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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson

Trump and Xi Discuss Trade, A.I. Safety, U.S.-Iran War; Media Outlets Return to White House, TV Pool in Limbo; Nor'easter Set to Slam U.S. East Coast; Israel, Palestinian Leaders Hold Opposing Speeches at U.N.; Paid Creators Flood the Web with Dubious Political Content; Nepal's Prime Minister: 'Climate Change Doesn't Recognize Borders'; Aid Worker Shares Experiences Living in North Korea. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired September 25, 2026 - 00:00   ET

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

[00:00:10]

LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR: And thank you so much for watching. Here comes THE STORY IS with Elex Michaelson, next.

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Elex Michaelson, live in Los Angeles. Coming up, THE STORY IS welcoming Xi. A state dinner for the Chinese leader is just wrapping up at the White House. CNN was denied entry to that event.

THE STORY IS politics and influencers. From Mamdani to political ads, just how much is social media influencing voters right now and how much of it is even real?

And THE STORY IS life in North Korea. Never-before-seen video shared with CNN shows how people were living beyond the capital.

ANNOUNCER: Live from Los Angeles, THE STORY IS with Elex Michaelson.

MICHAELSON: Our top story is the U.S.-China relationship. President Trump hosting Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Washington for a state visit, a formal state dinner at the White House just wrapping up moments ago.

On Friday, President Trump is set to take Xi to the National Archives to see our nation's founding documents as the U.S. marks its 250th anniversary.

CNN is scheduled to serve as White House press pool for that event. But we don't know whether the Trump administration will allow CNN to actually cover it.

The White House denied reporters from CNN and MS NOW access to Xi's arrival for the state dinner late this evening, even though both networks were allowed into the complex earlier in the day.

Remember, President Trump banned the outlets along with Politico last week, but they were ultimately let back in around noon on Thursday, following a court order that was issued during our broadcast last night.

More on all of that in a moment, but let's talk about the trip itself.

This is Xi Jinping's first trip to Washington in more than a decade. It's his second meeting with Trump this year, as the two leaders work to manage one of the world's most consequential relationships.

They held closed-door talks at the White House on Thursday. Chinese state media says the discussions covered trade, artificial intelligence, and the U.S. war with Iran.

Let's go live right now to Beijing. CNN's Steven Jiang, our Beijing bureau chief, joins us live.

We spoke with you as the two of them were meeting in Beijing earlier in the year. We're now talking to you as they're meeting in Washington.

What are your sources telling you in terms of what's actually on the table and what's potentially being discussed? Any actual deals happening?

STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: Yes. Elex, you know, a change of scenery, a change of location, but a theme is here -- is the same here.

Because when you look at the two sides, they're still very far apart on so many different important issues, from trade and economic issues to security and strategic on that front.

So, what they seem to agree is to take advantage of this personal rapport, this supposed friendship between the two leaders, to really keep this fragile stability they have achieved in recent months, and to prevent things from entering another downward spiral that we saw during Trump's first term, especially during the pandemic. But also, in the opening months of Trump's second term as he launched a massive trade war against Beijing.

And remember, of course, Xi Jinping being perhaps the only world leader able to withstand that kind of pressure by imposing tit-for-tat retaliatory tariffs against the U.S., eventually forcing Trump to back down.

And that's where we are in terms -- in terms of this trade truce that they achieved back in November and just got extended for another two months into January.

Now, that's why, again, it may sound like a cliche, but this is one of those high-stakes and low-expectation summits.

MICHAELSON: Yes.

JIANG: Because there's not going to be any major breakthroughs or any grandiose -- it's all about maintaining this framework that they agreed in Beijing back in May, this so-called constructive strategic stability. Quite a mouthful, with the U.S. also adding that condition of based on fairness and reciprocity.

But what this really does is buying each leader some time. Trump, of course, is facing potentially brutal results from the midterm elections.

And Xi, of course, has his own challenges in terms of economic strong headwinds here and also that massive purge he has with the military. Not to mention he needs to buy time to achieve very ambitious goals that he often talks about in achieving self-sufficiency and even overtaking the U.S. in key technologies, including A.I. -- Elex.

[00:05:15]

MICHAELSON: Well, and let's talk more about A.I., because a lot has changed on that front since May. We'll remember, back during that trip the president brought with him on Air Force One, a lot of the top A.I. leaders to see Xi in person in China.

