Return to Transcripts main page

The Story Is with Elex Michaelson

Trump Claims New Intel Reveals Vulnerabilities In U.S. Elections; China Rejects Trump's Allegations of "Election Interference"; Outbreak Of Diarrhea From Parasite Expands To More States; Critics Cast Doubt of Trump Claims of Election Fraud; President Xi Spells Out His Vision at World A.I. Conference; Christopher Nolan Directs $250M Adaptation of Greek Epic; Venezuelans Criticize Government Response to Twin Quakes. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired July 17, 2026 - 01:00   ET

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

[01:00:00]

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: To attend a FIFA reception at Trump Tower. Mr. Trump has drawn attention for his involvement in the tournament, including a claim that he has personally asked FIFA's president to review a red card in suspension given to a U.S. player.

Thanks for watching the first hour of The Story Is a busy night. The second hour begins with breaking news.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

MICHAELSON: You're watching The Story Is. I'm Elex Michelson live in Los Angeles. Tonight, the top story is that breaking news, the primetime presidential address from President Trump. The White House promised shocking new information about lapses in U.S. election security and efforts by foreign countries to interfere.

But what President Trump delivered instead was information from a series of newly declassified documents discussing issues that have been known for years, many already addressed by election officials across the country.

None of the declassified information supports the allegation that any previous election results were manipulated by foreign interference in a way that would have changed the election outcome. In a moment, I'll speak live with the Secretary of State in Colorado, Jena Griswold. But we begin with this report from CNN's Jenn Sullivan.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Good evening.

JENN SULLIVAN, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): President Donald Trump delivering a primetime address Thursday claiming there are, quote, shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure.

TRUMP: Tonight we're publishing a series of previously classified U.S. intelligence community assessments and other reports proving that our government has long known these machines are extremely exposed to attack.

SULLIVAN (voice-over): Still, Trump has not provided evidence that machines have been exploited by a foreign adversary. He also accused China of meddling in the 2020 election, but Trump did not elaborate on how it may have impacted the results of the election.

TRUMP: China engaged in other election related activities to undermine my first at me 2020 campaign.

SULLIVAN (voice-over): Trump has repeatedly claimed the election claims have repeatedly been proven false. The U.S. intelligence community released a report in 2021 that said China specifically saying China, quote, considered but did not deploy influence efforts intended to change the outcome of the U.S. presidential election. States who were accused of election fraud say every precaution is taken to ensure results are honest and authentic.

STEPHEN RICHER, FORMER MARICOPA COUNTY, ARIZONA RECORDER: This is why we have paper ballots. It's why we do pre-election tests and then we do post-election hand count audits to make sure that the machines read the ovals correctly.

SULLIVAN (voice-over): Thursday's speech comes just months ahead of the critical midterm elections where Republicans could lose the majority in either the Senate, the House or both. Many Democrats say these latest claims just spread more lies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have seen so many examples of this president since the 2020 election.

SULLIVAN (voice-over): Trump's remarks come on the heels of his so called Save America Act failing to pass in the Senate. The legislation would enact strict new ID and proof of citizenship requirement for voting. I'm Jenn Sullivan reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAELSON: Jena Griswold is the secretary of state in Colorado where she oversees that state's election. She's currently the Democratic nominee to be the next attorney general in Colorado. She's live in Denver right now. Welcome to the story is.

JENA GRISWOLD, SECRETARY OF STATE, COLORADO: Thanks for having me.

MICHAELSON: President Trump talked about the states. Here's some of what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I've also ordered DHS to notify every state about noncitizens on their voter rolls and direct them to remove all ineligible voters from the lists immediately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Have you heard from the Department of Homeland Security and if and when you do, how will you respond?

GRISWOLD: We have not heard from the Department of Homeland Security or anybody from the administration at this point. And honestly, we saw Trump use the presidential address to push out debunked falsehoods, more lies about elections in this country. I think the big takeaway from his address is that he's a sore loser. He continues to fixate on 2020. And I think a big irony is that if anybody has made our elections less secure, it's him. During his second presidential term.

