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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson
Trump Meets With NATL. Security Officials To Discuss Iran; Rubio Arrives In India To Discuss Energy, Rade & Defense; Tulsi Gabbard Resigning As Director Of National Intelligence; Trump - The War With Iran Will Be Over With Soon; Aired 12-1a ET
Aired May 23, 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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ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN HOST: "The Story Is" weighing next step with Iran.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We'll have that over with soon.
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MICHAELSON: President Trump meets with national security officials to decide whether or not to strike. With us, CNN's National Security Analyst, Alex Plitsas.
"The Story Is" another member departure, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard leaving to stand by her sick husband. In my panel, Areva Martin and John Kobylt here to discuss that and more.
And "The Story Is" focusing on the fans. Spotify says it will reserve concert tickets for some artists top listeners, and even will let fans create song remixes and design cover art.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Los Angeles, "The Story Is" with Elex Michaelson.
MICHAELSON: And welcome to the weekend. Our top story is the war with Iran. President Trump met with top national security officials on Friday to weigh his next steps. He's been presented with options to restart military action or let diplomacy continue grinding ahead. Source says the meeting ended without a decision, but Trump is still confident the war will end soon.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: They're not going to ever have a nuclear weapon. They're never going to have a nuclear weapon. And we'll have that over with soon. It'll be over with soon.
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MICHAELSON: Delegations from Pakistan and Qatar are now in Tehran in hopes of ending the conflict. Iran's foreign ministry says it will take further negotiations because the two sides are "Not close to reaching a deal." And as all this unfolds, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in India for a mix of political and cultural events. He was just meeting with NATO foreign ministers in Sweden where he reiterated that some progress has been made on a peace deal but did not offer any further details. All this as President Trump grapples with the Iran war. Another one of his cabinet members has announced her departure.
Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, says she is resigning at the end of June. In a letter to the President, Gabbard says she needs to be by her husband's side after he was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer. President Trump says Gabbard's deputy, Aaron Lukas will step in as Acting Intelligence Chief. He also praised Gabbard on social media writing, "Tulsi has done an incredible job and we will miss her." Those comments come despite Gabbard's often contradictory messaging while in office. Remarks on Venezuela and Iran sometimes put her at odds with the White House.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tulsi Gabbard testified in March that the intelligence community said Iran wasn't building a nuclear weapon?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I don't care what she said. I think they were very close to having one.
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MICHAELSON: Remember, that's the person he put in charge of intelligence. We are joined now by CNN National Security Analyst, Alex Plitsas. He's a former Pentagon official and U.S. Army Special Operations Veteran. Come a Friday night tradition around here to go to one of the smartest guys in this space. Alex, welcome back to "The Story Is."
ALEX PLITSAS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Thanks for having me.
MICHAELSON: So the big question is Iran. We have been together on several Friday nights when the President has launched military activity both in Iran and Venezuela. It happened around this time. What's going on with Iran? Is he close to launching, military action?
PLITSAS: I think the President's patience are wearing thin at this point. We're at the tail end of a diplomatic effort in which the United States is working through partners through the Qataris and through the Pakistanis to try to get a framework together in which the United States will then engage in more substantive discussions largely around a few areas that are left that we need to work out a deal on, and that would be the remaining nuclear material, the highly enriched uranium that's present as well as opening the Strait of Hormuz permanently.
So at this point, it's about potentially ending the war in the short term, getting a ceasefire, and then opening up the Strait of Hormuz to then facilitate those discussions. But from what we're hearing, the Iranians are still digging in their heels on a couple of those positions, and there hasn't been enough movement. And the President is concerned at this point. So if that doesn't come to fruition, there's a very good chance additional military action could be taken.
MICHAELSON: Yeah. I mean, Secretary Rubio has been talking about that talks were progressing, but is there any evidence that Iran has any interest in ever giving up nuclear power?
PLITSAS: So they've moved a little bit in the discussions. There's been some talk about, moratorium on enrichment given some time, and that's to enrich uranium in the future. There were discussions about the need to give up their 440 kilograms of highly enriched uranium at about 60 percent. That's been a sticking point, which quite frankly has been problematic for the president.
And then there was a discussion that the Iranians still wanted to be able to toll the Strait of Hormuz and be able to control access to it, which they didn't before the war began and is at odds with the principle of freedom of navigation of the seas. President made quite clear he's not going to allow that to happen. So the question is, is there room for negotiation on those over the course of say a month if there was to be a ceasefire to allow those discussions to take place.
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So, the Pakistanis and the Qataris are on the ground, attempting to push the Iranians into a position where they'll have that discussion meaningfully with the United States. I think the President is waiting for a firm sign that that is in fact going to take place.
