hello and welcome to all of our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i'm nick watt live in los angeles. ahead on "cnn newsroom," more air strikes in the middle east. the u.s.-led coalition hit multiple targets in yemen, but the houthis say they aren't backing down. plus, president biden is projected to win the south carolina primary, and people here in california are getting ready. severe weather is on the way and expected to impact millions. the united states has carried out more strikes in the middle east against iran-backed houthis in yemen. the u.s. said a short time ago that it struck an anti-ship missile that was, quote, prepared to launch. earlier saturday american and

british forces struck 36 targets in yemen at 13 different locations. fa-18 jets and a pair of u.s. destroyers hit what the u.s. says were facilities involved in attacks on international shipping. british jets also took part in those attacks. a houthi official says the group, quote, will meet escalation with escalation. iran says the air strikes have, quote, made it more difficult to reach a political solution. the strikes in yemen come one day after u.s. air strikes in iraq and syria. the u.s. said those were retaliation for a drone attack that killed three u.s. soldiers in jordan earlier in the week. cnn's paula hancock joins us now from abu dhabi. paula, what's the reaction been so far to the latest strikes in

yemen? >> reporter: well, nick, for the strikes that happened overnight local time they have been met from the houthi side unsurprisingly with a defiant note, that these attacks will continue. and it's what we've seen in the past as well. this is the third time that the u.s. and u.k. navalies have -- have joined together to carry out significant strikes against houthi targets in yemen, this one in multiple locations. and yet we do see that the iranian-backed group is still able to target commercial vessels and to continue to fire missiles into the red sea, causing chaos in that -- that vital waterway when it comes to international trade. now, we did hear also from iran, now, this was before the overnight attacks on the houthis happened. it was in reaction also to those significant attacks that the u.s. carried out on friday overnight into saturday against iranian backed groups once again

in retaliation for that deadly drone attack at the end of january. so they are two separate events. they are targeting two separate elements for very different reasons, but they are both targeting iranian funded, iranian-backed groups. and iran said when speaking to a u.n. special envoy for yemen, said that what the u.s. is doing in the region is making a possibility of a political agreement more difficult, talking about the, quote, aggressive nature of u.s. policy in the middle east. the u.s. saying that they have planned for some time there would be retaliation for the death of those three u.s. service members, also pointing out this is just the start. this is not the end of it so we should expect more attacks in the future. nick? >> and paula, we've also heard from russia about those u.s. strikes in iraq and syria.

>> that's right, yes. russia a key ally of iran, so certainly they are going to publicly back iran and these iranian-backed groups when it comes to this situation. according to the foreign ministry spokesperson in moscow, they have called for an urgent united nations security council meeting discussing these u.s. strikes in iraq and syria. now, according to a diplomatic source, that will actually be happening on monday. there will be a u.n. security council meeting about these -- these air strikes. but, of course, the u.n. security council at this point is deeply divided. you have china and russia on one side, the u.s. and the allies on the other side. and there is very unlikely to be any definitive move forward or resolution on this. but this just shows russia as well using the u.n. to push forward the disagreement with

the u.s. when it comes to these -- these strikes on iraq and syria. it's not the first time the u.s. has done this. they have carried out a number of strikes against iranian-backed militias. as they say that they have had more than 160 missile drone and rocket attacks against them and coalition forces since october. nick? >> paula hancock in abu dhabi, thank you very much. both the u.s. and iran say they don't want a war in the region, but they continue to point fingers at each other over the current heightened tensions. there are thousands of american troops on the ground across the middle east as well as many of those iranian-backed militia groups. president biden blames iran for the deaths of those three american soldiers killed in the drone attack in jordan. he said iran is, quote, supplying the weapons to the people who did it. u.s. officials have not determined what kind of drone was used in the attack, but some

