Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Trump-Xi Summit Wraps Up After Leaders Discuss Trade, A.I., Iran War; Chinese State Media: Xi Told Trump He Hopes U.S. Will Oppose Taiwan Independence; Sources: Intel From Chinese Groups Helping Iran Target U.S. Sites; Supreme Court: States Can Use Citizenship Data Tool In Win For Trump; Powerful Nor'easter To Affect 40-Million-Plus People; Stanford Edits Photo With A.I. In Campus Ad, Replacing Student. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired September 25, 2026 - 15:00   ET

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

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR & SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What's your origin story?

DAVID CHANG, CNN HOST, "THE DETOUR": So many people of my age, the -- the kids of immigrants that came to this country, if you provided any kind of cultural thing that was different, you were going to be made fun of. Having my parents not knowing a country, not speaking a language, that's a crazy proposition.

SIDNER: It's really hard.

CHANG: The silver lining in that, it gave me something to say. I had no idea that it would be something that so many other people could relate to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And a new episode of "The Detour with David Chang" airs Sunday at 9 P.M. Eastern and the next day with an all- access subscription.

And a new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Great expectations: A superpower summit beginning with high hopes for an agreement on A.I. and trade issues. Did it live up to its billing?

Plus, a major legal win for President Trump and his efforts to find non-citizen voters. The Supreme Court ruling that states can use a controversial data collection tool to review voter rolls.

And millions along the East Coast bracing for a rare September nor'easter expected to bring power outages and flooding. We've got your forecast as we follow these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

The whirlwind state visit in Washington has wrapped up. Chinese leader Xi Jinping now heading home after a three-day summit with President Trump. There was a lot of handshaking, a lot of ceremony, so far not many details on substance. The world has been watching closely to see if these two leaders would make any agreements. CNN's Alayna Treene is live for us at the White House.

Alayna, what are you hearing from officials there about any agreements? Are -- are those officials happy with the outcome of this summit?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: So far from the officials I have spoken with, and you can see this as well in some of the public commentary from the President on social media, they are happy with this. And they did, I should say, they were determined going into this. And the conversations, Boris, I had with officials in the lead up to this state visit, they were determined to make it successful.

That's why you saw the President, I mean, when was the last time you saw a president actually go to Joint Base Andrews to greet a foreign leader on the tarmac and then literally roll out the red carpet? So, a lot of the pomp and the pageantry you've seen around this three days of meetings was to do exactly that, was to make sure that it was successful and to, in many words, try to strengthen the relationship between the U.S. and China.

But as you mentioned, not really any deliverables that we have on some key issues we know that were expected to come up during this visit. Of course, you have Taiwan and Taiwan's independence. We actually heard from Chinese state media that President Xi said that he had told the President he hopes he doesn't do anything to try and push for Taiwan's independence.

But you also had things like artificial intelligence, the war with Iran, trade, and then also critical minerals, all of that on the agenda and expected to come up in these conversations, though we don't have any details of what was substantially discussed during their meetings.

And we did hear President Trump argue that artificial intelligence did come up. I'd remind you actually saw many tech leaders and people in the A.I. space come and attend that state dinner, that kind of lavish -- that state dinner in the East Room last night, but no real word on any sort of agreement or details of that discussion.

You also heard Trump say that they did talk about the war with Iran. We know that China, of course, has at times been providing a certain intelligence and satellite imagery to Iran. Don't know if that came up or if the President, President Trump, had asked Xi to intervene or hold off in any way. We've got no specifics on that.

So, again, really largely not a lot to talk about when it comes to a specific agreement. We did hear the President on Friday when he went to the National Archives and brought Xi and Madam Peng to tour some of the United States foundational documents, things like the Declaration of Independence.

Trump said that he believes farmers would be happy with the outcome of this meeting. But, again, no specifics there. So, we're still waiting to learn more about the details. We do know, however, though, that they do -- these two leaders do expect to see each other soon. The President on Friday said he plans to visit China in November, suggesting he'll be attending the APEC summit and that Xi will be back in the U.S. in December for the G20 summit in Miami, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Alayna Treene live for us at the White House, thank you. Brianna?

KEILAR: As Chinese President Xi returns home, CNN has learned from sources that groups inside of China are passing intel to Iran that is helping the Iranians take aim at U.S. military bases in the Middle East and ships in the Strait of Hormuz. That kind of intelligence and satellite imagery helped enable Iran to hit this American airbase in Jordan in July, killing three American service members.

What's unclear is what role, if any, the Chinese government is playing in this.

[15:05:04]

We have CNN's Kylie Atwood with us now.

Of course, the type of government that China has with such a close hole (ph) -- hold on Chinese industry would raise big questions about whether they could control this.

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And the fact that we don't know if the Chinese government has signed off on this is significant, but also the fact that they have not pulled back on these satellite images being sent by these groups to Iran does signal a tacit approval from the Chinese government, of course.