MICHAELSON: The other thing we've been wondering about in terms of military activity is Cuba. Do you expect any movement there? What are you hearing in terms of Cuba?
PLITSAS: So from what I'm hearing, CIA Director Ratcliffe went down to Cuba. There were some reporting that he had taken some other senior members of CIA staff with him. And from what I'm told, according to multiple sources, that was to deliver an ultimatum to the Cuban government there, really to get on board within a timeline where that action would be sort of taken afterwards.
What was interesting is that there was then leaks on the back end of that trip that the President there -- the former President -- excuse me, Raul Castro, was going to then be indicted by the United States for his role in the shoot down of an aircraft in which U.S. citizens were attempting to come back and help family members that were inside Cuba just given the conditions on the ground, in which several were killed afterwards. So at one hand, you've got CIA Director Ratcliffe attempting to negotiate with Raulito, the grandson and that faction of the family.
And then at the same time, the grandfather, as you see him there on the right on the screen, is potentially under indictment, which sets up a very similar scenario to what we saw with Venezuelan President Maduro in which he was indicted, and the United States military was actually providing support to the Department of Justice for executing an extradition warrant, which could very well be the same case here if the Cubans don't get in line. I think that was a very clear message.
MICHAELSON: Well, you talked about the CIA Director. The CIA Director technically reports to the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, who is now leaving that role. First off, sending love to Tulsi and her husband. I've met them both several times. He seems like a great guy, and it's horrible what he's going through. But in terms of her role within the administration, what have you been hearing in terms of how this has worked with her? Because she, for years, publicly blasted the idea of ever going to war with Iran, saying it would be a mistake. Has she had much of a role in terms of the administration, and how does her leaving change the calculus when it comes to something like the war with Iran?
PLITSAS: So there's an ever dwindling inner circle of folks who really took staunch anti-war stances on a number of issues, whether that be Iran or others. And so that really leaves the few folks that were supporting Vice President Vance. So you had Joe Kent, who's the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center. You had Tulsi Gabbard who were amongst those staunch voices. And now she's going to be departing the administration in that sense. So it leaves the Vice President a little bit more isolated in that sense, but he also has a pretty firm voice within the administration.
So she was listened to, but at the end of the day, the President made his own decisions and determined that he was going to move forward. And she was part of the opposition in some cases to actions that he decided to take. And, obviously, we've seen a lot of reporting, as you mentioned earlier, that as a result of that she may not have been in the inner circle for some subsequent decision making.
So we'll see if her deputy is going to be any different in that sense, but the President really relies on loyalty and personal relationships in his decision making and trust in individual. So I think it'll really be a question of who hops in that role next. Where she was super important is on Havana syndrome or AHI speaking of Cuba, in which the directed energy weapons for which the U.S. actually procured one that they were able to get that was essentially used against U.S. intelligence officers really began with a relationship between the Cubans and potentially the Russians inside Havana.
So she's sitting on a report and a subsequent letter of findings that we're hopefully going to see released before she leaves office that's been held up for months.
MICHAELSON: Alex Plitsas getting us caught up on lots of different stories that are breaking around the world. Our National Security Analyst, thank you so much, Alex. Have a great weekend, and let's hope we don't have to call on you, which means that we do not see more escalating conflicts. Thank you so much.
PLITSAS: You too. Thank you.
MICHAELSON: So we just talked about Cuba. The streets around the U.S. embassy in Havana were packed on Friday. Thousands gathering to demonstrate against the decision to indict Cuba's former President in connection with the downing of those two civilian planes three decades ago. The early morning protest came amid an ongoing embargo, months of escalating tensions with the U.S. CNN's Patrick Oppmann was there.
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PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN HAVANA BUREAU CHIEF: So the location for this demonstration that the Cuban government has put on could not be more telling. We're in front of the U.S. embassy in Havana. We've heard officials outraged that Raul Castro is now facing federal charges in a Miami courtroom. They say they will never turn him over, that he's not going anywhere. You hear people who are supporters of the government, of course, come out here that Raul Castro was like a family member to them. They say he's like a grandfather.
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MARIELA CASTRO, RAUL CASTRO'S DAUGHTER (translated): No one will capture him, I can assure you. Not him, not anyone. Here, we are ready to fight imperialism. We are a small poor country, but with combat experience against the U.S. imperialism.
OPPMANN: Of course, this is very, very serious. The Trump administration is raising the stakes here by charging Raul Castro. There are Cubans you talked to say they're very concerned that the next step could be some sort of military attack like we saw in Venezuela, that now the U.S. has some kind of legal veneer to take action against Cuba. And that would be incredibly disruptive for an island where the electricity is now off most of the time, most days.
