Good evening. I'm Laura Barone Lopez. John Yang is away. In Iran tonight a

frantic search and rescue effort is underway after a helicopter carrying the

country's president Ibrahim Raise and his foreign minister apparently crashed.

State media described it as a hard landing somewhere near the country's northern border with

Armenia and Azerbaijan.

President Raise had traveled to the border to

inaugurate a new dam. Conditions were foggy and rainy as rescue teams

scoured mountainous terrain and dense forests for the helicopter.

Elsewhere in the region, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met today with Israeli

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the war in Gaza.

Their meeting follows Sullivan's visit with Saudi

crown prince Mohammed bin Salman yesterday and comes as Israeli leaders are

split over their plan for the war. Amid the debate Israeli airstrikes on Gaza continued.

27 people were killed in an urban refugee camp in central Gaza.

Hospital officials reported most of the dead were women and children.

Back home, President Biden told students at Morehouse College in Atlanta today that he

hears their concerns over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The commencement address

gave Biden a chance to both court young black voters at one of the nation's

oldest historically black colleges and to acknowledge the protests railing

campuses across the country.

There were no major disruptions during his remarks, but the class valedictorian called

for a permanent ceasefire and some students and faculty draped themselves

...