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What We Know with Max Foster

Israel And Iran Halt Fire Amid Standoff Over Lebanon; CNN Reports From The Ground In Tehran; Trump Demands End To Fighting, Says Peace Deal Is Close; 7.8 Magnitude Earthquake Kills At Least 35 In Philippines; Heavy Security Expected At Knicks Vs. Spurs Game Tonight; Pope Makes Peace- Focused Speech To Spanish Parliament; China's Leader In North Korea For First Time In Seven Years. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired June 08, 2026 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:35]

MAX FOSTER, CNN HOST: Iran and Israel trade strikes and the U.S. president intervenes.

This is WHAT WE KNOW.

Under intense U.S. pressure, Israel and Iran have halted attacks on each other after an escalation of violence threatened to shred what's left of a

tenuous ceasefire. But their standoff is only deepening this hour over Lebanon. Iran is threatening more severe and crushing strikes if Israel

renews attacks on Lebanon, whilst Israel is vowing to continue hitting Hezbollah.

The back and forth attacks began over the weekend when Iran fired missiles at Israel in retaliation for Israeli attacks on Beirut, and Israel struck

back with attacks on Iran. Despite the escalation, U.S. President Donald Trump says final negotiations on a peace deal are going ahead.

CNN's Kristen Holmes is in Washington.

Kristen, what sort of conversations have been taking place then between the White House and these groups?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I mean, we know at least of two conversations that President Trump has had directly with Prime

Minister Netanyahu. We are told, our Kevin Liptak among others are told by sources that Benjamin Netanyahu had been planning a more aggressive attack

on Tehran before he talked to President Trump and he decided at that time to pull back as we know. President Trump encouraged him multiple times not

to respond or retaliate against Iran. Benjamin Netanyahu, of course, still did, at least the first time.

Now we appear to be at this ceasefire, but the question of Lebanon still remains up in the air. Israel has said it reserves the right to strike

Lebanon and Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. And Iran has said that if that happens, they will continue their strikes against Israel. President Trump,

throughout all of this, is still that they are on the precipice of some kind of a peace deal, something we've been hearing now for weeks without

any actual tangible evidence that that is happening.

Big question now, what actually happened to that memorandum of understanding that went back to Iran after President Trump was tightening

up the language? That was about a week and a half ago. At this point, they say the negotiations are still happening, but of course, one of the levers

that President Trump has continued to pull when it comes to Iran, when it comes to having some kind of strength at the negotiating table has been his

ability to control Benjamin Netanyahu.

And while it does seem as though he stopped Netanyahu from this kind of bigger, grander attack on Tehran, he did not stop him from retaliation. So

a big question, of course, is whether or not that impacts the negotiations as well. It certainly seems as though the men, President Trump and

Netanyahu, are kind of on different courses now as to what the objectives are over this war and where the end game is here.

The big question being whether or not President Trump is able to rein Netanyahu in and keep some control over that as he is still trying to get

some kind of diplomatic deal?

FOSTER: So he's speaking to Israel, he's speaking to Iran, is he speaking to Hezbollah as well? Because they're obviously central to this,

particularly at this moment.

HOLMES: That's right. And he has said that he's talking to representatives and that Hezbollah has agreed to a ceasefire that they have continually

said, we talked about this last week as well, when they had those preliminary conversations through intermediaries that are representatives,

that they would stop striking Israel or at least hitting back if Israel stopped striking them. Now you have Netanyahu kind of leaving the door open

to continue to strike those targets, which of course raises a lot of questions as to whether or not they are going to actually be able to come

up with some sort of deal here, or if this is just an incredibly tenuous ceasefire or detente that could be rocked at any moment.

FOSTER: OK. Kristen, appreciate it. Thank you.

Lebanon's national news agency says Israeli strikes hit more than a dozen locations today in southern Lebanon. It says at least one person was

killed. Israel vowing to continue attacks on Hezbollah, saying any Iranian attempt to link Lebanon to the wider war will be met with great force.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will hold off its attacks on Iran for now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): At the moment, the fire has ceased because after we struck the terror regime in

Tehran, it stopped attacking us. If the terror regime in Iran makes the mistake of attacking us again, we will respond with force.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Meanwhile, Iran says it would be absurd if the U.S. redirects Tehran's frozen financial assets to America's regional allies. The reported

comment comes after a source said the Trump administration floated a plan to use the money to rebuild Gulf countries impacted by the war. Iran is

repeatedly demanding compensation from the U.S. and Israel for its own damages.

