

The president essentially said yes, that call happened, but then he argued he wasn't necessarily angry. He said he used the word perturbed, that was

how he was feeling toward Netanyahu. I'll read you the quote, that the president gave in this interview, he said, quote, 'I wouldn't say angry, I

was a little bit perturbed at his constantly fighting with Lebanon, you know, at some point I said, Bibi, we got to stop this.

And then he went on to say, we've got to stop this, and then he went on to say that him and Netanyahu have a very good relationship, that they have

worked very well together. But look, I think what this shows is and really when you look at that call that happened, one thing is the president does

have this level of comfort with Netanyahu more than he does with other world leaders.

That's why I think he was able to get on the phone and just be very candid and again a string of curses that he used to kind of express that

frustration he had with Netanyahu about what he was doing. And the core of that phone call was really the president believed that Netanyahu's actions

were really threatening to upend the diplomatic talks that Washington is having with Tehran.

And that has been a through line through, I think, a lot of this war, particularly throughout the ceasefire. We have heard repeatedly, I know,

I've heard this in my conversations, Becky, with White House officials, is that Netanyahu has been kind of angry himself with how the president has

progressed in this war.

He believes Trump should be far more aggressive, you know, should not be delaying combat operations to give talks this room. He thinks that they

need to continue with all-out war, whereas Trump, of course, is really prioritizing diplomacy, and so Trump reflected on that.

ANDERSON: Right.

TREENE: But I think at the end of the day he argues that they still have this good relationship, despite kind of that reprimand of Bibi the other

day.

[09:05:00]

ANDERSON: On the possibility of ground operations in Iran. U.S. President answering a question about that. What did he say?

TREENE: Yeah, look, he essentially said that he does not believe there needs to be boots on the ground moving forward, and that he believes they

have already achieved most of their military objectives through a bombing campaign. He was essentially asked, you know, if diplomacy fails.

It's clear he wants diplomacy to succeed here, but if it fails, what is option B? And does that include boots on the ground? He essentially said

no. You know, the other option is resuming major combat operations. They would continue attacking several of Iranians' infrastructure sites, energy

infrastructure, things like that, but that he does not see boots on the ground as being necessary moving forward.

I didn't really find that answer surprising, Becky. I think throughout this entire war, Trump has been very hesitant, and he's received a lot of advice

from allies and others in his administration, people like the Vice President, JD Vance, who have told him no boots on the ground.

We do not want this to be a situation where you have American soldiers and service members, their lives immediately at risk. And so, it was

interesting to hear that, because I do think, despite all of this focus and attention on these negotiations, there is always a chance that this does

not result in a deal, and the president knows that, even though he is pushing for that.

And so, I think he was giving a little bit of reassurance, really, that you're not going to see boots on the ground, but, of course, military

action still very much on the table here.

ANDERSON: Yeah, absolutely. Alayna, always a pleasure. Thank you very much indeed. Well, it's unclear where negotiations stand between the U.S. and

Iran right now. Excuse me, CNN's team has just entered Iran to get the view from within the country. CNN operates in Iran only with the permission of

the government, but it does maintain full editorial control of our reporting from there. Here is my colleague, Fred Pleitgen.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We've just entered Iran, and we're currently driving towards Tehran. I would say that

the drive is probably going to take well north of 12 hours. And we come here at a pretty decisive time as the United States and Iran are trying to

inch closer to a memorandum of understanding that would at first, end the hostilities between the United States and Iran.

But also pave the way for negotiations for a broader peace agreement that could then happen maybe a month, maybe two months down the line. At the

same time, the security situation, especially in the Persian Gulf area, between the U.S. and Iran remains fragile, and it remains volatile.

Just overnight, there have been attacks that went back and forth. The United States hitting some targets on some islands in the Persian Gulf. The

Iranians responding with ballistic missile strikes targeting American installations in places like Bahrain and Kuwait.

So, all of that, of course, makes for a very difficult situation, as the two sides say they are committed to try and reach some sort of agreement to

end this war.

ANDERSON: OK, that's Fred. He's inside Iran. Paula Hancocks with me here in Abu Dhabi. And Paula, let's focus on the region, just for the time being.

We can get back to Fred's reporting. There's been an uptick in violence overnight, in attacks overnight attacks on both Kuwait and Bahrain.