MICHAELSON: He seems very focused on trying to cut back on mail-in ballots. Colorado is a state where you mail a ballot to every registered voter. It's a universal mail-in ballot state. Are you worried about him trying to stop mail in balloting for this particular election? And what safeguards do you have in place if he tries to do that?

[01:05:06]

GRISWOLD: That's a great question. And the President is absolutely focused on mail ballots, even though he himself used a mail ballot in the last election to cast a vote. So he is a hypocrite. And at the end of the day, what he wants to do is make it hard for eligible Americans to cast a ballot.

Here in Colorado, we send a mail ballot to every active voter, but people still have the choice to vote. And one of the great things is that we have seen Coloradans continue ballots, including over 98 percent of Republican voters in our most recent election. So we have confidence in our elections and in terms of federal interference. Trump is already trying to undermine the use of mail ballots.

His second executive order, targeted mail ballots. That's largely being stopped by the courts. I am currently being sued by Trump's DOJ because they are trying to collect sensitive voter data, I think for bad reasons, to try to, I would assume, purge the vote. I told them to take a hike, as did many election officials across the country. And I look forward to beating them in court and having our AGs represent us in that case.

So make no mistake, Trump is already trying to interfere with the 2026 election. He just fired the EAC commissioners, threatened election officials all across the country last week. But the good news is he is largely failing, and I think he will fail overall to undermine in an effective way, in a consequential way, the '26 election.

MICHAELSON: Republicans would point out that there is a difference between Florida, where President Trump votes by mail, where you have to request a mail in ballot, and states like Colorado, California and others where everybody gets a mail in ballot whether they ask for it or not. And that by sending out so many mail-in ballots, it creates more of an opportunity for fraud. How do you respond to that?

GRISWOLD: Well, I think at this point, MAGA Republicans say a lot of things that are absolutely false about our elections. Colorado is considered one of the most secure states in the nation for our elections, and we have multiple levels of security. We do signature verification. Ballots are on a piece of paper.

And at the end of the day, MAGA is focused on one thing, and that is trying to suppress the vote. For the '26 election, Trump is laying the groundwork to reject the results if his party does not win. That is what this is all about. We have endured as a nation years and years of Trump's lies.

And as your reporting showed before I joined, his lies and MAGA lies have been debunked as falsehoods over and over and over again. Look, after the 2020 election when Trump threw the fit of refusing to accept defeat, over 60 lawsuits were filed. They lost nearly every single one. His own U.S. attorney said that there was no widespread fraud and that Donald Trump himself knew that he lost that election.

So at the end of the day, I'm going to continue to protect the right of every eligible voter, Republican, Democrat and unaffiliated, including their right in Colorado to cast a ballot using a mail ballot, whether that's by mail or at a Dropbox.

MICHAELSON: And we should point out that despite all of the document, none of them provide evidence changed in an outcome of an election. None of them show this election was changed because of what China did or anybody else. And so that is an important point as well. The secretary of state in Colorado is Jena Griswold. Thank you so much for joining us and sharing your perspective. Appreciate it.

GRISWOLD: Thank you.

MICHAELSON: China has flatly denied the president's claims, which come at a sensitive moment for Washington and Beijing. Relations were frayed by trade issues, but there have been recent attempts at a diplomatic reset, including a planned visit by the leader of China, Xi Jinping, to the U.S. in September. But could the president's speech upend all of that? Here's more of what President Trump said about China.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: China engaged in other election related activities to administration in our 2020 campaign, results of the U.S. midterm elections and later the results of the 2020 presidential election itself. Separately, in mid-2019, the Chinese government's strategy against the United States was focused on undermining domestic confidence in the U.S. President. They wanted to just make you sound like your president wasn't so hot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[01:10:04]

MICHAELSON: Let's bring in CNN's Beijing Bureau Chief Steven Jiang, live for us in China right now. What are you hearing in terms of the Chinese reaction to those very real accusations?

STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: Yes, Elex, I have heard back from the spokesperson at the Chinese Embassy in Washington and not surprisingly, it was a very strong denial. And their statement reads in part, China has all along adhered to the principle of non- interference in others internal affairs. It goes on to say China has never and will never interfere in the presidential elections of the US.