Now, almost all of those leaders were at the White House tonight for this state dinner in prime positions.

Where are we at on A.I. and the possibility of some sort of agreement between the two most powerful countries in the world?

JIANG: You know, it's very interesting because, as you mentioned, the Chinese state media, the Chinese government readout, all mentioned Xi's remarks about A.I. But these are very broad and vague terms in terms of Xi offering to cooperate with the U.S. on A.I. safety and security, and through some sort of dialogue. But there's no specifics, because the two sides really see this issue quite differently.

Now, you have seen this wave of very alarming kind of headlines from the U.S., from Silicon Valley in recent weeks and months, in terms of tech leaders in the U.S., right, warning about this upcoming catastrophe, calling for a slowdown.

And the Chinese, of course, have been talking about A.I. risks in recent weeks, as well. But from a very different perspective in terms of that potential threat to their regime, to their political security, if A.I. is deployed by their enemy states or non-state actors.

So, they do see this quite differently.

Not to mention in this top-down power structure, with this A.I. narrative being pushed on their population, most people still feel very positive about the future with A.I., trusting their government would do the right thing to protect them from any great harm.

So, not to mention, perhaps more importantly, whether government officials or people on the streets see this whole calling for a slowdown of A.I. development from the U.S. as self-serving, because they think that's the U.S. trying to put shackles on the competition at a time when China -- Chinese models are rapidly improving.

So, that's why the perspective are very different. Again, the positions remain far apart. So, you -- that's why you only end up hearing very vague terms in terms of a dialogue on A.I. -- Elex.

MICHAELSON: And there is so much money at stake on the issue of A.I.. And that's driving a lot of this, as well.

Steven Jiang with us live in Beijing on this historic day in the U.S.- China relations. Thanks so much for being with us.

Let's talk more now about the historic day in terms of media rights in the United States and this battle between the White House and the media.

The Trump administration, as we said, allowed CNN, MS NOW, Politico back into the White House. But a judge's order overturning the presidents ban was only a temporary restraining order. It only lasts for 14 days.

The media outlets are requesting a longer-term commitment from that same judge.

In the meantime, CNN's participation in the TV press pool that covers the president still a bit of a holding pattern. CNN's Kristen Holmes at the White House, seeing how things are working tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: We are following suit with what the rest of the TV pool is doing, which is not sending a camera. This is part of what we have agreed upon. But sending an editorial presence.

So, we submitted two names, me and a producer. We walked up, and we were told to talk to the press office specifically to talk to Steven Cheung, who is in charge of communications, and that the invitation or the pre-credentialed names were only for a photographer and an audio person. They did not want any editorial presence there from CNN, specifically.

We did try to push back, saying, why are we being denied access? This is what all the other networks are getting. And we heard nothing in response.

And to be clear, no one of the other TV networks were also bringing in a camera or audio.

And this comes after we saw President Trump really ranting about the fact that there hasn't been enough television coverage from CNN, specifically, about the visit of President Xi. The reason there hasn't been that coverage is that CNN actually was denied entry to the White House leading up to President Xi being here.

During the entire arrival ceremony, CNN reporters, CNN cameramen were trying to get inside this building. They could not. And that is the reason why we were not there to cover it.

The other reason why the pool didn't cover it is, of course, because they have pulled CNN out of the rotation. We are waiting to see if that has changed at all.

Kristen Holmes, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAELSON: Kristen, thank you. And that is why we are not showing you images of the event tonight, because all of that hasn't been worked out.

CNN media analyst Sara Fischer joins us live right now. She's also a media correspondent for Axios, as well.

[00:10:00]

Sara, let's break down what that judge did and this idea of the temporary restraining order, which isn't necessarily about the First Amendment.

SARA FISCHER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: Correct. So, when these plaintiffs -- MS NOW, CNN, and Politico -- filed a lawsuit against the administration, against the White House, they alleged that three of their constitutional rights were violated, two along the First Amendment, which is that you can't prejudice against a news outlet for their coverage. And you can't prejudice against a news outlet for their viewpoint. So those are First Amendment challenges.

And then the third was their Fifth Amendment rights to due process, saying that they revoked the badges of these reporters without giving them any sort of notice.

The judge, Timothy Kelly, who is a Trump appointee, mind you, had ruled in a very similar case in 2018 when the White House tried to strip the credentials of then-CNN correspondent Jim Acosta, and they ruled in CNN's favor on Fifth Amendment grounds.