What do we know, and what is the UAE saying about this escalation?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, the attacks we saw overnight, Becky, are some of the most significant we've seen since this ceasefire began back

in April. Kuwait took the brunt of the injuries. At this point, we know that Tehran had said that it was targeting Kuwait because it was targeting

an American air base and helicopter base. What actually got hit, though, was the airport.

ANDERSON: International --

HANCOCKS: We know that the commercial airport, exactly. We know that Terminal One, which is the international terminal, was damaged. We know

that one person has been killed, 63 have been injured. It's among the highest injury toll that we've seen from any of the Gulf nations since this

entire war began.

And we also know that flights were suspended, air traffic suspended in Bahrain, they say that they have been intercepting missiles and drones in

the early hours of Wednesday. Tehran saying that they were targeting the fifth fleet that's headquartered there. And we had been seeing as well in

the Strait of Hormuz exchanges of fire.

The U.S. Central Command said that it had struck a ship that was trying to access an Iranian port, which was breaking its blockade, and then, in

response, Iran claimed that it struck another vessel in the same area. So, we have been seeing a lot of strikes over the past 24 hours.

[09:10:00]

ANDERSON: You're absolutely right to point out, I mean, the death and casualty count in Kuwait is really significant. I mean, you and I have been

here and lived throughout this war, and you know, the UAE was attacked so brutally during this time. And we just didn't see the sort of casualty

figures that we saw overnight in Kuwait.

So, this should not be, you know, underplayed in any way. All this, of course, leaving the war and the ceasefire at present hanging by a thread.

The prospect of war again is very clear. What a Gulf country is saying at this point. This, of course, is, you know, the cross hairs region, isn't

it?

HANCOCKS: Absolutely, there's been condemnation across the board for what we saw with these Iranian attacks in Kuwait and in Bahrain. We've heard

from the UAE in particular, and they have said that this needs to be a more unified response from the Gulf nations, saying that you can't have one

nation that is bearing the brunt of these attacks.

And of course they're speaking from experience, because the UAE did have more missiles and drones fired at it than any of the other countries,

including Israel, which, along with the U.N., started this war during the kinetic period.

ANDERSON: Exactly. Yes.

HANCOCKS: So, what we are seeing from certainly the UAE, they have been pushing for a more unified response from Gulf nations. We have been seeing

some splits between the different countries, but they're pointing out that the response has to be unified for it to be effective.

ANDERSON: Yeah. It's not a monolithic region, and we know that there are, you know, different positions and different narratives, but at the end of

the day, the very notion that we are seeing this sort of uptick in escalatory sort of attacks that we saw overnight is really worrying.

It's good to have you, Paula. Thank you very much indeed for your reporting. Well, Russia says it downed hundreds of drones in a Ukrainian

attack over its territory, including St. Petersburg. Now it comes as an economic forum there, drawing thousands of attendees gets underway.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said long-range strikes hit key targets, including the St. Petersburg oil terminal, one of Russia's largest

oil transfer facilities in the northwest. Now, that attack, or these attacks, came a day after Russia launched a deadly large-scale barrage

against Ukraine, killing at least 23 people in the cities of Kyiv and Dnipro.

CNN's Clare Sebastian following this story for us. And Paula and I have been just talking about the sort of escalation in Iranian attacks on the

Gulf region. You know, we again, we shouldn't sort of underplay the significance of what we have seen in the past 48 hours, both in Ukraine and

indeed Ukrainian attacks, of course, on St. Petersburg in Russia. What more can you tell us at this point?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Becky, I think it's clear we're seeing an escalation on both sides in terms of aerial attacks in this war,

perhaps by virtue of the fact that this is a war where the front line is largely static. This is an area, certainly in terms of Ukraine's defense,

where it feels that it can hit military targets across the border into Russia to try and move the needle here.

And of course we see from Russia a slightly different approach with yes, military targets, but also its efforts to exhaust the Ukrainian population

into submission. So, I think that when we come -- when we look at the timing of these attacks on St. Petersburg, there isn't much nuance there.

This is the first day of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. It used to be a very global event where Russia was able to sort of showcase

its economic growth, trying to bring in investment. It used to be called the Russian Davos back in the day that was before, of course, the high

number of sanctions made working with Russia a big legal risk for international companies, not of course to mention the political risk, but

it is still very important to the Kremlin.

