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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson
President Trump Fires Pam Bondi As U.S. Attorney General; Sources: About Half Iran's Missile Launchers Left Intact, Thousands Of Attack Drones Remain, According To U.S. Intel; New Secretary Markwayne Mullin Already Making Changes At DHS; Blanche: DOJ Will Pour Heart and Soul into Fraud Cases; China Leans on Green Energy as Iran War Disrupts Markets; What to Watch and What to Skip This Weekend. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired April 03, 2026 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: This looks like a set you have behind you. This is like the greatest view ever. So that is --
[01:00:06]
BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Welcome to Brooklyn my brother.
MICHAELSON: -- that is impressive. Bill Weir, nicely done. Of course you can check him out on The Whole Story: 50 Years of Apple, Saturday 10:00 p.m. Eastern on CNN and much of it already streaming on the CNN app. Bill, always great to see you.
WEIR: Thanks, Elex.
MICHAELSON: The next hour of The Story Is starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAM BONDI, FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL: I'm not going to get in the gutter for her theatrics.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: The Story Is, A.G. Pam Bondi fired. The former ethics advisor joins us to discuss where the party goes from here.
The Story Is, hospice fraud, inside the massive FBI raid yielding arrests across the western region.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The hard earned tax dollars of Americans are being robbed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: And The Story Is, China's green energy, CNN's Mike Valerio in Beijing, with the country's innovative response to rising gas prices.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Los Angeles, The Story Is with Elex Michaelson.
MICHAELSON: And welcome The Story Is. I'm Elex Michaelson. It's 10 o'clock here in Los Angeles, and the top story is fired and replaced. Pam Bondi, no longer attorney general for the United States government and no longer in charge of the Justice Department. President Trump says that the great American patriot, that's what he called her, will be transitioning to a new job in the private sector.
Sources say he is annoyed with her for not investigating and prosecuting enough of his political opponents and for how she managed the Jeffrey Epstein files. Bondi had been scheduled to appear before the House Oversight Committee on April 14th for her deposition on the Justice Department's handling of the Epstein investigation. It's unclear whether she'll show up, but Democrats on the committee say she must.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MAXWELL FROST (D-FL): Just because her employment status change doesn't mean she automatically forgets everything that she did to cover up on Epstein files and forgets everything she was told to do. So it's still important that she come and speak to us. This isn't about like Democrats versus Republicans or anything like that. It's about transparency on this very important investigation.
REP. ROBERT GARCIA (D-CA): She now has an opportunity, which is incredibly important, to address a committee about the Epstein files, about the failures of that investigation. But she also has an opportunity now to give us 100 percent the truth and the facts under oath.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: Republicans on the committee say they support her firing and accuse her of botching the Epstein affair. At least that's what Thomas Massie, who's not often aligned with President Trump, wrote that he hopes that the next attorney general will release all the files.
That task could fall to Todd Blanche, who is now the acting attorney general. He previously served as deputy attorney general and before that as President Trump's personal defense attorney. Blanche suggested the Epstein investigation had nothing to do with why Bondi was let go.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TODD BLANCHE, ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: She is a friend and she did a great job in the first year of this administration. And people should not forget what the Department of Justice that she came into just over a year ago. And so we are a better Justice Department. We are safer as a nation and we should all be very grateful to the attorney general. I have never heard President Trump say that the attorney general, anything that happened to her had anything to do with the Epstein files.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: Joining us now from the Washington D.C. Area is Joseph Tirrell. He was a ethics official with the Department of Justice since 2023. He says he was fired last year by Pam Bondi after talking to her about ethics. Welcome to The Story Is for the first time.
JOSEPH TIRRELL, FORMER U.S. JUSTICE DEPT. ETHICS OFFICIAL: Thank you. Thank you, Elex.
MICHAELSON: What's your reaction to this apparent firing of Pam Bondi?
TIRRELL: I'm relatively nonplussed about it. I don't think that the next attorney general will really be an improvement. Ms. Bondi appears to have been fired for not carrying out the President's policies to break down and violate the rule of law effectively enough. And I'm worried that the next attorney general will simply try to execute those policies with even more vigor in order to appease President Trump.
