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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson
Source: Iran Expected To Respond To U.S. Proposal Thursday; Ted Turner, CNN Founder & Philanthropist, Dies At 87; Officials Pose New Theory About Source Of Outbreak. Examining the Current State of the U.S. Economy; CNN Employees Remember the Life and Legacy of Ted Turner; Novo Nordisk's Huge Influence on Danish City of Kalundborg. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired May 07, 2026 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we can't wait for tomorrow's concert and stage.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking in Foreign Language).
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ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: Look at that reaction from the K-pop supergroup, BTS. That's from fans outside Mexico's National Palace. The so called BTS Army waited for hours to catch a glimpse of the group who had been meeting with the Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. BTS will play their first of three shows in Mexico City in the coming day. Wow.
That's it for the first hour of The Story Is. The next hour starts right now.
The Story Is, a proposal to end the war.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We've had very good talks over the last 24 hours.
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MICHAELSON: Iran expected to respond to a U.S. plan on Thursday. CNN's Ivan Watson live with details.
The Story Is, Maverick. Voices from around the world remembering Ted Turner and his legacy. NBA legend Dominique Wilkins with me to talk about how Turner made him the Atlanta Hawk.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TED TURNER, CNN FOUNDER & PHILANTHROPIST: I don't know how to quit. It's not in my genes.
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MICHAELSON: The Story Is, Hantavirus. As the cruise ship heads to Spain, CNN's Randi Kaye breaks down what we know about how this disease spreads.
And the Story Is.
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ANDREW ROSS SORKIN, FINANCIAL COLUMNIST, THE NEW YORK TIMES: I heard a very compelling case yesterday for data centers being put in space.
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MICHAELSON: One-on-one with Andrew Ross Sorkin of The New York Times on the future of A.I. Is a bubble about to burst?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Los Angeles, The Story Is with Elex Michelson.
MICHAELSON: Thanks for being with us here on The Story Is. I'm Elex Michelson, live in Los Angeles.
Tonight, the top story is waiting on Iran's response. President of the United States Donald Trump says Iran wants to make a peace deal. And a source says that Tehran is expected to respond to a U.S. proposal in the coming hours.
Now this comes after we learned that the U.S. and Iran are closing in on an agreement over a short memorandum. The President has warned the deal isn't reached, the U.S. will be bombing Iran at a, "Much higher level than before."
In the Oval Office on Wednesday, the President said this.
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TRUMP: I think we won. Now it's only a question of, look, if we left right now Iran, it would take them 20 years to rebuild. You would call that, we're in good shape, right? We're in good shape. And now we're doing well. Now we have to get what we have to get. If we don't do that, we'll have to go a big step further. But with that being said, they want to make a deal. We've had very good talks over the last 24 hours. And it's very possible that we'll make a deal.
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MICHAELSON: The President has tried to downplay the impact of the conflict on U.S. consumers. But on Tuesday, U.S. gas prices climbed to an average of $4.54 for a gallon of regular gas, which marks the highest national average price for gas in nearly four years. Here in California, it's well over $6 a gallon. CNN's Ivan Watson live now in Hong Kong with the latest. What do we know about the negotiations that are happening now?
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, President Trump keeps dangling the possibility of a deal and also threatening he could resume hostilities. The Iranians, on the record, are saying that they're looking at the latest U.S. proposal. You've got a spokesperson for the foreign ministry who's confirming that there is an exchange of messages going through Pakistani mediators. And when Iran finishes, finalizes reviewing the U.S. proposal, it'll send its response to the Pakistani mediators.
So there's some, you know, discussion taking place. But on the ground or on the sea, there is virtually no movement. The U.S. military attacked an Iranian-flagged tanker ship. An F-18 fighter jet opened fire on this ship and it disabled its rudder as it was trying to reach an Iranian port.
Meanwhile, Iran has announced the launch of something it calls the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, and it says it is imposing rules on any ships that want to go through this strategic choke point. But de facto, hardly any ships are moving at all versus you had more than 100 ships a day moving through that strait before the U.S. and Israel launched their joint bombardment of Iran on February 28th.