Putin is set to speak there on Friday, so it is a big banner set piece event, and of course people are now arriving with these plumes of smoke

coming from different parts of St. Petersburg. So that is certainly sending a message, and I think that, look, it wasn't just that it was there was an

oil terminal that was hit, but there was also a significant moment when the Ukrainian unmanned systems forces say that they hit a Russian warship that

was moored at Kronstadt Island, that is in the bay, just flanked by St. Petersburg.

We have video, I think, that was released by the unmanned systems forces, you see it there. This is the warship Boikiy, it's called, apparently

according to the Ukrainian side. It is a ship that's being used for operations near NATO borders, escorting vessels of the Russian Federation's

shadow oil fleet.

They are claiming to have hit that in yet more significant messaging about the power and, frankly, advancement of their drone program there. So, this

was significant part of a pattern that we see, as I say, of escalating drone attacks on both sides. Here we have a quote from one unit of the

Unmanned Systems Forces, Becky.

[09:15:00]

They say really wanted to send a delegation to the forum in St. Petersburg, but there is a nuance, our representatives fly only one way, and the

response from the Kremlin today, Dmitry Peskov, the current spokesman, saying our responses will be systemic in nature.

And using this to justify the continuation of their operations in Ukraine, saying it is to prevent such strikes that the special military operation,

as they call their war, continues.

ANDERSON: It was only four months ago when we were reporting on the sort of revolving doors of diplomacy in Geneva. We had Steve Witkoff and Jared

Kushner going from one hotel talking Iran to another hotel talking Ukraine and Russia. Some optimism at the beginning of the year, that we might have,

you know, might avoid a war, a U.S. war with Iran.

And certainly, there may be some a journey towards peace for both Russia and Ukraine. Where do we stand with regard and end to this at this point,

Clare? Is it clear?

SEBASTIAN: Yeah, you know, I mean, I think that was one of the biggest issues for Ukraine, the biggest downsides of the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran,

is that it caused a significant, if not complete, loss of momentum when it came to that diplomatic process. Now we have to be realistic, the

diplomatic process had not yet yielded anything looking like a compromise from the Russian side.

But there was at least certainly from the Ukrainian perspective, there was that momentum. These talks were continuing. They decided to do sort of

talks in a trilateral format involving representatives from Russia and Ukraine, and of course the U.S. side, and that has now stopped.

So, we hear from President Zelenskyy trying to push for this to restart. He gave an interview to "Face the Nation", the U.S. Sunday talk show this past

weekend, saying he's looking to sort of reinvigorate that process. He understands that the U.S. delegation is potentially considering going back

to Moscow, but he wants them to come to Ukraine as well.

They have not yet visited Ukraine. This is Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, of course. So, the Ukrainians started trying to reinvigorate that process.

We don't have any dates in the diary as of yet, but certainly they are looking to that. And of course, on the European side, there has been some

talk of Europe playing a greater role in negotiations between Russia and Ukraine going forward as yet, no key headlines on that, Becky.

ANDERSON: It's good to have you, Clare. Thank you. Clare Sebastian is in London. Well, the Head of the World Health Organization is updating

reporters as we speak on the Ebola outbreak in Central Africa. According to the W.H.O., at least 48 people have now died from the virus, and over 300

others have been infected.

The Head of the W.H.O. has been in the DRC since last week and has been meeting with local leaders to improve containment efforts there. Meanwhile,

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that the U.S. will reengage with the Global Vaccine Alliance, GAVI, after pulling its funding last

year, and this comes as the race to find a vaccine against this Ebola strain gathers speed.

Well, CNN has recently gained access to a hospital fighting to contain the virus at the epicenter of the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

As my colleague CNN's Clarissa Ward and her team reports, the community there still coming together and working around the clock to face the

crisis.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We're at a hospital in the rural community of Rwampara. This area has been one of

the hardest hits by the Ebola outbreak.

WARD: So, at the moment, the hospital has 17 suspected Ebola patients, they're rapidly running out of capacity, but if you look over here, you can

see a huge amount of activity as people from the community and the NGO ALIMA are furiously working to erect these Ebola treatment centers.