Now, this really echoes their long standing position. And even though the statement does not touch on hacking allegations, that's something they have also responded on multiple occasions in the past because it has come up in the context of the U.S. election as well.

And they of course, have not only pushed back very vehemently and often turning the table on Washington, accusing the U.S. of being the world's hacking empire, their word, citing evidence from whistleblowers like Edward Snowden. So we're probably going to hear something similar in the coming days as well.

But by Beijing standard, though, their response so far has been fairly restrained, partly because they could point to previous U.S. intelligence community assessment, including a report in 2021 that said China did not deploy interference efforts and China considered but decided not ploy influence efforts. And so they have those previous U.S. assessments to point to.

But it is interesting to see whether or not the president's very overwhelming and ominous new allegations would have an impact on this expected visit to Washington by Xi Jinping, as you mentioned, because before the speech, there had been chatter about Chinese officials going to D.C. to talk to their American counterparts to prepare for that visit.

Now, as you mentioned, Trump was here in May and that summit with Xi actually stabilized this often contentious relationship. And these leadership summit obviously are often considered the strongest guardrails to prevent this relationship from deteriorating. But now with this new twist, it's going to be very interesting to see if any of that could be thrown into doubts.

But Chinese officials and a lot of analysts here do understand the intended audience of the president's speech is mostly domestic, especially ahead of those critical midterm elections. So they could be willing to just look past that quickly after issuing their predictable strong denial and then turn the page over to basically trying to maintain this very fragile stability between the two countries. Elex.

MICHAELSON: Sort of you do what you got to do, I do what I got to do. But so far at least no indications of any sort of cancellation of the upcoming Xi trip to America. Steven Jiang joining us from Beijing, thank you so much.

President Trump only briefly mentioned the war with Iran during his primetime address. He says the U.S. is, quote, winning big in Iran, adding that the U.S. will see the fruits of the conflict very, very shortly. And that was his only mention of the conflict.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military says it hit dozens of Iranian military targets in its latest major wave of strikes. It marks the sixth consecutive night of U.S. attacks on that country.

And video obtained by CNN shows a drone flying low while smoke rises over an Iranian port city on the Gulf of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian media reports several bridges in southern Iran were hit in the latest round of U.S. strikes along with a railway junction and power lines.

Thousands of people across the U.S. have been sickened in the outbreak of an intestinal illness. Now, investigators may have identified what's behind some of the infections. We'll talk about it with a leading epidemiologist. What you need to know about all this to avoid getting sick, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:18:19]

MICHAELSON: Investigators trying to determine the source of an intestinal illness that has affected some 7,000 people across parts of the U.S. may have found one of the causes. Sources familiar with the investigation say shredded iceberg lettuce supplied by Taylor Farms and served at some Taco Bell restaurants has been linked to hundreds of cyclosporiasis cases in the Midwestern US. With me now to talk about it is Anne Rimoin, professor of epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. Welcome back to the show.

We reached out to Taylor Farms for a statement. Didn't hear back from them, but we did hear from Taco Bell. They said, quote, the affected ingredient from our supplier is being indefinitely removed from our supply chain nationwide and will be replaced within 24 hours in select states. So there's a lot of people watching this in the Midwest right now who had Taco Bell recently.

What should they do? Should they be concerned?

ANNE RIMOIN, PROFESSOR OF EPIDEMIOLOGY, UCLA FIELD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Well, listen, the bottom line is, is that we have foodborne outbreaks all the time. So, you know, we now have good news here. We know that many of these cases are linked to shredded lettuce, from what we understand. And that's there's now something to be done about it.

So they're pulling the produce. That's great. If you've had Taco Bell, you're in the Midwest, you're in the areas that have been affected. This is then you know, you should be watching for symptoms. And if in particular, if you had something with lettuce in it, you can be watching for symptoms. But the good news is that this particular parasite is not something that has a high case fatality rate.

[01:20:05]

I mean, you can have some very uncomfortable gastrointestinal symptoms associated with it. And you should definitely let your doctor know if you start to have those symptoms so that they can test for cyclosporiasis. MICHAELSON: YTes, I mean, the gross phrase that been out there is that it's explosive diarrhea. So if that starts for you, I mean, you say tell your doctor, is there anything else that can be done for you or is it just sort of, you got to suffer through it?