Israel is concerned, I think, about where the negotiations are going. You've got a source from the Israeli government telling CNN that Israel has some concerns about the possibility of U.S. concessions to Iran if an agreement is in fact reached.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was indicating that he's going to talk to President Trump Wednesday night, his time, about the status of the negotiations. This Israeli source going on to say that the Israeli government is concerned, Elex, that economic sanctions on Iran could potentially be lifted, and it wants to ensure that there are ongoing restrictions on Iran and its proxies in the neighborhood, in the region, on its ballistic missile program. And it also wants to ensure that Israel will still have the right to carry out use of force against any perceived threats throughout the region.
MICHAELSON: Meanwhile, Ivan, what's going on between Israel and Lebanon? Is that ceasefire still standing?
WATSON: Well, there's a ceasefire between the Lebanese government and Israel, but the government in Lebanon isn't the issue. It's Hezbollah, that Iran-backed militia, that still claims to be carrying out, in a given day, as many as 18 attacks on Israeli forces in southern Lebanon and across the border.
In the meantime, for the first time in nearly a month, Israeli warplanes bombed Beirut, hitting what they say is a senior Hezbollah commander there. That's sending concern through the Lebanese population. The Israeli bombardment of other parts of Lebanon have continued as well. Lebanese media reporting that a Lebanese mayor was killed in a village in the Beqaa Valley in the east of the country. The Israeli military saying it was targeting a weapons storage facility and that it takes steps to avoid killing civilians.
Meanwhile, another disturbing image has emerged, Elex, of an Israeli soldier apparently desecrating a Christian symbol, in this case, a Virgin Mary statue. The Israeli soldier apparently holding up a cigarette to that. This has been geolocated by CNN to the same predominantly Christian village of Debl in the south of Lebanon, a part of the country that Israeli troops have occupied for weeks.
Last month, another image emerged from that village of an Israeli soldier sledgehammering a Jesus Christ statue and also video of Israeli bulldozers destroying solar panels there. In the case of the Christ statue, the Israeli government apologized for that and jailed two soldiers, and the Israeli military saying -- says it's reviewing this latest Virgin Mary statue photo.
None of it adds up to good images for the Israeli military in its ongoing occupation of southern Lebanon, and it is something that the Israeli military has conceded is not good for the image of the Israeli military, particularly among Christians around the world.
MICHAELSON: And not very good for the idea of policing themselves, too, especially after this already happened in that very same spot. Ivan Watson, live for us in Hong Kong, thank you for that report.
Here in America, The Story Is a federal judge has unsealed a purported suicide note from Jeffrey Epstein. The unverified, undated document was placed on the court docket in the case of a former cellmate of the late convicted sex offender who said he found that note. Note which is not signed, reads in quote part, "They investigated me for a month, found nothing. It is a treat to be able to choose one's time to say goodbye."
Justice Department indicated that it did not know if the purported note is actually legitimate. Cellmate said the note was from Epstein's prior unsuccessful suicide attempt in July 2019. Last year, he gave an interview where he described finding the note.
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NICHOLAS TARTAGLIONE, EPSTEIN'S CELLMATE: It was in my book, yes, when I got back into the cell, I opened my book to read, and there it was. And he wrote it and stuck it in the book. And that was, I believe, the reason why he stopped saying, because he didn't want to go to Suicide Watch, because I think his first thing was, oh, yes, he tried to blame me for attacking him.
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MICHAELSON: A medical examiner ruled Epstein died by suicide in August of 2019.
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TURNER: I dedicate the news channel for America, the Cable News Network.
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TAPPER: That is Ted Turner nearly 46 years ago, announcing the launch of this very network, CNN. The visionary media mogul and philanthropist passed away Wednesday at the age of 87. His business acumen extended far beyond CNN. He owned the Atlanta Braves and the Atlanta Hawks.
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He founded a slew of cable channels, TNT, Headline News, Turner Classic Movies, the Cartoon Network and more. And he met with world leaders like Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Cuba's Fidel Castro. Turner wanted to eliminate nuclear weapons and co-founded the Nuclear Threat Initiative in 2001. And he donated a billion dollars to support United Nations causes.