The doctor from ALIMA told us they're hoping that these facilities will be completed in the next two to three days. And that really is going to be a

game changer for this rural hospital, because it will give them the capacity to receive another 34 Ebola patients, and it's really interesting.

If you take a look at the way these treatment centers are being built, they are incorporating a lot of the lessons that have been learned from previous

Ebola outbreaks. So, I want to show you what each room here looks like. You've got the tap outside, of course, make sure that people are washing

their hands the whole time.

Each room has its own bed. Each patient has, crucially, of course, as well, their own toilet. But the really interesting part is right here.

[09:20:00]

This paper will come off, and its transparent glass, which allows the doctors to get up close and see the patients without endangering

themselves. This is what it looks like from the doctor's perspective. This is the entrance they come into, they can see through, see the patients.

It's pretty incredible. It's interesting, because despite the fact that this community has been ravaged by this virus. The mood here among these

people, who are all local, who are taking pride in the fact that they are participating in building and contributing and protecting their community.

They have been singing, they have been laughing, they have been joking around, and honestly, against the backdrop of so much misery, it's been

really wonderful to see.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: Thanks to our Clarissa Ward and her team for that report. Well, I want to get you live now for an update on the Ebola outbreak. The World

Health Organization's Director General is about to speak. He's just being introduced in Geneva. So, let's listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- W.H.O. emergencies health emergencies program. We have Dr. Marie Roseline Belizaire, who is the W.H.O. Afro-regional

Emergency Director, AI and Incident Manager. We also have Dr. Abdirahman Mahamud, the Director of Health Emergency Alert and Response Operations at

W.H.O.

Dr. Janet Diaz, the Unit Head for Safe and Scalable Care is also with us. As is Dr. Vasee Moorthy, who is the Lead ad Interim for the R&D blueprint

in the office of the W.H.O. Chief Scientist. With this, I'm going to hand over to Dr. Tedros for his introductory remarks.

DR TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS, DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: Thank you. Thank you, Amna (ph). Good afternoon to everyone

in the room, and good morning, good afternoon, and good evening to those joining us online.

Yesterday, I returned from a visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, including to the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak in the province of Ituri.

I met with political leaders, senior health officials, ambassadors, partners, W.H.O. colleagues, frontline responders, community and phase

leaders, women's groups, business leaders, traditional healers, and more, of course, meetings also with our partners.

I'm very encouraged by the level of commitment I saw everywhere I went. What I saw gave me hope, although challenges remain. In DRC, 344 cases have

been confirmed, including 60 deaths in 24 health zones across three different provinces, Ituri, North Kivu, and South Kivu.

The number of suspected cases has now been reduced to 116 from over 1000 last week, as we work through the backlog, either confirming them or ruling

them out. In Uganda, there is one confirmed death and 15 confirmed cases, including a Congolese resident who traveled to the United Arab Emirates,

and then to Uganda.

W.H.O. is working with public health authorities in Uganda and the UAE to gather additional information, assess the risk of exposure during travel,

and to facilitate contact tracing. We thank both the UAE and Uganda for their collaboration to mitigate the risks related to this case.

In addition, a U.S. citizen was infected in DRC is still receiving care in Germany. W.H.O.'s risk assessment remains unchanged, very high at the

national level, high at the regional level, and low at the global level. The outbreak had a big head start, and we're still behind, but under the

leadership of the government of DRC, we're catching up in Bunia.

There are now three treatment centers with a capacity of 80 beds, and there are also treatment units in Manual, Rwampara, Belli, Goma, and Bukavu, and

more are on the way.

[09:25:00]

So far, six people have recovered in DRC, and two in Uganda, showing that people can survive Ebola if they have access to care and go to health

facilities as soon as they show symptoms, but we still face several challenges. First, testing, one of our key priorities is to scale up

laboratory and diagnostic capacity to reduce delays in case confirmation and support faster response decisions accordingly.

We're working to decentralize laboratory and diagnostic capacity in priority locations, including Manual, Benny, Aru, Yakunde, and Cho Mia. We

also need to scale up readiness, including surveillance, laboratory diagnostics, and access to health services in neighboring provinces and

countries.

Second, contact tracing in the DRC is not yet where it needs to be. Only about 45 percent of contacts have been followed up. And to get ahead of the

outbreak, we need to get that number up to above 90 percent, Insecurity, displacement, and mobile populations make contact tracing especially

difficult.

