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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson

U.S. Plans To Indict Fmr. Cuban President Raul Castro; Trump - U.S. And Nigerian Forces Eliminate ISIS Leader; Actor Russell Andrews Is Living With ALS; McNealy and Smalley Atop PGA Championship Leaderboard; Rapper Drake Finally Unveils His New Iceman Album; Auditions For The Next James Bond Are Underway; Aired 1-2a ET

Aired May 16, 2026 - 01:00   ET

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

[01:00:00]

SOARES: But despite the political divisions rippling through the wider community many of the fans flocking to Vienna ahead of the grand finale said the focus should be on the music and the spectacle of Eurovision, not the controversy.

MAREIDE BACH, EUROVISION FAN: It's the unity of the countries around and the music and the happy and joy it brings.

SOARES: Isa Soares, CNN.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Looks like fun. Thanks for watching the first hour of "The Story Is." The next hour starts right now.

"The Story Is" possible indictment, while the U.S. is looking at potential criminal charges for former Cuban President Raul Castro.

"The Story Is" the fight over AI data centers. Could they end up in space? AI expert Chris Mattmann is here with what all this could mean for your neighborhood.

And "The Story Is" Drake is back with not one but three new albums. Shagun Oduwole is live with who's been dissed, who's being celebrated in the lyrics.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Los Angeles, "The Story Is" with Elex Michaelson.

MICHAELSON: Thanks for watching "The Story Is." I'm Elex Michaelson live in Los Angeles, and this top story is in Cuba as the U.S. is now pressuring the island nation's communist government by preparing to indict former President Raul Castro. That's according to sources. This comes just days after CIA Director Jim John Ratcliffe met with top intelligence officials from the Ministry of the Interior in Havana.

The 94-year-old Raul Castro is the brother of the late Fidel Castro, who, of course, led the Cuban revolution back in the 50s. He may face various charges including over Cuba's shoot down of two planes in 1996 in which four people died including three Americans. Those planes were owned by a Cuban American exile organization. President Trump on Fox News with Bret Baier indicating that Cuba may want to make a deal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is Cuba going to turn to us and make a deal?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I think so. I mean, look, I've been hearing about Cuba since I'm a little boy. They've been saying, what's going on with Cuba? And I think we'll be turning it. Marco has been very effective, and the whole group has been very effective. It's, yeah. I think they're going to have to come to us. It's a failed nation. It's a totally failed nation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And they're taking the aid now.

TRUMP: They've been taking the aid. They want aid. They need help.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Now this comes as people across the nation take to the streets to protest Cuba's energy crisis, which is fed by a U.S. fuel embargo, triggering widespread power failures. Things are so bad, one Cuban mom tells CNN that women across the island fear not being able to feed their own kids. Many of them losing weight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The children don't have food to eat and aren't going to school. We're desperate. The women, we've already lost 20 pounds, and we are anxious because we don't have a way of supporting our kids.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Joining me live now is Eric Farnsworth. He's a non- resident senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He's also a former state department official for Latin America. Joining us live from Virginia. Thanks for staying up late with us. We appreciate it.

ERIC FARNSWORTH, SR. ASSOCIATE FOR STRATEGIC & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: It's great to join you again. Thanks for having me.

MICHAELSON: Why potentially indict a 94-year-old-man? What's that about?

FARNSWORTH: Well, it's about continuing a pressure campaign to try to delegitimize the ruling regime in Cuba and to try to make continued governance of the island untenable for the current actors to force change on the island. Raul Castro is 94-years-old. He's reportedly in frail health, but the crimes he's accused of committing are from when he was Defense Minister back 30 years ago, the shoot down of the brothers to the rescue unarmed aircraft in international airspace over international waters.

And he's also accused potentially of drug trafficking much like Manuel Noriega in Panama in the 1980s and Nicolas Maduro more recently in Venezuela. So there's a playbook here and it seems as if the administration is following it.

MICHAELSON: Let's talk about the conditions on the ground. I mean, we just heard the desperation from one of the mothers there. Describe what you're hearing in terms of what's happening, especially, the fuel crisis.