Inside Iran, a conservative lawmaker says his country is waiting to be convinced that President Trump is sincere in his negotiations.

Ebrahim Azizi is the head of the parliament's national security and foreign policy committee, has sat down with Fred Pleitgen in the capital, Tehran.

And we should note, CNN operates in Iran only with the permission of the government, but we maintain full editorial control of our reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: President Trump also says that an agreement between Iran and America is close for peace. Do

you agree that it's close? And are the negotiations still going on?

EBRAHIM AZIZI, HEAD OF NATIONAL SECURITY & FOREIGN POLICY COMMITTEEE, IRANIAN PARLIAMENT (through translator): We don't think that he's honest,

but we have said many times that we accept a negotiation as a continuation of the battlefield. We consider negotiation to be part of the battle. If we

could be convinced that there is sincerity in the Americans, especially in the president of the United States, and if we could reach confidence that

they are people of negotiation and that they also submit to the rules of negotiation, then the Islamic Republic would have no problem with

negotiating.

PLETIGEN: What are the biggest sticking points now in the negotiations?

AZIZI (through translator): We do not see a serious will to reach a framework that could actually be implemented. And I think, with regard to

Iran's blocked assets, this is, in fact, a very clear and prominent example of that. As for uranium, enriched materials, enrichment itself, and nuclear

issues, we are not currently negotiating on those matters. There is no discussion of them, because it is not intended that we should have

negotiations on those issues at this stage.

PLEITGEN: Will there be a peace agreement between the United States and Iran?

AZIZI (through translator): It depends on the behaviors that we observe from the other side. If these same behaviors continue, then no, we do not

have any trust at all. And with this lack of trust, it's not possible for negotiations to continue.

And naturally, when there is no possibility of continuing, there is no result either. But if those conditions that the Islamic Republic of Iran

has specified are fulfilled, and if, in practice, we see that reflected in the country's national interests, especially in the economic sphere,

financial matters, banking, sanctions, and the issue of Lebanon, which is very, very important to us, we will by no means back down on the issue of

the resistance front, its members, and especially Lebanon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Let's go from the Israeli point of view. Jeremy Diamond is in Tel Aviv.

So we're hearing there, Jeremy, about the distrust between Iran and the U.S.? Is there distrust developing as well between Israel and the U.S.?

What's happening in that relationship?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, at a minimum, Max, there certainly is a divergence of the goals that President Trump and Prime

Minister Netanyahu have, both strategically in the geopolitical sense, but also politically. You know, both men have elections coming up. The Israeli

prime minister is up for reelection and, you know, an election date that hasn't been set yet in next three to four months. President Trump has the

midterms in November.

For President Trump, it would be in his best interest that there not be a war with Iran, whereas for the Israeli Prime Minister, he needs to achieve

more as it relates to Iran before those elections arrive. And so, you know, that is where we see President Trump consistently over the last 24 hours

trying to rein in Israel and ensure that it does not carry out -- you know, a stronger retaliation against Iran than what we've seen. And in fact,

we're learning about this new conversation that took place earlier today between President Trump and the Israeli prime minister, where the prime

minister -- where the president, I should say, urged Netanyahu to scale back the retaliation, to not retaliate any further after he carried out two

ways of attacks on Iran overnight following those ballistic missiles that Iran fired at Israel.

The Israeli prime minister agreed in that conversation, canceling it would seem additional attacks that the Israeli military had planned for tonight

in Iran. And so we are once again at a situation where the president has had to intervene to get to restrain further Israeli military action. The

question is, is it sustainable? Can it hold, especially as the Iranian government is now warning that should Israel carry out attacks in southern

Lebanon, then Iran will attack Israel once again, especially as the Iranian government is now warning that should Israel carry out attacks in southern

Lebanon, then Iran will attack Israel once again?

[15:10:10]

FOSTER: Jeremy in Tel Aviv, thank you.

Leslie Vinjamuri is the president and CEO of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

Leslie, thank you so much as ever for joining us.

LESLIE VINJAMURI, PRESIDENT AND CEO, CHICAGO COUNCIL ON GLOBAL AFFAIRS: Thank you.

FOSTER: I mean, this balancing act that the president is trying to get right, trying to work with Iran on one side, with Israel on the other side,

Hezbollah somewhere in between. I mean, it was always an ambitious effort, wasn't it? How is he doing?

