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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson
WH - U.S. Envoys Heading To Pakistan For Fresh Iran Talks; U.S. Continues To Enforce Blockade In Strait Of Hormuz; Trump To Attend White House Correspondents' Dinner; OpenAI CEO Apologies To Grieving Community; OpenClaw Draws Praise Despite Security Concerns; Hezbollah - Truce Has No Meaning Due To Israeli Actions; Palestinian officials - Israeli Fire Kills 12 Across Gaza; Powerful Tornado Hits Oklahoma, Causing Damage, Injuries; Aired 12-1a ET
Aired April 25, 2026 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: Hello, and welcome to "The Story Is." I'm Erica Hill in tonight for Elex Michaelson.
"The Story Is" mixed messages, the President's peace envoys heading back to Pakistan even as the U.S. and Iran offer very different expectations.
"The Story Is" Washington's big night. Trump said to attend the White House Correspondent Center for the first time as President as everyone is left wondering just what he'll say.
And "The Story Is" resale rip off? Just how much would you pay to see the World Cup final? The eye popping amount some tickets are fetching online.
"The Story Is" mixed messages from the U.S. and Iran about just whether fresh peace talks could be happening possibly this weekend in Pakistan. Now the White House's envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, are traveling to Islamabad Saturday. Vice President Vance, however, will not be going. U.S. central command also releasing this photo on Friday appearing to show a destroyer intercepting an Iranian flagship. The Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, says the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports won't be ending anytime soon.
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PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: No one sails from the Strait of Hormuz to anywhere in the world without the permission of the United States Navy. To the regime in Tehran, the blockade is tightening by the hour. We are in control. Nothing in, nothing out.
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HILL: Now meantime, Iran's Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, touched down in Islamabad earlier, and he is there to meet with Pakistani officials as part of a regional peace tour. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman posting there are no direct talks planned between the U.S. and Iran this weekend. CNN's Kristen Holmes has more now from the White House.
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KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Trump sending his special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner to Pakistan to resume these negotiations and it should be clear this is not a top tier top principle negotiation.
Vice President J.D. Vance isn't going to be there neither is the speaker of Parliament and from Iran who is largely considered the supreme authority, the person who would be able to actually make a deal. Now I did ask Karoline Leavitt why now? What has changed? Here's what she said.
With this group going, does that mean that you have gotten -- The United States has gotten any kind of unified proposal from Iran, or are they going over there without any proposal from the Iranians?
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We've certainly seen some progress from the Iranian side in the last couple of days. Again, the president has made the decision to send Stephen Jarrett to hear the Iranians out, and so we'll see what they have to say this weekend.
HOLMES: Now clearly, no answer there specifically on a unified proposal. That was something that they said they needed to have another round of negotiations. But I also want to note that it does appear that Iran, if they do in fact come to these negotiations would have crossed over their line as well.
Their line being they were not going to another round of negotiations until President Trump cleared the blockade in the Strait of Hormuz. That has not been done. However, they have agreed to some kind of interaction, negotiation in Pakistan, something we'll be watching very closely. We have heard that Vice President Vance is waiting. He's on standby in case this becomes more serious and a deal could be reached so that he himself could go to Pakistan. Kristen Holmes, CNN, the White House.
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HILL: Fahd Humayun joins me now from Boston. He's an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Tufts University. Fahd, good to have you with us tonight. So as we look at where things stand, Iran's Foreign Minister in Islamabad will be meeting with Pakistani officials, but has made clear there's no plans to meet with the Americans.
The fact that the U.S. is sending Witkoff and Kushner back, Iran has made it clear they do not trust these two. The Vice President on standby. What message does it send from the U.S. by keeping the Vice President at home?
FAHD HUMAYUN, ASST. PROF. OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, TUFTS UNIVERSITY: Look, I think any forward movement should be a reason for cautious optimism. And the fact that both sides seem to be -- seem to have signaled a willingness to come back to the negotiating table constitutes, in my opinion, some forward movement, especially given just how vitiated the atmosphere has been these past few weeks since the last round of talks, in Islamabad on April 12th now, 12 days ago, concluding without both sides having reached a major agreement.