FARNSWORTH: Yeah, it really is a desperate situation. I think that's the right word and probably worse than any other time in the modern history of Cuba going back to the revolution in 1959. Even worse according to reports than the special period in the early 1990s with the end of Soviet subsidies and the end of the Cold War. The unavailability of energy on the island, oil and gas, it's really affecting transportation, it's affecting health care, it's affecting daily lives of people.

[01:05:00]

And it's also affecting tourism, which of course is one of the main revenue earners of Cuba and the ability to gain hard currency to import products. So it's having widespread negative economic impact and it's unclear how those circumstances are going to change. Mexico has tried to step in a little bit. Russia has sent some oil tankers. One came through in March.

But for the most part, energy really has been embargoed from the island and that's a direct result of the takedown of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela in January, which was Cuba's main supplier, almost only supplier of oil. With that lifeline gone, they don't have anything left.

MICHAELSON: And so you have this remarkable moment this week where the CIA Director of all people, goes to Cuba publicly. Usually, the CIA does most of the stuff behind the scenes, is in pictures in Havana meeting with their intelligence chiefs. President Trump says it's time for Cuba to make a deal. What do you make of the fact that the CIA Director was the person who went, and what would that potential deal look like?

FARNSWORTH: I mean, it's not unprecedented. CIA Directors have gone to Cuba before, but what's unprecedented is the fact that it is so public just as you've indicated and the CIA itself is putting pictures on social media and advertising it. I think it's very relevant to show that first of all the United States is engaged at the most senior levels. But that -- what they're talking about is not just an easy transition, but some hard asks of the Cuban government and no doubt some of those would include the elimination of Russian and Chinese influence in Cuba, for example, at the intelligence gathering base at Lourdes, is which a listening station to the United States.

It would probably also try to resolve the whole healthcare issue that was targeted at CIA agents in Havana going back a number of years ago, which still remains unresolved and trying to open the case files there and see what really happened and who's to blame for that and any number of things as well. But to have the CIA Director there clearly the asks are on the security and intelligence side. In terms of the transition, it would be something that is unprecedented really in the Western Hemisphere. I think you could probably compare it loosely to what Gorbachev did in The Soviet Union with Perestroika and Glasnost. At least I think that's what the administration is looking to try to bring about and to try to force that sort of change.

MICHAELSON: Basically, to have a leader who unravels the entire system of government that has been there and brings the country into a new system of government because there is so much pressure. I hadn't thought of it that way before. That's an interesting comparison. We'll see if Cuba has their version of Gorbachev or if this becomes more of a military conflict.

FARNSWORTH: It seems clear that President Trump and certainly Secretary Rubio, want to see some real change in Cuba.

MICHAELSON: Eric Farnsworth, great insights. Really appreciate it. Have a great weekend.

FARNSWORTH: Thanks again for having me. Great to join you.

MICHAELSON: And this hour, we are following breaking news in Africa. President Trump says that the ISIS second in command has been killed in an operation in Nigeria. In a social media post about 90 minutes ago, he said that the U.S. and Nigerian forces had tracked down Abu- Bilal al-Minuk in a joint operation. The post added that ISIS's global activities are now greatly diminished.

Last hour, I spoke live with CNN National Security Analyst Alex Plitsas about Trump's announcement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX PLITSAS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: We began to see movement of U.S. aircraft about a week ago in preparation for the operation here, and this was obviously joined with the Nigerians. This is a pretty substantial operation because the African continent has become the epicenter of global terrorism, which has really not got enough attention from most folks. I mean, after 25 years, the global war on terrorism largely in the Middle East and Central Asia, both ISIS and Al-Qaeda leadership have largely moved to the continent. And so we've got big significant terrorist populations that are operating in the Sahel region of Western Africa, which is sort of where this took place.