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TURNER: I wish God had made us just a little bit smarter, you know, a bit smart enough to where we didn't go to war with each other and practice cruelty on each other, if we were nice to each other. That's the kind of world that I envision and the world that I've been working for.
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MICHAELSON: Ted Turner was also a bison rancher, founder of the Goodwill Games and a competitive yachtsman. CNN's Omar Jimenez has more on Turner's passion for sports.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You won the America's Cup. Well, you know, won the World Series. Were you a natural at it?
TURNER: No, I was not a natural.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You had to learn it.
TURNER: I had worked very hard. It took me a number of years to become a champion.
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ted Turner may have been as well known in sports as he was in media. In 1977, he skippered the yacht Courageous to victory in the America's Cup sailing race. And he was inducted into the America's Cup Hall of Fame in 1993.
He was described as the last true amateur to win the Cup. Before winning America's Cup, Turner bought the fledgling Atlanta Braves baseball team in 1976. Two decades later, in 1995, under Turner, the Braves won their first World Series.
TURNER: Welcome. Welcome, everyone.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): The stadium built for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta would be renamed Turner Field.
TURNER: This is going to be a big hit, New York. This is going to be a big hit, 2001.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): Turner launched the Goodwill Games in 1986 as an alternative to the boycott-plagued Olympics. Turner also owned the Atlanta Hawks, Atlanta Thrashers and World Championship Wrestling. The Hawks retired a jersey in honor of the 24 years Turner owned the team.
TURNER: If you work hard at a sport that you like, I did like it, and you have success at it, it gives you a feeling of accomplishment and a rush when you're out there and you come through, you know, when you triumph.
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MICHAELSON: Let's talk more about Ted Turner's impact on sports with Dominique Wilkins, the vice president of basketball and special advisor to the CEO of the Atlanta Hawks. Dominique Wilkins, welcome to The Story Is.
DOMINIQUE WILKINS, VICE PRESIDENT OF BASKETBALL, ATLANTA HAWKS: Thanks for having me, man. I appreciate it.
MICHAELSON: And of course, it's fitting that you are joining us from Atlanta. How did Ted Turner change your life in particular?
WILKINS: Well, you know, when I came to Georgia, of course, I went to the University of Georgia, so when -- right before I came out of college, one of the teams I always wanted to play for was the Atlanta Hawks. I had no idea that I would have that opportunity. I remember Mike Guerin Sr., who was the president of the team at that time, and Hank Aaron went to Ted and said, hey, if you can get this kid in the trade, Dominique Wilkins, you got to get him by any means necessary. And Ted is the one that made the move to get me out of Utah to Atlanta.
And that was the start of changing my life. Because if you know anything about Ted Turner in those days, he was the pioneer of cable sports, CNN, all these things that people, the luxuries they have today, that's spirits from Ted Turner, because he was the first one to do it. The Hawks were the first team that was on television every night. And more importantly, he was a friend. He was a very close friend.
MICHAELSON: I mean, what was he like in person? What was he like as a friend?
WILKINS: He was nuts. He was nuts, man. You know, I remember, you know, again, man, when he used to come in the locker room, he was one of those owners that never involved, man. He just loved to be around the team. And I remember him coming in our locker rooms, and he would just sit on the floor and just listen in on the meetings. And he would say a few words, and then he would leave. Man, he was a great owner to play for. I tell you, one of the best owners we had with that organization up until this point, and then we got our new ownership. But they were, I mean, that ownership was great.
MICHAELSON: Yes, and we're looking right now at video of his name being raised into the rafters in Atlanta, which is not far from where your jersey is retired in Atlanta. There we see David Stern, who was then the commissioner of the NBA, doing the honors there with Ted Turner. What does it mean for you to have your name right next to Ted Turner in an arena that might not be downtown without Ted Turner?
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WILKINS: You're absolutely right. You know, and I look at it like this. Ted and I, you know, even though he was the elder statesman, I kind of felt like we grew together in this city and really creating a personality here as far as basketball. And I think that was the start of Ted and myself coming together, you know, in Atlanta at those times where we put together some great teams, great games, and really we put on a great show there. And he was the architect to all of that.