VINJAMURI: Well, you know, first of all, it wasn't always his intention. If we go back to the beginning, the president seemed to be fully aligned

with Israel. In fact, following Israel into that initial decision that that began all of this round, which was to launch those strikes. And now you're

right, it looks like President Trump, for lack of an alternative, is trying to deter both Iran and Israel from launching further strikes.

And that's a -- that is a that is a shift to see this U.S. president coming down firmer, apparently to hold the line with Israel is significant and

he's clearly in a bind when it comes to Iran and so far has not accomplished what he set out to accomplish. So yes, he's balancing, but

he's balancing not by design. I think he's balancing very much from a point of real weakness with those major actors in the region.

And then, as you well know, from increasing weakness at home by some accounts, he's as low as 35 percent approval rating only domestically, with

more than 80 percent of Americans thinking the war is not good, more than 60 percent thinking that he needs to do more to get a deal and here is the

clincher -- the beginning of some movement in Congress to try to require, albeit weakly, this U.S. president to look to Congress when it comes to

using force and declaring war and executing a war.

FOSTER: I mean, what are his options here? I mean, he does have leverage, obviously, over Israel. He can stop supplying them with arms, but obviously

that would have massive political repercussions in the United States. But then Iran has got this huge leverage at the same time, hasn't it, with the

Strait of Hormuz because that's directly affecting American incomes.

So, you know, if he wanted to go in tougher, what could he do here?

VINJAMURI: Well, you know, this is this is the number one question. It was a question for President Biden. It's a question for President Trump. It's

been the question for many U.S. presidents, but it's particularly acute right now. Would The United States -- would President Trump use that

extraordinary leverage, which is not about words. It's not about idle threats, and we don't know what's being said in private, but it's about

actually applying conditions to America's support of Israel when it comes to direct supplies of military support.

And if you look at the polling by the American people, they are, you know, growing much more skeptical of America's seemingly unconditional support of

Israel. That's not only a generational thing, that's something that's happened since October 7th, for better or for worse, that those -- that is

in the data.

And you know, on the question of Iran, you know, Iran has that leverage. As you've said, it knows it has that leverage. It has more strength, but it

also wants things right. It wants those assets to be unfrozen. It needs those sanctions to be lifted.

I mean, there is real suffering and of course it's deflected primarily onto the people, not to the regime, but still everybody has an incentive to have

the status quo stopped. But Iran is now effectively linked the question over governance of the Strait of Hormuz opening that up, and to the Israel

complying with the ceasefire when it comes to Lebanon and Hezbollah and that linkages makes President Trump's position even more difficult because

now he can't pretend that there's a separation and that does put him in a position where he's going to have to think through very carefully what

cards he's willing to play when it comes to this double act of deterrence that he's now faced with.

FOSTER: Well, he does famously always think there's a deal that can be done. There probably is a deal that can be done, isn't there, Leslie? But,

you know, when is a good deal a good deal? For Americans, that's going to look very different from what it would look like from Israel or indeed

Iran.

[15:15:02]

VINJAMURI: Sure, and for the rest of the world who's suffering the costs of this war, I mean, Americans are certainly paying a price, nothing

compared to what many other people are playing. But I guess one thing -- this is a sequence, right? This isn't just a deal or no deal, it's a

sequence, as we know.

It's about getting that memorandum of understanding to unblock the straight and then talking. That was the idea that you get that first and then you

move into a conversation about the enriched uranium and about the sanctions relief.

You know, we saw a piece. Condi Rice published a piece last week saying no deal is better than a bad deal, and so, there are multiple domestic

pressures. But I think we still need to see that sequence moving forward. So I think getting that memorandum of understanding, getting movement

through the strait. But then how do you get Iran to -- and Americans to believe to have trust in the process that you can sequence things that

there will be a credible commitment to that sequencing. And that the U.S. can get Israel to hold the line.

Now the fact that they're holding a line just in the last several hours is good. It's a first step. How long will it last if that if these uses of if

this sort of escalatory violence, if there is a return to that, it gets that much more difficult. And yet everybody -- seemingly everybody, almost

everybody has an interest in moving this process forward, not all individuals necessarily have an interest. And therein I think flies the

dilemma.

FOSTER: Yeah, that's what makes it so complex, isn't it?

Leslie, thank you so much for joining us as ever.

VINJAMURI: Thank you.

