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CNN Headlines: President Trump Departs Beijing After Summit With Xi Jinping; CDC: 41 People Are Being Monitored For Hantavirus In The United States; Supreme Court Allows Abortion Pill Access Via Telehealth And Mail. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired May 15, 2026 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:14]
BRAD SMITH, CNN ANCHOR: Just a short time ago, President Trump boarded Air Force One to head home from China. But what was the end result of this high-stakes trip?
Plus, there's this:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's overwhelming but it's amazing in the same time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: A man walked out of prison after decades on death row, and now he's free to try to prove his innocence.
And there's this as well.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Like revving. And then all of a sudden, boom in an explosion.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: A devastation in this neighborhood. A plane was about to land and instead crashed right into a house. Weve got that story.
Plus --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
POLICE OFFICER: Get on the ground. Get on your stomach. Get on your stomach.
POLICE OFFICER: Watch the knife.
POLICE OFFICER: Get on your stomach.
POLICE OFFICER: Watch the knife (END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: An intense search for the man who attacked a deputy. That body cam was rolling at the time. We have that story coming your way as well.
Good morning everyone. I'm Brad Smith. This is CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS. Glad that you're with us this morning.
Let's get this started. It's a wrap for President Trump's high stakes summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Air Force One was wheels up Friday afternoon local time there. The president now heading back to the U.S. at this hour.
Earlier, the two leaders met at the Chinese Communist Party compound, with talks going later than expected.
CNN's Steven Jiang takes a look at a top-down approach of how the two- day, face-to-face meetings between president Trump and President Xi went.
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STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: I think the main takeaway is this summit has gone according to plan, which must be such a big relief for both sides, but especially for the Chinese officials here.
Now, you know, the two leaders met again on Friday morning in a more intimate setting inside the Zhongnanhai garden, where they had tea and then working lunch. Mr. Trump, of course, was being quite direct, during some of the comments. Media was allowed to hear talking about his -- what he wanted from Iran and also claiming China has agreed with his position.
Now, Mr. Xi seemed much preferred to talk about his trees and flowers in the garden. But one thing the two leaders did seem to agree was the success of this summit and the need for more face to face meetings for them. But they also accept there is going to be moderate competition as well as manageable differences.
So all of that, of course, is perhaps the best result anyone can hope for, as we have always talked about this being a high stakes, low expectations -- low expectation summit. Now that -- now that it's concluded with the Air Force One in the air, we may hear more, especially from Mr. Trump himself. Now, he feels not constrained anymore by diplomatic protocols.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SMITH: Steven Jiang in Beijing, thank you.
Now, the president's team has been dropping hints that China has agreed to buy billions in U.S. agricultural products. And Trump himself said that China plans to buy 200 Boeing jets. We'll have more later this hour. We'll take you now to the latest developments in the hantavirus
outbreak, as 41 people are being monitored for the virus in the United States. That coming from the CDC.
Among them are three Kansas residents who were not on the cruise ship at the center of the outbreak, but they came into close contact with a person who tested positive for the virus. CDC official leading the response says if anyone develops symptoms, the agency has local health departments ready to provide testing and care.
It comes as we have a new update from Dr. Stephen Kornfeld. He is the doctor who was in isolation after he treated fellow passengers who became sick. He initially tested what's called a mild positive, but his latest test showed that he was negative and he has since been moved out of isolation.
Okay, so there's a new twist here. He just received his antibody test results, which also came back negative. He spoke out about his ordeal with our Erin Burnett last night.
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DR. STEPHEN KORNFELD, EXPOSED TO HANTAVIRUS AFTER CARING FOR SHIP PASSENGERS: On this 747 plane, there are two large almost like a container box called the hot box. So I was escorted into the plane in full gear protection gear. I went on a separate ramp in a separate door than the rest of the people, and I went into this box, which had four gurneys kind of host sick people. And I was transported over the 10-hour flight in that box. It was a little surreal.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: In a box. Gosh.
KORNFELD: Well, it's not like -- it's a big box, but it's still a box.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: It's still a box.
And so far, for the hantavirus outbreak, from what we've been able to track thus far, three people have died in the outbreak of hantavirus on a cruise ship.
[05:05:06]
The Supreme Court is allowing telehealth and mail access to the abortion pill mifepristone for now. This decision maintains the justices' pause on a lower court ruling out of Louisiana. It mandated that women get the medication via in-person visits only. The case now goes back to the New Orleans-based appeals court, where Louisiana officials are still pressing to restrict access.