MICHAELSON: Well, you're suggesting, of course, is this effort to try to go after some of President Trump's political enemies? And it's interesting, you say that you worked with her a little bit and with Todd Blanche, who's now at least temporarily replacing her, and both of them seemed especially focused on having nice offices.
TIRRELL: That's right. A.G. Bondi moved her office from the traditional attorney general's office into an enormous conference room and turned the conference room into a very overstated, in my opinion, office. And when I spoke with Mr. Blanche about ethics, he was concerned for part of the conversation about which art to select for his office.
[01:05:14]
MICHAELSON: So you ended up getting fired. You sued the department. That's ongoing. But if you win your goal, you want to work for the department again, right?
TIRRELL: I've wanted to be in government service since I was in grade school. I served in the military as a naval officer for six years and then nearly 20 years at the Department of Justice in various positions. Finally, as the senior ethics attorney for the Department of Justice, that's all I've ever really wanted to do.
And yes, if the opportunity presents itself to go back and help reinforce the standards that the department is supposed to adhere to, I would want to be on that front line, helping the department uphold and support and defend the Constitution.
MICHAELSON: If you had to put it in a sentence, what would you say is Pam Bondi's legacy as attorney general of the United States?
TIRRELL: Pam Bondi's legacy in the current administration's legacy is that the near not quite but near total destruction of the reputation of the Department of Justice, the reputation as an impartial arbiter of law enforcement. And that's really a sad legacy for her to have executed over the last almost year and a half.
MICHAELSON: And what would be your advice if you were in there that you would give to the next attorney general in terms of ethics?
TIRRELL: That they've got to adhere to the view that even the appearance of conflicts and impartiality is too much for an attorney general and his senior leadership and that they've got to make the department work for the people of the United States, not for a single person, which has been their view over the last year.
MICHAELSON: Joseph Tirrell, thanks so much for joining us. Appreciate you sharing your views.
TIRRELL: Thank you very much. Thank you for having me.
MICHAELSON: Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has told the Army's chief of staff 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 Austin, who worked in the Biden administration, didn't sit well with Hegseth, who has already positioned one of his top deputies to fill that role.
Now to an exclusive CNN report on the war with Iran. 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. You can see the damage from one of the latest missile strikes right there in central Israel.
Sources say thousands of one way attack drones also remain in Iran's arsenal. Pentagon spokesperson called CNN's reporting, "Completely wrong."
Meanwhile, Iran is reporting at least eight people are dead and 95 injured in a U.S.-Israeli strike on a bridge west of Tehran. President Trump posted on social media that there is more to come. CNN's national security correspondent, Natasha Bertrand, reports.
NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Sources familiar with U.S. Intelligence tell us that roughly half of Iran's missile launchers are still intact, and thousands of its one way attack drones remain in its arsenal despite the daily pounding by U.S. and Israeli strikes against military targets in Iran over the past five weeks, with one source saying Iran is, "Still very much poised to wreak absolute havoc throughout the entire region."
Thousands of these Iranian drones still exist, including roughly 50 percent of the country's drone capabilities, according to two of the sources who have seen the intelligence. And that intel was compiled in recent days, and it also showed a large percentage of Iran's coastal defense cruise missiles were intact, which is consistent with the U.S. not focusing its air campaign on coastal military assets, though they have been hitting multiple Iranian Navy ships. But that's crucial because those missiles serve as a key capability that has allowed Iran to threaten shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, which is a key hub for oil exports around the world. The intelligence offers a more nuanced picture of Iran's continuing capabilities compared to the sweeping assessments of military victory that have been offered publicly by President Trump and other administration officials.
In remarks to the nation on Wednesday night, Trump said Iran's "Ability to launch missiles and drones is dramatically curtailed, and their weapons factories and rocket launchers are being blown to pieces with very few of them left." And the White House and Pentagon have said in statements that Iran's ballistic missile and drone attacks are indeed down dramatically by as much as 90 percent. But sources told CNN that that could also be because Iran is simply strategically holding back much of its arsenal as this war progresses.
