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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson
Half of Iran's Missile Launcher Still Intact; Trump Fires Attorney General Pam Bondi; Artemis II Leaves Earth's Orbit on Journey to Moon; China Leans on Green Energy as Iran War Disrupts Markets; Police Release Video of Tiger Woods Arrest; Inside the Evolution of Apple Products, Technology, Culture. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired April 03, 2026 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: And that does it for me. THE STORY IS with Elex Michaelson is next.
ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Elex Michaelson, live in Los Angeles. THE STORY IS starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON (voice-over): THE STORY IS A.G. Pam Bondi fired. Now her temporary replacement is already going after leaders on the West Coast.
THE STORY IS in outer space. Bill Nye, the Science Guy, joins us to break down this historic mission to the Moon.
And THE STORY IS Apple turns 50. CNN's Bill Weir is here with surprising results of how iPhones change your brain chemistry.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Live from Los Angeles, THE STORY IS with Elex Michaelson.
MICHAELSON: Welcome. The top story is exclusive CNN reporting about the extent of damage to Iran's military capability.
Three sources tell CNN that roughly half of Iran's missile launchers are still intact, despite the daily attacks by the U.S. and Israeli military. This is according to recent U.S. intelligence assessments.
Thousands of one-way attack drones also remain in Iran's arsenal. One source says Iran is, quote, "still very much poised to wreak absolute havoc throughout the entire region."
A Pentagon spokesperson calls CNN's reporting, quote, "completely wrong."
Meanwhile, Iran is reporting at least eight people are dead, 95 injured in a U.S.-Israeli strike on a bridge West of Tehran.
President Trump posting on social media that the U.S. military hasn't even started destroying what's left in Iran. "Bridges next, then Electrical Power Plants. Iran's new leadership knows what has to be done, and FAST!"
In Northern Israel, authorities say there are no casualties after a rocket hit a kindergarten. Part of the building's roof collapsed, and a nearby residential building was also damaged.
More now of CNN's exclusive reporting on Iran's military capability from our chief U.S. security analyst, Jim Sciutto, in Tel Aviv earlier.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, we just got a little taste of Iran's continued missile capability. We're in the shelter yet again.
SCIUTTO (voice-over): Just a few minutes ago, we got the air raid warning, and then we heard multiple explosions over our head. Likely, the interceptions, or attempted interceptions of incoming fire by Israeli missile defense.
SCIUTTO: Let me tell you what sources are telling myself and my colleagues, and that is that, despite close to --
SCIUTTO (voice-over): -- five weeks of war now, that Iran maintains significant ability. Fifty percent of its launchers, 50 percent of its one-way attack drones, a significant percentage of its coastal defense missiles, as well as large inventories of both medium- and long-range missiles.
SCIUTTO: One problem we're hearing is that Iran has maintained a capability to move those missiles around with mobile missile launchers and hide them underground, which has made it difficult for the U.S. and Israel to take out all of them, despite more than 12,000 targets hit --
SCIUTTO (voice-over): -- since the start of this war.
And I'll tell you, that continued capability explains what we've been experiencing quite consistently here in Tel Aviv over recent days, which is consistent incoming fire from Iran.
SCIUTTO: Yesterday, one of the busiest days since the start of the war. And of course, this contradicts what you've heard from President Trump last night, but also the Pentagon, that missile capability has been dramatically destroyed.
Reduced maybe, but not eliminated. And some of the sources telling us that Iran may be holding back some of those capabilities, which explains some of the reduction in fire in recent days.
I should note here was the White House response to the story. White House spokesperson Anna Kelly saying, quote, "Anonymous sources desperately want to attack President Trump and demean the incredible work of our United States military in achieving the goals of Operation Epic Fury."
[00:05:04]
We should note that this is a U.S. military assessment that has found that continuing Iranian capability.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAELSON: Jim Sciutto in an emergency shelter there in Tel Aviv.
Now to this: more than 40 countries are vowing to use every possible measure to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The British foreign secretary hosted a virtual meeting about that vital shipping route, which has been effectively shut down by Iran since the start of the war.
She says options include sanctions on Tehran and diplomatic pressure.
About 20 percent of the world's oil passes through that strait, and currently, about 2,000 vessels are trapped inside the Persian Gulf.
That disruption is pushing oil prices higher. The global benchmark Brent crude has been trading well above $100 a barrel most of this week. You see it right now at 109, which is up almost 8 percent.