Now, at least 35 people have died and more than 200 others were injured after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit the southern Philippines early on

Monday. The quake triggered scenes of panic like this as buildings collapsed to the ground and emergency sirens blared. There's been 138

aftershocks occurred after the initial quake. This is according to the Philippine Institute of Volcano logy and Seismology. The institute warns

more aftershocks could still occur as well.

Coming up, an Israeli source says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was preparing for a significant attack on Tehran today until he received that

phone call from U.S. President Donald Trump. Next, we'll examine the enormous impact their relationship could have on the outcome of the Iran

war.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:20:41]

FOSTER: Well, it's fair to describe the relationship between U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as

complicated. Sources tell CNN the two leaders held their second phone call in 24 hours. The president reportedly asked the prime minister to back off

attacks on Iran, at least for now. That's after Israel and Iran had exchanged fire.

President Trump admitted to having a very heated call last week with this longtime friend, underscoring growing tensions over Israel's military

campaign in Lebanon.

So what we want to know is, can Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu still work together on Iran?

Joining me now is Dahlia Scheindlin, a fellow at the Century Foundation.

Thank you so much for joining us.

DAHLIA SCHEINDLIN, POLITICAL ANALYST: Thank you for having me.

FOSTER: This is so complex on so many fronts, but if we just take it from Prime Minister Netanyahu's point of view, why is it so difficult for him to

give Trump exactly what he's asking for in these moments.

SCHEINDLIN: Well, I think the main complication is that Netanyahu has spent a lifetime. He has spent decades building up to the idea that only a

military assault on Iran can achieve the main goals of halting Iran's nuclear program, ending its ballistic missile program, weakening its

support for proxies, and hopefully toppling its regime. He has really staked his entire political reputation on that.

And this is not just a matter of reputation, of course. Iran genuinely has a significant threat to Israel. Netanyahu's perspective has always been

that this military assault will end that threat. So his interest from the very start of the war that began in late February, together with the United

States, was to continue the war until those goals were achieved. I think what he didn't count on was that those goals apparently couldn't be

achieved in the time frame that Donald Trump was willing to go into the war.

There's going to be a historic debate for years to come about whether Trump mistakenly believed or was misled or didn't understand that those things,

especially toppling the regime, were not going to happen so quickly. But for whatever reason, Trump and Netanyahu had a difference of understanding

about how long this war would go on and what the American interest was in staying in for that long. I think that set the tone for where we are now.

Trump clearly wants to de-escalate and get to a deal. Netanyahu is not happy about the emerging contours of the deal and feels like the war did

not complete its aims. So, they are facing some tension over that, which has become very public over the last, you know, couple of weeks, and

certainly over the last few days.

FOSTER: And as you say, it's fundamental, isn't it, for Netanyahu, because the president, by asking him to step back, not go in for this, you know,

this reported military invasion, he's asking the prime minister to basically go back on his broad strategy. You know, that's how the messaging

often goes, because President Trump is also trying to work with the Iranians, and, you know, he can't work with the Iranians whilst the prime

minister pursues that long-term strategy.

SCHEINDLIN: Yeah, I think the president is certainly concerned that the escalation on the Lebanon front, which we should also give Hezbollah plenty

of the credit for that. It was, of course, Hezbollah's decision to join the war to begin with in solidarity with Iran in early March. And so this isn't

only Netanyahu's doing. Hezbollah is absolutely firing constantly back and forth as Israel has been pretty much since the so-called ceasefire was

declared. And there's no really easy way around that.

So I think that the escalation of the last few days was not a surprise, but it certainly makes it more difficult for Trump to continue working on the

deal with Iran, because ultimately these fronts are linked. And I think the big gamble was that Netanyahu has been trying to assert, if we get down to

the micro of what happened over the last few days, that he can break that linkage that Iran has been trying to make between the Iran-U.S. track, or

the Iran-Israel front, and the Lebanon Hezbollah, I should say, the Hezbollah Israel front. Netanyahu wanted to show that they can have full

freedom of action to fight Hezbollah, but it did affect the prospect of the deal with that looks like it was emerging with the U.S. with Trump and

Iran.

And so, Trump was not so happy about that. Ultimately, I don't truly think anybody's been successful at de-linking these two issues, and I think Iran

asserted itself today in showing that you can't just bomb, you know, parts of Beirut, Hezbollah targets.