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And in these last 12 days, we've seen both sides not just trade accusations regarding what they perceive to be the intentions of the other party, but we've also seen a ratcheting up of tensions in the Strait of Hormuz where the U.S. has imposed a blockade of Iranian ports, and we've also seen the ceasefire in Lebanon come under strain as Israel continues to attack the country, despite the Trump administration's announcement of a ceasefire there.
I think it's also important to remember that in the last round of talks, it did seem as if there had been an agreement on a significant number of contentious issues, even though even if it did stop short of a major breakthrough in part because of, I think fundamental differences on the nuclear issue. And despite Pakistan's best efforts to help mediate that very difficult conversation.
I do believe that there are at least four reasons to my mind to be cautiously optimistic about this new round. Firstly, in the last week, we've seen an extension of the ceasefire. That extension, which came about as a result of a direct appeal by Pakistan to the Trump administration, was far from a far foregone conclusion, and it does seem to be broadly holding, despite the vitiated atmospherics that I mentioned earlier.
We've also seen Pakistan's leadership.
HILL: Well, in terms of Pakistan's leadership, I wanted to ask you about that specifically. Obviously, there is a vested interest for Pakistan here, sharing some 500 miles of border with Iran. The country is certainly feeling the economic impact of this war as is much of the region and, frankly, a good chunk of the world. Beyond those practical reasons though, I know you've pointed out that Pakistan really is well positioned to be the mediator in this moment. Talk to me about why Iran and the U.S. trust Pakistan in this role.
HUMAYUN: Well, I think there are a number of reasons here. Principally, I think Pakistan's Army Chief, Asim Munir, has managed to develop a strong personal connection with the Trump administration. That's a big reason for Pakistan's credibility in the eyes of Washington. For the Iranians, Pakistan is just one off. I mean, there are hardly any countries, that we can think of that the Iranians can sort of point to and sort of say that, yes, this is where we think we might be able to send our envoys, where they can be safe if they need to engage in negotiations, and that also weren't necessarily a part of the anti-Iranian coalition once the U.S. launched operations back in February.
HILL: I'm curious too about the role that perhaps China may be playing here. A month into the war, of course, we saw from Pakistan and China this five point plan that they put forth. Is China in some ways a silent partner here?
HUMAYUN: Look. I think the Chinese have certainly signaled their presence as being a stakeholder in the -- in as a part of this broader conversation. They're not necessarily an actor that's actively in the room, but the fact that Pakistan's deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister undertook a high profile visit to China to elicit that that document that you mentioned does suggest that having the Chinese signal their buy in must have been very important for to reassure the Iranians that come to the negotiating table. China's OK with us and going forward on with respect to this. I think to that end, yes, China is an important stakeholder in this even if it isn't directly there in the room.
HILL: Fahd Humayun, really appreciate your insight tonight. Thank you.
Tomorrow is the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington D.C. Journalists, government officials, public figures they'll all be gathering to celebrate the First Amendment and America's legacy of press freedom. And while President's have traditionally attended the dinner to be roasted and do a little roasting of their own, this is actually going to be the first time that President Trump will be there as Commander in Chief. It also comes as he is seeing a drop in his approval numbers. CNN's Harry Enten runs the numbers.
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HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Look, Donald Trump enters this White House Correspondent's Dinner in the trough of his support at the lowest point in term #2, his second presidency. What are we talking about here? Well, let's just take a look here at Trump's net approval rating. Term 2 and term 1 at this point. Look at term 2, Donald Trump's net approval rating according to my average polls. Get this. He's 19 points on the water. 19 points on the water. Way lower than he was at the beginning of his second term when he was at plus 6 points. That is a -- get this, 25-point decline. A 25-point decline from where he was at the beginning of his second term.
And more than that, Trump historically had been doing better in term #2 than in term #1 at the comparable point.
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No longer. Look at this. In April of 2018, he was 14 points underwater. Now he is 19 points underwater, 5 points worse. But Donald Trump isn't just making history compared to himself. He is making history compared to other presidents. Take a look here. Take a look. Oh my, this is really bad. Worst net approval ratings at this point in a presidency. Guess who is the #1 at the top of the list, or should I say the bottom of the list because he has the worst. It's Donald John Trump.