In addition, the Horn of Africa, which is where Somalia is and then the Maghreb of North Africa. So in this particular case, this was the number two for ISIS globally who I'm being told now, I'm just going to read this to you coming in from leadership at Africom, was considered the ISIS organizational and financial mastermind. So this is a significant blow to ISIS and global terrorism. So this was planned for quite some time. This was a meticulously planned operation executed flawlessly as the way it's described to me. And the number two, leader for ISIS globally has now been taken out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Alex Plitsas joining us last hour. Now to this U.S. federal authorities have arrested and charged an Iraqi militant leader for attacks on Americans and Jews over the Iran war.

[01:10:00]

Prosecutors accused the man of coordinating and planning at least 18 terrorist attacks in Europe along with two attacks in Canada and attempting to coordinate attacks in the U.S. as well as urging others in retaliation for the war with Iran. Prosecutors say he is a commander of a U.S. designated foreign terrorist organization based in Iraq.

Group is also closely aligned with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the U.S. also designates as a foreign terrorist group. CNN's Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst John Miller has more details.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN MILLER, CNN'S CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: You had an individual, Al Saadi, who was working for the IRGC, the Iranian Special Forces, seen here with Qasem Soleimani, the designer of the Iranian's axis of resistance, where he recruited smaller groups, including Al Saadi's group in Iraq, to do Iran's bidding when called upon. And in this case, organizing the 18 attacks with Jewish targets, fire bombings, bombings, arsons, the burning of the Jewish ambulance corps in London was meant to sow fear and destabilization across Europe. Upping the ante was this plot to come to New York and to attack a New synagogue, another in California, another in Arizona.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: CNN's Matthew Chance and his team got rare access to the site of Iran's Karaji B1 Bridge, which was heavily damaged in deadly U.S. airstrikes in April. President Trump has warned that he could target more bridges in Iran, but for now, local officials say they are focused on rebuilding. We should note, CNN operates in Iran with the permission of the government but maintains full editorial control of its reports.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: A rare glimpse of the tightly controlled Islamic Republic. We drove out of Tehran, the bustling but still tense capital, past anti American slogans daubed along the route, to the town of Karaj, one painful scar left by the latest U.S. led war. When finished, the B1 Bridge was meant to be a symbol of Iranian engineering prowess, the tallest in the region. But for now, it's become a battered monument to ruthless American air power.

Wow. Where you really get a sense of the incredible destructive force that was at play with these U.S. air strikes that smashed this concrete look and twisted all this reinforced steel. Let's take a look, see if we can get closer, a bit closer to the edge. I mean, look at the concrete pylons that have been absolutely shattered. And down here, I mean, is a huge drop of 450 feet. This was, as I mentioned, the highest bridge in the Middle East, and there were people down below who were caught up in this and killed.

And the Iranian official who was sent to show us around insisted this targeting of infrastructure and the killing of innocent civilians was a war crime that should be punished. It's an allegation U.S. officials categorically deny.

The Americans say that this was a legitimate military target, that this bridge would have been used for the transport of drones and missiles, and therefore, it was fair game. How do you answer that?

ALI SAFAR, IRANIAN LOCAL OFFICIAL (translated): That's a false narrative from President Trump. This bridge hadn't even opened. Not a single car had driven over. It was built for the use of our people and was just called a military target so it could be bombarded, demolished, and destroyed.

CHANCE: Back in April, Trump posted video of the attack on his Truth Social platform, urging Iran to make a deal before it's too late. Now after his state visit to China, there's still no deal. And Trump is raising the issue again amid concerns the fragile ceasefire with Iran could soon break down.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We haven't knocked out other than one bridge that we did because they misbehaved, but we have bridges we could knock out. We could knock out their bridges and their electrical capacity within two days. We could knock out the whole thing.

CHANCE: It's a terrifying possibility, but one that doesn't seem to be giving Iran much pause. Why is it important for this country to rebuild the bridge now? When there's the possibility that the Americans could strike it again in the near future? Why now?

SAFAR (translated): We're not thinking about that. Our focus is on the reconstruction of our bridge. It was designed and built by our engineers despite many difficult years of sanctions.