[15:25:05]

As one very, you know, well-informed analyst told me today -- Iran took that as an attack on its own sovereignty and it responded Israel responded

and this could get out of control which is why Trump was so concerned.

FOSTER: Yeah and it's also now linked, isn't it, to the Strait of Hormuz as well.

Thank you so much for joining us, Dahlia Scheindlin.

Now, still to come as his predecessor like to say, "One more thing," Apple's Tim Cook has one last big showcase as CEO. We'll show you what he

has to offer next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Returning to our top story this hour, Iranian state media say the country's airspace has returned to normal conditions. That's after Israel

and Iran stopped attacking one another, at least for now. The polls followed an urgent appeal by the US president.

In his first statement since the most recent fighting, the Israeli prime minister said the attacks have stopped, but he's stopped short of

acknowledging a ceasefire. The tit-for-tat strikes were started by Tehran over the Israeli military campaign in Lebanon, but Israel is vowing to

continue hitting Hezbollah.

CNN's political and global affairs analyst Barak Ravid spoke to President Trump earlier on Monday, and he told our Brianna Keilar the U.S. president

may be losing patience with the Israeli prime minister.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL & GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: First, there were several phone calls over the last 24 hours between Trump and Netanyahu and

between Netanyahu and other senior members of the Trump administration. I spoke to President Trump earlier today.

[15:30:01]

And he said that during those 24 hours, other than his calls with Netanyahu, at least five regional countries who are involved in the

mediation between the U.S. and Iran called him to ask him to stop the Israeli strikes and resume the negotiations on a deal.

And one of the things President Trump told Netanyahu -- one of the things President Trump told me that he told Netanyahu is that if he continues and

this turns into an all-out war, Israel could find itself facing Iran on its own. And Trump told me, he told Netanyahu, you should be careful because if

you continue down this road, you might find yourself alone against Iran very soon.

And I think this was one of the messages that Trump told Netanyahu, gave Netanyahu in order to get into, at the end of the day, stand down and stop

the strikes. And from what I hear from Israeli officials is that when President Trump spoke to Netanyahu on Monday morning, the IDF was about to

launch the most intense and massive wave of strikes against Iran since this escalation started, and basically the IDF just waited for the order from

Netanyahu and Trump told Netanyahu in that call that he needs to stand down and that the Iranians gave messages to the U.S. that they're ready to stop

if Netanyahu stops.

And after Trump told this to the Israeli prime minister, he got the okay from him and basically then he put out this true social post saying that

both sides are ready for a ceasefire.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Any kind of discord between Israel and the U.S. will be something that Iran welcomes. How is the IRGC seeing this current

moment, do you think?

RAVID: So I think that at the end of the day, I think what the Iranians saw from this incident or from that those 24 hours is that. In some ways

they had some success. They, for the first time, retaliated for an Israeli strike in Beirut by firing missiles at Israel, which is I think it's the

first time they did it since this war started. And they tried to set a new equation. It did not work 100 percent because the Israelis retaliated and

then the Iranians retaliated. At the end of the day, the US managed to get both sides to stand down.

But I think that the question, the big question mark is what happens the next time that Israel strikes Beirut? I think both on the Israeli side and

on the Iranian side, there will be a lot of thinking before such a thing happens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Now, President Trump was caught in a heated interview with NBC's Kristen Welker during a episode of "Meet the Press". The exchange ended

abruptly after the president was pressed on his claims of voter fraud and evidence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTEN WELKER, NBC NEWS ANCHOR: Let's talk about --

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Your elections in this country, we're like a third world country. Your elections are crooked and

you're crooked and the press is crooked, and so is ABC and CBS and CNN, your one-sided, crooked network.

Let's call it quits, because I've had enough. Thank you, darling. Have a good time.

WELKER: Mr. President, let's please -- I traveled all the way to Wisconsin. I've traveled all --

TRUMP: I sat in the rain with you --

WELKER: I know. I traveled all the way to Wisconsin.

TRUMP: On and off in the rain, and I've given you enough time. You ought to straighten out your press, because you know what? A country can never be

great with a dishonor.

WELKER: Listen, we traveled all the way to Wisconsin for this interview.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Welker did say she reached out to Trump the next day and said he agreed to do another interview. President Trump later admitted he was angry

during the interview because it had been raining and the sound was extremely distracting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I just did an interview in the most beautiful barn I've ever seen. Ken, it was a beauty, but it was raining. And it was with NBC fake news and

because it was raining, I got a little bit angry at them. I was not happy with that. But we had a good time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well, President Trump could also have an impact on game three of the NBA Finals in New York. Right now, the president is expected to be at

the game.