The national average for a gallon of regular unleaded gas is up to $4.08. It's $5.89 here in California. Amazon is adding a 3.5 percent fuel surcharge to help offset rising costs. But the White House insists all this is only temporary.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMIESON GREER, U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE: The president and his national security team are focused on dealing with the objectives of this war as soon as they can. They're not going to put an artificial deadline on it.
But the fundamentals of the global energy market are OK. What we're seeing is -- is a temporary disruption because of what's happening.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: The International Energy Agency says that jet fuel shortages are coming to Europe this month or in early May, and airlines will respond by cutting flights and raising prices.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has told the Army's chief of staff that he needs to retire immediately. General Randy George held the position since September of 2023. He previously served as the senior military assistant to former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Experts say General George's ties to the Biden administration didn't sit well with Hegseth, who has already positioned one of his top deputies to fill that role.
And another shakeup in Donald Trump's cabinet. Pam Bondi is out as U.S. attorney general.
The U.S. president says that his loyal friend did a tremendous job overseeing a massive crackdown on crime and, quote, "will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector." He didn't reveal what that job was.
Bondi's deputy and President Trump's former personal attorney, Todd Blanche, will lead the Justice Department from now on.
Bondi issued her own upbeat response, saying she will continue fighting for the Trump administration, that her service as attorney general was, quote, "the honor of a lifetime."
It's believed that President Trump soured on Bondi for failing to go after enough of his political enemies and over her handling of the Epstein files.
Here are some of her public remarks, some blunders, and some outbursts on all things Epstein.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The DOJ may be releasing the list of Jeffrey Epstein's clients. Will that really happen?
PAM BONDI, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: It's sitting on my desk right now to review.
You're grilling me on President Trump and some photograph with Epstein? Come on.
Sifting through evidence that had been sitting at the FBI with the Biden administration for four long years.
None of them asked Merrick Garland over the last four years one word about Jeffrey Epstein. How ironic is that? You know why? Because Donald Trump -- the Dow, the Dow right now is over -- the Dow is over 50,000.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They told you about that, Attorney General, before you started.
BONDI: You don't tell me anything.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, I did tell you, because we saw what you did in the Senate.
BONDI: Washed-up loser lawyer. Not even a lawyer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: Now, Bondi's firing comes just weeks after President Trump parted ways with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Let's bring in our political panel. Plenty to discuss with them. Commentator Dan Schnur is a professor at USC, U.C. Berkeley and Pepperdine. And Sara Sadhwani is a professor at Pomona College. Just one school?
SARA SADHWANI, PROFESSOR, POMONA COLLEGE: Just one. I know.
MICHAELSON: Welcome to you both. Dan, welcome back. Sara, welcome to THE STORY IS for the first time. Great to have you here.
Dan, let's start with you. Your take on what's going on with Pam -- Pam Bondi. Well, let's -- let's start, actually, with what's going on when it comes to President Trump and Iran.
And we see this post on Truth Social tonight, very upbeat, saying he's basically going to escalate the war at the same time where we have this situation where the Army chief of staff is out, and we hear this sort of troubling news from U.S. intelligence to -- to Jim Sciutto.
DAN SCHNUR, PROFESSOR AT USC, U.C. BERKELEY AND PEPPERDINE: Well, for several weeks now, for almost the full month of the war, Trump has been faced with two options, Elex.
He can either escalate the war, or essentially, he can capitulate and back off, come home, declare victory.
What he's done instead is he's equivocated. The speech he gave last night was essentially the same things as he's been saying since the beginning of the war.
[00:10:07]
And if you look at it closely, today's posting that you were referencing isn't all that different from what he said a couple of weeks ago when he threatened Iran with a 48-hour deadline before he'd start bombing these same facilities.
So, he seems to be frozen in place. At some point, he's going to have to decide whether to escalate this war for a much more prolonged period of time, even given the negative political consequences here --
MICHAELSON: Yes.
SCHNUR: -- or get out. He doesn't seem to yet have decided which of those two options he's going to take.
MICHAELSON: And there's big political consequences either way.
SADHWANI: That's absolutely right. I mean, let's not forget that this is 2026. We have midterm elections coming up. Everyone is looking at what the consequences of this war will be.
Currently, this war is -- is definitely not within the public favor. Neither is the president. And that's going to have real consequences when it comes to those House elections, as we continue to move towards even the primary here in California.