RIMOIN: Well, there is treatment for it and that's why it's a good idea that if you do have these symptoms that you go seek medical care. They'll test most likely. I mean, they may treat you empirically, but they may do a stool test. And it has to be ordered specifically to test for cyclosporiasis.

Some of the panels that are normally done don't cover that. So it's really important to let your doctor or your health provider know if you're going to the doctor that you have had a potential exposure.

MICHAELSON: If you have eaten Taco Bell outside of the Midwest, are you in the in the clear?

RIMOIN: It seems like we're not seeing upticks in cases in many other states where we've seen this enormous rise has been in Michigan, Ohio, it seems like there's some links in some other places. So I would still pay attention. I mean, once you know that there, you know, is a potential exposure, I would pay attention. But for example, where we are in California right now, cases have not impacted, increased.

And that's what we do, you know, in public health and in epidemiology. What we do is we're looking for trends in terms of number of cases and we're not actually seeing here in California arise beyond what is the norm at this time of year.

MICHAELSON: Do we know that this is the only cause or is it possible there are other causes in terms of what's next now that we've got this key piece of information?

RIMOIN: Well, with so many cases, it's very possible that we could be seeing other outbreaks occurring simultaneously. And, you know, it could be. We'll know a lot more as the investigation continues. And that's where these people in the public health departments, they're going, they're investigating, they're talking to people who are sick, they're going and doing these interviews where they're asking, well, what did you have to eat?

But with cyclosporiasis -- with cyclosporiasis this is something that you could have had 10 days ago. So it's a very intensive intervention.

MICHAELSON: Right. It's hard to remember what you ate yesterday, much less 10 days ago.

RIMOIN: Exactly. And so there's an extensive process. We will certainly get to know if there are other fruits or vegetables that are potentially associated with this. It could be multiple outbreaks. But it does seem like, you know, this is a perfect example of you have a break in the chain, gets into a supply chain. You have something like shredded lettuce, which then is going to be distributed to lots of places. You can see how quickly a public health issue can become not just a small thing, but local -- but to many, many different places. MICHAELSON: But there is good news here. And so it's good to hear that there is good news and that we're making progress and hopefully that means that fewer people sick.

RIMOIN: Absolutely.

MICHAELSON: Anne Rimoin, always good to see you. Thank you so much. More to come here on the story is, we'll be digging into the president's big speech on election interference claims. Our political panel joins us. When we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:27:30]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: According to the DHS review, state voter rolls and public records, they identified approximately 278,000 noncitizens who are registered to vote in federal elections. Since Democrat states refused to share their voter files, the real number is actually much higher than that. Yet, even this limited analysis found more than a quarter of a million foreigners illegally registered to vote. Put together, these disclosures reveal an election system so broken and so vulnerable that no one can possibly defend it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: We're joined once again by our political panel, Dina Doll, Legal analyst with MeidasTouch, Eric Messersmith, political commentator and host at Everybody Settle Down YouTube channel and Caroline Sunshine Communications. Aidan with the 2024 Trump presidential campaign. Welcome to you all.

A lot of Democrats reacting to this speech tonight, including the governor of California. Here's his reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D), CALIFORNIA: He wants to rig the election in 2026. He knows he's going to lose. He needs to rig the election before one vote was cast. That's what that whole thing was about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Gavin Newsom called it tinfoil stuff and suggested the 25th Amendment. He may own agenda. Who knows in talking about this? But how did you see all this?

DINA DAHL, LEGAL ANALYST, MEIDASTOUCH: I mean, he does want to rig the election. I mean, he's told us he's acted like it over the course of few months. Not only is he sowing doubt, but he's, I mean, judge after judge has denied him from trying to gain access to private voter information. You know, he's trying to get FBI rating Georgia, Arizona to no avail. I mean, there's no evidence of voter fraud. It was a bunch of lies. But we are very close to the midterms. I mean, very close.