analysts believe it was a type of -- drone. joining us now is annalist at the international institute for strategic studies. let's just start with how have these relatively low cost drones changed the landscape across the middle east and indeed beyond? >> the way i always talk about it is to imagine we were living in 1990 and there would be no drones of this kind. the only thing these groups could really do is fire artillery rockets with a range of a few thousand kilometers. but these new technologies reenable them to strike targets hundreds of kilometers away. if you look at the houthis, for example, their have missiles with ranges over 1,000 kilometers. so they are able to hit an adversary very far away, and of

course that changes the strategic picture. >> and in terms of how the u.s. kind of fights back against that, we've seen the u.s. throwing b1 bombers and fa-18s at this. it sounds to use your cliche, asymmetric. what can the u.s. to do to counter this drone threat we're seeing across this region and elsewhere? >>, you know, it's far challenging. they're quite complex systems. it's easy to move them around, it's easy to hide them. when you look at yemen, of course, the u.s. seem tuesday have quite a few successes when it comes to targeting ship missiles, for example. but the u.s. is still using them and still using drones. so it's difficult to counter them with defensive action. the defensive systems the americans have deployed seem to work well, but, again they don't work 100%. and let's not forget all these drones that are used as some

sort of strategy. so even if you intercept them, there's still a psychological effect, still a political effect. and that's what these groups want. it's a tricky challenge the americans have to be able to -- >> part of the targets for these american strikes can they try to basically just interrupt the supply chains that -- from iran? i mean is that just one practical way of trying to counter this, just stop iran being able to ship these drones to these groups? >> i mean, if you look at the je geography of the area, it will be hard to hit the shipment supplies themselves. you can never eliminate the arsenal entirely because these systems aren't easily dispersed. you can try to degrade and it that requires intelligence, and the question is does the u.s.

have that intelligence do they they know where certain iraqi groups hide their drones? that's the real challenge here. >> people tend to disagree slightly on just how much control tehran exerts over these various groups, the houthis, hezbollah. what's your take on sort of how reliant these groups are on iran for their weapons and how much do they listen to iran in terms of the missions that they themselves carry out? >> so this is the beauty so to say of drones and missiles. you can always look at them and identify them. when you have a propaganda video released by these groups you can identify them. and we know quite a lot about the iranian drone, for example, we can prove easily these drones are coming from iran. basically all the drones these rocket groups have been using against the u.s. have been

coming from iran. the same is true for the houthi missiles and the houthi drones themselves. and of course how exactly the political connection, potential command and control between iran and these groups looks like, it's very controversial. and it's very, very hard to gather evidence about it because these are decisions made behind closed doors. but if you look at the systems themselves, there's no doubt they're relying on iran to a very, very high degree. if these attacksvise been ongoing for a long time, then you need to resupply at one point, and the iranians are continuing that supply. they can say, okay, we might support you financially but we don't give you these specific systems for these types of attacks. but we're not seeing that. on the contrary, we're seeing iran resupply these groups. >> thank you very much for your insights. we appreciate your time. >> thanks, fred. u.s. president joe biden

there -- >> we cannot, we cannot, we cannot lose this campaign for the good of the country. we're going to be able to say goodwilling this generation helped save democracy. >> u.s. president joe biden as he clenches a landslide victory in south carolina, the first official democratic primary. cnn is projecting he will defeat his two nearest challengers. they're not that near. minnesota lawmaker dean philips and author marianne williamson. he's going to beat them by more than 96% of the votes. mr. biden will also pick up all of the state's 55 delegates ahead of the democratic party's nominating convention in august. cnn's eva mcken has more from south carolina. >> reporter: though the results of this primary contest not surprising, this state still hugely consequential for

president biden. it was south carolina and the black voters in this state that brought his campaign back to life in 2020. that is why he pushed so hard for this state to hold the first in the nation primary. and when you speak to black voters across the state, the reviews are mixed. some are really excited about biden. they still give him a lot of credibility for being barack obama's vice president. others have economic anxieties and feel as though routinely voting for democrats they have very little to show for that. and then you have pragmatic voters, people who are so concerned about former president donald trump returning to the white house, they think voting for biden is a safe bet. listen, democrats here they say they are excited about the black turnout, that they were able to get to rural parts of the state like never before via bus tours and other mechanisms. and they say the enthusiasm here from black voters will be