[01:15:00]

CHANCE: And amid growing tensions with the U.S., Iranian officials insist this symbol of the Islamic Republic will rise again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Our thanks to Matthew Chance reporting from Iran. Coming up, a new survey finds Republican and Democrats agree at least one thing, many do not want data centers built near them. Ahead, Chris Mattmann joins us live. You see him standing by on set. He's one of the world's leading AI experts. He weighs on in on that debate and a lot more of AI in the news. Plus, what's up with those Ray Ban meta glasses that he's wearing and how they may be spying on me right now? Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:20:00]

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MICHAELSON: A majority of Americans do not want artificial intelligence data centers built in their communities. A new Gallup survey finds seven in 10 Americans would oppose one in their area. Respondents cited concerns about environmental impact, rising utility bills, and higher cost of living. And that opposition crosses party lines with majorities of both Republicans and Democrats against those data centers.

International artificial intelligence expert Chris Mattmann joins us live now to discuss more on this topic. Chris is the inaugural Chief AI Officer at the University of California Los Angeles. Welcome, Chris. Good to see you.

CHRIS MATTMANN, INTERNATIONAL AI EXPERT: Thanks.

MICHAELSON: So let's first off just sort of break this down for people. What is a data center and why does it take up so much energy?

MATTMANN: Yeah, Elex. So artificial intelligence is what everyone is talking about today. Data centers, power one really significant part of artificial intelligence, which is the training. It's not using it. It's not talking to a large language model, but it's all the work that went into training it. It's the collecting of data and so on and so forth. The training, the teaching it, and all these iterative steps.

MICHAELSON: Training the computer --

MATTMANN: Training the computer --

MICHAELSON: -- training itself, right?

MATTMANN: The computer is training itself. And to do that, you need massive amounts of power. This is where you hear about Mark Zuckerberg talk about nuclear power, these little mini nuclear pods. This is where you talk -- you hear them talk about building these data centers underneath lakes for cooling because they use so much energy and power and so forth. And as you mentioned, this is a unifying, really proposal on both the left and the right. They are not happy about it for various reasons.

MICHAELSON: So this idea of not in my backyard when it comes to AI data center. So now there's an idea being floated, and we talked to Andrew Ross Sorkin last week, New York Times, CNBC, one of the sort of most tapped in people when it comes to finance. And he said this about where they might go.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW ROSS SORKIN, CNBC ANCHOR: There's an argument you 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 24-hour energy and cooling because you have the other side of this of -- 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: That was our conversation at the Milken Conference last week where there was a lot of conversation about AI. Is that a real thing? Is that a thing AI in space, data centers?

MATTMANN: You'll be happy about this, Elex. You and I and hopefully all your audience here in Southern California. That's a Southern California idea. That came out of a study over 15 years ago out of the Keck Institute for Space Science, the KISS Institute at Caltech, in which they were realizing, hey, could we have a cloud computing or Amazon data center to power a computation in space for all the reasons that Andrew mentioned?

Also, nowadays, besides really luminaries like Elon Musk and other people talking about this to power all of their artificial intelligence, you also have companies, even here in Southern California, like Sophia Space, that was a spinout of Mandala Ventures that came from JPL, in which they're actually talking about doing this. This is very possible, and they're talking about doing this.

MICHAELSON: Really? So this is a real thing?

MATTMANN: This is a real thing, Elex.

MICHAELSON: Yeah. And it also reminds us of the importance of the Space Force, which a lot of people mocked that idea of just the name of a Space Force. But in reality, the military would need to protect all this because you think of the vulnerability of all these data centers being up there, and if somebody were to attack those things, what that could do. And that's sort of a new moment in human history too, right?

MATTMANN: 100 percent, Elex. And besides defending these assets in space, we also have to manage space traffic management. It's crowded up there with Starlink and soon to be data centers.

MICHAELSON: Right. Wow. OK. AI is being talked about everywhere, including in politics now. And one example that's gone really viral, not only here in Southern California, but around the country is Spencer Pratt has been sharing out AI on his social media that his fans made. This is not something that Spencer himself made, but he has reposted some of these ads, including this one made where you see people Spencer's Batman and the people are throwing tomatoes at Democratic politicians here in Southern California. AI is impacting politics in a big way already.