Look at that. 19 points underwater, worse than Joe Biden was at this point. In his presidency, 12 points. Again, worse than he was himself in his first presidency at minus 14 points. And then Ronald Reagan looks downright popular compared to Donald Trump at this point because Reagan was 1 point above water, but he ranks in the bottom 4. Trump taking the cake though at minus 19 points. What is driving this? Why is Donald Trump at the worst point at his worst point in second term and the worst point in a presidency? The reason why is pretty simple.
Take a look here. I mean, Trump's net approval rating among independents. Woof. That's the word of the day. Whoof. He is now get this. 44 points underwater with independents. At this point -- at this -- at the beginning of his second term, get this he was at minus 3 points. Not too hot to drop, but minus 44. That's a 41 drop. And at 44 points, way worse than he was at term #1 at this point. He was 19 points underwater. Donald Trump taking the cake in terms of being the least popular president at this point of presidency, and that is driven by a massive decline among independents.
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HILL: All right. Now thanks to Harry for that. Trump's decision to attend this year's event comes at a time when his relationship with the press is more combative than ever. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt offered this preview of his speech.
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KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Without getting ahead of the President, he is going to give a very entertaining speech not just for all of those journalists in the room tomorrow night, but for the entire country.
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HILL: So it's important to note while this will be the Trump's first White House Correspondent Center as President, it is not his first time at the ball. Take a look at the last time he was there. This is from 2011 when Seth Meyers and then President Barack Obama singled him out.
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BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: No one is happier. No one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the Donald. And that's because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter. Like, did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roseville? And where are Biggie & Tupac?
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HILL: Well, insiders say those moments actually played a role in Trump's decision to run-in 2016. For more on what we can expect at the White House Correspondents Dinner, I want to bring in Douglas Brinkley. He's a Presidential Historian and Professor of History at Rice University. Always good to see you.
As we heard Karoline Leavitt, she says this is a speech for the entire country. It's certainly an opportunity for the President. He could likely have a massive audience tomorrow. What are you expecting from him? DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, as you just mentioned, President Trump's poll numbers are abysmal to put it mildly. And so he constantly when feeling a little bit of political heat goes to his MAGA rally mode, and nothing gave him a bigger uplift in his mind than when he came up with the term fake news and would do it at rallies and then start pinpointing various journalists by name, mocking them. That's continued recently in Ms. (inaudible) comment and on and on. So, it's his chance to win the lion's den, yet he controls it. He can walk off stage after his monologue if he wants to. He has top speech writers that can pepper it with some good jokes.
But the question is, how will the members of the journalism of this deal with if it gets too in your eye, if it's too brutal? And it's been a portioning year-by-year in many ways since in the 21st century really of what the original White House correspondent's dinner is that the comedy is mean fodder these days.
HILL: Yeah. It has certainly shifted, from what it originally was. I'm glad you brought that up in terms of what the reaction. I think that's frankly a lot of what I'm going to be watching for is what will the reaction be in the room. A lot has been made of who has been invited, who will be there, who won't be there, some of the parties. The parties around the White House Correspondents' Dinner Weekend, the Nerd Prom Weekend are always a big deal, but there is something different this year. Based on what you've seen and what's been made public, how do you think this moment is being handled? How do you think news organizations specifically are prepping for it as they walk into it?
BRINKLEY: Each news organization used this differently. I mean, the New York Times a while ago, a great Frank Rich writer, wrote about it that it would -- he didn't feel comfortable that there was too much of an intersection between media lead and power.
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And that in the end, this gives the President too much of the golden opportunity, meaning Reagan missed the White House Correspondent's Dinner in 1981 when he was shot. But throughout the 80s, if you go back and look at some of them, they're pretty avuncular. When you look at George Herbert Walker Bush and Dana Carvey, one of his friends was imitating him.