So, you know, he's going to be missed, man. I tell you, he was just a wonderful guy to play for and he became a wonderful friend of mine over time. And I'll tell you a quick story. I remember when I got traded, and I remember we were coming down the escalator and he was with CNN. He said to Jim at the time, he said, why do you ever trade me without my permission? He said, I should fire everybody for doing that. I remember that like it was yesterday.
And that's what kind of guy he was. And he didn't say anything just to be saying it. He meant every word he said. He was that kind of guy.
MICHAELSON: Of course, you've got a leadership role with the team now. Ted wrote this long book about leadership, his life, which is really great. What's sort of the most important thing you learned about leadership from watching Ted Turner in person?
WILKINS: Well, I think one of the biggest things I learned from Ted is being able to take calculated risks. Don't be afraid of the moment. And he always told me, hey, Nick, man, you know, in order to get big, in order to do it big, you can't be afraid to take big steps.
And that came from Ted Turner. We had a lot of conversations, man. It was much more than like an owner-player relationship. We had a true friendship. And a lot of things that I did early in my life after I retired, you know, a lot of stuff that I talked to Ted about. So he turned me on to a lot of cool stuff.
MICHAELSON: Well, Dominique Wilkins, it is so great to have you here on CNN honoring Ted Turner's life. Thank you for all the joy that you have brought to so many of us. One of the great dunkers of all time, great broadcaster, now great executive with the Atlanta Hawks. Thank you so much for being with us.
WILKINS: No, thank you, man. Thank you. I'm glad they recognize him in this way. He deserves it. So thank you for having me. MICHAELSON: Still to come, a new theory into where the start of a deadly Hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship began, details next.
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MICHAELSON: There are mixed reactions from officials in the Canary Islands, Canary Islands, about the impending arrival of a cruise ship hit by a deadly Hantavirus outbreak. The MV Hondius is currently en route to the Canary Islands after spending days off the coast of Cape Verde. The office for the president of those islands tells CNN it is not refusing to receive the ship, but wants more information, including why passengers weren't allowed to disembark and return home from Cape Verde. CNN's Randi Kaye has more on the search for what caused the outbreak.
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DR. MARIA VAN KERKHOVE, DIR. FOR EPIDEMIC & PANDEMIC PREPAREDNESS & PREVENTION, W.H.O.: This was an expedition boat, and many of the people on board were doing birdwatching.
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Turns out a birdwatching tour may be the source of this Hantavirus outbreak. According to the Associated Press, two Argentine officials investigating how this started said their government is leaning toward the idea that a Dutch couple contracted the virus while birdwatching in the city of Ushuaia, Argentina, before boarding the ship. The AP reports the couple visited a landfill during the tour and may have been exposed to infected rodents. That 70-year-old Dutch man was the first to die on the ship, days after they left port in Argentina.
His 69-year-old wife died about two weeks later. The rest of the people on board, including nearly 150 passengers, are now on a three to four-day journey from Cape Verde to Tenerife in the Canary Islands. Spain has agreed to receive the ship there.
Upon arrival, the plan is for all passengers to be taken to a nearby airport and sent back to their home countries. The 14 Spanish citizens will be examined and go directly into quarantine at a Madrid hospital.
KASEM HATO, MV HONDIUS PASSENGER (through translator): This is the country of Cape Verde in front of us, but it is forbidden to go down to it.
KAYE (voice-over): This travel vlogger on board posted on social media about the predicament they now find themselves in.
HATO (through translator): Today was supposed to be the last day of our 35-day trip on the Atlantic, but it is clear that our journey will not end here because Cape Verde refused to receive us on its coast.
KAYE (voice-over): Earlier today, this medical evacuation boat removed three sick people from the ship. On their way to the Netherlands, a source from Spain's health ministry told CNN that Morocco refused to let the plane carrying two of the evacuees land to refuel. Instead, it made an unscheduled landing at Gran Canaria Airport to do so.
VAN KERKHOVE: People are usually infected through contact with infected rodents, or their urine, their droppings, or their saliva. Human-to-human transmission is uncommon.