And so people are suffering under the consequences of their government's economic mischoices and the energy blockade that the U.S. has put on this island. So increasingly, despite the government's defiance in the face of U.S. action, you do hear Cubans who say they're worried that we're not getting any closer to a deal between Cuba and the U.S., and the next step could be some kind of military intervention. Patrick Oppmann, CNN, Havana.
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MICHAELSON: Patrick, thank you. The Pentagon has released a second batch of declassified documents related to UFOs or as the government calls them, unidentified aerial phenomenon or UAPs. The documents include lists of alleged sightings as well as military reports. This latest batch of documents also features video material requested by members of Congress. The U.S. military says one of the videos was likely captured by an infrared sensor. The video appears to show several unidentified objects moving across the field of view before another object moves in rapidly from the left. The release of the documents, which by the way is coming late at night on a Friday going into a holiday weekend, is part of a broader initiative that President Trump ordered earlier this year.
This Memorial Day weekend, a big travel holiday in the U.S., but it is going to cost people a lot more this year. 39 million Americans expected to hit the roads for holiday visits this weekend. Sky high gasoline prices nationwide average $4.55 a gallon according to AAA. In California, right here, gas costs $6.13. If you're joining from a different state, be grateful for that. Prices aren't the only issue. At New York's busy LaGuardia airport, a sinkhole opened days ago, shutting down a runway still forcing flight delays. And the millions of people who are flying could be hit hard by some severe weather thunderstorms threaten most of the Eastern U.S. That will affect some of the busiest airports including Atlanta and Orlando. Even those who stay home and barbecue may get drenched by those storms.
Some sad news in the world of hip-hop. It takes two rapper Rob Base, who'll bring the music style mainstream, has died at 59 after a battle with cancer. Base was half of the Harlem hip-hop duo Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock. Real name Robert Ginyard, he was best known for the 1988 chart topper It Takes Two. A statement on Instagram announcing his death said Rob's music, energy, and legacy helped shape a generation and brought joy to millions around the world.
When we come back, our panel is here to break down Tulsi Gabbard's departure, plus Spencer Pratt versus Karen Bass. It's about to get feisty. Stay with us.
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MICHAELSON: Welcome back to "The Story Is." I'm Elex Michaelson. Let's take a look at today's top stories. President Trump met with national security officials Friday to discuss a path forward on the war with Iran. Trump routinely holds these sessions, but this one comes as he weighs whether to let diplomacy efforts continue. He's been frustrated with the pace of talks and has been presented with options for restarting military action.
Immigrants in the U.S. who want an American green card will now have to leave the U.S. to apply for one. The Trump administration now requires people seeking the residency visas to return to their home countries to apply. That could affect hundreds of thousands of people who have to leave jobs, families, and communities for months while their case is processed.
U.S. Director of National Intelligence is resigning. Tulsi Gabbard made the announcement earlier saying she'll step away from the role at the end of June. Gabbard told President Trump in a letter that her husband was diagnosed with cancer. She says she wants to, "Fully support him through this battle."
Let's talk about all those stories and more with our panel. Attorney, author, activism advocate Areva Martin and John Kobylt, host of the John Kobylt show on KFI AM in Los Angeles, available everywhere as a podcast via iHeartRadio. Welcome back to both of you. Good to see you.
JOHN KOBYLT, HOST, THE JOHN KOBYLT SHOW: Thanks for having us.
MICHAELSON: Areva, Tulsi Gabbard, we're thinking about her family.
AREVA MARTIN, ATTORNEY & LEGAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Yes. MICHAELSON: But what do you make of her time as DNI?
MARTIN: Well, we know that she says her husband is ill, has been diagnosed with cancer, and that's her reason for stepping away from resigning. But the reality is we know she has been at war, no pun intended, with the Trump administration. She came into this administration as an anti-war advocate. Trump puts this country into war, and it put her at odds with the Trump administration, particularly the CIA. And we noted that dispute between, Gabbard and the Trump administration has spilled out into the public.
And you don't last long in the Trump orbit if you disagree with him or if you're not sufficiently deferential. And at this point, Gabbard is in a disagreement with Trump over this war in Iran. So no surprise. She's a fourth cabinet member to resign.
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Parenthetically, most of them females. So not surprised by her departure because she is no longer aligned with the President, and that's a formula for failure with this administration. He doesn't want confidence.
MICHAELSON: Yeah.
MARTIN: He wants loyalty.
MICHAELSON: Her social media full of posts saying, don't go to war with Iran, which happened before she was in that job.
MARTIN: Yes.
MICHAELSON: Clearly, this is something she's been talking about for a long time. John?