But now it's war. It's war between the fourth estate that Donald Trump has deemed forever in history the enemy of the people. He's done everything he can to make people not trust a good reporting. And so can you just sit there and listen to that and not, we'll be watching, I suppose, for facial language, body language where reporters get up, or will Trump dial it down a notch, which I doubt. I don't see him doing that very often, but anything's possible.
HILL: He is notoriously thin skinned, and likes to wield his power, likes to remind people that he is in power. As you noted, he continually goes after journalists typically at this event. The President does some roasting, but it's also roasted. That's not really going to happen tomorrow night. How though have other presidents handled this in the past?
BRINKLEY: Much better than Donald Trump. He's deeply thin skinned. He likes, dislikes comedy. I would recommend watching what Jimmy Kimmel just did an extraordinary kind of monologue how a normal President would roll with the punches. But just how Richard Nixon had his enemies list. Donald Trump has an enemies list of reporters, and he's going to want to square off with at once in the room and once not there. And I'll be interested to see if he seeks a revenge on Barack Obama for those many years ago making the moon landing type of joke about Trump being a conspiracy theorist with his birth certificate.
And this Juneteenth, the Obama presidential Centers are going to be out there and in the news, and there's still this sort of Obama, Trump energy field, magnetic field. And I wonder whether he'll take a shot at Obama or particular Democrats he particularly doesn't like and we'll have to see who those are.
HILL: As we talk about how things were handled differently by different presidents, you mentioned Ronald Reagan not being there in 1981. In 1983, he -- I believe it was '83. He was at the dinner, and he had actually been part of, I believe, a dignified transfer earlier in the day, after the bombing of the U.S. embassy in Lebanon. And he said, look I have this speech, but you'll have to forgive me. I'm not going to give it tonight. It just doesn't seem appropriate. I'm paraphrasing here. Said maybe you'll give me a rain check. Here we go. He said, I realized the original plan was that I would, in a sense, sing for my supper. In fact, I was prepared not really to sing, but to do what you expected, going on to say, I'll keep my script, and I hope you'll give us a rain check, and it'll still be appropriate next year.
Just remind us how that was met and I guess, just sort of where we are now in 2026.
BRINKLEY: It's a good question. I -- once it was at the Reagan library, and Ronald Reagan kept comedy note cards, cabinet files of them. I edited them to a little book called The Notes, but what Reagan would do is whole political careers have a speech and then put comedy into it. He would known and that was his stock in trade humor. He did all the old Bob Host roast and the like back in the day. And so he was able in '83 to do that and everybody understood because nobody ever accused Ronald Reagan of being thin skinned or hating journalists. It was kind of the opposite. Even when Reagan would war with Sam Donaldson, he later -- they became close friends and he'd tell reporters where to go get donuts or what motel to stay in.
One of the reasons Reagan was able to survive a liberals in the press is that he was quite nice to them when the cameras weren't on. Trump has fangs about the press, and, he's grew up in a New York tabloid culture. He's been hit hard, his first term. He feels he had all these felonies, and the media was out to get him, and he's kind of on a revenge tour. I'm not sure he would have been doing this if his poll numbers were up, but when in doubt, go into MAGA rally mode and get a good material and lambast the fake press.
And the only question will be what he considers the fake press at the moment. HILL: Yeah. Douglas Brinkley, always good to talk to you. Thank you.
BRINKLEY: I got you. Bye.
HILL: Open claw. Maybe you use it.
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Maybe you've heard of it. It's being held as a milestone for its versatility as an AI assistant. Just ahead, we'll take a closer look at the benefits and the risks that come with this new autonomous system.
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HILL: The head of one of the world's top AI companies is now apologizing to a Canadian community that endured a mass shooting earlier this year. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman formally apologized in a letter on Thursday that to the people of Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, admitting that his company did not alert authorities about an 18-year-old's account even after staff had flagged that account internally for disturbing chatbot conversations.
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The team went on to open fire at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in February, killing eight people, including six children. Altman wrote that he's committed to finding ways to, in his words, prevent tragedies like this in the future.