[01:10:12]
Trump has said the U.S. expects to continue its operations against Iran for another two to three weeks, but it remains unclear how much of Iran's stockpile of launchers and drones can actually be destroyed in that time frame, especially given so many of these launchers and the production facilities used to make these drones are hidden so deeply underground.
Natasha Bertrand, CNN in Washington.
MICHAELSON: Natasha, thank you.
And the report that Natasha talked about came a day after President Trump said in a primetime address that the U.S. strategic objectives in Iran are nearing completion, but he did not spell out a clear end game for the war or offer any new details on his exit strategy.
Earlier, CNN's Christiane Amanpour spoke with a former top White House official, John Kirby, about that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What is he saying, do you think, as a military person yourself, needs to happen to make sure that they finish the job, as they keep saying?
REAR ADM. JOHN KIRBY (RET.), FMR. U.S. NATL. SECURITY COMMUNICATION ADVISER: Well, it depends on what you mean by finish the job, right? I mean, if your goal is to eliminate every offensive capability that Iran has, every missile, every drone, every ship and every boat, I mean, that's a tall order. And I don't think even the U.S. military would say that that's possible.
But if your job is to degrade their capabilities so that they no longer pose a threat to our interest in the region and our allies and partners, that is an achievable goal. And the U.S. military and the Israeli military have been working very hard at doing that. They have had immense military success, there's no doubt about that. But there -- the one goal -- the goal that I think is much more difficult, and this gets back to your issue about hearts and minds, is, you know, eliminating Iran's ability to export terrorism in the region. As you know, they work through proxies, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and these militias in Iraq and Syria that are not in Iran proper. They still have a measure of control and influence over those groups.
And eliminating that as a threat, the terrorism threat, is a much more difficult thing, and it can't be done just through military means alone. So some of these goals are achievable, I think, if you're talking about degradation, naval and air capabilities and ballistic missile and defense industrial base. But the exporting of terrorism, the eliminating their nuclear ambitions, I mean, that's very, very difficult to do from a military perspective, which is why President Obama got the Iran deal secured in the first place, because he knew that diplomatically, negotiations were the way to eliminate those nuclear ambitions.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAELSON: John Kirby, a top military advisor to the Biden administration. More than 40 countries are now vowing to use every possible measure to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The British foreign secretary hosted a virtual meeting, you're looking at pictures of that, about the 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. Right now, about 20 percent of the world's oil passes through the Strait. But currently, about 2,000 vessels are trapped inside the Persian Gulf.
And if you thought gas prices were high now, just wait until Memorial Day. The current price for a gallon of regular unleaded is $4.88, $4.08. But analysts are predicting $4.50 to $5 by the end of May. President Trump's trade Representative Jamieson Greer, repeating the White House line today that the surge in prices is just a temporary disruption.
Things are going from bad to worse for more than a million people displaced by the fighting in Lebanon and workers say that many of them don't have access to clean water, medications or medical care. Relief groups that operate there are struggling to keep up with the growing needs of displaced families. They include some migrant workers who are now displaced for a second time.
The head of the International Organization for Immigrant Migration says they simply do not have a place to go anymore. She also says the mass displacement could lead to tensions and violence between communities in Lebanon.
From huge wind farms to vast solar fields, China has made a long term push for green energy. Still ahead, how Beijing is poised to benefit as the Iran war disrupts global energy supplies. CNN's Mike Valerio live in Beijing with a look at that. [01:14:25]
Plus, new Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is wasting no time making changes to the department as some Republicans urge him to revisit every policy put in place by his predecessor, Kristi Noem. The former spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security during the Noem administration, she's live with me on set, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MICHAELSON: The threats of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes are gradually coming to an end in several Midwestern states. Millions of people in parts of Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Illinois were under a tornado watch on Thursday. Drone video in Iowa shows the aftermath of a tornado that tore through the area. The twister ripped roofs off buildings, knocked down trees, and scattered debris.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. LORI GLAZE, NASA EXPLORATION SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT MISSION DIRECTORATE: I am so, so excited to be able to tell you that for the first time since 1972 during Apollo 17, human beings have left Earth orbit. From this point forward, the laws of orbital mechanics are going to carry our crew to the Moon, around the far side, and back to Earth. Our crew is healthy and our spacecraft is performing really well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: As you heard there, the four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft have finally left Earth's orbit on their journey around the Moon. Historic mission is the first in over 50 years in which astronauts will come within the Moon's vicinity.