KOBYLT: It's inevitable if you're at odds with the President. Now, I don't know. I probably think it really is her husband's medical situation. Otherwise, she could have left months ago, and she didn't. But this is going to happen. You're not going to get everybody in a cabinet on board with you, especially something like a war. You go to a war, and Trump was against all wars. He was pretty consistent on that for a lot of years and the cabinet members generally are of the same ilk. So to suddenly do one, and I understand why he did it because the nuclear weapon is really scary for Iran to hive.
But now, like all the wars we've had in this century, you get stuck, and they don't know how to get out. That's what happened in Iraq and in Afghanistan.
MICHAELSON: And that's something that that Tulsi Gabbard has been warning about for a long time. It's a big reason why she joined the campaign in the first place because she thought that he would be the most anti-war. And a lot of folks --
MARTIN: Let's note this too, Elex, that she says there was no imminent threat with respect to Iran in nuclear arm. So there's even not consensus in the Trump administration about whether there was a real threat that necessitated this war.
MICHAELSON: Which is important because she's in charge of looking at the intelligence.
MARTIN: Yes, that's her job.
MICHAELSON: Literally her job, and that's what he put her to do. Now this war is not popular. Overall, popularity, was it the right or wrong thing to do? Put this up on the screen. 30 percent of people say it was the right thing. 64 percent of people say it was the wrong decision. That's all respondents. Now let's look at independence, which is so important for winning elections. Look at this. 21 percent say right decision. 73 percent, John, say the wrong decision. That is not good if you're President Trump, and not good if you're the Republican Party heading into the midterms.
KOBYLT: Well, if the gas prices were $2 less, you might have different numbers. That's what they might be responding to. Secondly, how does anybody know how close Iran was to the nuclear weapon? There's a lot we don't know.
MICHAELSON: Well, that was Tulsi Gabbard's job.
KOBYLT: Right. Right. I know that. But it seems like --
MICHAELSON: She might have a better sense than the rest of us.
KOBYLT: Yeah, but I'm talking about the administration too. It seemed like there were a lot of people that disagreed with her. So I have no idea how close they were. If they were close, then it was the right move to do no matter what the gas price is and no matter what anybody thinks, it's the right thing to do. Now if that was wildly exaggerated for Trump's own personal reasons, then no, that's a bad thing to do.
If the gas prices keep going on like this for the rest of the year, then he might lose all of congress.
MICHAELSON: Yeah.
KOBYLT: So he's -- I kept expecting him to just declare victory and go home because we did annihilate much of their military force. And if we're going to keep banging away for every last thing, I don't think that's going to play out.
MICHAELSON: Well, instead of four to six week war, we're now three months in.
MARTIN: We're three months in, and there's no end in sight. That's the problem here, is that there is no end in sight. He keeps telling us that we won. He keeps declaring victory, but yet we keep seeing this military action, by Donald Trump. And he's gotten us into a war that he can't get us out of. He did not get support from Congress for this war, which according to the War Act, he should have done so. And we've seen Congress just totally abdicate its responsibility with regards to controlling, this war, and we are suffering as a result. I live in Los Angeles, and the gas prices are astronomical. Traveling is astronomical. So the American people are paying the price for this war. And we, quite frankly, as your numbers just show, we don't support this war.
MICHAELSON: Yeah.
MARTIN: So I hope that voters going to the polls in the midterms make the Republicans pay a heavy price for what Donald Trump has done.
MICHAELSON: Well, and especially this Memorial Day weekend, so many people are going in their cars or flying, and airline tickets are up because of this as well and the jet fuel. Let's talk about the race for LA mayor. This week here on "The Story Is," we've done extensive profiles on Karen Bass, the incumbent mayor Spencer Pratt, our challenger Nithya Raman, who's also challenging Karen Bass. All of those at youtube.com/elexmichaelson. People can watch the full discussions.
I know you've watched them. John, you are a fan of Spencer Pratt, who's also been on your show.
KOBYLT: Yes. Yes.
MICHAELSON: What is the affirmative case for Spencer Pratt? Then I'll let you make the case for your choice the Karen Bass?
KOBYLT: The affirmative case is what he's saying about Los Angeles, he's completely right on. He's telling the truth. It's exactly what I see. For me and my family, living in LA right now is intolerable.
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I am personally so fed up with the homelessness. I don't want to see one more guy. My wife took our dog to the vet, she gets out of the car and there's a guy at her rear tire defecating right in front of her. She calls me up in a panic. This is not a one-time thing. Somebody has done that in front of her 3 times and we live in a nice part of town. It's impossible to deal with And everybody I know is fed up, sick of it, and they're talking about at least part time getting out of here because we're getting taxed to hell, and this is what we get. We get crazy people running all over the place. We got chased by a guy on San Vicente Boulevard who's waving some kind of pipe in the air and he's running after our car. I mean, this is just unbelievable.