MICHAELSON: Let's talk now about Pam Bondi and the decision to -- to get rid of her. Why now?
SCHNUR: So, I am -- I'm not an expert in this field, Elex. So, I actually did a bit of research before the program started. MICHAELSON: OK. Good-looking glasses.
SCHNUR: Let me read to you. Thank you. CVS specials.
"Psychiatrists and psychologists refer to the act of lashing out at someone other than the person you are mad at as displaced aggression and displaced anger. It is considered a psychological defense mechanism, where negative emotions are redirected from their original, often threatening source toward a safer, less threatening recipient."
MICHAELSON: Dr. Schnur.
SCHNUR: And that suggests to me --
MICHAELSON: So, translate that into English. What do you mean by that?
SCHNUR: That Pam Bondi is a safer, less threatening recipient.
Trump is understandably frustrated by the war. Sara made exactly the right point. The longer we stay in Iran, the worse it is for him politically.
And so, as he tries to balance this, as he becomes more and more angry and more frustrated with the lack of progress being made, he needed a target.
MICHAELSON: Yes.
SCHNUR: The rumor is that the secretary of commerce, Howard Lutnick, and the secretary of labor, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, might be next.
But today, I think this was just simply displaced frustration from the Middle East toward the Department of Justice.
MICHAELSON: Yes. And we don't know that about those other cabinet secretaries. That is sort of being speculated out there. We don't see any confirmation on that.
But -- but in terms of this decision, it's interesting, Sara, because during the first Trump administration, there was so many musical chairs, there was so much leaking, there were so many people in and out. And this Trump administration, which prided loyalty in hiring people, there really hasn't been very much of that.
SADHWANI: No. That's right. And I think there -- we got to that year mark, and we hadn't seen a whole lot of upheaval amongst the cabinet members the way we saw in that first Trump administration.
But today, I think Dan is absolutely right with this. There's an interesting timing about, just today, of all of these stories that we're talking about.
The Pam Bondi news came out this afternoon. So, to me, that was really an attempt to try and shift the narrative.
He did his speech last night. He said, don't worry, we'll be out of here in two weeks. Let's -- let's change the topic. Let's give you a new headline. Pam Bondi is out.
And now what we're hearing from CNN, as well, is that, in fact, this war is on, and Iran actually has a significant amount of power.
MICHAELSON: Speaking of a different topic, it's interesting that Todd Blanche is now taking over because traditionally, there was supposed to be this wall between the Department of Justice and the president. It was not supposed to be the presidents' lawyer. You're the lawyer for the United States of America.
Well, now he literally has his former lawyer. Todd Blanche is now running the department.
And we wanted to put up some video. This was from the FBI, Los Angeles. They posted this on X this morning. There was a raid here in Southern California.
They arrested eight of 15 defendants on nine separate healthcare fraud investigations. Those arrests happening in the L.A. area and also in Idaho.
And Todd Blanche, who is now running the Department of Justice, appeared on "Jesse Watters Primetime" tonight on FOX News Channel to talk about this. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TODD BLANCHE, ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: This includes leadership in state governments, our investigations do, because guess what? They are, in many ways, the actual conduit. They're letting it happen by not doing anything to stop these -- these -- these individuals stealing from the American people.
And so, you're going to see this Department of Justice pour all of our heart and soul into -- into fraud cases all over this country for the foreseeable future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: Now, fraud is an issue. It's a real issue. And there is fraud here in California and there is in other places, as well.
But it is interesting timing that this is the main focus on night one, when there was this reporting that it felt like maybe Bondi wasn't going after the opponents enough, that this happens in Gavin Newsom's California. And the first announcement is made on FOX News in prime time.
[00:15:07]
SADHWANI: That's right. California is Donald Trump's boogeyman. So, of course, he came here.
And you're absolutely right. If fraud is going on, we do need to -- to root it out. That being said, there's a whole lot of these fraud cases also in
other parts of the country. Places like Florida also have large numbers of -- of fraud cases. We don't see him going after Florida in these -- these kinds of -- of actions.
We see it here in our backyard, because of course, Gavin Newsom has been the great threat to Donald Trump. It's the one politician who's really been standing up and countering Donald Trump, even on social media.
MICHAELSON: It's been interesting to watch that.
Meanwhile, in Washington, the government still isn't fully open, Dan. It's interesting as we sort of look at live pictures of what's happening there.