Another shakeup at the top tier of the Department of Homeland Security. Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks stepping down, effective immediately. He said that he wanted to spend more time with his family. Banks has been with the department for nearly four decades. His departure marks the third high profile turnover within the DHS in two months, including now former Secretary Kristi Noem.
Happening today, the live streamer best known online as Chud the Builder, will face a judge in Tennessee this morning. Dalton Eatherly, who is a controversial figure who posts content and has included racial slurs in that content, was allegedly involved in a shooting outside a courthouse on Wednesday. Authorities say he and another man were hospitalized. The circumstances are unclear.
But last Saturday, he was allegedly involved in another incident at a Nashville restaurant. And in that case, he was arrested on theft related charges. CNN is trying to determine if he has a lawyer.
On weather express, we are gearing up for several days of severe storms from the plains into the Midwest.
CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar explains.
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ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: The main concern for Friday is really going to be additional severe thunderstorms. Now the main focus is really going to be across the central U.S. you can see that red cluster there indicating where the greatest threat for those severe storms is going to be. The vast majority of them are really going to ramp up late into the day Friday. They'll continue through the overnight hours.
And even as we head into Saturday morning, you're still going to be looking at the chance for a few of those strong to severe thunderstorms. This time, however, moving from the central U.S. over into areas of the Midwest. And one of the things that is fueling a lot of those severe thunderstorms are the temperatures, very warm temperatures out ahead of that system.
Take a look at some of these numbers. High temperature Friday, 82 in Nashville. Almost 90 in Oklahoma City, similar over into Dallas, but its also nearly 90 all the way up into Minneapolis. You really get a chance to see how far north a lot of that heat is really spreading into the day Friday.
But it's not just Friday. As we go through the weekend, you're going to start to see more of that heat spread into the Midwest and into areas of the Northeast and the mid-Atlantic, especially by Sunday, Monday and Tuesday of next week.
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SMITH: Thank you, Allison.
A small plane crashed into a Ohio home, killing two people.
A flight tracking website indicates that the aircraft was preparing to land when it went down and turned that home into a fireball. On Thursday. The plane had apparently taken off from a nearby airport about an hour and a half beforehand. One neighbor says that her house literally shook. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTI GOULD, NEIGHBOR: And you just heard a real quick whining of it. Like it was like revving. And then all of a sudden, boom, an explosion. And our house shook and it scared the crap out of us. And everybody started running outside to see what happened and where it was
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: Officials say both victims were on board the plane, and there are no reports of any other injuries. Federal investigators will look into what caused the crash.
Well, this morning we are hearing harrowing new details from one of the 11 survivors of that small plane that crashed into the waters off of the Florida coast on Tuesday. Here is her emotional account of what happened.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I thought he was dead because all I see was blue dark water around us.
REPORTER: Eleven people survived after a plane crashed into the ocean off the Florida coast, leaving passengers stranded on a life raft in open water for hours.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My niece, she was on the wing and she told me. She said I need to swim. I said, I can't swim. She said, you have to throw yourself in the water and flap your foot.
REPORTER: Outten says the group clung to the raft in rough conditions, surrounded by what she describes as dark water with no land in sight.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We was out there for five hours. We was in a storm. We thought no one would have saw us.
REPORTER: The group was eventually rescued by the 920th rescue wing of the U.S. air force.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They saw us, and they saved us, and they keep on telling them. I said, Lord, save us, Lord, save us. Let someone see us, Lord, let someone see us. Because to be able to see to be on our water and to be out there for five hours and then seeing no line and just seeing long black water, we thought we were going to live.
(END VIDOE CLIP)
[05:10:07]
SMITH: What a remarkable rescue.
There are lots more to come on CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS. Divers making a shocking discovery in a reservoir that supplies drinking water to a major southern city. An explosive device. We've got the full details there on that story.
Plus, a former Kansas mayor has been detained by ice and could face deportation. What he admitted doing that led to it coming your way.
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[05:15:00]
SMITH: The former mayor of a Kansas town now facing possible deportation. He was taken into custody by immigration authorities after acknowledging that last year, he voted in elections despite not being a U.S. citizen.
Here's CNN's Whitney Wild with the full story.
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WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is Joe Ceballos, the former mayor of Coldwater, Kansas, who was taken into custody by immigration authorities, according to "The Associated Press".