Third, blanket travel restrictions imposed by some countries are disrupting supply chains and hindering the response. W.H.O. recommends exit screening

at airports, ports and border crossings to prevent the exportation of cases and contacts. We ask countries that have imposed blanket private

restrictions to lift them.

Fourth, community mistrust is a serious barrier. Some community leaders told me that they believe Ebola is not real. Building trust with the

communities is therefore critical to bringing the outbreak under control. And fifth, as you know, we are fighting this outbreak without vaccines or

therapeutics.

W.H.O. and partners are working on advancing clinical trials as quickly as possible. Today I convene for the second time the principles of the Interim

Medical Countermeasures Network to align on three priorities. First, increasing support for decentralized diagnostics. Second, mobilizing

immediate support for the affected countries to lead clinical trials in cooperation with communities.

And third, accelerating the investment to support all pillars of the response. Although vaccines and therapeutics would be a big help. The key

to ending this outbreak is not biomedical, its leadership, ownership, partnership, and trust. Government leadership, community ownership, a

strong partnership between the many actors involved, working with one digit, one plan and one report, and building trust in the affected

communities.

We also need to remember that Ebola is only one health threat among many that these communities face. One of the things I heard from the community

leaders is that they worry that the response to Ebola may take resources away from the health and humanitarian services they rely on for their many

other needs.

Our ultimate measure of success is not whether we stop this outbreak, we will. The government of DRC has extensive experience with Ebola and has

stopped 16 previous outbreaks. It's just a matter of how quickly we can do it. The real measure of success is what we do to prevent the Ebola outbreak

and the 19s, if the people of Ituri survive Ebola only to die from malaria, malnutrition, or pneumonia, or diarrheal disease, or HIV, or diabetes, we

have not really helped them.

For now, W.H.O. and our partners are committed to ending this outbreak under the leadership of the government. And when it does end, we will

remain equally committed to supporting the government and the local communities to build the health and humanitarian services they need and

deserve. Amna (ph), back to you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you. Thank you very much, DG, before we open the -- floor --

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[09:30:00]

ANDERSON: All right. In the wake of his recent trip to the DRC, the DG of the W.H.O. said he was very encouraged by the commitment he saw on the

ground, and it gave him hope, he said. And he said, we are catching up with the Ebola outbreak. An update on the numbers, 344 cases, he said, and 60

deaths in the DRC.

The assessment, he said, remains very high at the local level, high at the regional level and low at the global level, and those risk assessments

haven't changed. And he said people can survive Ebola if they get access to care and seek treatment. Contact tracing, he said, is not where it needs to

be, and building trust within communities is critical to bringing this under control.

We will be right back with a lot more news, including the ladies from Wall Street, where trading has just started on this Wednesday. More on that

after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: Welcome back, I'm Becky Anderson in Abu Dhabi. You're watching "Connect the World". And these your headlines this hour. Kuwaiti officials

say at least one person was killed, and more than 60 were wounded in Iranian strikes overnight. Bahrain also targeted in retaliation.

Iran says for a U.S. attack on an Iranian military station. It's some of the worst regional violence since the ceasefire was agreed between the U.S.

and Iran back in early April. Well Russia says it downed hundreds of Ukrainian drones over several cities, including St. Petersburg.

Major economic forum there got underway. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says long-range strikes at key targets, including a major oil

terminal. Well Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. is considering appointing a chief to lead the response to the Ebola outbreak in Central

Africa.

Speaking at a House appropriations hearing on Tuesday, Rubio also defended the Trump Administration's response, saying this is not a scramble. Well,

it's still too soon to call one of the most consequential contests from Tuesday's primaries in the United States this hour.

Counting continues in the California Governor's race, where Trump-backed Republican Steve Hilton and the Democrat Xavier Becerra are leading the

huge field of 61 candidates. The top two will advance. Well CNN's Arlette Saenz has been tracking the governor's race from -- headquarters in Los

Angeles.

She brings us the very latest on how Tuesday's primary results are shaping up.

[09:35:00]

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: California voters will need to wait a little bit longer to learn which two candidates will face off in the

governor's race in November, and whether it will be a Democrat versus Democrat or a Democrat versus a Republican.