MATTMANN: Elex, in 2024, we were talking about AI cloning presidential candidates' voices and copying it with three seconds. Now we're going to be talking about inciting people to vote one way or another in indiscernible assets and looking at that. We don't know if Karen Bass actually was the joker. It looks so real. She wasn't. She was on your program. AI is indiscernible.

MICHAELSON: And not happy about it and a little bit concerned about it.

[01:25:00]

And real quickly, you're wearing these Meta Ray Ban glasses. What are they about to do?

MATTMANN: These glasses provide AI inside of the glasses. I can hear you, Elex, and see your captions on the screen. If you've seen Iron Man and Tony Stark, these are his glasses.

MICHAELSON: So basically and live translation too. So you could get subtitles if somebody's speaking a different language in front of you, which is wild. Chris Mattmann, the man in the know. Thank you so much for sharing all that with us, and hopefully, don't take too many creepy pictures of me with those glasses.

MATTMANN: I'll make you.

MICHAELSON: I'll be right now. Have a great weekend. Great to see you, and thank you for watching "The Story Is." For our international viewers, Marketplace Africa is next. For our viewers in North America, I'll be right back with more including a moving story about ALS awareness month. Stay with us.

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[01:30:00]

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MICHAELSON: May is ALS awareness month, a time to raise the profile of those living with ALS known to many as Lou Gehrig's disease. It is a motor neuron disease that leads to paralysis. CDC estimates that around 5,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with ALS every year. Actor Russell Andrews, known for his roles on Better Call Saul and HBO's Insecure, is here to make an announcement publicly for the first time. Russell joins us here live in studio along with Erica Tazel, who is his fiancee, who is also an actor.

Good to see both of you. Thank you for being here.

RUSSELL ANDREWS, ACTOR: Thank you for having us.

ERICA TAZEL, FIANCEE & CAREGIVER OF RUSSELL ANDREWS: Thank you for having us.

MICHAELSON: Russell, you've never said this publicly. What is your announcement?

ANDREWS: I am a person living with ALS. I was diagnosed in the late fall of last year, and it's been humbling. But there's, Elex, there's also something in the fact that I walked into a family, a very caring people, people I did not know a year ago. And it the cliche family, but they have not let us miss a step in terms of care, the attention, the awareness, and the ability to get me here today. Yeah.

MICHAELSON: Talk to us about, sort of the symptoms and what made you think something was off.

ANDREWS: I thought I had a stroke during COVID. It was a stressful time. We didn't work for three years about. And then we had the back- to-back strike. And so a lot was going on. My kids were home from New York, and they were doing school online, college. And there were moments, there were twitches, there were things that I thought I was having pinched nerves. In my neck, and they were quite frequent. But then I was not able to do things that I normally do. I was dropping cups and glasses.

And at night, it felt like things were running up and down my arm at different times. And it was the nerves. I played football well into college. And it appears that maybe CT may be a source of this. We won't know. Of course, you don't know until everything's said and done. They can study the brain. But those were signs that were missed. And because I wasn't working for about three years, I lost my insurance.

MICHAELSON: Oh, wow.

ANDREWS: Right. But soon as we came out of COVID, work picked up back- to-back, and I was able to get back. First thing I went is, first place -- forgive me, I went to Cedars just on the whim because she had been part of Cedars. I went and within 15 minutes, the primary care said she would like me to see a neurologist. One thing led to another. Here we sit.

MICHAELSON: And Cedars-Sinai, of course, is one of the top hospitals here in Southern California. How did you process that news?

TAZEL: The processing is in process. I -- when he originally shared with me, I say I was uncharacteristically calm. And in a way, it was an answer to a lot of questions that we had. There were certain, like, he said, there were certain things that we started to see that were different. For example, it took him longer to clean the pool, for example, the way he walked, there was just a subtle little things like that. And I had questions. I was like, something is definitely wrong. And so with this, we now know what it was.

MICHAELSON: And that family that you're now a part of is in part the ALS network. I've been volunteering with them and hosting events for them for over 15 years. They are incredible.