mirrored across the country. eva mckend, cnn, columbia, south carolina. that is eva reporting. plaque voters will play a crucial role in president biden's re-election bid this year. it's a group that saved his campaign in 2020 but is now wavering. here's what the biden campaign's communications director told cnn earlier about the black voter turnout in saturday's south carolina primary. >> joe biden once again coming out on top as a winner because of his commitments, keeping his promises to black voters who have been the backbone of the democratic party. look at the results tonight in south carolina. you have joe biden cruising to in an election where black voters are looking at the early vote data. they're making up 76% of the egelectorate. and so black voters turned out in south carolina because they

understand joe biden has kept his promises. still ahead, protesters in israel turn up the heat on prime minister benjamin netanyahu. a major rally near one of his residences as diplomats work to reach a deal on the hostages in gaza. plus, deadly wildfires are burning across chile. officials sounding the alarm telling residents to flee to safety. stay with us.

more now on those u.s. and u.k. strikes against houthi targets in yemen. the u.s. officials say they hit 36 targets and 13 locations in the country. those targets where they say facilities used in attacks on international shipping. the white house says u.s. president joe biden approved the strikes earlier this week. cnn's priscilla alvarez has more on the strikes and that decision. >> the u.s. and its allies announcing another round of strikes against houthis in yemen in an attempt to try to degrade i diminish their capabilities as the houthis continue to target u.s. vessels and commercial vessels in the red sea in a move

that the u.s. and its allies say could rock the global economy. now, this is a third round of strikes that this coalition has engaged in, and two senior administration officials tell me that president biden gave the green light for these strikes to take place on monday, but, of course, it takes time and preparations to roll those strikes out. for you, when they did happen, it happened when president biden was at his campaign headquarters saturday morning. in a show of how the campaign trail and the ongoing situation in the middle east are colliding this election year. now, the president did not weigh in on the strikes, but u.s. officials have consistently said they will take these measures in an attempt to deter the houthis. now, of course, this is separate from the retaliatory measures that were taken by the u.s. on friday. those were in response to the deaths of three service members in jordan and targeted about 85 targets in iraq and syria. but, again, all of this happening as president biden arrived here in los angeles for fund-raising event and heads to

nevada tomorrow for another campaign rally and a show of how the president is hitting the campaign trail while he's also grappling with the ongoing situation in the middle east and trying to avoid engaging in a wider regional war or escalating any conflict that is occurring there. priscilla alvarez, traveling with the president, cnn. meanwhile, anti-government protesters in israel are taking their message directly to prime minister benjamin netanyahu. they marched towards one of netanyahu's residences on saturday calling for his removal. in tel aviv protesters blocked a major highway and wrote the word "help" on the pavement. their message, they want the netanyahu government out, and they want the hostages currently held in gaza back home. but the hamas is digging in on

its demands for any deal, which include ending israel's military operations. the u.s. secretary of state antony blinken is headed to the region in the coming hours. its his fifth trip to the middle east since the october 7th hamas attacks. let's go now to london where elliot gotkin is keeping an eye on these developments. let's start with these protests against netanyahu. what's going on? >> so, look, there's essentially two protests going on there, nick. there's the anti-government protest, and there's the rally that's been happening for several weeks now in the renamed hostages square to demand that the government do everything in its power to bring more than 100 hostages who were abducted in the hamas led massacre of october 7th held in captivity in the gaza strip. they tend to kind of bleed into one another. so many of those people demanding the hostages be