KAYE (voice-over): Yet in this case, the World Health Organization believes the virus may have been transmitted person-to-person on board. Following lab tests confirmed this is the Andes strain of the virus, which has spread among close contacts before.
VAN KERKHOVE: We're also working with authorities for anyone that has left the ship.
KAYE (voice-over): In fact, the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health has confirmed that a passenger who traveled on the first leg of the voyage and disembarked at St. Helena on April 24th has now tested positive for Hantavirus. That passenger, according to the cruise company, is being treated at a hospital in Zurich. His wife, who was with him, has not shown symptoms, but is self-isolating as a precaution.
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Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.
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MICHAELSON: Singapore is moving ahead with a plan to allow caning as a school punishment. The country's education minister says the practice is part of a new anti-bullying measure set to be rolled out next year. Guidelines say caning will be used only for boys and only as a last resort. The minister claims research has shown that students make better choices when there are clear boundaries and firm consequences. The World Health Organization disagrees. It says there is overwhelming evidence that child corporate punishment carries multiple risks and has no benefits.
The Story Is a Buddhist monk's daily ritual in Thailand that's getting a lot of attention. Every morning, he sets off a river journey to collect donations for those in need, accompanied by a pack of temple dogs. He began with one small stray dog, then another, then they bred. Now he has over 20 dogs, with a dozen riding along each day. Locals say this site lifts their spirits, turning a traditional act of giving into something unforgettable and unexpectedly heartwarming. You can look at that video all day.
When we return, my interview with CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin on the state of the U.S. economy and what he thinks investors could be eyeing as the next big thing. It certainly surprised me. Stay with us.
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SORKIN: I heard a very compelling case yesterday for data centers being put in space.
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MICHAELSON: Thanks for watching THE STORY IS. I'm Elex Michaelson.
Let's take a look at today's top stories.
A source says Iran is expected to respond on Thursday to a U.S. proposal to end the war. President Donald Trump says Iran wants to make a deal and touted good talks between the two sides over the past 24 hours. He also says there's no deadline for when he expects an Iranian response.
Emergency crews are working to clear debris after at least two tornadoes swept through Mississippi just a few hours ago. Drone video shows a mobile home park that suffered extensive damage.
There are no immediate reports of casualties, but a lot of power lines and trees were taken down.
President Trump says he met with top executives from major U.S. oil companies, including Chevron and Exxon, to discuss Venezuela. He says that energy companies are eager to expand operations there and praised the U.S. military operation earlier this year, calling it a great thing for Venezuela.
Now to the annual Milken Institute Global Conference, which is wrapping up here in southern California after bringing together some of the biggest names in politics, finance, health and tech.
This week, I moderated a couple of panels, including one on housing policy with the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Scott Turner. I also spoke with Andrew Ross Sorkin about the U.S. economy on the sidelines of the conference.
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MICHAELSON: We are with Andrew Ross Sorkin from CNBC, "The New York Times, and author of the book "1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History and How It Shattered a Nation". Nice to see you.
ANDREW ROSS SORKIN, CNBC AND "THE NEW YORK TIMES: Nice to see you. Thank you for having me.
MICHAELSON: Thank you so much. Congrats on the book.
SORKIN: Thank you.
MICHAELSON: Congrats on everything. Just real big picture. The state of the economy is what right now?
SORKIN: The state of the economy is complicated because I think you have these sort of two very divergent views of what's happening.
You have the oil story in terms of what's happening in the Middle East, the price of oil rising, and a view about what that could do to the economy, which would be negative in the future.
We've had some negativity already. The Spirit Airlines going out of business is an example of that.
But on the other end, you have a market that's just euphoric, in large part because of the A.I. boom.
MICHAELSON: Right.
SORKIN: And the question is, does the math math in the A.I. boom, meaning is this all going to work out? And is whatever's happening in terms of the growth of A.I. so great that it effectively makes whatever is happening on the downside because of energy costs? Does it negate that? That's the question.
And I don't think we know the answer.
MICHAELSON: I mean, because here at this conference, which is full of all of these business leaders, A.I. is the big talk.
You have a lot of the top A.I. leaders that are here as well. You're a math guy.