So, it was no surprise that this judge ruled very quickly that the plaintiffs had a very strong likelihood to win on Fifth Amendment grounds. And it was because of that he granted a temporary restraining order for 14 days, saying, basically, if you don't get the access right now, there will be harm. And that's why I'm going to let you have it.

But he needs more time to understand the case, bet remarks and filings from both sides, before this case can move further to understand whether or not there are First Amendment violations, as well.

Now, after the 14 days, the Trump administration can try to make an appeal. Right now, they cannot. But that's when we should start to see this case move into the second and arguably more consequential phase of understanding if these outlets' First Amendment rights were violated.

I should note, Elex, that the Fifth Amendment sort of process here is non-binding. The First Amendment is a very strong, higher-level court precedent that is set.

And so, it makes sense that it takes a longer time for the judge to understand all the nuances of this case before he makes a decision.

I will tell you, though, most legal experts say that, given that Donald Trump blatantly said Friday that he banned his outlets because of their coverage, it's likely that these plaintiffs have a very strong case on the First Amendment grounds.

MICHAELSON: And that -- whether CNN wins or loses -- would be a extraordinary precedent going forward --

FISCHER: Yes.

MICHAELSON: -- for other news organizations, as well, which is why that is really the case to look out for, in your view.

So, sort of a contrary view in terms of what President Trump is doing here. Is there an argument that, in a lot of ways, he is winning, even if he's losing.

FISCHER: Yes.

MICHAELSON: In that he understands, you know, what we all talk about. And what we all have been talking about recently was the U.S. losing the war in Iran, potentially; gas prices going up; and Republicans doing particularly bad in the midterm polls.

Now, we're talking about a media ban.

FISCHER: Yes.

MICHAELSON: So, in some ways, has he succeeded in changing the conversation into something that his base likes, which is giving a middle finger to the media? Is this good for him?

FISCHER: Well, he definitely succeeded in shifting the narrative at a time when he was facing a lot of losses.

Where he lost was that I don't think he was anticipating not getting the TV coverage he's become so accustomed to ahead of an historic state visit from the Chinese president, Xi Jinping.

But the thing to remember here, Elex, this is not a criminal lawsuit. So, it's not like Donald Trump faces criminal penalties and fines or jail time if he is found, and his administration, is found guilty of violating these outlets' First Amendment rights.

All that would happen is that access would get reinstated and that the precedent would be further solidified.

What it could have implications for down the line is any other attempts to strip access for reporters at the White House or other parts of the administration could be made even harder if this precedent is reinforced.

But I do agree with you that, broadly speaking, he was able to divert the media's attention for a couple of days while he did this stunt.

But ultimately, Elex, I'm like looking at my calendar now. September 25th. We've still got a month and a half to cover the midterms --

MICHAELSON: Yes.

FISCHER: -- and to cover all the things that you mentioned. It's not going to last very long, this short win for him.

MICHAELSON: And we do know that he enjoys television cameras, especially on such a historic night.

By the way, the -- the video we were just looking at is the CNN White House booth. And that is where our team works, behind the scenes, underneath the White House press briefing room.

[00:15:10]

Sara Fischer, thank you for your insights on this complicated issue. We appreciate it.

Still ahead this hour --

FISCHER: Thanks, Elex.

MICHAELSON: -- a strong storm taking aim at the U.S. East Coast this weekend. When we come back, a live meteorologist with a closer look at just how rough the weather could get.

Plus, a dramatic claim by Israel's prime minister in his speech at the U.N. What would have happened, according to him, if he had not launched strikes on Iran?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:20:08]

MICHAELSON: An early fall Nor'easter is gathering strength along the East Coast of the U.S. It's already hitting beaches in several states with heavy surf and is threatening coastal flooding this weekend.

That Nor'easter is sitting several hundred miles off the mid-Atlantic coast. It will begin tracking North over the next two days and is expected to affect more than 40 million Americans.

That's a look at the satellite right now.

For more, we are joined live by Chris Gloninger. He's a meteorologist and a climate scientist who is in Sag Harbor, New York.

Thanks for braving the elements for us, Chris. Thanks for being with us for the first time on this show.

What should we -- what are you seeing right now? And what should we expect over the next few days?