MICHAELSON: Areva?
MARTIN: You know what bothers me about what you just said, John? A lot of people like you, they don't want to see homelessness solved. They just don't want to see homeless people.
KOBYLT: Right.
MARTIN: And you said you live in a nice part of town, that's what we keep hearing.
KOBYLT: In our next up where we signed up for. MARTIN: No, but folks who live in a nice part of town, they don't care about the folks who are living on the streets. They care about not seeing those people. That's really troubling to me. 30 percent to 40 percent of those people on the street are African Americans, people of color. So we have these --
MICHAELSON: What does that got to do with it?
MARTIN: It has a whole lot to do with.
KOBYLT: No, it doesn't.
MARTIN: It absolutely positively done.
KOBYLT: Absolutely doesn't.
MARTIN: Absolutely does, John. I met --
KOBYLT: Most people are not homeless.
MICHAELSON: John let her have it, it's her time.
KOBYLT: What's most people black people has nothing to do with their color.
MARTIN: Absolutely. It has something to do with them.
MICHAELSON: John, let's -- let her everybody have their term.
MARTIN: Absolutely it has something to do with it.
KOBYLT: No way.
MARTIN: 30 percent to 40 percent of those people on the street are African American or people of color, and white people consistently say just what you said. We don't want to see homeless people on the street. You never said you wanted to solve the problem.
KOBYLT: I don't want to see white homeless on a street.
MARTIN: Here's the deal with Spencer Pratt. He's never run anything, and particularly not a large complex city like the city of Los Angeles. He's a hustler. And if anything, he's a content creator. He's creating a reality show following him, his journey to run for mayor. Mayor Bass has reduced homelessness. She's reduced homelessness. She's reduced --
KOBYLT: No, she has not.
MICHAELSON: Statistically she has.
MARTIN: You don't care about fact John.
KOBYLT: I do care about fact.
MARTIN: You absolutely do not care about -- John. KOBYLT: We can go on a drive together and you could see all the facts --
MARTIN: John, close the mouth. This is why Spencer Pratt is even given oxygen because loud mouth people like John don't want to hear the facts, don't want to deal with the reality. Mayor Bass has a record that is proven, is indisputable. She has reduced homelessness in the city of Los Angeles. She's reduced homelessness. She has built housing. She's made affordability a part of her platform, and she's made progress. She's been a former U.S. congresswoman. She has been a sweetheart.
KOBYLT: Let's go on a ride together.
MARTIN: John, john you don't want to talk back John. All you want to do is shout.
MICHAELSON: The official homeless count.
MARTIN: Thank you.
KOBYLT: Yes.
MICHAELSON: Which you could say is flown and the way they do it, but you basically walk around and try to count all those people. That official account does how that homelessness has dropped. Now the after fact, let me talk, John.
KOBYLT: -- had an alternate. Hollywood and Venice and Skid Row, they did it, and they said there's about the same amount of people. They're not in tents anymore. They're living rough.
MICHAELSON: Don't believe it.
KOBYLT: They're living they're just not in the tent, but they're living on the sidewalk.
MICHAELSON: Right. We want to go one at a time.
MARTIN: We got to digest running on one issue. And the issue is the fires in the Pacific Palaces.
MICHAELSON: It's not the only issue he's running.
KOBYLT: No, he's not.
MARTIN: That's the majority of what he's talking about. Why are you here. You not being respectful. I was very respectful for you. Can you show some respect for me. That's all I am asking you to do. I let you talk, I did not interrupt you. Can you please show me the same respect.
KOBYLT: Well I don't like that you --
MARTIN: Well, I don't care that you don't like. I don't like what you do. MICHAELSON: All right guys. This is all about respect. We like to create a respectful. Areva, let me ask you a question. So, on the homelessness issue, though, and there is no doubt that the numbers are down.
MARTIN: Yes, absolutely.
MICHAELSON: But there is also the perspective that Mayor Bass had promised that she would get street homelessness to zero percent by 2026. She promised that in 2023 to Jake Tapper. She talked about that out on the campaign trail. We're nowhere close to that. What do you say to people who say that she has not hit what she promised?
MARTIN: I say that this is a very complex problem. She did not create it. You cannot solve a problem that is this complex in one four year term. You have a record of someone she's been a U.S. congresswoman. She's been the speaker of the house of the state legislators, the largest state legislature in this country. She has a proven track record. You are running against a reality star, a reality star that has never run anything close to as complex as the city of Los Angeles.
She has the endorsement from every U.S. senator, the two U.S. senators in the state of California. Pretty much every City Council Member in the city of Los Angeles, major labor unions. The people of Los Angeles are in favor of returning Karen Bass to the mayor's job so that she can complete the work that she has started.