Sweeping layoffs across the tech sector are increasing concerns about the impact of AI on jobs. On Thursday, Meta said it would be cutting its workforce by 10 percent. That's around 8,000 positions. Microsoft, meantime, is offering voluntary buyouts for about 7 percent of its employees, and these two are not outliers. Since January, Amazon has eliminated some 30,000 positions, and the downsizing may just be beginning as companies embrace and invest in artificial intelligence. And it's not just about jobs. There are also questions about the environmental impact of massive AI data centers due in large part to their energy consumption.
Maine was poised to become the first state to halt the construction of large data centers, but Democratic Governor Janet Mills vetoed that bill on Friday. While Mills says she does actually approve of a moratorium on the data centers, which have been controversial in many areas. The current legislation, she said, didn't allow for an exemption for a planned center that does have strong public support.
Joining me now is Sarah Frier. She's Managing Editor at Bloomberg News who covers big tech. It's great to have you with us. Let's start if we could with the headlines here about layoffs. I know this is very concerning for a lot of people. In some ways, maybe not shocking, but the pace can feel that way. A lot of people wondering how much worse this is going to get before it gets better. Do we know?
SARAH FRIER, BIG TECH TEAM LEADER, BLOOMBERG NEWS: It will get worse. I mean, that is my sense from talking to managers here in the Valley, the way that they're feeling about how much they're using AI and also how much expense they're bringing to bear to use AI. It is incredibly expensive to run these commands to code with AI as many of these engineers are doing. And so they have to balance, do I want just really good engineers to code with AI or do I want to maintain my more junior workforce? Do I want to maintain engineers who don't want to experiment with AI?
So I think that there's a lot of trying to predict the future and maybe jumping into that future before we really see the efficiency from those tools.
HILL: Yeah. And some of the questions I think that we're seeing about the future is, is AI really changing the workforce landscape, or is it just eliminating large chunks of the workforce and specifically some of those lower level or even now at this point, mid-tier jobs? As you point out, sort of jumping in before we know what the outcome is, are you starting to see it shift at all though, especially there in Silicon Valley, in the way that companies are maybe approaching some of these cuts as they try to figure out what the future could look like?
FRIER: Well, right now we're seeing a lot of embrace of AI coding tools in a race by companies to spend on them and by companies who make AI tools to really get good at that. I think Claude Code, the Anthropic tool really took the industry by storm. It's what a lot of people use for software development. And a lot of companies have made moves this week just based on the success of that. We're seeing a lot of, we wrote this week about a push at Google to get better at agentic coding there. SpaceX saying that they were eventually going to acquire Cursor for their AI coding tool.
So I think that we're seeing a lot of interest there, but we haven't seen this kind of AI turnover happen in other kinds of jobs as quickly. It's really happening right now in software development. So what the rest of the industry can do is look at software development and say, could that happen in my job? And really what a lot of managers are encouraging their employees to do now is experiment, try and get to know the AI tools and use them. And that is, in some cases, being considered in evaluating performance and understanding whether employees are up to speed with the times.
HILL: Yeah. Whether they're embracing it or not. It's not just about jobs, right? As I noted, there was a story out of Maine this week, which I'm sure you're aware of. The Governor, decided to veto that bill today. The broader impact on the environment due to the energy use, how much is that? You mentioned the cost of using AI for a number of companies. What about the environmental cost? Is that figuring into any of these equations?
FRIER: Well, it's an incredibly high intensity -- high compute intensity job to do this work with AI. And companies have, even just the largest companies, we just look at Meta, Google, Amazon and Microsoft, that's $650 billion that they have decided to spend on AI infrastructure and the AI boom in general this year.
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That's a lot of data centers. And it's just kind of unfathomable if you think about all the resources that those data centers are going to need, all the water, all the energy, all the chips, all of the construction, the labor. I mean, it's not just the resources, it's also the human capital that you need to build something of that scale. And it is really going to factor into, I think the midterms this year.
We're going to see a lot of states embrace it and a lot of states reject it. A lot of voters say, look, I'm looking at the landscape of the economy right now. I'm seeing maybe these companies getting enriched by AI, but I'm not seeing it in my energy bill, my water bill, in my everyday life. We're going to see some disconnect between the progress of AI and expense that companies are pouring into AI and how much of that benefit trickles down to everyday Americans.