Even if there was any truth to it, it's way too late to implement anything that would actually safeguard the election. This is all about sowing doubt and chaos and rigging it.

MICHAELSON: Well, the Save America Act is a lot about voter id, Caroline. It's about a lot less mail in ballots. It's about more federal control over some of the elections. Good idea. The idea of voter ID, good idea?

[01:30:00]

CAROLINE SUNSHINE, COMMUNICATIONS AIDE, TRUMP 2024 ELECTION CAMPAIGN: Great idea. And 80 percent -- over 80 percent of Americans think that having to show an ID to vote in elections is a great idea. And I agree.

I had to show an ID to get into the building tonight. I had to show an ID to come on your show. How is it that I have to show an ID to come on television to talk about elections, but you don't have to show an ID to vote in one of the most sacred things, if not the most sacred thing that we do as Americans?

And on sowing doubt, you know, Gavin Newsom -- I'm old enough to remember just a couple of months ago in the 2026 gubernatorial primary, when Gavin Newsom said, if there were a situation where a Democrat didn't make the top two, where they were locked out, we have, quote, "a break-glass measure for that".

And then he never elaborated on what that is.

MICHAELSON: Well, he did.

SUNSHINE: That shows a lot of doubt.

MICHAELSON: Yes, he did. He meant -- what he meant is that --

(CROSSTALKING)

MICHAELSON: -- no, he meant that he was going to endorse one of the Democratic candidates, but he didn't want to get involved in the election. I mean, that's what he was referring to with that.

But the point, Eric, in terms of coming into the building with an ID versus voting, some would say the difference is that you have a constitutional right to vote.

ERIC MESSERSMITH, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes.

MICHAELSON: You don't have a constitutional right to come into the building.

MESSERSMITH: I think what both sides need to acknowledge is there's a tension between making voting easier and also having security, and that's a natural tension. And some states have decided to make it easier. California, where we live, is obviously one example. There are many

others, including Utah, which is a very conservative state and votes almost entirely by mail.

Part of Trump's problems is not being able to really be good at forcing legislation that has a chance to pass. For instance, if he took just the voter ID element and he went to Congress and said, ok, I want voter ID, and I'm willing to give grants to states in order to help people who are older or disabled or have trouble getting out to get an ID, you might be able maybe to get something like that through, or at least put a lot of pressure on Democrats.

But when you combine it with things like part of the Save America Act is basically eliminating mail voting.

Again, red states do it. Florida has a ton of mail voting. California does. That wouldn't even pass the House. There's not enough Republican votes to pass the House. But when you continue to fixate on it, you undermine your own base.

(CROSSTALKING)

DINA DOLL, MEIDASTOUCH LEGAL ANALYST: And Save America is not a Voter ID Act. This is not about showing an ID, this is about making --

MICHAELSON: Part of it.

DOLL: No, I mean, if you could show your driver's license, we probably wouldn't be having this discussion, but that's not the case.

You have to have your passport, a birth certificate. A regular driver's license does not qualify as an ID under this act. So this is not about voter ID.

Also, if people want to do this, they can do it through their states. Federal, we do not have national elections. Under the Constitution, our states run the elections and every state can choose to do it or not. That's a democracy.

MICHAELSON: I mean aren't you a state's rights person?

SUNSHINE: Yes, I am. But I'm also a safe and secure elections person. And I think in regards to mail-in voting, you know, if Democrats don't like hearing President Trump continue to talk about elections, I think they need to make a concession on mail-in voting -- on mass mail-in voting. Which is that we have not returned to our pre-pandemic levels of the mass mail-in voting.

You know, it's fine. If you're in the military or you're going to be out of the country, understand. But we have mass mail-in voting where people who didn't even request ballots are getting that.

And the pandemic has been over for a while now. So that's a pretty common-sense measure. And again, when 80 percent of people support voter ID, I think prohibiting mass -- MICHAELSON: But the overwhelming number of people in a lot of these

states vote by mail because they find it to be more convenient and effective. And if there isn't widespread evidence of fraud or elections being changed for that, is that a -- I mean, that's like I pushed Alex Padilla last night, who's the senator from California, used to be Secretary of State. And I sort of made that point.