SORKIN: Yes.
MICHAELSON: Does the math math in terms of A.I.? Or are we going to see a bubble burst?
SORKIN: So it's interesting. I was at a dinner here last night and maybe a couple hundred people, including some very famous people in the -- in the business. They were asked to raise their hands if they thought that we were in A.I. bubble. Fortunately, nobody raised their hands.
MICHAELSON: Wow.
SORKIN: And I think if we had asked that question, call it six months ago --
MICHAELSON: Yes.
SORKIN: -- so many people would have raised their hands. And I think that's in large part because you look at a company like Anthropic and the numbers are just going through the roof.
And so I don't know, I would say most people here seem shockingly bullish. I mean, maybe too bullish.
The flip side of all of this, which nobody also talks about enough, is in success. If A.I. is as successful as we all say it's going to be --
MICHAELSON: Right.
SORKIN: -- does that ultimately take the jobs, right?
MICHAELSON: Right. SORKIN: The CEO of Verizon was on the cover of "The Wall Street
Journal" last week. I don't know if you saw it, saying he believes within the next two to five years, we're going to have somewhere between 20 to 30 percent unemployment in America.
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SORKIN: That would put you, by the way, back in 1929 -- I mean 1932, we had 25 percent unemployment. So all of this cuts both ways.
MICHAELSON: And do you think that there's enough preparation for that? I mean, obviously people are excited about making money, the executives here. But for that concept, what happens to all those people?
SORKIN: Clearly not. I mean, I think that there's early conversations. I mean, and there's been conversations for years about this idea of universal basic income and whether you'd have to kind of change how we redistribute money.
But, you know, there's even talk recently, could you start to tax the A.I. companies differently so that they're, you know, whatever that tax pays for people to either transition to other jobs or things. I think we just don't know.
MICHAELSON: In terms of the parallels --
SORKIN: Yes.
MICHAELSON: -- between 1929 and now, some of what you write about is some of the cultural parallels.
SORKIN: Well --
MICHAELSON: How do you see that?
SORKIN: -- I mean, the whole idea of what was taking place in the late 20s was just a euphoric, almost sense of gambling. And I think we're in a period now, Warren Buffett said it over the weekend, that, you know, more people are going to the casino these days than the church in terms of how the market's set up.
And I think that was very true in the 1920s. I think you're looking at prediction markets now where people are betting on politics, they're betting on sports, they're betting on everything -- crypto.
So I think there's something going on that we need to, from a cultural perspective, really think about as well.
MICHAELSON: Sort of what are the big lessons you took from this that are really important for us to think about now?
SORKIN: Two things. One is debt is the match that lights the fire of every financial crisis. So you really need to be looking underneath the hood of everything to understand how much debt is in the system. Are companies borrowing too much money? Are individuals borrowing too
much money? We saw that in the 2008 financial crisis. That is the tinder that creates a genuine crisis.
I don't think were there yet, but we could get there soon enough.
And the other is you have to listen to the Cassandras. Even when things are going great, everybody likes to put their blinders on.
And right now, especially when everybody here is excited, there's a phrase in the business called "that's a crowded trade", meaning when everyone is in the same place, that's a crowded trade to be. So think about what the other side looks like.
MICHAELSON: And at a place like this, a lot of people are trying to find the next opportunity, the next thing to be into. For viewers that are watching this, that are interested in kind of what's next, what do you see as the next big thing to invest in? The best thing to go for?
SORKIN: Oh, goodness. The best. I am -- I do not want to offer financial advice. I will say I heard a very compelling case yesterday for data centers being put in space as opposed to on the ground. There's an argument to be made that if you could somehow put data centers in space, companies like SpaceX and others, you could do it with a lot less energy. The sun is always up there. You could have, you know, 24-hour energy and cooling because you have the other side of the -- of -- you have the you have the other side of the cooling side.
And therefore, apparently if you could get everything up there, boy, could it be the future. It was kind of an exciting claim.
MICHAELSON: I never heard that before. That's really interesting.
Andrew Ross Sorkin, congratulations on the book.
SORKIN: Thank you.