There isn't a deal. There was an announcement that the Republicans with the House and the Senate are going to try to do something, which is to pass another Big, Beautiful Bill through the process of reconciliation to fund Republican priorities going forward.
This would allow them to reopen the government, reopen the Department of Homeland Security. But getting that passed is really hard with only Republican votes.
SCHNUR: I think the most interesting thing about this whole fight regarding DHS funding, Elex, is that neither party -- the Republicans are more in evidence right now, of course, for all the reasons you mentioned. But neither party really has felt any political consequences or any political -- political heat of the prolonged shutdown.
The lines at TSA, at the airports caused some inconvenience, but it really didn't create enough political discomfort for either side to make the agreement an urgent one.
So, what we're seeing now is that maybe in a day or two, maybe in a week or two, we'll see an argument -- we'll see an agreement that could have come out two weeks ago, if not further -- if not -- if not even more in the past.
MICHAELSON: More than that.
SCHNUR: There just hasn't been enough political heat on two parties that both think that they're winning this fight.
MICHAELSON: And because of that, we have seen the longest partial government shutdown in U.S. history.
Politicians respond to incentives and respond to deadlines, and they haven't felt enough heat, in their minds, to feel like they need to respond.
Meanwhile, a lot of folks in America are thinking, WTF.
SADHWANI: Yes. MICHAELSON: Sara, Dan, thank you so much. Great to see both of you.
SCHNUR: Thank you.
SADHWANI: Thanks for having us.
MICHAELSON: Up next, we head to outer space.
Up next, you see him there standing by in Washington, Bill Nye, the Science Guy, to weigh in on this historic mission to the Moon.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:22:05]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REID WISEMAN, ARTEMIS II COMMANDER: Mission Control Houston reoriented our spacecraft as the sun was setting behind the Earth.
And I don't know what we all expected to see in that moment, but you can see the entire globe from pole to pole. You can see Africa, Europe. And if you looked really close, you could see the Northern lights. It was the most spectacular moment, and it paused all four of us in our tracks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: You just heard there from one of the four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft to have left Earth's orbit on their journey around the Moon.
We want to show you a live picture. We'll get to that.
But right now, the final major engine firing of the mission set them on a course to loop around the Moon before sling-shotting back to the Earth.
The historic mission is the first in more than 50 years in which astronauts journey within the Moon's vicinity.
Earlier, the crew members were sitting back and enjoying the view, taking photos of Earth. They enjoyed it so much they even missed lunch.
CNN's Ed Lavandera has more as the crew prepares to go where no humans have ventured.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's go time for the Artemis crew as they are about to embark on a history-making path more than 250,000 miles from planet Earth.
WISEMAN: It was an amazing ride uphill. The views: we've got two Moon rises that we've had so far, and the views of planet Earth. We circled it completely, and we forgot how beautiful it is to look down on Earth.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): The four astronauts on the Orion spacecraft, which they have named Integrity, woke up Thursday to the song "Sleepyhead."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good morning, Artemis II crew.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Houston, Integrity. We are ready to go.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): The crew started their second day after sleeping in four-hour shifts and exercising on a flywheel device to do squats, deadlifts, and rowing.
And they're settling into an extensive food menu that includes coffee, smoothies, quiche, beef brisket, even mango salad, and couscous with nuts.
The astronauts have also changed out of their bright orange spacesuits, designed to keep them alive if there's an emergency. The suits can protect them for about six days.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're called the Orion crew survival suits or OCS suits.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Right out of the gate, though, the astronauts had to troubleshoot a problem with the capsule's toilet. With the help of Mission Control, the problem was fixed.
And strategically, the team took the capsule for a manual test drive and has successfully completed several maneuvers to adjust Orion's orbital path as part of their ten-day mission, including the trans lunar injection burn, which will set them on the path to circumnavigate the Moon, where no humans have traveled since the last Apollo mission in 1972.
It's a historic moment for NASA, as the space agency chases the dream of creating a lunar base that will ultimately lay the groundwork to explore Mars.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For the first time in over 50 years, humans join the deep space network.
LAVANDERA: Now that the trans lunar injection burn is successfully complete, the Artemis crew is on its way to the Moon.
[00:25:06]
And this is an incredibly special time. It is a trip that will take four days to complete. So, that gives the Artemis crew plenty of time to continue carrying out other plenty of time to continue carrying out other tests, other experiments that they need to do on board the spacecraft to make sure everything continues to work properly.