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Spencer Pratt is running in a very far behind second. No doubt about it.
KOBYLT: 8 points.
MARTIN: Karen Bass is going to be the Mayor of Los Angeles. Non-stop.
MICHAELSON: The Polls we have seen indicate Karen Bass is ahead. The question, John, is there sort of a silent majority? What Donald Trump was able to do. Was able to bring people to that were not being counted or who had not voted, and is he going to be able to do that?
KOBYLT: Well, she's at 30 percent after being the Mayor for almost four years. That means 70 percent at the moment do not want to vote for her again, because we all have eyes. We can see what's happened. Yeah. You can't just dismiss the -- even if it was just the Palisades fire he was running on, that was the most horrific disaster. That was 2 miles from my house. We drive through it every day. I mean, it's totally annihilated. That was extreme mismanagement. And the homeless situation is the most dreadful thing I see on a day-to-day basis.
MARTIN: Yes. So it's a mythical reality star that mayor was.
KOBYLT: If she would admit the truth instead of giving them these phony baloney numbers --
MARTIN: He is endorsed by Donald Trump and a scene that went 33 percent for Kamala Harris. She absolutely does.
KOBYLT: Trump didn't start the fire. Trump isn't responsible for all of those. Not to do Trump. Trump is not only answer to everything.
MICHAELSON: All right. All right guys.
MARTIN: Thank you, Donald Trump, because that just means we are going to blow past Mr. Pratt. He's going to get the worst whipping he could ever imagine. Thank you, Donald Trump.
MICHAELSON: All right. There we go.
MARTIN: There you go.
MICHAELSON: Well, we got different perspectives, and hopefully, we can be respectful going forward as well. Areva, John, thank you very much. And it'll be interesting to see what happens. People voting right now. June 2nd, the last day to vote on that, and people can check out the interviews and make up their own minds as well.
Coming up, take a deep breath. Thousands have been forced to pack up their belongings and leave their homes here in California ahead. The dangerous threat behind a new mass evacuation that is happening right now. Plus, find out which U.S. airports are being added to the list of entry points that can screen passengers traveling from African countries battling the Ebola outbreak. Thanks.
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MICHAELSON: Live pictures here of an aerospace facility in Garden Grove, California. Our station KAVC is flying over it. The threat of a toxic explosion here has forced tens of thousands of people from their homes. Some 40,000 residents within a 9 square mile area around a facility in Orange County are now under evacuation orders. Authorities say a tank filled with a highly toxic and flammable chemical used in plastics manufacturing is overheating. Officials warn the tank could either leak or explode. Exposure to the chemical can cause serious respiratory problems.
The U.S. is expanding the list of airports that can screen people traveling from certain African countries grappling with the fast moving Ebola outbreak. International airports in Atlanta and Houston as well as Bellis Airport outside Washington have been cleared to receive passengers who have been in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, or South Sudan in the past 21 days. The updated orders departing flights heading to Atlanta went into effect earlier this hour. Flights heading to Houston go into effect after midnight on Tuesday.
Meantime, the World Health Organization has revised the risk assessment of Ebola to very high in the DRC, while the global risk remains low. W.H.O. says at least 177 deaths are thought to be linked to the Ebola outbreak in the DRC with nearly 750 suspected cases. CNN's Larry Madowo has more on the fire at an Ebola treatment center that was started by relatives of an Ebola victim.
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LARRY MADOWO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Tensions ran high at this hospital treating Ebola patients in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. This local politician was on the scene.
LUC MAMBELE, VICE PRESIDENT OF POLITICAL PARTY A2RC (translated): I'm at Rwampara Hospital. We're locked down here. Look at the protesters. They're angry. They're setting fire to the tents of Ebola patients because they want to forcibly retrieve the bodies.
MADOWO: Residents grew angry after health authorities refused to hand over the body of a young man who died from Ebola, this father says.
LEOPOLD KATABUKA, WAMPARA RESIDENT (translated): We came to bury my son, and then we saw these people coming in numbers asking for the body of someone called Eli. They started throwing stones and set fire to the tents, and my son's body was left burned there. I don't know what to do.
MADOWO: Police were quickly called in to control the scene after protesters set fire to tents where patients suspected to have Ebola were being isolated according to eyewitness accounts. And while health workers have been working hard to fight off the virus, a second battle has also been underway, the fight against disinformation.
MAMBELE: This lack of communication, this absence of communication from the health authorities in the province is what allowed rumors to take over, and it is what continues to this day.
MADOWO: The key tension seeming to lie between the sanitary protocols put in place by authorities and the wishes of the local community to uphold traditional burial rights. The community wants to bury the dead with dignity, but Ebola often spreads at funerals.