HILL: Yeah. Absolutely. Sarah Frier, great to have you with us tonight. Thank you.
Amid the concerns, there is also, it's important to know, widespread use of AI, and we're not just talking about businesses. You likely use AI for something, right? Now there's a new open source program called OpenClaw. It actually allows users to automate tasks that would run seamlessly in the background with little need for additional input for the user. More output, fewer prompts, but is that worth it? Here's CNN AI Correspondent, Hadas Gold.
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JENSEN HUANG, CO-FOUNDER, PRESIDENT and CEO, NVIDIA: Every company in the world today needs to have an OpenClaw strategy, an agentic system strategy. This is the new computer.
HADAS GOLD, CNN AI CORRESPONDENT: That's NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang recently praising OpenClaw, the most popular example of how AI is shifting from something you talk to, to something that proactively works for you.
HUANG: OpenClaw is the #1. It's the most popular open source project in the history of humanity, and it did so in just a few weeks.
GOLD: It's an open source platform released just in November that lets users run an autonomous AI agent locally on their computer. OpenClaw was created by this man, Austrian developer Peter Steinberger, who was recently hired by the ChatGPT maker OpenAI. Instead of simply responding to prompts, an OpenClaw agent can carry out multi-step tasks over time. Think of it less like a chatbot and more like a digital assistant living on your laptop.
JASON MELLER, VP OF PRODUCT, 1PASSWORD: Is it actually does things. You text it like a coworker, and it handles emails, calendar, errands on your computer. If instead of requesting permission for every little thing, what if OpenClaw just went and did it? And it was really up to the user to decide whether or not that was good or bad.
GOLD: Once installed, OpenClaw is always on. It can keep running in the background as system level software. You give it assignments, not just questions. And it keeps working on its own within the rules you set even when you're not watching. For example, it could check a website every day, tracking prices and sending updates automatically. Behind the scenes, OpenClaw connects an AI model like large models from OpenAI or Anthropic to your personal computer. You can control it through a browser or even remotely through messaging apps like Telegram or WhatsApp.
HENRY SHEVLIN, ASSOC. DIR., LEVERHULME CENTER FOR FUTURE OF INTELLIGENCE: What OpenClaw did was create a pretty easy to use framework for accessing these large language models and integrating them into something like a more coherent agent that could operate really for extended periods without human input.
GOLD: It runs locally on your own device, having direct access to your files if you allow it, and it can take action persistently without constant input. But with that power comes risk, because it can access file and take actions, security becomes a major concern.
SHEVLIN: Worries about prompt injection or the idea that someone could include malicious instructions in the way they communicate with OpenCore are pretty serious.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But we also have to make sure that the artifacts that it's producing are stored in a safe place and that they don't end up becoming the fodder for a criminal to really blackmail us or to do things to us that, previously weren't possible.
GOLD: OpenClaw is one of many new AI agent systems. And though the technology is still early, many experts say OpenClaw points to a future where AI agents could fundamentally change how we use computers and how much control we're willing to hand over to machines.
SHEVLIN: I do think this is another ChatGPT moment. I do agree with Jensen Huang that this is another real paradigm shift, another a real milestone.
GOLD: Hadas Gold, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: As we continue our coverage of the war with Iran despite the ceasefire fighting between Israel and Hezbollah continues. Israel's operations in Lebanon now join comparisons to its tactics in Gaza. CNN reports from the region next.
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HILL: Hezbollah says the announced ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel has no meaning after continued violence. Lebanese state media report the Israeli military has killed two more people in Southern Lebanon less than a day after the White House announced an extension of the truce. Now for its part, Israel says it will continue to attack anything it deems a threat. The UN says its aid mission on Thursday witnessed charred cars, piles of rubble, and devastated neighborhoods in South Lebanon.
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It also says it has documented direct attacks by Israel against civilians over the past month. Israel's operations in Lebanon are drawing comparisons with how the IDF has been conducting itself in Gaza. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has more.