CHRIS GLONINGER, METEOROLOGIST AND CLIMATE SCIENTIST: Elex, the last 24 hours have been this slow, steady buildup. Winds gusting out of the Northeast 20 to 30 miles per hour. And then it's really Friday night into Saturday. That is when we get

into the heart of this Nor'easter, expecting wind gusts 50 to 60 miles per hour here on the Eastern end of Long Island. Those winds will continue up through Cape Cod, the South Shore and the South coast of Massachusetts, as well.

Coastal flooding is the big threat with this storm and is because of the duration. We have these winds out of the East and Northeast, and that water is piling up. So, the water level never gets a chance to drop back down between high tide and low tide. So, each tide cycle piles on top of each other.

And that's that flood threat that will continue all the way through Saturday evening, even Sunday morning, where we could see moderate to major coastal flooding from North Carolina all the way up to Boston, Massachusetts -- Elex.

MICHAELSON: You sent us some video of some of the waves near you earlier today. I mean, that's a big part of this, as well. What can we expect on that front?

GLONINGER: The waves have been steadily building, as well, over the last 24 hours.

And there's a little bit of a climate change component, not the storm itself, but what we've seen since the 1940s. About 11 inches of sea level rise. Six of those inches have happened since the low -- since the early 1990s.

So, that water that you see, those large waves when they build and break, they can reach farther inland. So, that flood threat with rising sea level actually extends farther away from the coast. And it affects all low-lying areas. Again, anywhere from North Carolina up to Massachusetts with this storm.

But 15 to 20, 25-foot waves. So, the coastal flooding is one component.

And then you have the erosion, as well. So, those dunes that you see there, that water line getting very close to the dunes. So, probably the next 24 hours, they'll be eating away at the natural protection.

Again, that's what helps protect our shoreline here along the coast in the Northeast. And we'll have to watch for the next 4 to 5 tide cycles to see how much damage is done.

By Sunday night into Monday, the storm is still spinning around, but it's starting to lose its steam. The other component is going to be the heavy rainfall, Elex; anywhere from 4 to 6 inches of rain from coastal Massachusetts down through the Jersey Shore.

Hopefully, no flash flooding. But the greatest risk of that will be as far East as you can get. So, the twins forks of Long Island, Southern Rhode Island, and Southeastern Massachusetts. And that rain begins to let up late on Sunday. MICHAELSON: Chris, you are a fantastic guest. Thank you so much for

all that information and for really bringing it here on THE STORY IS. Best of luck to you in riding out the storm in the days ahead. Thanks so much.

GLONINGER: Thanks so much, Elex.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Free, free, free Palestine.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Free, free, free Palestine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Pro-Palestinian protesters rallied in New York as the Israeli and Palestinian leaders addressed the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday.

They spoke as the Gaza peace plan is stalled while Israel is moving ahead with its plans to expand settlements into the West Bank.

As Jeremy Diamond reports, the two speeches could hardly have been more different from each other.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Two leaders, two different speeches, two completely different realities. That's what the U.N. General Assembly was like on Thursday, as the Israeli and Palestinian leaders spoke within hours of each other,

The Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, accused Israel of carrying out --

DIAMOND (voice-over): -- a genocidal war against the Palestinian people and of trying to force Palestinians from their land.

He was both defiant and conciliatory, vowing that Palestinians will not be removed from their homeland --

DIAMOND: -- while also arguing for a two-state solution.

The Israeli prime minister, for his part --

DIAMOND (voice-over): -- rejected charges of genocide and war crimes being leveled at Israel and its military. And he spoke instead about Palestinian terrorism and downplayed --

DIAMOND: -- the reality of settler violence in the West Bank.

There were also differences in format.

DIAMOND (voice-over): The Palestinian Authority president spoke remotely after the United States denied him a visa to speak in person at the U.N. General Assembly for the second year in a row. DIAMOND: The Israeli prime minister, he came in person, but just as he walked up to the podium --

DIAMOND (voice-over): -- dozens of diplomats immediately walked out of the room in protest.

But the Israeli prime minister's audience wasn't really those diplomats in the room.

DIAMOND: Netanyahu is a month away from an election --

DIAMOND (voice-over): -- that he's currently projected to lose. And so, his speech, in many ways, was targeted at the Israeli public.

The prime minister proclaimed victory against Iran, and he touted the resilience and bravery of the Israeli public and its soldiers.