There's a very good chance we actually get to see and hear from the crew, as well.
And then, in four days, they will be passing the far side of the Moon. Another historic moment in this historic mission -- Elex.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAELSON: Ed Lavandera in Houston. Thank you, Ed.
Joining us now from Washington is Bill Nye, the Science Guy, who is a special chief ambassador to the Planetary Society. Bill, welcome back to THE STORY IS. Great to see you.
BILL NYE, SPECIAL CHIEF AMBASSADOR, PLANETARY SOCIETY: It's good to be here.
MICHAELSON: So, what are you most excited about in the next couple days, as they continue to travel right now?
NYE: Well, I believe that, if this mission is a success -- and it sure looks like it will be -- it will re-energize the political support for NASA, writ large. And by political support. I mean, in the Senate and Congress. So that NASA can continue to make discoveries and do things that, heretofore, no one else has done.
So, I just very much want this mission to work out as planned. And right now, it's going great.
MICHAELSON: Well, and you've been a big part of that, as well, because before this, there was a debate in Congress about whether to fully fund NASA.
And you and the Planetary Society and all the folks that follow you did a very strong push to get it funded. It's funded. And now, we see both sides of the aisle coming together to celebrate what is happening right now. And some of that also is driven by -- by a space race with China, right?
NYE: So, that's what's really taken hold, is people are realizing that the China National Space Administration is the real deal.
You know, look around your world, your house, your -- your home, what have you. Things that are made in China these days are often of the very best quality. It's not the way it was 50 years ago, for example.
There's a lot of smart people in China, and they are motivated to explore space for the same reason anybody else would be: to find out more about the cosmos and our place within it.
And so, with China doing such great things on their -- in their space program, people in the U.S. Congress are taking it seriously and focusing on getting back to the Moon, which as the administrator points out, people have been talking about doing for 60 years.
So, this mission is a very conservative approach to achieving a very big goal.
MICHAELSON: Well, and you remember being a kid and watching when the Americans landed on the Moon, that that historic step. Now, we're heading back there eventually, to land on the Moon again. And you're especially interested in water, ice on the Moon. Why is
that?
NYE: It's a science mystery, you guys. People using robotic spacecraft and telescopes in space and on Earth have observed ice in the crater, a -- craters on the South Pole of the Moon.
This is a place on the Moon, it's -- Keep in mind, the Moon presents one face to us all the time, but it has a little wobble or libation. And so, there's places that you would not expect water ice to survive. You would expect it to evaporate into space.
If you've ever seen dry ice, frozen carbon dioxide, it evaporates without becoming a liquid. The same you might expect of water ice on -- in the vacuum of space on the surface of the Moon.
But there's something going on that's preserving it, or preserving something, a compound that resembles water closely enough that it looks like water.
And it may be that the water is constantly evaporating or breaking down, but it's continually being replenished by these particles that stream off of a star -- and in this case, the Sun -- which we call the solar wind. And so that is a possibility.
Now, if there's a new configuration of water, water is already a remarkable substance. But if there's something new about it, it could change the world. And so, it's worth investigating. And this is part of that larger effort.
So, building a Moon base is a logical thing for reaching farther and deeper into space. And perhaps one day sending people to Mars.
Personally, I have a personal thing I want to happen before we do that. I want these rock samples which are sitting on the surface of Mars in little tubes like this to be brought back to Earth before humans show up with all the stuff that comes out of us and contaminating these extraordinary archeological or palaeobiological sites on Mars.
[00:30:17]
But this -- this mission to the Moon today, the next nine days, is part of that larger effort.
MICHAELSON: It is extraordinary. And thank you, Bill Nye, for inspiring so many of us. And thank you for helping getting the money to make it all happen.
Thank you.
Still ahead, from huge wind farms to vast solar fields, China has made a long-term push for green energy. Now, Beijing is poised to benefit as the Iran war disrupts global energy supplies. CNN's Mike Valerio reports live from Beijing, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:35:28]
MICHAELSON: Welcome back to THE STORY IS. I'm Elex Michaelson. Let's take a look at today's top stories.
Pam Bondi is now the second member of Donald Trump's cabinet to be shown the door. The U.S. president says the outgoing attorney general will move to an important new job in the private sector.
Sources say President Trump was frustrated by her handling of the Epstein files and thought she hadn't gone after enough of his political opponents.