[01:20:08]
The crew is expected to travel farther than any other mission, reaching over 250,000 miles from Earth. On their closest approach to the Moon, they'll be able to see just over 4,100 miles from the surface. On Thursday, some of the crew reflected on how smooth the launch was the day before. They weren't expecting it to happen on the first try, but it did. And now they're on their long trek to the dark side of the Moon.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY HANSEN, MISSION SPECIALIST, CANADIAN SPACE AGENCY: I just kept saying to them yesterday, like, I really like it up here. I wish I could have got here sooner. It's just such a tremendous place to be. The views are extraordinary. It's really fun to be floating around and it just makes me feel like a little kid.
REID WISEMAN, ARTEMIS II COMMANDER: When we got done that burn, we just kind of looked at each other as a crew. We had been to the moon before in 1969, 1968 through 1972. It's been a long time since we've been back. And I got to tell you, there is nothing normal about this. Sending four humans 250,000 miles away is a Herculean effort. And we are now just realizing the gravity of that.
CHRISTINA KOCH, MISSION SPECIALIST, NASA: Having just experienced incredible views of planet Earth and seeing the entire planet out the window in one pane, knowing that we're about to have some similar views of the Moon in that same way is definitely getting me more excited for it. I knew that that is what we would see, but there's nothing that prepares you for the breathtaking aspect of seeing your home planet both lit up bright as day and also the Moon glow on it at night with the beautiful beam of the sunset. And knowing that we're going to get similar views of the Moon, I'm just, I'm really excited for that.
VICTOR GLOVER, ARTEMIS II TEST PILOT: We get to give ourselves a mission that we can hold on to, to say, hey, look at what we did for the rest of our lives. You know, we call amazing things that humans do Moonshots for a reason, because this brought us together and showed us what we can do not just putting our differences aside, when we bring our differences together and use all the strengths to accomplish something great.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAELSON: How cool is that? The astronauts are asleep right now. This is a live picture from Orion. While the mission to loop around the moon is underway, it will not be finished until Orion survives the plunge back through the Earth's atmosphere. CNN's Tom Foreman breaks down why the heat shield matters most to keep those astronauts safe.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When the Orion capsule comes back in contact with the Earth's atmosphere, perhaps the most important part of this spacecraft will be this heat shield down here, because Orion will hit the atmosphere at about 25,000 miles an hour, much faster than a typical low Earth orbit spacecraft would hit. And that means as the air is compressed below it, it will heat up to about 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit, half the surface temperature of the sun.
Now, this is an ablative shield, which means it is supposed to erode away against that intense heat. But on Artemis I, a very similar capsule with a similar shield saw uneven erosion at the bottom of it, and that raised some safety concerns. So NASA has changed the way that they're bringing this back, the pattern, the approach angle, and they're hoping that that will ease that problem and not let it occur again, so that Orion will be able to slow down, pop its parachutes and safely splash down in the ocean.
MICHAELSON: Amazing, an amazing graphic work by the CNN graphic artist there as well.
President Donald Trump's sprawling White House ballroom project has gotten another green light to move forward. A board that oversees planning for federal buildings gave its approval to the plans. The National Capital Planning Commission is stacked with President Trump's supporters, who overruled more than 32,000 public comments overwhelmingly opposed to the project.
The approval comes days after a federal judge ordered construction of the ballroom be halted until it's approved by Congress. President Trump insists the privately funded, that's an important point, privately funded ballroom is not subject to any oversight and should move forward without serious scrutiny.