DIAMOND: And he made this dramatic and largely baseless claim.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Devastating Iran's nuclear facilities was hard. It was very hard to do. But for me, it was one of the easiest decisions I've ever had to make as prime minister, because if we hadn't done it, we'd all be dead.

DIAMOND: This was the quintessential Netanyahu speech at the United Nations, complete with the kinds of props --

DIAMOND (voice-over): -- that he's been known to bring to these speeches over the years that he's been Israel's prime minister.

And it seems like Netanyahu is betting on the fact that this will remind Israelis --

DIAMOND: -- of why, in his view, they need him out on the world stage.

But the problem is, many Israelis currently blame Netanyahu, in part, at least, for the extent to which Israel's public image has soured around the world.

Netanyahu didn't get everything that he wanted in New York, though. President Trump, whose endorsement could potentially help Netanyahu in the Israeli elections, well, he didn't even meet with the Israeli prime minister on this trip. Instead, Netanyahu, after just a few hours on the ground, heading back to Israel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAELSON: Yes, very different than it probably it would have been a few years ago.

Jeremy Diamond, thank you.

Still ahead, this hour, an army of content creators are flooding social media with political content ahead of the midterms. But how factual are these videos, and how influential are they? Our panelists standing by, live. Elisha Krauss and Will Rollins. This is a fascinating topic. I'm excited to get into it with them, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:32:09]

MICHAELSON: Some bad news for U.S. home buyers. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate topped 7 percent for the first time since 2025. That's according to Freddie Mac.

This is the fifth straight week of increasing rates and the highest during either of President Trump's terms. The increase is fueled by the bond market.

As yields climbed, so, too have interest rates. Steeper rates weaken buyers' purchasing power and increase monthly payments.

The White House, meanwhile, rolled out a new ad praising President Donald Trump and paid for by the U.S. government. The administration is defending the 30-second commercial by calling it a public service announcement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Together, we will defeat communism, socialism, and Marxism in America.

America will never be a communist country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: So, the artist behind that song, "Love Me," featured in the ad, suggests that the Trump administration used it without his permission.

He posted on X, quote, "I'm looking at lawyers and handling this internally."

Meanwhile, as the midterm elections draw closer, political parties are using social media to galvanize voters around their key messages.

But as CNN's Tom Foreman explains, paid content creators are also influencing the political landscape by flooding the Internet with sometimes misleading ads masquerading as legitimate information.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You'd have to work 47 percent more to afford rent in Texas compared to California. The cost of living in the Lone Star state is unbearable.

That was the essence of the claim in this TikTok from a user going by the name Drew, a post so popular the California governor's social media feed shared it twice.

But "The New York Times" found Drew was not his real name. The math was made up. And in a later post, since deleted, he admitted the whole thing was backed by an app offering money.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, they were paying me to post very left-leaning stuff about how Texas was super expensive and how it has been hard for me living in Texas. I don't even (EXPLETIVE DELETED) live in Texas. I'm from Utah. I'm in Florida right now.

FOREMAN (voice-over): It's part of what "The Times" calls an army of paid creators, carpeting the web with political content from the left, right, and center, pushing social media engagement that seems like a grassroots movement.

KEN BENSINGER, MEDIA AND POLITICS REPORTER, "THE NEW YORK TIMES" You can normalize something online by repeating it a billion times. And that's essentially what these -- these things are trying to do.

FOREMAN (voice-over): Here's how it works. Social media users connect with an app or website of unclear origin, promising payment for basically scripted posts about chosen candidates or issues.

[00:35:03]

By fulfilling the orders, the users push those subjects deeper into the online debate where social media algorithms then see the topics as popular and push them even more.

BENSINGER: It's really cheap. It's fast, it's agile.

FOREMAN: It's not broadly illegal, but in a word, it is advertising. And even though Drew did not respond to "The New York Times'" request for further comment, he did have thoughts after he says his deal was cut off.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Really (EXPLETIVE DELETED) up, though, because you have so much stuff on your reels that isn't labeled as ads. It's just people making videos about stuff that really is an ad.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It doesn't matter if you live here or here.

FOREMAN (voice-over): That's key, because traditional political ads must reveal who is writing the checks.

JAMES TALARICO (D), TEXAS SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: And I approve this message.

FOREMAN (voice-over): But the federal rules dictating that don't apply to this paid online content. So, who is behind all this influence on American politics just grows murkier.