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ISRAEL KATZ, ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER (translated): All houses in villages near the border in Lebanon will be destroyed. According to the Rafah and Belt Hanoun model in Gaza. In order to permanently remove border area threats from the residents of the north.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: After leveling homes, neighborhoods, and entire cities in Gaza, Israel is exporting that model to Southern Lebanon, raising civilian infrastructure in towns and villages near the border to carve a buffer zone out of Lebanese territory, which the Israeli military says is aimed at distancing Israel's northern residents from the threats posed by Hezbollah.
But in one town after the next in Southern Lebanon, rows of homes have been flattened, shops torn to the ground, entire neighborhoods erased. Over six weeks of war, the Israeli military systematically demolished the town of Aita al-Shaab, now practically wiped from the map. Along this street in the border town of Adaissah, which once held a pharmacy and auto repair shop, one building after the next has been reduced to rubble. Even the local mosque was not spared.
Steps away, an excavator, and alongside it, a multi-story building, not yet destroyed. To Hassan Rammal, it represented plans for the future. A building he erected in his hometown, apartments on top with shops on the ground floor. It had been partially damaged in a previous Israeli strike. Construction was underway just one month before the current war broke out. Those dreams dashed the moment that Rammal saw this video confirming the worst.
HASSAN RAMMAL, RESIDENT OF SOUTH LEBANON (translated): Somebody sent me images, and I saw that the building I was renovating has been destroyed. I felt that the hope that once existed had diminished. For you to build, only to be demolished. Build, demolish.
DIAMOND: There are countless stories like Ramal's in South Lebanon, a Shia majority area where many, like Ramal, support Hezbollah. In the town of Bint Jbeil, fierce fighting with Hezbollah militants soon gave way to controlled demolitions, razing the city's old quarter and buildings beyond. Such massive destruction of civilian infrastructure is considered to be a violation of international law and a potential war crime. The aftermath is both apocalyptic and yet terrifyingly familiar, revealing the same kind of systematic destruction Israel carried out to create a buffer zone in Gaza.
And like in Gaza, the fragile ceasefire in Lebanon doesn't mean Israel will cease demolitions. Israeli officials say they will continue. In videos filmed by nearby residents post ceasefire, the ruins of this Lebanese village give way to more destruction. Excavators working to tear down more buildings. Lebanese communities within this roughly 5 mile wide buffer zone now controlled by Israeli troops are facing more of the same. That buffer zone means Ramal hasn't been able to return home, but he remains defiant.
RAMMAL (translated): Israel can say whatever it wants. There will not be a further buffer zone.
DIAMOND: And refuses to give up on his dreams of homecoming.
RAMMAL (translated): This land is dear and precious. Even if we only build a tent I will return, so I can smell the sole of my village. This is my village. Until I buried there, until my last breath.
DIAMOND: Jeremy Diamond, CNN.
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HILL: Palestinian health officials say Israeli fire killed at least 12 people, including six police officers across Gaza on Friday. Grieving families gathering at a hospital in Khan Younis, deadly Israeli fire was also reported in Gaza City and Beit Lahia. The Israeli military says it was targeting Hamas militants in Gaza City. It did not respond, however, to a request for comment on the other reported strikes.
Fighting in Gaza has persisted despite the October ceasefire. Israel and Hamas blame each other for violating the deal. Reuters reports Israel has increased its attacks on the Hamas ran police force in recent weeks. This latest violence comes as Palestinians in one city in Gaza will head to the polls this weekend.
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The enclaves first vote of any kind, since 2006. It will take place in Deir al Balah in Central Gaza. Palestinian officials say the city was chosen because it suffered less damage than most other places in the enclave. The vote is part of Palestinian municipal elections happening simultaneously in the West Bank. The election is seen as a barometer of public opinion on Hamas.
A destructive tornado tearing through parts of Oklahoma as more dangerous severe weather is expected in the Central U.S. We'll take a closer look at the forecast after this quick break.