ANDREWS: Absolutely.

MICHAELSON: And you just went to Washington to meet with lawmakers to advocate in this space. What did you say?

ANDREWS: We were able to speak with the staff of our Congress people.

[01:35:00]

I think the most important thing that came from it for me was the fact that, like tonight, I was able to walk into the studio, which is a plus. I saw others who could not. In the halls of Congress, if you will, I saw the magnitude of what the possibilities can be on either side of the aisle. I also found that there are ears, there are hearts that listen, and we need them. And the fact that they invited us was not -- it was not a passing thought. They are concerned. Again, this affects people on both sides of the aisle.

MICHAELSON: All right. And research money is so desperately needed.

ANDREWS: Oh, my god. Yes.

MICHAELSON: And, obviously, nobody could fund it quite like Congress, which has a bigger budget than anybody. And I'm curious for you Erica, what this journey so far and the journey ahead has taught you about love.

TAZEL: That there are cases where it is truly unconditional. I will share this personal tidbit. When he shared the news with me, again, there was not a sigh of relief, but some understanding of what was happening. And I looked at him across the room, and I said, at least now we know what it is, and I still want to be your wife.

MICHAELSON: And what has this taught you about love? And what does her being there for you mean to you?

ANDREWS: It's again, it's so easy to say the obvious, but we have friends all over, right? No one was surprised by her response. No one, right, as much as me. And we had discussed briefly that things are going to change, and we see it coming. And it was not an offer or an ultimatum that if you feel that you have to, I respect that. It was never a question. And I respect that. And I've had the support of some other friends who reminded me how fortunate I am.

MICHAELSON: Yes, indeed.

ANDREWS: Yes. And so, she's been embraced by the ALS network, as have I -- my children. And, again, to be able to be, to speak, to say this out loud, this thing that is new, that has visited us now, it's OK. It's OK. And I think we're going to be OK. I hope that moving forward, what we do and what we say, the next guest, the next time they come to you and they say, Elex, we have a cure. And that's why we're here.

MICHAELSON: I'll leave it there. Russell, Erica, thank you.

TAZEL: Thank you.

MICHAELSON: Thank you for your bravery of speaking out, and thank you for an example of what love is all about.

ANDREWS: You're so welcome. Thank you for having me.

MICHAELSON: And for people that want to connect, check out the ALS network online for resources. And if you want to consider donating, I'm sure they would appreciate that as well. We'll be back with more of "The Story Is."

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[01:40:00]

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MICHAELSON: Let's talk sports. Americans Alex Smalley and Maverick McNealy sit atop the leaderboard at the PGA Championship heading into the weekend. CNN's Patrick Snell recaps the second round action from Newton Square, Pennsylvania.

PATRICK SNELL, CNN WORLD SPORT: Over the last decade, American names have well and truly dominated the PGA championship. But now through the first two rounds here, two more names lead the way. Two players at four under par, Alex Smalley and Maverick McNealy, two players with no major titles and just one tour title between them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAVERICK MCNEALY, PRO GOLFER: This is obviously new territory for me, but I'm confident that it's going to go into the experience bank. And good or bad, I'm going to learn a lot from it. And really excited to test my game in ways that hasn't been tested before. And, like, I think this is the next step for me as a professional is, competing and playing well in this type of tournament.

ALEX SMALLEY, PRO GOLFER: I know I'm a good player that can compete out here on the PGA tour, but having some finishes that have been able to back up that success the last maybe two or three weeks has allowed me to kind of realize like, oh, OK. Well, I don't even, I can't just compete out here. I can compete for a title.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNELL: While in 14 out of the last 15 PGA championships, the eventual winner came from the top seven and ties through the first two rounds. And if that trend does hold up, it's highly likely we could well get another first time major winner come Sunday evening. And with that, it's back to you.

MICHAELSON: Thanks, Patrick. The Iceman album has finally dropped with a few surprises and lots of shade as Drake claps back at people he's been beefing with. Just ahead, Emmy award winning journalist Segun Oduolowu, joins us to shed some light on the shade and some other big entertainment news. Maybe he'll start his own beef coming up on "The Story Is."