And he said, look, people like it. It's more convenient. So why -- we're fixing a problem that doesn't exist?

SUNSHINE: I think, again, it's just about returning to the norm. And I think while some people like it, I also think it creates too much doubt.

And if we all want to have a system where we have high trust, let's go back to how we were doing it before we made this exception for a once- in-a-century pandemic that's now over.

DOLL: I mean, the doubt is because of the lies, not because of the safe mechanism that people vote. Trump even voted by mail just recently. And even in the speech tonight when he said, let's ban mail- in voting, he said, but if you're out of town on business or vacation -- I mean, he even said that tonight.

MICHAELSON: But there is a -- there is a difference, Eric, between states like Florida where you have to request it and then it's sent to you --

MESSERSMITH: Yes.

MICHAELSON: -- and a place like California, Colorado, where they just send out --

MESSERSMITH: Yes.

MICHAELSON: -- ballots to everybody. And when you send out ballots to everybody, you end up sending ballots sometimes to dead people, to people who don't live there anymore, to, you know, to people at the wrong addresses. And so then you have extra ballots laying around. And that's where certainly conservatives feel there's a chance for fraud.

MESSERSMITH: It's true. But remember, in the Save America Act, it doesn't simply ban you from states from sending ballots, which I think you can make a good argument on either side of that, or whether every citizen should get one.

[01:34:51]

MESSERSMITH: The Save America Act essentially eliminates any mail-in balloting unless it's for -- unless it's for travel or it's for disability. And again, there aren't enough Republican votes to pass that.

And also, you can't just say, if I don't get my voter rolls, then we're going to cast doubt on every election going forward. So you either have to change it to do what I want, or you're never going to have an election that I, meaning the president or in this case, most of the Republican Party deemed to be fair.

And my fear is even after Trump is no longer on the political scene, has this now become the standard position of the Republican Party?

I hear JD Vance saying, essentially, there's fraud in our elections. I hear Mike Johnson saying it. There's almost no evidence of actual fraud. It's 0.00001 percent.

Now, that doesn't mean we shouldn't have security measures. Sure. But to say that we have to change the rules my way or else nothing will be fair and I'll never accept an election result, I fear that is now becoming the default --

(CROSSTALKING)

MICHAELSON: Last word, Caroline.

SUNSHINE: I don't think it's his way. I think it's what the voters want. There are very few things in American politics that have 80 percent -- 80 plus percent support and mandatory voter ID for voting in election is one of them.

So I don't think it's his way. I think it's the way of the people. And when you have 80 percent of Americans saying they want something and the Senate can't get it done, you have to question if we really live in a representative democracy.

MICHAELSON: But that point about either I win or there's cheating, that's a real -- that's a real point.

MESSERSMITH: And look, at the end of the day, and the 80 percent, by the way --

MICHAELSON: Last -- this is we're over time, but make it quick. Make it quick.

MESSERSMITH: Ok. 80 percent is only for the voter ID part, not for the whole bill, which contains a bunch of things and you have to pass it through our system. You have to. That's the way things work.

DOLL: Through the states.

MICHAELSON: Through the states, and maybe get rid of the filibuster to do it, which it doesn't seem like the Senate wants to do.

Dina, Eric, Caroline -- great conversation. Thanks for coming in. Great to see all of you.

China making it no secret that it wants to go head-to-head with the U.S. on the issue of artificial intelligence.

Still ahead, China's leader lays out his vision for the future A.I. landscape. We go live to Asia. What did he just say? We'll tell you when we come back.

[01:36:55] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELSON: This just in. China is spelling out its vision for the future of artificial intelligence. A couple of hours ago, President Xi Jinping spoke at the opening of the World A.I. Conference in Shanghai.

China has a sprawling artificial intelligence industry, but its close models still lag behind those made in the U.S., partly because of limited access to advanced U.S. chips.

Kristie Lu Stout following all this from Hong Kong. She joins us live. Kristie, Xi Jinping laying out his vision for China's A.I. development. What did he say? What's that vision?

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. China's leader is vowing to make A.I. accessible for all.