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HILL: Nearly 1,000 homes in Georgia are currently being threatened by growing wildfires, the most destructive in state history according to the Governor. More than 120 homes have already been destroyed by two major wildfires in South Georgia. Forestry officials say evacuation orders are in place for 4,000 homes in the path of the Highway 82 fire. Governor Brian Kemp says they believe that fire was actually started by a balloon when it landed on a power line. The fire itself has now scorched more than 7,500 acres. You see the aftermath here. The second fire that we are following closely, the Pineland Road Fire, is burning through more than 31,000 acres.
That is the sound of a violent slow moving tornado roaring through Enid, Oklahoma. The National Weather Service says the twister was about 500 yards wide at 1 point on Thursday, and it caused significant damage, injuring at least 10 people. Forecasters warn too there is the potential for multiple severe tornadoes in the Central United States over the next few days. Here's CNN's Allison Chinchar with more.
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ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: This was a truly incredible tornado, and even more impressive was the long period of time it spent on the ground. This tornado in Oklahoma was on the ground for at least 30 minutes. Keep in mind that the vast majority of tornadoes are usually on the ground for less than 10 minutes. That prolonged period of time, however, did in turn lead to a pretty decent amount of damage as this storm kind of continued to make it through the state of Oklahoma. There, you can see kind of close-up damage of that particular tornado.
Another view of the tornado here. You can see the size of it as it started to grow. This particular tornado in Enid went through various size shapes. It went from a rope tornado, the very skinny size, even up to the wedge tornado, the very large one on the ground. And that just goes to show the strength that was behind this particular tornado.
Here, you can see some of the damage. Again, the uprooted and snap trees, the damage to some of the buildings that were there, and the drone video. This is where you really get a chance to see the scope of the damage from this particular tornado. Not only do you have these homes that are just leveled down to their slab foundation, but you can also see a lot of the trees that, well, should have been around the area that are now just twisted and gone. Here showing the scope of this entire neighborhood just leveled by that particular tornado, again, showing the extensive damage that that one particular tornado caused.
Now we do still have the potential for more severe storms as we continue not only through the weekend, but even into early next week. For Saturday, unfortunately, it's over the same area that saw those storms not only Thursday, but also on Friday. Sunday, it starts to shift a little bit farther to the north and begins to expand out, adding even more states to the potential for severe storms.
Then by Monday, the focus becomes more areas of the Midwest and areas of the Mid-Mississippi Valley that will made the main concern for the severe storms.
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HILL: In our next hour of "The Story Is" NASA believes it may have made a major breakthrough in the search for life on Mars.
Just ahead, we'll speak with a NASA scientist about what this new discovery reveals about life on the red planet.
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HILL: So if you thought the original prices for World Cup tickets were sky high, I hope you're sitting down for this one. Four tickets for the final were put up for resale on FIFA's official website. The asking price, more than $2 million each. The category one tickets, this is for the July 19th final in New Jersey, are seated behind one of the goals. Seats two rows ahead, they're only going for $16,000. I mean, it is basically a bargain, people. Ticket holders are basically allowed to charge whatever they want. The lofty prices, though, are just adding to concerns about what was supposed to be a more affordable World Cup.
Here's CNN's Brynn Gingras.
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BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I mean, who doesn't have $2.3 million for a seat in the final of the World Cup? It's absurd, and fans are letting it be heard. I mean, their people are calling extortion. This was a games that was being pegged by FIFA as the most affordable World Cup in history, and it's starting to feel like that is anything but the case.
These particular tickets, they're four seats together behind the goal near an exit row on the lower level in that category one ticket. But, basically, it's insane. Almost $2.3 million for each of these tickets. To give you a little bit of perspective, for the 2022 final in Qatar, tickets were about $1,600. So a huge difference. And FIFA does make some money off of this resale marketplace. 15 percent comes from the buyer. 15 percent comes from the seller. So they profit 30 percent if that ticket actually sells for that much money.
Now FIFA is just basically saying in response to all this anger about it that listen, don't hate the player. Hate the game. They say this they're just basically going in line with the industry standards that are set in the United States. This is not the case in Mexico where tickets cannot be sold for higher than the face value or it just got passed in Ontario for Canada's games those tickets also cannot be priced higher than the face value.