brought home and israel do whatever it takes to get them home feel prime minister netanyahu and his government are one of the main stumbling blocks. they will point to a number of things. there was a leak from a conversation between netanyahu and representatives of the families who have loved ones in captivity in the gaza strip. they blame that on the government. we had netanyahu this week saying that israel wouldn't be releasing thousands of terrorists, in his words, in order to facilitate a hostage exchange. and then you also had netanyahu's far-right national security minister saying that if a reckless deal, in his words, were done with hamas then that would mean the end of the government. and what these protesters feel some of them is that netanyahu doesn't want to do a deal, that would ultimately lead to an end in the fighting or a long pause because that would mean that the inevitable inquiry into what happened on october 7th on netanyahu's watch would come about and there will be fresh elections which opinions polls

show would see netanyahu booted out of office. if we remind ourselves what framework is on the table it's basically a six-week pause in exchange for a number of hostages being released by hamas for a ratio of about three time as many palestinian prisoners herld in israeli jails would be held in that period. and the next phase would see a higher ratio of palestinian prisoners, perhaps for a longer cease-fire and ultimately the bodies being held by hamas will be released. but both sides still seem to have maximalist positions. hamas insisting israel not only stop fighting but withdraw from the gaza strip in order for a hostage deal to be done. and netanyahu seem tuesday be insisting that israel won't be releasing large numbers of prisoners in order to get them home. so still hopes for a deal, but no sign of one just yet, nick. >> and i mean antony blinken

heading to the middle east. again, i don't really envy him, his task. can he make a difference? >> look, this is his fifth time to the region. he's traveling to the region since the hamas-led massacre of october 7th. he's going to be taking in saudi arabia, egypt, qatar, israel, and the west bank. and his agenda is pretty similar every single time, which is to try to help push along the likelihood of a hostage deal being done, to get more humanitarian aid into the gaza strip and to try to get some kind of humanitarian pause in the fighting. so no doubt he'll be trying to get the egyptians and qataris in particular to lean on hamas. he'll also be trying to get israel to moderate its position so that some sort of compromise can be done. as you say it's a very tall order and with the exception of perhaps getting more humanitarian aid into the gaza strip, it's unclear antony blinken's trip is going to be successful. nick? >> thanks very much. still ahead, a state of

emergency in chile as residents desperately try to escape deadly wildfires. and millions in california now under threat of extreme weather. what communities can expect. that's just ahead. >> a dangerous and life threatening flood event is unfolding in california. now there's a high risk of excessive flooding. that's very rare. we'll explain why, talk about timing and totals. that's coming up next.

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rain. >> a lot of rain, indeed. nearly 40 million people are under flood watches in california. state officials say millions of sandbags are available and rescue equipment has been prepped. power outages are also expected because of high winds. a number of places in southern california have issued evacuation orders because of the flooding risk and also the risk of mudslides, landslides, and debris flows. all of this is because yet another atmospheric river event is unfolding right now. cnn meteorologist elisa raffa has the latest. >> dangerous and life threatening, those are the words that the national weather service is using to describe the flood event that will unfold sunday and monday in california. we now have a level 4 out of 4 high risk of excessive flooding for parts of southern california. and that's incredibly rare not

just for california but really for the u.s. when you get that high risk, now that's issued fewer than 4% of the days that we have that flooding risk issued, but it's responsible for 80% of our flood damage across the u.s. and nearly 40% of flood related deaths. so you really can't take these words lightly. dangerous, life threatening are really the words to describe what can unfold the next couple of day. there's the flood watch that's in effect from sacramento down to san diego for widespread 3 to 6 inches of rain for more than 40 million people. and you can see why. there's that moisture plume that just sits over california over the next couple of days. that's part of the problem is it's going to sit, and it's going to stall. and it's also fueled by really warm ocean temperatures. those ocean temperatures are 1 to 3 degrees above average right now, and that can really pump that sponge even more. dangerous flash flooding is really on the table. we're talking flooding rivers and urban in the streets as well. mud and debris flow could cause