He is headlining this annual World A.I. Conference as underway in Shanghai. And his mere appearance there just underscores the strategic significance of A.I. to the Chinese Communist Party.

And in his keynote address that took place earlier today, Xi Jinping, he called A.I. development, quote, "a symphony of global cooperation". And this comes after some 29 nations signed a deal to create this global A.I. cooperation body that will be headquartered in Shanghai. And the countries involved include Russia, Venezuela and Brazil.

Now, earlier today, again, we heard from Xi Jinping giving out and laying out his vision for A.I., calling for a people-centric, inclusive approach to A.I. development.

But he also said this. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

XI JINPING, CHINESE PRESIDENT (through translator): In the meantime, we should jointly oppose overstretching the national security concept in the field of A.I., or placing one country's security over that of others.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STOUT: Now, the summit comes at a time of rising high-tech rivalry between the U.S. and China. You have Chinese tech companies like DeepSeek, like Moonshot, like (INAUDIBLE) creating increasingly competitive A.I. models.

You have the Chinese tech giant Huawei set to release a new advanced A.I. computing system, which will highlight China's increasing self- reliance in advanced technologies, but also comes at a time both China and the U.S. are trying to safeguard and protect their own domestic homegrown A.I. technologies.

Don't forget, it was a couple months ago in April when China went after Meta, of course, the parent company of Facebook, ordering it to wind down its $2 billion investment or acquisition in Manus, a company that is based in Singapore but has roots in China.

And also don't forget it was in June when the White House moved to limit foreign access in frontier models of A.I., all in a bid to protect these national security assets.

So even though we're hearing from the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, calling for an open and inclusive A.I., this is coming at a time of rivalry between the U.S. and China, of both superpowers regarding A.I. as critical national assets worthy of protection.

Back to you, Elex.

MICHAELSON: And we saw, Kristie, all those tech leaders going to China with President Trump earlier this year. And that may have been part of the conversation as well.

By the way, that phrase "symphony of global cooperation" sounds like a song lyric. That's quite the phrase.

STOUT: Yes. It's a bit poetic, isn't it?

MICHAELSON: Yes, it is.

Well done. Great to see you, Kristie. Thank you.

MICHAELSON: "The Odyssey" -- Christopher Nolan's film adaptation of the epic poem, is selling out theaters ahead of its release this weekend. It is the first feature film shot entirely with iMax cameras. It cost about $250 million to make.

CNN asked Christopher Nolan about how he tackled this legendary story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTOPHER NOLAN, FILMMAKER, "THE ODYSSEY": The way I write, I write from the beginning of the story to the end. But I don't let myself start writing for many months. I take notes, I draw diagrams. I do a lot of thinking.

And I write notes in sort of more abstract terms. And I think of the film in more abstract terms.

[01:44:46]

NOLAN: Ironically, for somebody who tends to work often in non-linear structural terms, I do start with page one. And I do just write, you know, through to the end.

And then I write in layers and I rewrite in layers, but always, always from front to -- front to back.

THOMAS PAGE, CNN REPORTER: Fabulous. I'd love to ask about Odysseus, this complicated man.

How did you reconcile the figure of the hero that we see in the poem with perhaps what we might expect to see from a hero in pop culture today?

NOLAN: I think taking on the character of Odysseus is quite challenging, because I mean, the term most often associated with Odysseus historically is wily. And that's not a characteristic you associate with hero at the center of a story. And in fact, very often I think -- I think in a lot of ways, Odysseus, as in "The Iliad", he makes a fantastic supporting character.

So if you're looking at, you know, "Star Wars", for example, he's more Han Solo than Luke Skywalker.

So the challenge is, ok, how do you take the audience with them on this journey with all of those characteristics?

And a big part of that is casting. A big part of that is finding somebody like Matt Damon, who is such an incredible actor and a wonderful movie star with charisma, with empathetic ability, the empathetic ability to open a journey, an emotional journey to the audience and bring them with him and into his way of looking at the world, thinking of the world.

You trust him. He's able to gain your trust. And so in that way, Matt is able to fully embrace all of the complicated layers of -- of this, this complex figure without them being alienating.

And that's -- that's a big part of, you know, how it works in the film.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Our thanks to CNN's Thomas Page for that.