And the fact that these satellite images and this information is being shared by these Chinese groups to the Iranian is allowing them to effectively be more adaptable on the battlefield as this war has gone on, because it's allowing them to more effectively threaten the Strait of Hormuz and to carry out more effective precision target strikes, like the one that you said in Jordan that was carried out against a U.S. base and -- and killed three U.S. service members. We're told that it was Iranian satellite imagery that helped -- excuse me, Chinese satellite imagery that helped the Iranians to carry that out.

I want to read to you a quote from a U.S. official on this to one of my colleagues in describing, quote, "There's a reason that they're targeting," obviously Iran's targeting, "has improved, and it's due to some assistance. Getting reps on the battlefield helps, but getting a helping hand helps a lot, too."

And I think it's important to note that it also allows Iran to be using less expensive and less complicated things that they're using on the battlefield. These drones that they are now able to use, they are attracted to heat. They're not very complicated to make. And so if they have the Iranian satellite imagery that is leading these drones, the -- you know, commitment that they make to those drones and how much they have to put into building them in terms of costs and the like isn't that big. And they're still being pretty effective.

So, this is obviously an important space to watch as this war drags on. We know the Trump administration wants to bring it to a close, but China's support for Iran is a major factor here. KEILAR: It's really asymmetric what it costs the U.S. and they're not,

obviously, pointing up a lot. It doesn't cost too much for drones, relatively speaking.

ATWOOD: Yes.

KEILAR: Kylie, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Boris.

SANCHEZ: We're following breaking news from the Supreme Court. The Trump administration will now be allowed to use a controversial DHS citizenship data tool to review voter rolls. The ruling reverses a lower court decision which had blocked the use of this program.

Now, this is an unsigned opinion. Meaning, we don't know who exactly was in the majority here, but we do know the three liberal justices dissented. CNN's Gabe Cohen joins us now.

Gabe, walk us through this ruling.

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so Boris, what the court had to decide here is whether or not the Trump administration broke the law when it beefed up that controversial citizenship verification tool known as SAVE by bringing in this trove of records from other federal agencies, like, for example, Social Security data, including a lot of data on U.S. citizens.

And this database itself has been a major point of contention over the past year plus, as roughly two dozen Republican-led states have voluntarily handed over their voter lists to help the administration search for noncitizens who might be registered by running it through SAVE, while the Justice Department is suing 30 other states who refused to hand over those lists for DOJ to do that audit.

In their majority opinion, that unsigned opinion that you referenced, the majority of the justices found that the federal government has an obligation, as they write, to respond to requests from state and local election officials who are seeking to verify the citizenship of voters. And they found that the lower court order that had blocked SAVE from being used prevents the federal government from using the program that it believes is best suited to the task.

But there are a lot of concerns that we have heard for months and months now, Boris, talking to election officials across the country about, one, this administration overstepping its authority when it comes to elections, the vast majority of which the Constitution gives to the states with very limited authority given to Congress, none, however, given to the President.

And that is something that the three liberal justices who dissented here really emphasized. We got this dissent from Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who wrote that the harm caused by burdening or disenfranchising even a few lawful voters outweighs the nonexistent harm that the government experiences when it is prevented from taking an action that it likely lacks the authority to take.

And, Boris, one of the reasons there has been so much concern is because the data that has come out thus far from DHS claiming to have found tens of thousands of non-citizens registered to vote, it hasn't really held up.

[15:10:03]

Even officials in some Republican states have said that those numbers appear to be dramatically inflated and that further investigation has found that the number of non-citizens who registered is actually much fewer than that, and the number that have actually voted is even less than that.

And so now the question is, how could this be used ahead of the midterms? My understanding, talking to officials in the administration, is states and -- and counties can start running their lists again through this system. There are laws in place that there can't be systematic purges of voters within 90 days of an election, but there are big questions about individuals being removed because they are identified and believed by a state to be a non-citizen.

SANCHEZ: Yes, we'll see how the system is implemented. Gabe Cohen, thank you so much for your reporting on that.

Still to come, we're tracking a powerful and rare nor'easter storm that is slamming the East Coast right now. Highly destructive flooding is expected.

Plus, we've got new testimony in the murder trial of a former American Idol contestant, Caleb Flynn, accused of murdering his wife earlier this year.

And later, veterans and military families speaking out against a new addition to President Trump's proposed arch in D.C. We'll explain in just moments.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:15:39]

KEILAR: Right now, a rare September nor'easter is strengthening along the East Coast. It's set to linger for several days, bringing strong winds, heavy rain and coastal flooding. More than 40 million people are expected to feel the impacts of this storm. And some areas could see a month's worth of rain in just a day.

Forecasts show a stretch from New Jersey to Massachusetts will take the brunt of this storm. CNN Meteorologist Derek Van Dam is in Massachusetts. He's there in Scituate, on the shore.