some land slides as well especially over previous burn scars. downed trees and power lines can also be an issue especially where you're saturated from all the rain you've got the last couple of days. and adding insult to injury, this storm is not just about water, it's also about wind. we have high wind warnings in effect where we can see gusts 65, 70, maybe even 80 miles an hour possible. you can see some lighter gusts in that tan shade there, 45 mile per hour gusts, but something to watch out for especially as that ground is so saturated. you can see some of those colors pop up some of those wind gusts over 40 to 50 miles per hour. here's that storm kind of hitting land by sunday morning. the heaviest rain goes north first, and then slings into southern california as we go into the afternoon and evening hours. l.a. kind of getting the brunt as the grammys will be going on. we'll find some of that heavy rain continuing to pile in monday and tuesday as that fire hose just continues to sit

there. so, again, all the yellow widespread. 3 to 6 inches of rain. some of the oranges and reds showing where we could see some of those locally higher amounts. don't forget where it's colder in the mountains we're looking at several feet of snow. an adjunct professor affmeteorology at san jose state university, joining us now from half moon bay, california. let's start with i feel that sometimes in southern california we get a lot of these dire warnings when the weather is going to be anything but 70 degrees and sunny, and then things sometimes don't quite pan out. is this going to pan out as feared? >> yes, it's going to be a really impactful storm. whether every single location is going to see some of these -- the sorts of flash flooding, that's not going to happen but a lot of locations are. and it's sort of a two headed storm. the first portion is in northern california. now the rain has already begun up here.

it will continue through tomorrow with moderate to helvy amounts. san francisco could see around 3 inches of rain. the winds are going to be strongest along the north and central coast gusting to 50, 60 miles an hour. some of the mountains around here could see gusts up to 80 miles an hour. then everything shifts tomorrow into southern california with heavy rain ongoing sunday and monday. and as was just reported, we're looking at something on the order of 3 to 4 to 5 inches of rain in the l.a. basin and the other populated areas of ventura, santa barbara, riverside, orange counties. you have lots of people being impacted, and, you know, in areas that are made mostly of concrete, you're going to have flash flooding. >> i mean are these kind of events becoming more common? i was up your way i think for the first six or seven years i lived in california with barely any rain. and then there seems to be more of these storms coming in. i was up your way i think it was

march was it when that last pineapple express came in and caused a lot of damage up there. are these kind of events becoming more common here? >> yes, over time. you know, looking at last year or two isn't a good metric, but i think if we go out over the next ten years we'll see more of these events than we saw in the previous ten years. >> and they're becoming more intense? i mean i read one climate analyst saying that these kind of events are becoming 10% more intense. i don't quite know how you reach that number, but is there some truth in that? >> possibly. you know, with a warmer atmosphere it will warm moisture, some of these storms that would produce 3 inches canned now produce 0.3 inches, but it's a real fuzzy sort of metric to get your hands around. we need to look at it over a longer period of time and average them out. >> in terms of what we're

looking at for the next few days as i understand it, the key issue is going to be how fast this storm moves. i mean if it's it sits obviously there's more precipitation in an area. is that something that we need to kind of keep an eye on, like how fast the storm moves? >> yes. that's really the key to these big flood events in california. if a system stalls over an area and that looks like what's going to happen in southern california much more than in northern california, we're going to see these large accumulations through all day tomorrow and monday, and then probably tapering off somewhat on tuesday. tuesday probably the winding down day. should also mention in the sierra we're looking at measurements of snow in the, you know, 3 to 5 foot range in some of the higher areas, really shutting down that area as well. >> okay. and the other thing i just wanted to ask you about was, you know, this storm isn't coming in isolation as it were.