A U.S. judge is dismissing Blake Lively's sexual harassment claims against "It Ends with Us" director and costar Justin Baldoni.
The actress accused Baldoni of harassing her during production and then launching a smear campaign against her, claims that Baldoni denied.
The judge ruled that some of the claims were invalid because of legal technicalities, including that Lively was considered an independent contractor rather than Baldoni's employee.
Pope Leo is presiding over Holy Week celebrations for the first time since becoming pontiff. During the Mass of the Last Supper on Thursday, he performed the traditional foot washing ritual that his predecessor, Francis, used to perform.
The pope washed the feet of 12 Roman priests imitating Christ's gesture towards the apostles the night before he died.
China is leaning on its renewable energy sectors as the Iran war disrupts global energy markets. But could Beijing's strategy offer countries a way out of their dependance on Middle Eastern fuel?
Mike Valerio looked into that. He joins us live now from Beijing. Mike, what did you find?
MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Elex, you know, we have two big things going on here. We have the White House, specifically the president saying through this U.S.-Israeli action, the region, again, from their point of view, will be more secure in the long term.
But with our reporting and basically the contours of what is playing out here with the energy situation, China is now very much positioned to say to the rest of the world, well, we can make your energy supply more secure for the long term with their green energy technology.
So, we took a hike into the mountains. We went that way. We're going to show you our piece. We start with the president, and then we go into the mountains.
So, let's watch. We'll talk about it on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: China makes almost all of the windmills, and yet, I haven't been able to find any wind farms in China.
VALERIO (voice-over): As you hike through the mountains outside Beijing, dwarfed by none other than towering windmills, you can see and hear China's green energy revolution.
VALERIO: It's incredible. Standing this close to one of China's colossal wind turbines. In fact, China is installing roughly two of these every single hour. And analysts say in one month alone last year, China added enough renewable energy to power a country the size of Poland.
ZHU ZHAOYI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE OF MIDDLE EAST STUDIES, PEKING UNIVERSITY HSBC: So, Chinese government we have a long desire for a stable supply of energy, for the -- for the -- for the whole country.
VALERIO (voice-over): Long before the Iran War oil shock, Beijing has viewed reliance on Middle Eastern fossil fuels as a possible security risk. That, in part, has helped fuel China's green energy push for the past two decades.
VALERIO: And look at what's up ahead on this ridgeline. China now has the world's largest wind energy generation system. You can see it still even in the outskirts of Beijing, where we are right now.
Wind and solar contribute to about 20 percent -- about a fifth -- of China's energy generation. That's already ahead of the United States, where it stands at about 17 percent.
MICHAL MEIDAN, HEAD OF CHINA ENERGY RESEARCH, THE OXFORD INSTITUTE FOR ENERGY STUDIES: There's definitely going to be greater appeal of China's clean tech exports.
VALERIO (voice-over): And those include electric vehicles, with China's BYD overtaking Tesla to become the world's top EV maker and now exporting more than one in five of its vehicles to over 100 countries.
TU LE, MANAGING DIRECTOR, SINO AUTO INSIGHTS: These super big cars, at least in the West, that drink a lot of gas, they're not going to be very popular, long-term. Maybe the red carpet is going to be rolled out in some countries for these more affordable Chinese electric vehicles.
VALERIO (voice-over): But demand for China's green tech, experts note, could vary depending on geography.
A potential complicating factor: the United States has warned nations for years not to let China build critical infrastructure, a dynamic that could impact Middle Eastern U.S. allies like Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
ZHAOYI: They want technologies and investments from China's side in green energy industries, because they want to be less dependent on oil exports.
[00:40:02]
VALERIO: So, certainly, the scale of what China is building is leading the cost of renewable energy to plummet. But what remains to be seen is what scale China will export of its green energy technology in this new moment for global energy.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VALERIO: OK, so that's where we leave our conversation. There are all of these countries that want cheaper Chinese energy, but at the same time, they have to think about their alliances with the United States.
Is the United States going to be mad at them for potentially installing more Chinese green critical infrastructure? So, it's a tough balance.
We're going to be back with you in the next hour, Elex, and we're going to talk about why it also might be a little easier said than done for all of these countries, and cities, and societies to make the transition from regular gas-burning vehicles --
MICHAELSON: Yes.
VALERIO: -- to Chinese E-vehicles -- EVs. So, we'll be back with you in about an hour talking about that.