As the partial government shutdown approaches the 50-day mark, President Trump says he will soon sign an order to pay all employees of the Homeland Security Department. Republicans have been putting on a unified front after the Senate passed a bill to partially reopen DHS, but a House faction says they will not support a deal that leaves out funding for ICE and Border Patrol. That means House leaders may need to rely on Democrats to get the bill to the President's desk, but that will not be imminent. Congress is on a two-week vacation recess. There is no indication lawmakers will be cutting their holidays short.
Now, 10 days after taking the oath of office, the newly minted Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is making changes at the department. He's already rescinded a policy implemented by Kristi Noem requiring the secretary's approval of any contracts with more than $100,000. And pause plans to use mega warehouses across the U.S. to house detained immigrants.
[01:25:16]
Remember, we did a big special report on that in Georgia a few weeks ago. Some Republicans are pushing Mullin to forego a piecemeal tweaking of Noem's policies. Instead, overhaul the agency to only go after violent criminals and those with active deportation orders.
Joining me now here in L.A. live is someone who worked under Kristi Noem's DHS, former spokesperson Katie Zacharia. Welcome back to The Story Is. So people might recognize you. You've been one of our panelists here on The Story Is. You got this job to be the spokesperson for DHS. That was in mid-February. Hasn't been all that long. Now you're out of the job. What happened?
KATIE ZACHARIA, FORMER U.S. DEPT. OF HOMELAND SECURITY SPOKESWOMAN: Well, thank you for having me. I miss Brian Tyler Cohen, who I'm usually here debating with. Look, I went there to go be an advocate for President Trump's decisive policies, both on the border and securing the homeland. The way I serve him best is as a spokesperson in the media. And that was what I was asked to go do.
In the shuffle of leadership change, I kind of got put into a different role and a desk job. And as you know, I have four kids. And the cost is very great to go back and forth. And so while the transition happened, I realized that I could best serve the President back in the media advocating for his effective policies and also home with my kids.
MICHAELSON: So basically, it was kind of a different job under Noem than it would have been under Markwayne Mullin, it sounds like.
ZACHARIA: Well, it wasn't quite clear. I had an opportunity to congratulate Secretary Mullin, and I also am a big fan of Tom Homan. It wasn't clear where the role would go. But in the shuffle in the interim, I realized that, again, the cost is so great being away from my kids and family that I needed to make a quick decision to be back in the media.
MICHAELSON: So we hear about the reports of potential changes to DHS. Are there any changes you think need to happen at DHS?
ZACHARIA: Well, for me, I'm a huge fan of ICE and a big fan of the Border Patrol. And I got to know a lot of the people who work at ICE. And I am just going to say that the President has done a great job, and I will continue supporting him and I continue supporting the secretary, the new secretary and Tom Homan, advancing whatever direction they go in, as long as we're supporting our men and women of ICE.
MICHAELSON: Speaking of new secretary, there's going to be a new attorney general. What do you make of Pam Bondi being out? Because there's a lot of folks on the right who are expressing sort of happiness that she's gone.
ZACHARIA: Well, the President, I guess, was in the beast with her and had a conversation with her as the story goes. And I think there had been building frustration.
MICHAELSON: He was in a conversation with her yesterday when he went to the Supreme Court of the United States.
ZACHARIA: Yes.
MICHAELSON: She went in the presidential limo, potentially an opportunity to sort of try to save her job. And then the next day she's out.
ZACHARIA: Right. I think there is a long building of frustration, both. And I don't think he ever vocally expressed the Epstein files. But I think on behalf of the American people, there was a lot of frustration with the Epstein files. And so that combined with a lot of the things that got lumped on her. Look, the blue slip process is not her fault.
We have -- that has been ingrained into the enshrined into the Senate. And that had a lot to do with her ability to have U.S. attorneys at different places, Lindsey Halligan being one of them. And so I think that the prosecutorial arm of the president wasn't being able to be as effective without those U.S. attorneys.
So hopefully, Todd Blanche will be able to effectuate that for the President a little bit more. I also really like Todd Blanche. I think he's been a great advocate for the President. He represented him in three cases, was extremely effective.