we've had quite a bit of rain in california the past couple of weeks. we had a big storm thursday, the previous week. that makes it more dangerous because the ground's already saturated. >> it's saturated, tree roots are saturated, power lines, you know, the soil around those, mudslides. so that makes -- that increases the danger from that. and so, yeah, it's having these saturated soils. now, the good thing is we had a couple days of dry weather after the storms on thursday, and it was like after monday, tuesday we're going to dry out for a few more days. so that'll give things for the rivers to come back down and things to normalize at least a little bit. >> all right, fingers crossed it is not too terrible and there isn't any loss of life. thank you very much for your insights. meantime, in chile a man is in custody in connection with

one of the wildfires that have killed more than 50 people across that country. police tell cnn chile the man is believe today have accidently started one of the smaller fires while working on a welding project. more than 100,000 homes have been damaged by the wildfires elsewhere in the country. you can see beach goers stare in wonder at ominous skies blackened by the heavy snmoke ad the situation is particularly dire in valparaiso. watch and listen to this heart stopping video. it's a driver going through the flames while trying to keep his passengers calm.

>> wow. officials tell cnn the death toll in chile is likely to rise. nearly 400 residents are thought to be missing from just one coastal city. more than 90 fires are burning in different parts of the country affecting more than 100,000 acres. the world's coolest dictator, a nickname for the president of el salvador, he has an iron fist reputation and is expected to win big at the ballot box this weekend. that's ahead. #

himself the world's coolest dictator is expected to cruise to re-election in el salvador on sunday. nayib bukele won praise for his

crack down on the country's notorious gang violence but critics say the price for that is the loss of many freedoms and the loss of human rights. >> reporter: she breaks down in tears when she talks about her niece she was just 20 years old when she was murdered in the streets of el salvador. the pain still fresh, seven years after she was killed. back then el salvador was close to being a failed state with the highest murder rate in the world, it was gangs like the infamous ms-13 who set the rules. to this day she doesn't know who killed joseline.

she's sure, however, on who turned the tide on crime. nayib bukele became president in 2019 and quickly tied his name to a security crack down that sent tens of thousands to jail and effectively taking the gangs off the street. a state of emergency was declared in 2022 granting the government exceptional powers to deploy the army and allowing the police to detain any citizen without charge for up to 15 days, besides curtailing civil rights such as due process. the government claims el salvador is finally safe, and he's cruising to re-election this sunday. but his critics such as human rights watch accuse him of mass indiscriminate detentions and even torture. at cnn we spoke with a woman who was arrested on november 11, 2022. the police claimed she was part of a gang, she denies the crime and says that she never saw a judge. six months later she was found not guilty and was released, but she says that she was put through inhumane conditions inside the prison. we're hiding her identity for

security reasons. the government admits hundreds of thousands of people may have been imprisoned by mistake but doubles down on the crack down and points to the deaths of policemen in the line of service as a reason to carry on. neither human rights watch or ngos will say anything about the lives of our heroes and their families who are helpless without them, leaving the door wide open on the tight line between security and individual freedoms. for the first time ever in northern ireland a nationalist politician is the first minister. michelle o'neill of sinn fein was sworn in on saturday marking

a seismic shift in northern ireland's history. her party was once considered the political arm of the irish republican army during the violent period known as "the troubles." now she'll share power with a unionist deputy first minister. the two pledged to work together and serve all of northern ireland regardless of party affiliation, religion, or background. across europe many farmers say they're fed up with regulations surrounding their livelihoods and are not satisfied by recent concessions by the ee or their country's governments. from italy to greece, they say they won't stop protesting until their demands are met. lynda kinkade has the story. >> a small moving tractor jam blocks a road to rome in a loud honking message to the italian

government and the eu. farmers here like the ones protesting across the continent are fed up. we're expecting an answer from the government because it's a critical situation. we cannot be slaves inside our farms. >> reporter: it's a sense of anger and frustration shared by many farmers across europe who say they're going broke because of rising costs, environmental regulations, and competition from cheap imports. for weeks french farmers have held some of the biggest and loudest protests obstructing major roads in paris and key highways across the country. but many french protesters are dismantling their blockades after the government made key concessions and provide more financial support to farmers, enough for now for these