Now, he would be the first sitting U.S. president to attend an NBA Finals game. Security concerns have already forced the cancellation of a watch

party at Madison Square Garden, and police are adding anti-scaling fencing, vehicle barriers, crowd control infrastructure. This is the first NBA

Finals game at Madison Square Garden since 1999, I think.

Is that right, Shimon?

[15:35:00]

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: It is, it is, it is since `99, but you know, not a lot of people didn't have any

faith in that team and you know, there were injuries and there were -- so it was not a good series. It was against San Antonio.

So here you have the Knicks up 2-0. It's a big night. There's so much excitement. And despite all the security, despite all of the attention that

this area is getting because of the president coming to this game tonight, it has changed everything. Fans are not going to be able to gather outside

here like they normally do. We're seeing a lot more security.

This -- we normally don't see a lot of stuff is starting to go up because in about 30 minutes or so, Max, this entire area, if you don't have a

ticket, if you don't have any business in this area, the NYPD is shutting everything down and they're going to tell people to get out. It's

unprecedented. We don't ever have a situation like this at an event and it's all because of the president visiting coming to the game tonight.

But people are still trying, you know, Max, it's been unbelievable to see. I've been talking to people out here. They just want to come and experience

this. They just want to stand here and say, I was at Madison Square Garden. I saw people. I was talking to people here who traveled from Florida, from

Charlotte, from Atlanta. They have connections here to New York or they're former New Yorkers. They grew up here.

But they're like, man, I just want to come here just to feel this because there has been this level of excitement in this city that we just haven't

felt up for a sports team or just in general and in quite some time. So that's what's happening out here and 30 minutes will start to see things

shut down.

Ticket holders will be allowed in this area. The NYPD today told them come at least two hours early. The game is 6:30 Eastern, so I mean 8:30 Eastern.

So they've been telling people to get here at least by 6:30 because Secret Service is doing all the security and it's going to be airport style

screening which is a lot more aggressive than they normally get here at Madison Square Garden.

FOSTER: Okay, Shimon, thank you very much. Looking forward to seeing the result anyway.

PROKUPECZ: You got it.

FOSTER: It is the final moments of trade on Wall Street and stocks are refreshingly flat. It's been a turbulent few sessions for stocks in the US.

This is your Business Breakout.

Tech stocks have turned things around after some heavy losses at the end of last week. The Nasdaq is up more than 1 percent after a steep drop on

Friday, triggered by some disappointing earnings from the chip company Broadcom.

Asian stock markets weren't so lucky, however. The Kospi, South Korea's benchmark index, finished more than 8 percent lower on Monday.

Ships trying to travel through the Strait of Hormuz are being charged up to $2 million per trip by Iran. That is according to a senior member of the

Iranian parliament speaking to the semi-official Fars News Agency. Iranian officials insist the fees are to provide, quote, navigation services and

shouldn't be classed as tolls.

Now, if you want to sit with the celebrities at tonight's NBA finals game, it will cost you. Two seats in the VIP section of Madison Square Garden

have been sold at auction for a million dollars. Meanwhile, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has gone for the cheaper route. He says he's purchased

a standing room only ticket for about 1,000 bucks. Still a lot to stand.

Now, Apple has a brand new version of Siri in the hope of keeping up with ChatGPT and all the other A.I. agents. That's just one of the announcements

at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference today. The last big event for Tim Cook before he steps down as Apple's CEO.

CNN's Lisa Eadicicco joins us with more.

Anything else grabbing your attention, Lisa?

LISA EADICICCO, CNN BUSINESS TECH EDITOR: So, Max, the new Siri update is really the big headliner coming out of Apple's Worldwide Developer

Conference. Apple is calling it Siri A.I. It should launch in beta later this year. And what's really different about it is that it can do all sorts

of things that the current version of Siri can't accomplish yet. For example, it can incorporate personal context from your iPhone and your

devices into its answers. It can analyze what's on your phone screen to help assist with tasks.

For example, if you wanted to remember what restaurant a friend recommended, you could just ask Siri and it'll be able to refer to the text

message. You can use the camera on your phone to snap a photo of a restaurant bill, and Siri can help you figure out. how much you owe for the

bill. So I think what we're really seeing here is Apple trying to shift Siri from something that people use occasionally out of convenience to

check the weather, set timers, to something that's really crucial to how they use their Apple devices and how they navigate their iPhone.