BENSINGER: We found many, many accounts in Pakistan, Nigeria, Philippines. Hard to imagine they have much connection to it, but they know how to cash a check, I suppose.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAELSON: Our thanks to Tom Foreman. Our panel is here: conservative commentator Elisha Krauss, also an op-

ed writer for "The Washington Examiner"; and Will Rollins, a former Democratic candidate for Congress and former federal prosecutor. Both of you got the blue memo. looking good.

ELISHA KRAUSS, OP-ED WRITER, "THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER": You missed it.

MICHAELSON: I apparently missed it. Welcome back, both of you.

KRAUSS: Thanks.

MICHAELSON: This is my favorite story of the day. What a piece by Tom Foreman. Wasn't that amazing? That whole --

KRAUSS: It's incredible.

MICHAELSON: That whole thing. Your -- sort of your reaction to that. And where we are now in the political and, you know, an inflection point in this, really?

KRAUSS: As -- as the political nerd who has gotten paid to post before, but never for a candidate, mostly for, like, nonprofits, because they're trying to get emails and engagement or donors, right?

And then even when I've been a Rent the Runway influencer, and they just gave me a free month of rental, which I think the retail on that is 140 bucks, I still had to put a hashtag in there that this was an ad or that it was sponsored.

It's insane. This is not Rent the Runway. This is a hand-me-down from my girlfriend, Brooke.

MICHAELSON: I was -- I was going to say. I was wondering.,

KRAUSS: This is -- I call it a look by Brooke. All the hand-me-downs she gives me.

MICHAELSON: Yes.

KRAUSS: And -- but it is. I am one of those people that I actually kind of don't think that there should be caps for personal or even corporate donations to candidates, but I think that everything should be transparent.

And I think here it definitely needs to be transparent, especially when we're not sure. And this time around, it seemed like it was a lot of progressive and left-leaning talking points that were being pushed.

And it's kind of fascinating that they're being pushed by actors outside of the United States of America, which is illegal. Because foreign nations and foreign adversaries and foreign officials are not supposed to have a hand in American elections.

MICHAELSON: And some of these folks are getting duped by this. I mean, the governor's office sharing this out, you know, and not fact checking. KRAUSS: Not a great look.

MICHAELSON: We know, similarly, not in this exact same story, but, like, Mayor Karen Bass here in Los Angeles shared out a fake poll; didn't do any research to see, is this poll even legitimate?

I mean, it seems like -- and this isn't just a left-wing thing, but that these people are so desperate to have news that shape their narrative, that they share out the news, whether it's even true.

WILL ROLLINS, FORMER U.S. FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Yes, it's a new way for dark money to enter the system. And if you have no transparency, no idea who's posting these messages, or who's behind the money, right? I mean, you've got a major problem with influencing elections again.

And I think, you know, one thing we do agree on for sure is the disclosure rules, right? Because if you don't have them, and you've got these folks posting ads that are projecting content that is actually funded by huge corporations or --

KRAUSS: Or candidates. There was a -- there was a guy on TikTok with, like, something like 3.4 million followers. I can't remember his name.

But it was revealed, I think, in a recent "New York Times" report, that he had gotten $100,000 from Tom Steyer's campaign to post about negative news about other Democrats in the gubernatorial race during the primary here.

I mean, that is $100,000.

MICHAELSON: Yes.

KRAUSS: You've run for office. That is a lot of money. And it's what most candidates spend on a TV ad buy.

MICHAELSON: And Tom Steyer spent a lot of money on influencers in that primary, which he ultimately didn't win.

I mean, there's this whole group of people that, you know, do this and say breaking news. And they -- they will read, like, a headline from a wire service or something that CNN or a journalist has worked hard on. And then they get the money from, you know, Instagram or TikTok from it.

And those people are now being paid by a lot of these campaigns and not disclosing it. I mean, it's very confusing for a voter.

ROLLINS: A 100 percent. And I actually think it's not a left or right issue. Most Americans want to know who is the money behind ads that they're seeing or messaging that they're seeing online.

And the same rules apply to TV ads. The same rules apply to mailers. And so, I think there actually is an opportunity here for people who are in the middle, who are in tough races, to come out and support legislation that would change this. MICHAELSON: In terms of understanding online influence and how to do

videos well, there's perhaps nobody better in America than Zohran Mamdani, whether you agree with him or not. He's very, very good at that. You would agree with that, right?