No candidate was able to declare victory on Tuesday night in this incredibly crowded field, but there were two candidates who led the pack in

the early vote results that included Democrat Xavier Becerra, who had surged in recent months in this campaign to really be at the top or near

the top of this pack of candidates, and the other was Republican Steve Hilton, who was running with the backing of President Donald Trump.

Both men spoke to their supporters on Tuesday evening, saying that they were prepared for the fight in November.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

XAVIER BECERRA, DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR: We will not be bought, we will not be bullied, and we are never backing down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Change is coming to California, and it's long overdue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: One other candidate to keep an eye on will be the progressive candidate Tom Steyer, he is a billionaire who poured roughly $200 million

of his personal fortune into this campaign, but he has really run with a populist message. Steyer told his supporters on Tuesday night that they

will need to be patient as the results continue to come in.

California historically is very slow in their vote counting. Part of that is due to the size of the state, and also the fact that there are universal

mail-in ballot allowing voters to submit their ballots up until election day. So, all of the campaigns have been preparing for the possibility that

this vote count could extend for some time, potentially days, or even well into the week as California voters wait to hear which two candidates will

make it into this general election matchup. Arlette Saenz, CNN, Los Angeles.

ANDERSON: Well, that's Arlette Saenz reporting for you. Right, I want to get you a look at the markets. The U.S. equity markets have been open for

about 6.5 minutes, so the market sort of settling into the trading day here. And this is the picture we were expecting, that we've seen the sort

of the slightly weaker picture reflected in the futures markets today.

I have to say the NASDAQ did get a little bit of a fill up on the open, but it is now down about a third of 1 percent and you see a similar drop for

both the DOW and the S&P. Remember, these markets are at record highs at the moment. Just be quite clear about that.

The DOW over 50,000 the S&P over seven and a half 1000, and the NASDAQ over 27,000. I mean, you know, these aren't weak markets, they just are weaker

today than they were last session. So, a source confirming the Head of OpenAI is having high-level meetings today at the White House and on

Capitol Hill.

Sam Altman's Washington visit comes a day after President Donald Trump signed, what was an executive order designed to tighten up cybersecurity.

Now this order asks AI labs to provide early government access to their advanced models. This is just the latest in a string of AI headlines,

including, of course, the highly anticipated IPOs like Anthropics, which we discussed on the show yesterday.

We're going to keep an eye on those. We're also keeping an eye, of course, on how these top tech stocks, the big seven, there are shaping up. You've

got Alphabet, Google owner, Amazon, Apple, and Meta all trading slightly higher today. In fact, Meta is having not a bad session at all, 2.5 percent

higher there.

Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla all trending slightly lower today. So, we will keep an eye on those for you. Meantime, investors also watching Bitcoin. I

say watching because it certainly doesn't look as if investors are keenly invested at the moment. The Bitcoin price had been dipping below what was

the closely watched $70,000 level.

It is up slightly today, up by about a fifth of 1 percent but down below 70,000 is a significant drop for this cryptocurrency. It's been in retreat

for months, to be honest. It touched a high of 126,000 per Bitcoin last October. Market observers say inflation pressures and geopolitical tensions

are driving investors back to traditional safe havens.

And I say traditional safe havens because there was a lot of talk at one stage that Bitcoin would be a hedge against inflation, but that is

certainly not what you are looking at here, and it is certainly not what you're looking at the gold markets, to be frank, there is an awful lot of

sorts of mixed emotions, I think, there at in the investment community, because it's difficult really to track what's going on in these markets at

the moment.

[09:40:00]

We will show you what's going on, but if you want investment advice, do not come here, that's not what we give. Seek it out and seek it out sensibly at

this point, because these are really, really odd markets. Well, we are at the business end of the French Open. And the biggest name left at Roland

Garros is in real danger of elimination. Details on that, is up next.

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ANDERSON: This French Open has been one of the most dramatic in years, with top seeds Jannik Sinner, Novak Djokovic, and women's defending champion

Coco Gauff, all suffering shock defeats, and now it looks as if world number one Aryna Sabalenka is also in danger of an upset.

Amanda Davies will be watching that for you and reporting on the atmosphere. "World Sports" is next. I'm back in 15 minutes with more

"Connect the World".

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:45:00]

(WORLD SPORT)

[10:00:00]

END