MICHAELSON: Congratulations on everything. Thanks for taking a moment.
SORKIN: Thank you for having me.
MICHAELSON: Really appreciate it.
SORKIN: Thank you
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MICHAELSON: CNN employees are remembering the life and legacy of Ted Turner. CNN employees left notes on the famed red letters at CNN's headquarters in Atlanta. That is where Turner launched this 24-hour news network on June 1st, 1980.
Several of our anchors and reporters look back on how Ted Turner changed their lives forever.
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WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: At one point, Ted Turner said to me, we have an opening. We want you to be our Pentagon correspondent.
And I said, Pentagon correspondent. I said, I'm not really an expert on the Pentagon or the military. But he said, you're a great journalist. You're breaking stories.
You can go to the Pentagon, you can go to Toledo, you can go to Timbuktu, you'll break news. That's what we want at CNN. We want you to go to the Pentagon and break news.
That was my first day at the Pentagon, May 8th, 1990. And I thought it was going to be a relatively slow beat because the Cold War was winding down. The U.S. was closing a lot of military bases all over the country.
I thought it would be a slow beat. But a few months later, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. Operation Desert Shield becomes Operation Desert Storm. And then everybody on earth is watching CNN and watching me report from the Pentagon -- military affairs correspondent. And it was just -- it changed my life, obviously.
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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: I remember it was my first time to the United States. And I'd obviously done a lot of research about CNN. And I got Ted's vision and it was like this is who I want to work for. This is where I want to be.
And I walked into the Omni Hotel in the CNN Center on the evening of Friday, the 26th of January, 1990.
And you know, who is sitting with his family, having his dinner in the restaurant? That was -- that was Ted Turner. I kind of -- I didn't really see him again. I was hired by the chief engineer the next day. I'm back -- back to London before I could turn around.
And I don't think I saw Ted for ten years or more than that. And that was because we were going to the ends of the earth all the time to get the news.
I met my wife because of Ted Turner. We were on the road together working for CNN, going into Baghdad during the war. Ted gave us the passion, the commitment to do that, the inspirational things we did.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: He also was very clear that we had to cover all sides of the story. We could not just cover it from one perspective. In fact, he banned the word foreign news or foreign correspondent at one point.
He called us international. And that was him saying, we're all part of one global community. And it might sound quaint today, but it's what we all believed in.
And he told us that we had to be the eyes and ears of people out in the world. We need to be able to go out into the world and report back with real facts, with real eyewitness, with real, you know, images and storytelling to make people understand the very complex and often dangerous world, often uplifting world that they lived in and their part in it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: You're watching THE STORY IS.
For our international viewers, "WORLDSPORT" is next. For our viewers in North America, I'll be back with more news.
[01:41:40]
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MICHAELSON: Healthy fast-food chain Sweetgreen is hoping a new item on its menus will revive its sluggish sales. It has now added chicken wraps as a permanent fixture and selling four different versions of the wraps priced under 15 bucks.
All this comes as the salad company is struggling. Its stock lost 80 percent of its value last year, with younger consumers opting for fast-food chains with deeper discounts.
If you bought an iPhone between June of 2024 and March of 2025, you could be entitled to a partial refund. Apple has agreed to pay $250 million to settle a lawsuit that claimed that the company misled consumers about the A.I. capabilities of its Siri digital assistant.
The settlement is expected to deliver $25 to $95 to anyone who bought an iPhone 15 or 16 during that time.
The maker of the popular weight loss drug Wegovy, is reporting stronger sales of its pill version than expected, nudging up its full year outlook. And that is particularly good news for both drug maker Novo Nordisk and the city of Kalundborg. The Danish town owes much of its fortune to the company's success.
CNN's Anna Cooban takes a look at the hometown of the pharmaceutical giant.
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ANNA COOBAN, CNN BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS CORRESPONDENT: Sailing season is getting underway in Kalundborg.
I can't even drive a car. But now I'm driving a boat.
MARTIN HOGH SORENSEN, KALUNDBORG RESIDENT: Yes, yes. That's nice.
COOBAN: And you just take over if this is not going well.