protesters to go home. >> translator: these are people who put their heart and soul into these demonstrations. they went up to paris at 30 kilometers an hour and came back down again for eight days. it's extraordinary. they're our heroes. >> reporter: but it's been a lightening rod for other european farmers. in greece farmers already hit hard by recent flooding dumped spoiled produce on the streets to protest high energy bills and demand permanent changes to a diesel tax. cheaper goods are also an issue especially those from ukraine. after the eu waived import duties on ukrainian grain, sugar, and meat following the russian invasion. one german farmer says it could put her out of business. >> translator: if things go on like this, small family farms like the ones we have here will cease to exist. if we no longer exist, then the products will be imported from abroad, and then we won't know

under what conditions they were produced. >> reporter: in malta farmers protell used the eu's environmental targets among other issues, which they say makes them uncompetitive. though there has been a small compromise for eu farmers on that front, the european commission says they will deny a requirement for farmers to keep part of their land unused to improve biodiversity while still receiving support payments. but farmers across the continent say they need more concessions from the eu and their own countries. something that could affect climate goals, foreign imports, and even what food is on the table. lynda kinkade, cnn. still ahead, arguably the greatest football player of his generation is off the plane and onto the pitch in hong kong. we'll tell you about

inter-miami's first foreign tour and the resulting messi mania.

messi mania is sweeping hong kong.

david beckham is also expected to attend. tickets for the match sold out in less than an hour. cnn's kristie lu stout joins us live now from hong kong. has it kicked off yet? >> reporter: do you know what, the match is going to kick off at the top of the hour. messi fever is gripping hong kong. you've got tens of thousands of fans here, all clamoring for the opportunity to see their hero, the argentine football superstar lionel messi play in this preseason friendly with his team, inter miami, against hong kong. this is inter miami's first-ever international tour, and the co-owner of the team, david beckham, is also here. he's been signing football jerseys inside hong kong stadium, adding even more star power to the proceedings. this is a sold-out event, maximum capacity here of 40,000 seats all seoul sold out within one hour of tickets going on

sale online just over a week ago. we got a chance to speak to the lucky fans who scored tickets. listen to this. >> really excited. actually, i'm from macao. i traveled a lot to come here. hopefully i can see him and sign a jersey. >> i'm a argentina fan, more than 20 years. this is the first time i have this opportunity to see messi and to fulfill my dream. since 2022, argentina won the world cup, champions. so this time is another time for me to celebrate this and to meet messi. one of the happiest moments. >> reporter: we also spoke to a hong kong footballer who was selected to be part of the squad who will be sharing the pitch with lionel messi, and he calls it a "dream encounter." let's bring up the statement for you. this according to jordan lam, "i was so surprised to get into the

final squad. i think it's a dream come true. playing with the goat, messi, is something that i never imagined in my life." hong kong authorities are really hoping that this event will help revive tourism and revive what they call the mega economy, mega event economy, to bring economic upside to the city. when you talk to all the fans here, they cdon't care about that, they only care about seeing the goat, their hero, lionel messi here in hong kong. >> kristie lu stout live there in hong kong, thank you so much. 20 years ago today, mark zuckerberg, undergraduate at harvard university, launched a website that end toed up changi all our lives, for better, and perhaps worse. that was, of course, t thefacebook.com. since then, facebook has become a social media juggernaut.

it introduced a news feed that brought people closer together, which also has spread dangerous misinformation which harmful content. this week, the billionaire zuckerberg apologized to families for the farm facebook has done to children. facebook has more than 2 billion active daily users and 20 years on, it doesn't look like it's going anywhere. thanks for joining us. i'm nick watt. another hour of "newsroom" is just ahead.

growing up, my parents wanted me to become a doctor or an engineer. those are good careers! but i chose a different path. first, as mayor and then in the legislature. i enshrined abortion rights in our california constitution. in the face of trump, i strengthened hate crime laws and lowered the costs for the middle class.

now i'm running to bring the fight to congress. you were always stubborn. and on that note, i'm evan low, and i approve this message. hello and welcome to all our viewers in the united states and arou t