And again, as you mentioned, this is coming as there's been a lot of competition from Google and OpenAI with their own A.I. services. And this

is something that I think investors and analysts have been really waiting for for a long time because a lot of the AI features that Apple has

released so far have been relatively minor, making it easier to do things like edit photos and summarize text and translate languages, but not

something that far have been relatively minor, making it easier to do things like edit photos and summarize text and translate languages, but not

something that really kind of changes the way people use their devices in a big sweeping way. So I think this new version of Siri is an attempt to

start that, at least.

FOSTER: And it's a big moment, obviously, for Tim Cook. A historic moment, really, isn't it? This is the end of an era for Apple, which is such an

important company. You know, what do you think will be going through people's minds as he leaves the stage?

EADICICCO: Yeah, so at the end of today's keynote, Tim Cook did mention that this has been, he talked about what his tenure has been like and how

he's really enjoyed being a part of these events and putting tools out there for developers and consumers to use. And I think what people are

really looking for here is how this sets up John Ternus, the next CEO, to kind of carry the baton and push that forward.

And it's interesting because this year's conference is fairly fairly different from what we've seen in the past in terms of the format. Usually

Apple will kind of go through the major software updates that are coming to all of its devices, like the iPhone, the Apple Watch, the Mac, and it'll

walk through each operating system update.

It didn't really do that this year. Instead, it really focused on Siri and talked about the updates that are kind of coming to all of these devices as

a whole. And of course, it's too soon to know, but knowing that this is Tim Cook's last WWDC and knowing that a new CEO will be coming soon, it was

interesting to kind of see this different approach to presenting the information. And I wonder if that's indicative of how Ternus will carry the

baton moving forward.

FOSTER: It's quite a baton.

Lisa, thank you so much.

EADICICCO: Of course.

FOSTER: Still to come, Pope Leo is in Madrid with a firm warning about war and a message of peace. We'll hear what he said before the Spanish

parliament.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:45:04]

FOSTER: Pope Leo is in Madrid, where he addressed the Spanish Parliament with a peace-focused message. The leader of the Catholic Church warned that

violence and polarization have led to a profound crisis. The speech came as Israel and Iran traded fire, the worst escalation of the war since April.

For more, I'm joined by our Vatican correspondent, Christopher Lamb. He's there in Madrid. Actually, it was a very wide-ranging speech, wasn't it,

Christopher? And he was pretty negative about a lot of things, but offering solutions, too.

CHRISTOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Max. It was a very detailed speech by the pope to the Spanish parliament. It's the

first time that a Pope has actually addressed Spanish politicians in the parliament in this way and Lear received a long-standing ovation from the

members of parliament after he spoke. And I think it was significant that he called out the failure to deal with ending wars, which he said was a

tragic defeat of negotiations, and that obviously coming as Iran and Israel traded more blows and fighting.

And Leo, whilst in Spain, has had quite a strong political message around unity, around trying to overcome polarization, and also migration and he

will at the end of his trip to Spain go to the Canary Islands which is a major entry point for immigrants mainly from Africa into Europe.

And I've just been at an event with Leo at the Bernabeu Stadium in Real Madrid, the sorry the home of Real Madrid, which is also a club close to

Pope Leo's heart because he told us reporters on the way from Rome that He supports Real Madrid. He was asked, are you Barcelona or Real Madrid? And

he said he was a Real Madrid fan. So an added connection for Leo with that.

And sports has been important for him as pope in trying to communicate his message. So we saw some of that today, too.

FOSTER: Okay. Christopher Lamb, thank you so much for momentous speech there today from the pope.

Now, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has traveled to North Korea for a rare summit with Kim Jong-un.

Mr. Xi has hosted the U.S. and Russian presidents this year, but this is the first international trip of 2026, as Steven Jiang reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and his wife welcoming visiting Chinese leader Xi Jinping and his wife on

the airport tarmac in Pyongyang. It's Xi's first visit to China's isolated neighbor in seven years and his first trip overseas in 2026, just a few

weeks after he received both President Trump and President Putin of Russia in Beijing, reinforcing the image of Xi increasingly playing a leading role

on the world stage at a time when U.S. global influence is viewed to be in decline.