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[01:45:00]

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MICHAELSON: Canadian rapper Drake has just dropped his highly anticipated album with a couple surprises. Drake held a livestream event late Thursday to unveil the Iceman album with the cover showing only a hand wearing a sequined glove. Then at the end of the livestream, Drake revealed two new surprise albums, Maid of Honour featuring an image of his mother and Habibti showing a photo of a woman covered in masking tape except for her eyes. These are Drake's first solo record since his 2024 feud with rapper Kendrick Lamar whose diss track about Drake Not Like Us, won five Grammys and was performed at the Super Bowl halftime show.

Emmy award winning journalist Segun Oduolowu were here to break down Drake's album and other entertainment news. All right. So the big news of this is there's a lot of disrespect.

SEGUN ODUOLOWU, EMMY AWARD WINNING JOURNALIST: There's disrespect everywhere, Elex.

MICHAELSON: Who are some of the biggest disses on this whole thing?

ODUOLOWU: Well, he takes some shots at Kendrick, which are veiled and subliminal, but he really says DJ Khaled by name and ties him into what was going on in The Middle East saying that Khaled, who is Palestinian hasn't spoken up and needs to, but jumped on the side of the people who were against him, and he didn't like that. OK. Fine. Cool. But then he also talks about LeBron James. LeBron James is not a rapper.

[01:50:00]

Why are you talking about LeBron James?

MICHAELSON: Well, he's mad at LeBron James, because LeBron James supported Kendrick Lamar.

ODUOLOWU: Kendrick Lamar, right.

MICHAELSON: Even though in the past, Drake and him had been friends and even had a tattoo on his arm about LeBron James.

ODUOLOWU: This is some sad boy rapping. If you are a fan of Drake, I worry for you because these are three albums, to quote Rick Ross, that are mid at best.

MICHAELSON: Really?

ODUOLOWU: No.

MICHAELSON: It's not so, this is not good. The music is good.

ODUOLOWU: The music doesn't take you anywhere. Like, even the --

MICHAELSON: Some of his old stuff is really good.

ODUOLOWU: Listen, I will not come on here and not say that Drake is an incredible artist. You do not get to the level of who he is and what he's accomplished without being talented. This display of three albums is not a display of his incredible talent. They are -- he's rehashing beefs in a way that nobody cares. The pick a fight with a rapper like you did with Kendrick, and then you get bodied like you did. And I want everyone to go back and look at the Grammys when Kendrick won. It is a room full of artists that are singing a diss track to one of the biggest artists. That's where the fight should be. Drake should be fighting the entire industry, not the LeBron James who don't rap, not the Joe Budden's who have podcasts. Go fight the Taylor Swifts and everybody else in the room at the Grammys that we're singing along with Kendrick Lamar.

MICHAELSON: Although LeBron does like to do rap lyrics on his Instagram sometimes, and he seems to have them all memorized.

ODUOLOWU: When he drops an album, I'll be there.

MICHAELSON: OK. Why this three album thing? There's a story behind this.

ODUOLOWU: So the three album thing people are speculating is this is a smart businessman, which Drake has always been, and this is a way for him to get out of his current record deal. That's what people are saying. Three individual albums, which finishes his UMG contract, which are now could allow him to drop independently, which Kendrick has done. Kendrick has left his own and is now on his own independent label. The fight that Drake is having and even says it in one of his raps, I'm not battling a rapper. I'm battling the man, like, I'm battling a record label. And this is a way of maybe getting out of the contract. We'll see.

MICHAELSON: Pretty smart. So you had to do three more albums. So let's do them all at one time.

ODUOLOWU: Yeah, all at one time.

MICHAELSON: Here it all is. We're done.

ODUOLOWU: How did Drake the businessman?

MICHAELSON: Speaking of halftime shows, we found out that there's going to be a FIFA World Cup halftime show for the first time ever in the final, which is happening in New York or New Jersey. Madonna --

ODUOLOWU: Yeah.