SORENSEN: If you turn the other way, then the boat will, in a while, turn a little. COOBAN: In this small city in Denmark, you either work for Novo Nordisk or you know somebody who does. Martin Sorensen spent 25 years there. His friend Anne Louise Eliason manning the sails, 27 years.
SORENSEN: It is changing because we have a lot of international workers now. So -- and that, of course, influence the picture, just the daily life in town.
COOBAN: In Kalundborg, past meets future. On one side of town, a medieval church. On the other, an enormous factory pumps out weight loss drugs for the world.
According to Novo, their operation sits on a site larger than Monaco.
KASPER BODKER MEJLVANG, EXECUTIVE VP OF GLOBAL MANUFACTURING, NOVO NORDISK: I started my career here in Kalundborg some 20 years ago. And it is just mind-blowing the transformation the site has gone through.
COOBAN: I've been given exclusive access inside the factory.
So I'm about to go into a room where they make vast quantities of semaglutide, which is the key ingredient for weight loss drugs and diabetes drugs.
And basically it's medicine that has to be shipped all around the world. So it's a highly-sanitized environment.
These injectable pens will be sent to the United States to serve its huge appetite for weight loss medications. It's Novo's biggest market, but also home to its largest competitor, Eli Lilly. Globally as well, competition is rising.
So in places like India and China, already you've got pharmaceutical companies making generics.
MEJLVANG: Yes.
COOBAN: How do you feel about that? What does it mean for this factory that we're standing in right now?
MEJLVANG: Based on the investments here, we can make huge volumes to supply to the whole world, to the demand of millions of people.
COOBAN: Back in town, it's time for a coffee break.
Shaun Gamble, originally from New Zealand, used to work for Novo before opening his cafe on the harbor.
SHAUN GAMBLE, CAFE OWNER: I was working in what they call the warehouse and just packing all the finished products onto pallets, onto trucks and sending them around the world.
COOBAN: Recently Novo has hit somewhat of a rocky patch. In September, it announced thousands of layoffs globally, though mostly across Denmark. GAMBLE: The mood changed when you're talking with people. I mean, I also knew a few people who were laid off, buildings still going on. So I think we're hoping the momentum carries on again. It was just a little glitch.
COOBAN: I asked the mayor if Kalundborg depends too much on Novo Nordisk.
MARTIN DAMM, KALUNDBORG MAYOR: We are dependent on Novo Nordisk, but not only Novo Nordisk. Many years ago, we have just one company in Kalundborg and when it was broke, the whole city went down. So today we have more companies.
[01:49:53]
COOBAN: Novo is hoping its new Wegovy weight loss pill, released in the U.S. in January, can give it a boost. And Novo's chief executive says the company is making those pills on American soil.
MIKE DOUSTDAR, CEO, NOVO NORDISK: If you think about this Wegovy pill from the creations of the raw material all the way to tableting of the product to packaging it and, of course, to shipping it, it's all made in the U.S., in North Carolina, by Americans, for Americans.
COOBAN: Still, an ocean away in Kalundborg, this city of fewer than 17,000 people remains a perhaps unlikely engine of the global weight loss rocket ship and as residents are hoping for smooth waters ahead.
How does it feel that this town is one of the centers of this weight loss drug revolution, and that now it's getting international attention? How does that feel?
SORENSEN: Of course, a little proud. Yes, yes, yes.
COOBAN: Anna Cooban, CNN -- Kalundborg.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAELSON: What a trip.
Up next, we continue to remember CNN's founder, Ted Turner. After the break, I'll show you the advice he leaves me with every day.
[01:51:08]
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MICHAELSON: We end in the lobby here at CNN's L.A. Bureau. Every single employee and guest, the first thing they see when they walk in here is Ted Turner's face because none of us would be here without Ted Turner. The idea for the Cable News Network and cable news itself all came from Ted Turner.
And when you leave this building, the last thing you see is this quote from Ted Turner. "Do something. Either lead, follow, or get out of the way." Ted Turner chose to lead, and all of us are better for it.
Thanks for watching THE STORY IS.
I'm Elex Michaelson in Los Angeles, and this is CNN.
[01:56:10]
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