Derek, tell us what conditions are -- are like where you are.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, here -- even in -- in Scituate, Massachusetts where we are, there -- there are no strangers to strong nor'easters. But this is definitely going to test the will of the people here because this is a powerful storm. And it's coming at a -- kind of an unusual time. Only 1 percent of nor'easters occur during the month of September. But this relentless northeasterly wind has really been chopping up the

entire Atlantic Ocean. And that's what I'm most concerned about because this storm is going to be slow to exit. And that means this northeasterly wind is going to pick up and it's also going to be consistent for the next three to four days. So, it is going to push up significant amounts of water. And we've already seen that, experienced that across portions of North Carolina, the Outer Banks where Highway 12, section 500-foot section was completely wiped out by overwash. That will be a common theme, especially for those vulnerable coastal roads.

I mean, just look at the water and how tumultuous it is. It's also going to go through multiple high tide cycles. So, with a full moon this weekend, combining with the most powerful part of the storm, which occurs this weekend, Saturday into Sunday, the potential here for coastal flooding is a real risk.

So, you're looking back towards Scituate harbor. This is a protected area. But there are so many vulnerable homes, businesses, structures within this community. It is known to flood during nor'easters. That's why we are here. We want to see how the new seawall that we were live on earlier this evening withstands the powerful winds here.

This storm is so impactful. I want to go to my radar here because you could see what's happening. We -- we are only about 10 miles from the northern band of this -- of -- of this rain band, right? And, in fact, as I'm pointing it out on the touch screen here, you can actually see behind me, that's the shield of rain that I'm pointing out on the computer screen right now.

So, that is going to be our first drops of rain from this. And that could produce, over the life of this storm, five inches of rain. Now, Boston only receives, on average, about three and a half inches of rain during the month of September. So, we're talking about more than a month's worth of rain just from one single storm.

There's the winds, northeast, gusting at 45 miles per hour right now in Nantucket. This storm is going to hug the coastline. And I'm sure you can see that here. That's going to drive in significant amounts of water across the Atlantic into Long Island Sound and the vulnerable areas across the Cape where we're located here on the outer reaches of Massachusetts.

We're in for a wild ride here, Brianna, and it's really starting to pick up, and it's only a matter of time before the rain sets in.

KEILAR: All right. Derek, thank you so much for the latest there, and certainly be careful.

Ahead, the latest testimony in the trial of the former American Idol contestant accused of killing his wife. What a digital forensic analyst said about what they found on his cell phone.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:23:51] SANCHEZ: Stanford University is apologizing after an office used A.I.

to edit a photo used in a campus dining ad. The controversy has led some to question both the use of A.I. and how schools portray diversity on campus. CNN's Jason Carroll has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It may look harmless enough, a photo showing a smiling, racially diverse group of students eating together on campus. But it's the same photo, which appeared in a Stanford University banner last week, that has left some students outraged and raised questions about the abuse of A.I.

This is what the original 2024 photo really looks like. Again, take a look to see how it was altered. The Hispanic student replaced with an A.I. version of a black female student, while the other two students' features were altered.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILLY RAMIREZ, STANFORD STUDENT IN PHOTO: I did feel pretty upset with the actions of the university.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL (voice over): Billy Ramirez, who is majoring in biology, is the student in the original photo. He says he first found out about the A.I. photo swap from a friend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAMIREZ: I don't think it's mainly about the discussion of me being swapped with like a -- like a black woman, but it's more about my Latino identity kind of being erased in that photo, and how I pride myself in being Mexican.

[15:25:07]

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL (voice over): The Stanford Review, an independent student newspaper, was the first to break the story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARRET MOLLOY, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, THE STANFORD REVIEW: I think this story was a perfect storm of abuse of A.I., questions around diversity policy in universities.

ZAYD PATEL, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, THE STANFORD REVIEW: The goal was diversity, and they strayed so far from it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL (voice over): A university spokesperson said, "We have reviewed the matter and confirmed that A.I. was used to alter the image in violation of university policy. The banners with the image in question have been removed. Stanford's A.I. policy is clear: The use of A.I. in producing or altering images of Stanford people, events, research facilities, or achievements is strictly prohibited.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's kind of unacceptable. You know, Stanford is a place where we have -- they actually pride themselves on having students from, like, over 60 different countries in their incoming class. Like, they have diversity that they shouldn't need to fabricate it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL (voice over): This isn't the first time universities have been caught altering photos in the name of diversity. Long before A.I., in 2000, the University of Wisconsin-Madison was caught using Photoshop in an effort to make the school appear more diverse, while in 2019, York College of Pennsylvania was accused of doing the same.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PATEL: It honestly doesn't seem that different than what happened -- has happened in the past. It's just a particular use in this age with A.I. that makes it so much easier to get to that point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL (voice over): Ramirez says this experience has taught him an unexpected lesson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAMIREZ: It's a wake-up call for Stanford to increase its diversity rates, because if you pride yourself so much in diversity, you have to swap a student who's Hispanic into another race and gender to kind of showcase to the world it's diverse. Well, actually, like, you need to take action.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Our thanks to Jason Carroll for that report.

Coming up, President Trump promising that, quote, "tremendous things will happen" after Chinese leader Xi Jinping wraps up a three-day visit to Washington.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)