JOE CEBALLOS, FORMER MAYOR, COLDWATER, KS: I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know where they're going to take me and what I can and can't do inside there.
WILD (voice-over): Ceballos, who was twice elected mayor of Coldwater, was born in Mexico but is a legal resident in the U.S., according to his attorney. While seeking citizenship last year, Ceballos admitted he had voted in elections despite not being a U.S. citizen. His attorney said Ceballos was not aware that green card holders are not eligible to vote.
After resigning over this issue, Ceballos made a deal with the attorney general and pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. Now he fears that he'll be deported after being taken into ICE custody over the charges.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought our system was smarter and better than this. I thought that there was a degree of humanity and dignity included in the process.
REPORTER: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It doesn't seem to be the case anymore.
WILD (voice-over): Ceballos' detainment in Wichita was met by protests criticizing ICE. CNN has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SMITH: Our thanks to Whitney Wild for that report.
Well, new this morning, a grenade found in an Alabama lake has been safely detonated. Divers found the device in Big Creek Lake. That is, a manmade reservoir that provides drinking water to the city of Mobile. It's unclear where the grenade came from or how it ended up in the lake, but the reservoir and the dam are federally designated critical infrastructure. The FBI is investigating.
In Texas, new flood warning technology is on the way after deadly flooding revealed gaps in the alert system there. This new system is meant to give people earlier, clearer warnings before flooding becomes dangerous. It will use weather data, river levels and new gauges to show where flooding could strike and how severe it could be. An early version of the system could be ready by the end of this summer, with the full system expected over the next few years.
This follows last July's devastating floods along the Guadalupe River, which killed more than 100 people, including dozens of children at Camp Mystic. And now officials say that the goal is not just better forecasts, but making sure that warnings reach people in time for them to act.
Still to come on CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS, take a look at this. A driver racing from police veers off the road and goes airborne. How this chase ended later on in the hour.
Plus, a new study looks at women who take antidepressants while pregnant and possible links to autism and ADHD. We've got those findings straight ahead.
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[05:22:25]
SMITH: A school board decision in Wisconsin is causing outrage. A song about LGBTQ plus history was pulled just days before a concert. And now students and parents are pushing back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I\m so utterly angry and I don't even know how to express it.
REPORTER: A school board in Wisconsin voted against allowing a high school band to perform a piece of music linked to LGBTQ+ history, according to CNN affiliate WMTV. Students, parents and professional musicians protested before a school board meeting on Tuesday.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our school board is -- it almost feels like they're trying to brainwash us at this point.
REPORTER: The song, "A Mother of a Revolution", was expected to be performed at Watertown High School's upcoming spring concert. The instrumental piece honors the legacy of the 1969 Stonewall uprising, a landmark moment in LGTQ+ history. But just days before the concert, the meeting turned explosive as the board voted against the song, which more than 30 students spent months rehearsing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We heard all of you speak. Please be polite enough to let us speak to you. Thank you. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Say something worthwhile.
(CHEERING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think this is a great example of what happens when, for decades in schools, we teach these ideas and we validate a lack of civility.
REPORTER: The district's 2025 controversial topics policy restricts how teachers can discuss LGBTQ+ history in schools, meaning the band director was limited in providing any historical context for the music they were playing. The band director, however, followed school protocol, informing families last October about the song and offering students to decide whether they wanted to participate. Only three opted out.
CNN reached out to the band director for comment, but was directed to the district administration.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm just so unbelievably proud of all of these people getting their support for just a band class is the best thing I could have asked for
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: A dramatic emergency plane landing on a Phoenix street was caught on camera. This happened last month, but the video is just now being released. Three people were on the plane at the time, but weren't seriously hurt. The NTSB says that the plane had to land on the street because of engine problems. The preliminary investigation report should be released in a few weeks.
In today's health express, a new study suggests that there is no clear link between taking antidepressants during pregnancy and autism or ADHD in children.
[05:25:00]
Researchers reviewed 37 studies in all, and at first, they found a higher risk of ADHD and autism. When either the father took antidepressants or the mother used them during pregnancy. But they say most of those links weakened significantly or disappeared once other risk factors were taken into account. The report was published in the journal the Lancet Psychiatry.
Straight ahead on CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS: He lived through nine execution dates and at least three meals were eaten, three last meals. And now he's off of death row and out of prison. What led to this man's release coming up.
And later on, former workers of the now defunct Spirit Airlines say that they are owed back pay, and they plan to sue. That story and more, CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS continues.
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