MICHAELSON: Great reporting. Look forward to it. Mike Valerio in Beijing. Thank you.
Newly released video shows Tiger Woods' arrest for suspicion of driving under the influence. What police body camera footage reveals about his behavior following a serious car crash. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:45:54]
MICHAELSON: We are getting our first look at footage recorded by police during Tiger Woods's arrest last week. Isabel Rosales takes us through it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Woods, Mr. Woods. I'll just keep you down here with us, please.
TIGER WOODS, PROFESSIONAL GOLFER: Yes, I was just talking to the president.
ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Golf legend Tiger Woods tells a deputy he's just ended a phone call with President Trump shortly before what would be his DUI arrest. A scene for the first time in a new body-camera video released by a Florida sheriff's office. WOODS: I looked down at my phone, and all of a sudden, boom.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to just take a look at you. Is this -- is this comfortable for you?
WOODS: Yes.
ROSALES (voice-over): He has since pleaded not guilty and has demanded a jury trial.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How much have you had to drink today?
WOODS: None.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: None? Do you take any medication?
WOODS: I take a few, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's a few?
ROSALES (voice-over): Video shows deputies questioning Woods: in an arrest report, noting several signs of impairment, like extremely dilated pupils, bloodshot eyes, and lethargic movements.
WOODS: Motrin, ibuprofen, and, what do you call it? Uh.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you take all of them today?
WOODS: Yes.
ROSALES (voice-over): Part of the golf star's response, redacted by the sheriff's office.
Deputies allow Woods to perform the field sobriety test sitting down on the bumper of a cruiser because of his physical limitations, noticing his limping and stumbling.
The 82-time PGA tour winner tells deputies he had seven back surgeries and more than 20 operations on his leg, according to the arrest report.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don't move your head. Do you understand?
WOODS: You got it.
ROSALES (voice-over): During this hand coordination test near the golf legend's Florida house, he's told to shut his eyes, stack his fists, clap, and count. But the arrest report shows he failed to follow instructions.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Place them behind your back. There you go.
So, at this time, I do believe your normal faculties are impaired. OK? And you're under the unknown substance. OK, so at this time, you're under arrest for DUI. Yes, sir. ROSALES (voice-over): During a pat down, deputies find two pills
inside his pant pocket, later determined by law enforcement to be the prescription painkiller hydrocodone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a narco.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a narco?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
ROSALES (voice-over): A deputy puts the pills away into a plastic evidence bag.
After his arrest, video from the back of the sheriff's cruiser shows him cuffed and leaning back, eyes closed.
And on Thursday, a Florida judge granted a request from his attorney to let Woods travel out of the United States in order to attend comprehensive inpatient treatment.
In a statement, the 15-time major winner said he is stepping away for a period of time to seek treatment, saying, quote, "This is necessary in order for me to prioritize my well-being and work toward lasting recovery."
ROSALES: The golf star is no stranger to high-profile car incidents, this marking his fourth. And with this latest case, his driver's license has been suspended.
Now, Woods is also dating the former daughter-in-law of President Trump, Vanessa Trump. And you heard Woods there mention at the top of the story that he had spoken on the phone with the president.
CNN has reached out to the White House to confirm whether such a call took place.
Isabel Rosales, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAELSON: And no word yet. Isabel, thank you.
Apple is now 50. CNN's Bill Weir joins us next with how the iPhone is literally changing your brain chemistry.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:54:03]
MICHAELSON: Chances are right now you've got this either in your hand or pretty close to your hand, or you may be watching that on this. Of course, I'm talking about an iPhone.
This week marked 50 years since Apple was first created, and CNN is looking back at that history with a brand-new episode of THE WHOLE STORY Saturday night at 10 p.m. Eastern called "50 Years of Apple." Here's a preview with host Bill Weir.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TONY FADELL, FORMER SVP OF IPOD DIVISION AT APPLE: At the time, companies like Nokia were working really hard to get music on a phone, and so we were looking at another existential crisis at -- at Apple. These companies who have a lot more money and world domination on phones, they're going to take the iPod business away from us.
So, what are we going to do? And what we said was, how do we make a phone inside the iPod?
STEVE JOBS, FOUNDER OF APPLE: Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything.
DAVID POGUE, TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE WRITER AND TV PRESENTER: He said. Today, we're unveiling three new products.