MICHAELSON: But what do you think of the idea of the personal attorney for the President, former now being the attorney general? I mean, usually there's been this sort of dividing line between the Department of Justice and being the president's attorney.
ZACHARIA: Well, he was -- so he was first a U.S. attorney a long time ago, and then he went into criminal defense. And now he's back into prosecutorial. I think it really speaks to his accolades more than it does just the personal relationship of the President, but much more that he stepped up at a time and defended the President when not many others would and was very effective in doing so.
MICHAELSON: The first thing that he's talking about tonight on T.V. is this idea of fraud in California. We want to bring some video that the FBI here in Los Angeles put out today. They did this raid early morning. They arrested eight of 15 defendants in nine separate health care fraud investigations.
The Vice President of the United States posting on X about this tonight, saying our task force isn't wasting any time cracking down on fraud. He's giving a shout out to the folks out here, including Dr. Oz, who was out here for all of this today, and Bill Essayli, who's the attorney out here. What do you make of this?
[01:30:02]
ZACHARIA: This is actually quite exciting for me to watch. I'm a big fan of Bill Essayli and I'm a big fan of JD Vance coming in and looking at the fraud.
But what's really problematic for me is that this fraud has been proliferating for since -- for a long time, but has over doubled, tripled, quadrupled under Gavin Newsom since 2019.
And what I would really love to see, instead of the infighting between Gavin Newsom and JD Vance --
MICHAELSON: Yes.
ZACHARIA: -- would be to see a cooperation that nobody likes fraud. This is a bipartisan agreement that we can all say we don't want to see all of this fraud.
MICHAELSON: Well -- and to that point, Newsom posted tonight, "The Trump administration, home to the biggest fraudsters on earth, is trying to blame California for issues with their federal programs." So that's how he responds.
Your response to that is, why fight this?
ZACHARIA: Why fight it? Why don't we -- why don't we join forces together and have a complete cooperation? Because the responsible party -- the state is responsible. There has been a lot of fraud at the statewide level.
And for Gavin Newsom to just brush that under the rug instead of address it, I think doesn't really garner serious support from American people if he's going to be doing a presidential run. To really get trust from people is to acknowledge, yes, this fraud exists, and I'm going to go after it with the administration. This is a bipartisan issue.
MICHAELSON: Nobody likes fraud.
ZACHARIA: Nobody likes fraud. MICHAELSON: Katie, welcome back. Good to see you. Thanks so much.
ZACHARIA: Thank you.
MICHAELSON: Still ahead, China is vying for global influence with its extensive green energy sector, where our live report from Beijing, next.
[01:31:27]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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 her political opponents -- his political opponents, I should say.
A U.S. judge is pushing back the federal trial of Luigi Mangione until next January. Mangione is accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a New York street more than a year ago. The postponement of Mangione trial on federal stalking charges came just one day after his state murder trial was rescheduled for September.
Roughly half of Iran's missile launchers and attack drones are still intact, despite daily strikes by the U.S. And Israel. That is according to three sources, citing a recent U.S. intelligence assessment.
A Pentagon spokesperson called CNN's exclusive reporting, quote, "completely wrong".
China is leaning on its renewable energy sector as the Iran war disrupts global energy markets. Could that be a model for other countries?
CNN's Mike Valerio checked that out. He's live in Beijing, Mike.
MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Elex, the short answer is yes, it can be a model for other nations.
China is essentially signaling, look, we're building more green energy than anybody, and we can help you find a secure energy source. To be clear, we didn't talk about this last hour, China still gets most of its energy by burning coal, which is why our sunny day looks like this today.
But still, it is way ahead of anybody with clean energy. So let's watch what we found.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: China makes almost all of the windmills, and yet I haven't been able to find any wind farms in China.
VALERIO: 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.
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, 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: Long before the Iraq war oil shock, Beijing has viewed reliance on fossil fuels as a possible security risk. That, in part has helped fuel China's green energy push for the past two decades.
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 Chinese clean tech exports.