MICHAELSON: Shakira and BTS, three people you would or three groups you would never put together.

ODUOLOWU: Yeah. Look not only would we never think of them to be on stage together, I don't know how Madonna factors into soccer. I don't, I don't, I don't get that. Madonna's a global star. No question. BTS as global stars. No question. Shakira, global star.

MICHAELSON: Come on. It doesn't really matter if they're connected. I mean, how many people at the super well, halftime show? You don't have to think of Bad Bunny as a football player.

ODUOLOWU: No. But --

MICHAELSON: Just wasn't a football player. He did that halftime show. Absolutely.

ODUOLOWU: But they are also pop stars in an American audience. BTS, Shakira, and Madonna, when you think of synergy for a world audience, if I'm flying in from all parts of the world, Madonna, BTS, and Shakira aren't necessarily going to move me for soccer. I can't rethink of the last Madonna track that had anything to do with the soccer. Scoring? Yes. Madonna all the time.

MICHAELSON: But I don't know if that really matters if it's connected to soccer. It'll be interesting, though, because you think about this. This is the biggest stage in the world, bigger than the Super Bowl. And the fact that they're now doing a halftime show is interesting how many eyeballs are going to be on it.

ODUOLOWU: I would want current stars. That's all. I just would want stars with music. I know Madonna's dropped in New England.

MICHAELSON: Is pretty current a huge.

ODUOLOWU: They are, but will all of the songs be in English, or will it be in Korea?

MICHAELSON: Does it matter? That's be going out all around the world.

ODUOLOWU: It does matter to a certain extent because this is a show at the end of the day. So let the show be great, and I can't say that a BTS show is going to work for all of the soccer fans. Shakira does have a background with the World Cup and soccer.

MICHAELSON: Maybe it expands their base.

ODUOLOWU: Who knows?

MICHAELSON: OK. There are auditions going on right now for James Bond. They publicly announced that they're doing auditions. Amazon, MGM now in control of this franchise. We can talk about some of the names that are being talked about. The bookmaker odds, Callum Turner, Harris Dickinson, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jacob Elordi, Henry Cavill, Theo James, who, of course, was in White Lotus Season 2. Henry Cavill was Superman before. Who do you like?

ODUOLOWU: Well, the last two you can just get rid of, Henry Cavill and Theo James. They are too old by what is being said by the casting.

MICHAELSON: They are early 40s.

ODUOLOWU: They're in their early 40s.

MICHAELSON: Elex, with your hair and your looks right now, you should be on that list.

ODUOLOWU: I'm younger than them. We're not going to talk about Elex's age. We're just going to talk about how good Elex looks and that he could be doing this. No. Right there are rules right now for the bond. They want him to be a young actor, preferably in late 20s to early 30s because it's a 10 to 20-year commitment to be the next James Bond. [01:55:00]

They will do a series of movies. You will have to turn down parts. They would really love Jacob Elordi because he brings all of the young fans. He is, like, as hot as fish grease right now with salt burn and Wuthering Heights and Euphoria. But at the same time, he's a known commodity. And Nina Gold, who is the incredible Casting Director who is a star maker. She cast Game of Thrones and gave us Kit Harington when we never heard of him, and Emilia Clarke when we didn't know who she was, and then she became Khaleesi.

She, I think, would rather a lesser named actor that they can build with the franchise. It will be interesting. The leader in the clubhouse, a lot of people are saying it's Callum.

MICHAELSON: Callum Turner.

ODUOLOWU: Callum Turner.

MICHAELSON: Who is also winning at life because Dua Lipa.

ODUOLOWU: Yeah. That doesn't hurt either. If you know if you can bag Bond and Dua Lipa, you're the most --

MICHAELSON: Did not stirred, baby.

ODUOLOWU: Most deserving amongst men.

MICHAELSON: That guy is winning, as Charlie Sheen used to say.

ODUOLOWU: Tiger blood winning.

MICHAELSON: Thank you so much. Great to see you, Segun. Have a great weekend. Thank you all for watching "The Story Is." I'm Elex Michaelson. We'll see you back here on Monday.

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