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It's still under investigation, but even this current outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is believed to stem from a super spreader event, a funeral on May 5th. That's because some people touch the corpse of the dead as a final farewell. The fluids from the body of Ebola patients are still infectious. And that's why authorities in Ituri, the epicenter of this outbreak, have now said all funerals have to be carried out with strict protocols, and they banned all wakes.
In the region's capital, residents have been calling on their neighbors to take the virus more seriously.
ELIE LLUNGA, BUNIA RESIDENT (translated): Yes. The message I would like to convey now to those listening to me right now. We are in the town of Bunya, and this affects us too. We feel it. So what I tell people wherever they are is to know that they have to protect their families, to protect those close to them. Because if I become infected, that means my family is infected too.
MADOWO: The World Health Organization also raised the alarm once again on Friday.
DR. TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS, W.H.O. DIRECTOR-GENERAL: We're now revising our risk assessment to very high at the national level, high at the regional level, and low at global level.
MADOWO: The W.H.O. warning that a potential vaccine may still be as far as nine months away. News that is sure to deal another blow to communities struggling to come to terms with so much loss already. Larry Madowo, CNN.
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MICHAELSON: We are learning new details about the health of 41-year- old NASCAR driver Kyle Busch in the days leading up to his death. A 911 call obtained by CNN indicates that Busch needed medical attention on Wednesday after coughing up blood and experiencing shortness of breath. In the recording, the caller states that Busch was lying on the bathroom floor but was awake. 24 hours after that call, Busch's family announced his sudden death. This comes as NASCAR CEO Steve O'Donnell refused to answer questions about Busch's health citing privacy for the family. Earlier during a press briefing, he celebrated Busch's legacy.
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STEVE O'DONNELL, CEO OF NASCAR: To me, Kyle Busch just defines what it means to be a racer in NASCAR. Everything about it, the fire, the greatness, the heart that sometimes you rarely saw. The sport was truly lucky to have him. And I believe I can speak for everybody in the sport. And I'll just say this for me personally, the family reunions week-to-week are just not going to be the same without him, but we're going to do our damn best to continue his legacy and support his family.
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MICHAELSON: Meanwhile, President Trump honored the racing icon as well calling him a, "True talent and a legend."
Coming up, Spotify is playing on rewarding some super fans with tickets to their favorite artist's concerts. Former Music Executive Seth Schachner joins me to break -- after the break talk about it and more of their projects. How can you use this? He'll break it down. Coming up.
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MICHAELSON: TikTok and the Music Producers, Publisher Universal Music Group have announced a new global licensing agreement. The companies say it involves royalties for performers, including Drake and Lady Gaga. Describe the deal as enhancing creative and commercial opportunities for creators, artists, and songwriters. It's also said to extend AI protections by promoting human made music and banning unauthorized AI music. Universal Music also announced a different deal with music streamer, Spotify.
The companies say it will allow fans to create covers and remixes of favorite songs from participating artists and songwriters. The paid add-on service would be powered by AI technology and give artists more revenue. Spotify's reserved service would also reward some "Super Fans" with preferred access to tickets based on their streams, shares, and activity on Spotify. Validated users would be invited to buy two tickets to shows and ensure tickets go straight to actual fans and not to scalpers.
Let's bring in former Sony Music Executive, host of the Breaking Down the Biz podcast, Seth Schachner. He's also the Managing Director of the Communications firm Strat Americas. All right, you have spent a -- welcome to "The Story Is."
SETH SCHACHNER, HOST, BREAKING DOWN THE BIZ PODCAST: Thanks. Great to be here.
MICHAELSON: Great to have you here. You've spent a lot of time in this biz, Breaking Down the Biz, all the rest of it. So how does this actually work? What does this mean? If I log on to my Spotify, what can I now do?
SCHACHNER: What we're hoping to see is something called a premium tier. They're going to charge more for it. We don't know what it's going to be yet, and quite candidly, they haven't defined what the products are yet. But it'll probably be something that's much more participatory. So you and I could do a cover version of a song or we could remix a song. Maybe eventually we'll be able to mash it up as well and have a lot of fun with it in what's kind of called a Walled Garden, if you will. Not something that's pulled from pirate sources, but something that artists, Universal's artists in this case, have said, hey, we're cool with this. We're going to opt into this.
And from my perspective, Spotify, I was pretty involved in setting it up years ago. It was set up in a really different climate than today. It was a -- we were about to go out of business and losing revenue and all sorts of bad stuff. We didn't anticipate what the future would look like when we set it up, but Spotify was never, like, the most social thing in the world, if you will, unlike TikTok or some of these other services.