[00:55:03]
JOBS: An iPod, a phone, and an Internet communicator.
POGUE: And then he goes.
JOBS: An iPod, a phone.
POGUE: Are you getting it?
JOBS: Are you getting it?
POGUE: And suddenly people realized it's all the same thing.
JOBS: This is one device.
POGUE: And people just lost their minds.
JOBS: And we are calling it iPhone.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAELSON: And Bill Weir joins us now from New York. Interviewing David Pogue right there, who wrote a whole book about Apple's 50th anniversary.
Bill, welcome back to THE STORY IS. Congrats on the documentary.
BILL WEIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, Elex. Thanks for having me.
Yes, this was a really fun one to put together. I've been a fan of this brand since the '80s. Covered it off and on over the years. But this seems like a really good benchmark to take a look at what they've given us and -- and what they've taken away, as well.
MICHAELSON: So, I was just saying in the intro, probably everybody's got something like this. If it isn't this version of it, it's another version from a different company, trying to copy Apples version of this, near there.
Is there any company that has been more influential than Apple in the last 50 years in terms of changing the entire world?
WEIR: I would argue no. I think it is the most. And really in human history in a lot of ways. When you think about it, they have 2.5 billion users in just 50 years. And a big reason was the iPhone.
The history is littered with near failure. They were quarters away from bankruptcy a few times. Some stuff like the Macintosh were culturally relevant. Not a big seller.
But this changed everything, created the gig economy. It changed the way we eat, and how -- where we sleep on vacation. It changed how we meet people, how we fall in love, how we isolate from each other. It's changed our postures, our eyesight.
And Tony Fadell, who -- the engineer you saw there, said before these even hit shelves, they could see within their own engineering team the hypnotic pull of these things.
People were pulling them out at meetings. They wouldn't bring their laptop out at meetings. He said, this is different.
But you know, the screen time application to show you how much you're -- you're obsessed with these things didn't get introduced until 2018 after years of lobbying from people like Tony Fadell.
So, you know, screen addiction and overuse of this, it seems like a good problem to have for a company, but it's something that they really have to deal with now, as a lot of parents, there's the backlash. The school bans. More and more restaurants are asking you to put them in a bag, concerts.
So, it's a really interesting inflection point where we are and maybe what will come next after this.
MICHAELSON: Well, and it also literally alters your brain chemistry, which is something that you explore in this documentary. You also put this out as a vertical video with CNN. What did you find? Because you put down the phone?
WEIR: I did. I broke up with my iPhone for two weeks and fooled around with an old school flip phone. This -- I was inspired by this month offline challenge. I said I can do half a month.
And we did a brain test before just to, you know, test my brain on maybe five hours, six hours of screen time a day. A lot of it's work, but just a lot of mindless scrolling in there, as well.
But this forces friction into your life. It takes away all that ease. It was really excruciating at first.
But then we went back, and the brain tests were really staggering. Even the experts were surprised by the difference. It's not scientific, obviously. We need a lot more data.
But it just goes to show you the cost of the smartphone generation is, one scientist explained it to me, when you are swiping open that phone 100 times a day, it is like your brain is a whiteboard. And you're erasing it and rewriting again and again and again.
And just like a regular whiteboard, there's remnants of old ideas that get in the way of performance. Your hippocampus, the part of your brain that creates memories. There's science that shows that's shrinking. Because we use Google maps. We don't navigate the world the way our ancestors did.
Our focus has gone from about 2.5 minutes. People could focus on something, a page or a screen without distraction. In the year 20 -- year 2000 or so. Now, it's around 47 seconds.
MICHAELSON: Wow.
WEIR: So, our attention spans are shrinking as a result of this technology.
So, there's, you know, things to -- to come to grips with, especially if you've got kids in the house. And I completely changed the way I think about parenting.
My little girl, I gave her an iPhone when she was ten. Didn't know any better. Now, that's a huge regret. I have a little boy who won't get his phone until his late teens.
And it's -- it's -- the gap between their ages are 16 years apart, is just full with all this new research and new attitudes about these things. There's so much really fascinating stuff to look into with this company.
MICHAELSON: That sounds so cool. Bill Weir, I always thought you were really cool, but I think you're even cooler now, looking at your background. This looks like a set you have behind you. This is, like, the greatest view ever. So that is --
WEIR: Welcome to Brooklyn, my brother.
MICHAELSON: That is impressive.