VALERIO: And those include electric vehicles, with China's BYD overtaking Tesla to become the world's top EV maker and now exporting more than 1 in 5 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: 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: We want technologies and investments from China's side in green energy industries because we want to be less dependent on oil exports.
[01:39:51] 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)
MICHAELSON: And Mike, you talked a little bit about EVs there. We saw a BYD. When I went on a reporting trip with Governor Newsom to Shanghai, we visited the Tesla gigafactory. That's also being made in China.
How hard is it, though, switching to Chinese EVs? Is the infrastructure ready for that?
VALERIO: That is exactly the point that we want to make. So the reality is I could walk outside of this newsroom right now and buy a BYD car for about 8,000 USD. Incredible, right?
But as we were talking to two EV experts from Detroit who we saw in the middle of the piece that just aired, he said, you know, we have to think about all of these advanced economies and their homegrown industry. Like Germany, for example, Italy, South Korea, Japan -- they all have their automotive titans.
So what he was saying was, we are in this oil shock moment and perhaps in those countries, like especially Germany and Italy, it would not have been on the table at all to bring up switching to Chinese EVs.
But now it is. And that's remarkable that it's even a topic of conversation.
And then also there's the grid. You know, all these countries that may want to have an $8,000, you know, cheap car for everybody, do they have the grid for it? And for most places, the answer is no.
MICHAELSON: We still got a ways to go, which is why the Strait of Hormuz issue is so important right now.
VALERIO: Yes.
MICHAELSON: Mike Valerio, live for us in Beijing. Great job, really enjoyed that report.
Thanks for watching THE STORY IS.
For our international viewers, "WORLDSPORT" is next. For our viewers in North America, I'll be right back with Grae Drake and a look at what's happening in entertainment.
[01:41:42]
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So you're saying Charlie is your first love?
ZENDAYA, ACTOR: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: First love or your first crush?
ZENDAYA: Both, I think. What, is that insane.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At 30.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: That is a sneak peek at "The Drama", a rom-com starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson that is hitting theaters now. It's about a young couple preparing to get married until the bride-to-be drops a bombshell about her past.
Grae Drake, film critic at cbr.com, is here to talk about what to watch this weekend and what to skip.
Grae, welcome back. We always love having you here.
"The Drama", is it good?
GRAE DRAKE, FILM CRITIC, CBR.COM: Boy, there's a lot of drama in it. I will tell you. It is not false advertising.
MICHAELSON: Yes.
DRAKE: So two beautiful, talented people are getting fake-married in this movie. Now, as you can see in the trailer, they're sitting down with their friends. They're having some wine.
And then someone sort of cheekily asks the question, what's the worst thing you've ever done?
Zendaya's answer to this question sends Robert Pattinson into a complete spiral. And I do not want to spoil what it is, but I will say that the movie is -- it poses a fascinating question so you have to see this with people so you can discuss it afterwards.
MICHAELSON: OK.
DRAKE: And it is -- it's captivating from beginning to end. I don't think that it really earns the ending that you see, but the ride to get there is fascinating.
And I think it also kind of deserves a little bit of a trigger warning. But I can't even really tell you what its triggering. So proceed with --
MICHAELSON: She wasn't on Epstein Island?
DRAKE: Thank God, no.
MICHAELSON: No, OK. All right.
DRAKE: Gees -- for one time we won't talk about that.
MICHAELSON: Yes. OK, all right.
DRAKE: But I will say proceed with caution if you want to see it and you're a sensitive person.
MICHAELSON: OK, that sounds like a no to me based off what you just said.
"Pizza Movie" on Hulu, bringing back a certain kind of comedy?
DRAKE: Oh, one crazy night comedy. This is my favorite, favorite because Gaten Matarazzo from "Stranger Things" is playing Jack, and everybody at his college hates him except his bestie.
So one night they're super bored and he finds like a mysterious box of mints. They're special mints, Elex. Special mints.
MICHAELSON: OK. I don't know what just happened --
(CROSSTALKING)
MICHAELSON: -- but go ahead.
DRAKE: If you don't take these special mints with pizza, you're going to have a horrible night. And so this movie is just one insane thing after another.