The White House has said Trump and Xi shared the goal of denuclearizing North Korea, but analysts say she is unlikely to press Kim on the issue,

with Beijing seen as recognizing North Korea as a de facto nuclear power. Kim has also continued to double down on the UN sanctioned weapons program.

Despite Pyongyang's growing ties with Moscow, China remains its most important ally, providing an economic lifeline to Kim's regime. Unlike

doing Putin's own rare visit to North Korea in 2024, few foresee she and Kim taking turns at the steering wheel. But they're driving home the

message that North Korea's newfound level with Russia doesn't come at the expense of its special bond with China.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Still to come, the World Cup begins this week, in case you hadn't noticed. So with millions of fans expected to descend on the host nations,

we'll look at security in Mexico ahead of Thursday's opening game.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:51:36]

FOSTER: World Cup is now just three days away. Iran's football team arrived on Sunday in Tijuana in Mexico, just a stone's throw from the U.S.

border. Iran is scheduled to play three World Cup matches, but none of them are in Mexico. They're all in the US. The head of Iran's Football

Federation says his team is only allowed to enter the US one or two days before each match. It's a restriction that Iran says reflects malice and a

lack of equality amongst teams.

A US official tells CNN, quote, we will not allow the Iranian team to abuse the system to sneak terrorists into the United States under false

pretenses.

The Mexican government is expecting more than five and a half million visitors during the World Cup and that presents some pretty serious

security challenges. One of Mexico's host cities, Guadalajara, is plagued by drug cartel violence and security experts say that warrants particular

attention.

But as our Valeria Leon reports, the city says it's ready for the big event.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VALERIA LEON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a celebration in Guadalajara, one of Mexico's three host cities for the 2026 World Cup. But

as the city gears up for the tournament, one question still lingers, is it safe for visitors? From FIFA's perspective, preparations are well underway.

MONTSERRAT HIDALGO, FIFA HOST CITY OFFICER: We built a board of technical experts that has been working on these challenges. These technical experts

are working on mobility, security, infrastructure, public policies.

LEON (voice-over): Guadalajara in Jalisco State is looking to turn the page after a wave of violence earlier this year, following the operation

targeting Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, better known as El Mencho, one of the world's most wanted criminals. Former Mexican National Team Star Pavel

Pardo, a Guadalajara local, says the city is ready to welcome the world.

PAVEL PARDO, FORMER PLAYER OF MEXICAN NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM (through translator): Jalisco is safe. We all saw those incidents of insecurity,

which are not a good thing, but today the city is ready to host the World Cup.

LEON: Standing here inside the Akron Stadium, you can get a real sense of the scale. It has a capacity of nearly 50,000 people, and it will be one of

Mexico's key stages for the World Cup. It will host four of the 13 World Cup matches played in Mexico.

LEON (voice-over): And the impact is already being felt. Guadalajara expects up to three million visitors during the tournament, and hotel

prices are soaring.

ALEJANDRO MORA, RIU HOTEL RESERVATION OFFICER: For two nights, it's almost $1,700 while a normal stay would be around $225 at most.

LEON (voice-over): Local businesses are betting on a major economic windfall.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's always been a great atmosphere at the World Cup.

LEON (voice-over): For visitors already here. They say their experience contrasts with the security concerns surrounding the city.

SUE WAGNER, AMERICAN TOURIST IN JALISCO: I feel very safe. I like feeling safe as a single woman, and the people are very welcoming and kind. I feel

I love it.

LEON (voice-over): As the countdown to the World Cup continues, Guadalajara is working to show the world that beyond the headlines is ready

for football's biggest change.

[15:55:06]

Valeria Leon, CNN, Guadalajara, Jalisco.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Hundreds of people in Mexico City tried to break a world record, meanwhile, for the largest human wave. It marked the 40th anniversary of

the first so-called Mexican wave during the 1986 World Cup. But there's some controversy, as American crowds also claim just started the tradition.

Finally tonight, the winners are in after the 79th annual Tony Awards Grammy Award winner. Singer Pink, who hosted this year's broadcast, kicked

off the show with a new rendition of Lady Marmalade. Now, "Death of a Salesman" won six awards, including a best revival of a play,

"Schmigadoon!" took home the prize for best new musical, with "Ragtime" winning best revival of musical. The night featured special performances,

celebrating the 15th anniversary of "The Book of Mormon" and the 30th anniversary of "Chicago".

I'm Max Foster. That's WHAT WE KNOW. Do stay with CNN.

END

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