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So it's actually high time that they start doing this, experimenting a little bit, offering super fans tickets, and personally, I also think it's kind of undervalued as well, so there'll definitely be a fee for it as well. But you'll probably have some more actions, options to play games and have fun with music through Spotify. I would assume Apple and Google when all the legitimate music partners will get it as well. MICHAELSON: Why are they doing this?
SCHACHNER: Bunch of reasons. I mean, AI has kind of -- it's here whether we like it or not and there are smaller AI platforms that have it's a very mixed landscape out there right now if you're a rights holder. There's one called Suno. There's another called Udio, and they're suing one and patting another on the back basically. What they want to see, the labels, the rights holders. These are not the platforms, but Universal, Sony, Warner they want to see a legit business flower out of this stuff.
And rather than sue, they're trying to figure out licensing partnerships with streaming partners and charge more for it. And ultimately, five, 10 years out from now, whether this stuff catches on or not, it'll be a legitimate part of the business and not something where there's white noise and piracy all over the place.
MICHAELSON: So Universal, making a deal with TikTok as well. What is that deal? Explain what that and what does that mean for those of us that use TikTok?
SCHACHNER: Yeah. That's a Tik -- separate from the AI stuff for the most part. TikTok has become basically the place to discover music more than radio. Things like MTV are no longer with us anymore, so young people would use it and see artists, from it.
MICHAELSON: And when you say that, I mean, there's literally like watching somebody perform, but you're talking about the music that is used behind as somebody does their stupid dance or whatever it is or whatever can take off in a huge way and perform a phenomenon.
SCHACHNER: Yeah. And just the artists. Any artist can come in and suddenly catch fire. They may not last as long as say, a Springsteen or a Crosby, Stills, and Nash, but people are discovering it there. And so, Universal had a very big fight with TikTok over the licensing terms of that music. So they've kind of settled it. They're renewing it, and they're going to prop them up and they'll be a strong partner going forward. Plus, like, all these things we're talking about, there's a push to kind of eliminate what you'd call AI slop or white noise or Anck the sound of a washing machine has been sitting on Spotify. And for a while, it earned the same amount of money as The Beatles track did. So they're trying to clean up all these inconsistencies.
MICHAELSON: And so good -- you think this is a good thing?
SCHACHNER: This is a great thing, actually. Because, I came from the day when, I took calls from Napster, and we had a very different strategy back then. It wasn't constructive, and this is something where there's a lot of constructive --
MICHAELSON: People that are younger, Napster was a site where you basically stole music, right? And people started stealing music on the Internet back when (inaudible) 56k modem. And it basically revolutionized the whole music industry. SCHACHNER: It kicked all of us in the -- what, anyway, this is the old apps because there's a new Napster that's legit. But, this is not that time. It's not a Napster moment, if you will. This is a good time where I think the biggest incumbents, and Universal is going to set a benchmark for the whole industry, are figuring out ways to do this constructively. And they're actually saying to you, we don't fear AI. We're going to give our artists a way to experiment with it and bring it out for a fee. So I personally think it's a great thing.
MICHAELSON: Work with it.
SCHACHNER: Yeah.
MICHAELSON: Instead of against it. All right. Well, Seth, great to have you here.
SCHACHNER: Good to be here.
MICHAELSON: And we can learn about all this and more at your podcast as well.
When we return, the video of Britney Spears DUI arrest in March has just been released by the police. We'll show it to you.
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MICHAELSON: California police have released dashcam footage of Britney Spears being arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in March. Video shows officers questioning the pop star after they pulled her over for allegedly erratic driving. She told police that she's now dancing. Listen.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you had any alcohol today?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've been dancing? OK. Do you mind if I check your eyes?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. (Inaudible).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will. Would you like --
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MICHAELSON: The video shows officers continuing to question Spears before placing her in handcuffs. Spears was initially charged with driving under the influence. She later pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of reckless driving. For 20 years, one of the most popular souvenirs among tourists in Rome has been a calendar featuring images of handsome young men in priestly attire. But a daily paper in the Italian city is calling it a fake priest calendar because not all the photos feature men of the cloth. The cover model who spoke with the Associated Press admits he never attended seminary, but he insists some of the models are priests without providing details of which ones. Calendar has no affiliation with the Vatican, which declined to comment to the AP.
Thanks for watching the first hour of "The Story Is." The next hour starts right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "The Story Is" the war with Iran. President Trump unexpectedly staying at the White House this weekend and contemplating more military action.
"The Story Is" evacuation orders in Southern California as one community fears a toxic chemical explosion 5 miles from Disneyland.
"The Story Is" holiday travel. Peter Greenberg is here. What you need to know if you're leaving home.