MICHAELSON: It's a one high trip after --
DRAKE: It's awesome. It's great. It's "Dude, Where's My Car", it's super bad. It's sort of a notes of dazed and confused after hours. It is awesome.
At no point in this film are you ever going to know what comes next like a creepy, Pinocchio marionette puppet, like it's great. Also exploding heads -- it has everything.
MICHAELSON: And it's on Hulu so people can watch it at home with their own version of the mushrooms if they want.
DRAKE: Yes. And snacks, snacks, snacks.
MICHAELSON: Yes.
Now let's talk about a kids' movie, potentially.
DRAKE: Oh, yes.
MICHAELSON: "Super Mario, the Galaxy Movie". Yoshi.
DRAKE: Yes, he's finally in the movie. Thank God. He wasn't in the last one. So like, who cares what the plot is? If we're being honest. Like in Mario video games, they're obsessed with princesses getting kidnaped all the time.
MICHAELSON: Yes.
DRAKE: So this time it's Rosalina and she's, you know, everybody just takes off to find her.
Now, Princess Peach and Bowser get a little bit of backstory development, but the movie very quickly is like, you don't care about that. Here's more pretty colors.
And I have an argument that this movie is so gorgeous and it's so pleasing. It's actually a lot more like an Instagram feed than anything else. Like it just sets off your dopamine.
MICHAELSON: So watch it on silent.
DRAKE: Yes. I mean --
MICHAELSON: You just scroll.
DRAKE: -- it works completely silent.
MICHAELSON: And one movie we never got to talk about just because it didn't work out was "Project Hail Mary".
DRAKE: Oh, yes.
MICHAELSON: Is that something worth seeing? Ryan Gosling?
DRAKE: A thousand percent yes. This is a sweet movie. It is -- I think it's so uplifting and it has everything. It has action. It has some uncertainty. It's about all the best parts of us.
MICHAELSON: Right.
DRAKE: And it's also kind of a realistic vision of the future as written in a book by Andy Weir.
[01:49:50]
DRAKE: And it's realistic but wonderful. And it's like, oh, this is the future that I want to live in --
MICHAELSON: All right. Check that out with Ryan Gosling.
DRAKE: -- with the baby goose.
MICHAELSON: That sounds like the best of the -- of the choices.
DRAKE: Wonderful movie.
MICHAELSON: Yes. Grae, great to see you.
DRAKE: You, too.
MICHAELSON: Have a great week.
We'll be back with more of THE STORY IS right after this. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MICHAELSON: We're getting our first look at police body cam footage of Tiger Woods arrest from last week. The golf legend is charged with driving under the influence after he crashed into another vehicle and rolled his SUV.
Video from Martin County sheriff's deputies show Woods undergoing a series of field sobriety tests after telling police he had nothing to drink before the accident. Police searched Woods' pockets, say they found two pills, which were later determined to be prescription hydrocodone painkillers.
[01:54:52]
MICHAELSON: The crash happened as Woods was attempting another comeback after years of injuries and car crashes.
Well, if you want to attend World Cup matches starting in June in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, be prepared to spend some money. FIFA, football's governing authority, opened new blocks of tickets on Wednesday after the 48-team field was finalized.
Prices are up anywhere from $70 for the June 12th match in Canada, which will cost more than $2,200 to a $2,300-increase for the final, which will set you back almost $11,000.
$60 tickets would be available, but likely no more than 700 seats per match. FIFA said more tickets will be available on a rolling basis.
The company behind childhood food favorites is adding another product. Healthier versions of pantry staples aims to improve its bottom line.
Kraft Heinz is introducing Power Mac, a protein and fiber enhanced version of mac and cheese. It will have pea and wheat noodles, but be just as cheesy with that familiar powdered cheese.
Last year, the company bottled Capri Sun, which helped boost sales. This year, Capri Sun Hydrate will join the lineup with less sugar and added vitamins and electrolytes. Kool-Aid also gets added electrolytes after 99 years on the market.
Thanks for watching THE STORY IS. I'm Elex Michaelson. We'll see you tomorrow for more.
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