[00:40:06]

KRAUSS: He's gifted. Yes. I call him a mini-Barack.

MICHAELSON: And -- and -- but for the -- a newer generation.

KRAUSS: Yes.

MICHAELSON: And a different medium.

KRAUSS: He's the Gen Z version of Barack Obama. He's well-spoken. He's well-dressed. He's good looking, and he can appeal to the average voter. Absolutely. He's talented.

MICHAELSON: So, interesting week for him.

KRAUSS: That's why he's scary.

MICHAELSON: With the -- with the U.N. in his home city of New York.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, there giving a speech today. And as that was happening, we have some video of Zohran Mamdani planting an olive tree, which was a not-so-subtle thing to put out in video form, in terms of his, I guess, olive branch to -- to Netanyahu.

Netanyahu took him on by name at the U.N. in New York. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NETANYAHU: Shame on you. Shame on you for distorting the facts. Shame on you for inverting victim and aggressor. Shame on you for spitting in the face of truth.

Here's a simple truth: Israel didn't commit genocide. Israel prevented genocide. And that's exactly -- that's exactly what Mr. Mamdani's Hamas buddies would have done to us, had we not stopped them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: So, here's what Mamdani said: "As he has done time and time again, Prime Minister Netanyahu used his speech to repeat baseless lies meant to sanitize his genocide of Palestinians. Yet no lie can change the fact that he remains the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant alleging war crimes and crimes against humanity."

Of course, the U.S. and Israel are not subject to that International Criminal Court, which is why he does not have jurisdiction to execute some sort of arrest warrant while he's here, which is something he had to acknowledge recently. But -- but how do you see this back and forth?

ROLLINS: I mean, I think the reality is that both of these guys are using each other politically, right? I mean, you have a mayor who's offering to arrest a foreign head of state, campaigned on that, had no ability to do it.

And then you have the Israeli prime minister coming into New York for a few hours calling out a mayor, not a head of state, and essentially, flying back to Israel a few hours later to go to an election.

So, I think the reality is most people want this conflict solved. Most people want the violence to end, but they don't want to see people using each other politically with no actual solutions.

KRAUSS: I think it's kind of fascinating that -- that Bibi did this. I think it was expected for him to do this. He doesn't typically hold punches.

I mean, he -- at one point, he even pulled out a beeper and was like, you know, the guys -- Hezbollah remembers these, in case none of you do. Kind of like a bragging on --

MICHAELSON: Those were beepers, by the way, that blew up and killed people. Yes.

KRAUSS: Yes. That killed the terrorist leaders and members in Lebanon.

MICHAELSON: Yes.

KRAUSS: That members of Hezbollah. A long operation that was, I would argue, successful for the freedom of the world, of ridding us of bad guys.

So, he's known to not hold any punches. But it is kind of fascinating. I wonder how much of a threat he actually views Mamdani as.

And I think that he's actually hearing from a lot of American Jews and a lot of New York Jews that are genuinely afraid. And some of them have even fled to Israel, based on the tone and tenor of the mayor in New York City and how he's chosen to acknowledge certain atrocities and not others.

MICHAELSON: Last thing: one sentence, max, because we're out of time. This idea of an ad paid by the U.S. government that clearly looks like a campaign ad for Donald Trump. Is that a good thing?

KRAUSS: I actually think -- it reminded me. I mean, listen, at first watch, I was like, I don't know about this.

On second watch, I was like, yes, America should not accept communism. And maybe that's how my parents felt when Ronald Reagan was trying to break down the USSR.

COLLINS: The guy has a $413 million super PAC, and he used your tax dollars for that ad. MICHAELSON: All right. We're going to leave that there. But you guys

are coming back in the next hour to talk more.

Alicia Krauss, Will Rollins, thanks for joining us. We'll see you again in the next hour of THE STORY IS.

But up next here, Nepal reeling from last month's catastrophic flooding that's at least partially blamed on climate change. Now its leader has a proposal for how to see such disasters coming in the future. A live report from the region, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:49:13]

MICHAELSON: Nepal's prime minister is calling for preventing more disasters like the one that hit his country last month.

Experts say climate change played a role in the massive rock slide and flooding which killed more than 1,400 people.

In his speech at the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday, the prime minister said that climate change does not recognize borders.

For more, Hanako Montgomery live in Tokyo.

Hanako, you were there among the first reporters for CNN on the ground. You saw all that up close. What was the big message today?

HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Elex, during his U.N. address, the prime minister of Nepal, Balendra Shah, talked about climate justice, which is essentially a term that means the countries contributing the least to climate change shouldn't have to bear the costs of it alone. This is what he said during his U.N. address on Thursday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BALENDRA SHAH, PRIME MINISTER OF NEPAL: Climate change does not recognize borders. Glaciers and floods do not travel with stamps and passports.

Nepal contributes less than 0.1 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. We did not create this crisis.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MONTGOMERY: And, Elex, as we've discussed previously on your show and as you pointed out, the devastation from the floods is enormous.

While we were on the ground in Nepal, we saw how entire communities had been wiped out, and how families were desperately trying to find their missing loved ones, just completely at a loss as to how they would even begin to rebuild.

Nepal has estimated that it will cost the country at least $5 billion to -- to repair, and that's at least 11 percent of the country's GDP.

It's so far requested about $20 million from a U.N. fund that helps cover some of those climate change-related costs.

But, you know, one statistic that I want to point out to you, Elex, is that according to one study, six of the most wealthy fossil fuel companies, the biggest fossil fuel companies in the world, will be making $94 billion this year alone. Again, this is according to one study.

But those -- the difference in those numbers is just completely enormous.

Now, Shah also used his speech, Elex, to propose a solution going forward. It's a new framework of cooperation, which he has suggested could be led by India, by China, and by Nepal. He's called it the Himalayan Climate Resilience Mechanism.

And what it would do is essentially share more satellite imagery, share more information about glacial floods, and also improve cooperation and coordination, if and when another climate disaster strikes again.

Now, also, Elex, during his speech, shah pointed out what he considers a stark contradiction: how a world that is able to wage multiple wars is still struggling to find out how it can support the most vulnerable affected by climate change. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHAH: And a world that can deliver a weapon anywhere in 72 hours has no excuse for leaving a farmer without means of decent livelihood.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MONTGOMERY: And, Elex, it could take Nepal years to recover. And Shah's warning is that, before it does recover, another climate disaster could strike again, While countries contributing the most to climate change and the climate crisis continue to stand by and watch -- Elex.

MICHAELSON: Yes. it is, of course, not an issue where there are borders. And we certainly saw that. the flood was not concerned about the Nepal-China border. That water just kept moving.

Hanako Montgomery, thank you so much for that report.

Still ahead, a veteran aid worker shares footage of some of the most difficult years in North Korea's recent history. Will Ripley, with some extraordinary reporting, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:57:51]

MICHAELSON: It's difficult to know what the daily lives of North Koreans are like, given the fact that Pyongyang has so much control over media access.

Well, now an aid worker who spent decades helping North Koreans is sharing her experiences and never-before-seen video with CNN.

We should warn you: some of these images are disturbing.

CNN's Will Ripley has our story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These are images the North Korean government does not want you to see.

Far away from the showpiece capital, Pyongyang, inside the homes of everyday people, struggling to survive during the darkest days of the North Korean famine in the 1990s.

KATHY ZELLWEGER, SWISS AID WORKER: This child had the same old face than her grandmother. That struck me.

You poor thing.

RIPLEY (voice-over): Kathy Zellweger is a Swiss aid worker who spent nearly 25 years running humanitarian programs in North Korea. Seventy- five trips, five years living there. Foreign journalists have never been granted this kind of access. Not even me, on my 19 trips.

RIPLEY: We're looking at them, but they're looking at us, as well. Every time I try to take a picture of those girls, they run away.

What is it like to be born and to grow up in North Korea?

ZELLWEGER: I think, you know, parents try their best to look after children well, but it's challenging, especially in the countryside, to -- to provide.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thirty-two hundred tons of rice arrived several days ago.

RIPLEY (voice-over): Kathy brought in massive shipments of food, but she still had to verify where it was going. Following the food took her deeper and deeper into North Korea.

MIKE CHINOY, FORMER CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: There are thousands, if not tens of thousands of North Koreans who are alive today who would be dead if it wasn't for the work that Kathy Zellweger did.

RIPLEY (voice-over): In later years, she could feel the government tightening its grip, especially after diplomacy with the U.S. fell apart and North Korea was no longer interested in engaging with the West.

ZELLWEGER: The word "control" was used much more widely than before.

RIPLEY: So, you thought it was getting more restrictive.