It's been three weeks since the deadly earthquakes rumbled through Venezuela. Up next, we take you there for an update.

[01:46:39]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELSON: It's been three weeks since twin earthquakes devastated parts of Venezuela. The death toll from the quakes has now surpassed 4,800 people, according to a Venezuelan lawmaker.

CNN's Stefano Pozzebon is there for an update.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Three weeks since Venezuela was hit by twin destructive earthquakes, it is far too early to even think of turning the page.

According to government officials, more than 4,500 people have been killed. Many will rest nameless here, a new mass graveyard expanded last week in La Guaira, close to the disaster zone. The true death toll we may never know.

Thousands of people are still looking for missing loved ones. It is just one of several questions thrown at local authorities.

The U.S.-backed acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, who has been in power since January, is being criticized for a delayed and insufficient response to the most devastating natural disaster her country has faced in this century.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Who decided how, why and for what purpose the military would be deployed in this catastrophe?

DELCY RODRIGUEZ, ACTING VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Our system combines both armed forces and civil protection. That's why I gave the order and we immediately issued the decree, activating the whole response in accordance with the disaster law.

POZZEBON: But the governments reassurances, including the deployment of 19,000 military officials, does not square with our own experience on the ground in Venezuela.

This used to be a golf course. La Guaira was a tourist hotspot by the Caribbean Sea. And so here is where tourists will come and play golf and relax.

Now, of course, it's a tent city for hundreds of displaced, many of whom actually used to live there in those blocks. And every day they wake up and they see their homes and flats broken down by the brutality of the earthquakes.

It is here we met Zoe Santander. Back then, she hadn't been able to see her son in ten days. They were separated in the aftermath of the quakes.

Zoe made it out unharmed. Her seven-year-old Xavier was trapped under the rubble.

ZOE SANTANDER, EARTHQUAKE SURVIVOR (through translator): There was nothing. Nothing outside, no firefighters, nothing. Finding ourselves like that, what were we going to do?

Just wait for anyone who could come and help us.

POZZEBON: To this day, Zoe still doesn't know where her son is.

Nothing remains of their home, a vast housing complex built by Rodriguez's predecessor, the late president Hugo Chavez.

This year's earthquakes are just the latest in a seemingly never- ending run of tragedies suffered by the Venezuelan people.

A few days after the tremors, we met one person whose life chronicled that struggle. Like so many, 45-year-old primary school teacher Ninoska Gutierrez emigrated in 2018, seeking better opportunities and a decent salary to support her family.

She lived in Peru, crossed the jungle and moved to the U.S. in the following years, just as Venezuela's infrastructure fell into disrepair. Listening to her is like living through dozens of stories I covered as

a foreign correspondent for almost ten years. The Venezuelan economic collapse under Nicolas Maduro.

[01:54:48]

POZZEBON: The exodus of millions of migrants to other countries in Latin America and then to the United States. And the crackdown on undocumented migrants under Donald Trump's second administration.

Last month, Ninoska was detained by Miami police over an incident. And charged with a misdemeanor, deported to Caracas just hours before the quakes hit. She was resting in a hotel when the ground started shaking.

NINOSKA GUTIERREZ, VENEZUELAN EARTHQUAKE SURVIVOR (through translator): A wall fell on top of me. Thank God on my legs and not on my head or on my arms. That wall collapsed on me and then a beam or something like that, came down too. It ended up trapping my legs.

POZZEBON: Incredibly Ninoska made it out of the hotel alive. And yet it is a drop in the ocean.

The coastal road in La Guaira is now lined with debris of collapsed buildings. The waves of the Caribbean Sea crashing on the remains of so many lives shattered.

For those who survived it, it is now time to pick up the pieces. Looking somehow to rebuild the life.

Stefano Pozzebon, CNN -- La Guaira, Venezuela.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAELSON: To help those victims, go to CNN.com/impact.

Tomorrow, quite the political panel, Gloria Allred versus Larry Elder. I'll see you then.

I'm Elex Michaelson. Thanks for watching A busy night here on THE STORY IS.

[01:56:26]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)