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Trump's Approval Drops On Key Issues Of Economy, Immigration; Trump Calls For Washington Commanders To Change Their Name; Trump Sues Wall Street Journal Over Epstein Report; Questions Remain After CBS Cancels "The Late Show"; Americans Weigh In On Trump's Handling Of Immigration; Trump Says It's Highly Likely He'd Fire Fed Chief Powell; Harvard, Trump Admin To Face Off In Court Amid Funding Battle; Harvard, Trump Administration To Face Off In Court Amid Funding Battle, Critical Rare Earths On Their Way Back To The U.S.; Number Of Missing In Kerr County Drops From 97 To Three. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired July 20, 2025 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:00]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: They disapprove of his handling of the economy, with -- going from 56 percent disapproval to 60 percent disapproval. On another key issue of immigration, his approval rating there has fallen to 42 percent of American adults. That's down almost 10 points since March. Right now, a majority, 58 percent, disapprove of his handling of immigration.

And meanwhile, President Trump can't seem to shake the fallout over the Justice Department's handling of the Epstein files.

Let's bring in CNN senior White House reporter Kevin Liptak, who is joining us now from the White House.

Kevin, we hit this six-month mark. We have some of this information coming in from polling. And then there's also what the Trump administration and the president himself thinks about this milestone.

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, he thinks it's a moment to celebrate. And you've seen that on social media this morning. And I think anyone would say that this has been an eventful half a year since the president took office. He has been able to notch some significant wins in Congress, at the Supreme Court, on the world stage. But at the same time, the polling does show that the public is starting to sour in some of his key priorities, and he has this matter of Jeffrey Epstein that he's now dealing with, trying to tamp down on some of the discontent among his base as they agitate for the administration to release more information.

Now, the president this morning wrote, "Wow, time flies. Today is the six-month anniversary of my second term. Importantly, it's being hailed as one of the most consequential periods of any president." And then the president says, "Happy Anniversary." So clearly eager to make the most of the day.

Now, earlier in the day, he also referenced the Jeffrey Epstein matter and said that since this controversy started bubbling up, his approval rating among his supporters has actually gone up. Now, according to our CNN poll, the president's approval among Republicans stands at 88 percent. But overall, the president is largely underwater. His approval is at 42 percent overall. And when you look at some of the issues that have been central for the first six months of President Trump's term, more Americans disapprove of how he's handling the job than approve.

So on taxes, he's at 44 percent, immigration 42 percent, the economy 40 percent, foreign affairs 40 percent. So, you know, the six-month mark is a good time to look back. But it's also a moment to look forward. And certainly the president this week will continue to be focused on a lot of these areas that he has been so laser-focused on for the last six months. He will, this week, at some point sign into law that bill that claws back funding for certain public broadcasters, and on foreign aid.

There's a critical court hearing tomorrow in Massachusetts on the administration's attempts to strip federal funding from Harvard. The president this week will meet the Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., here at the White House. He'll continue setting those tariff letters as to works to reach a new trade deals by that August 1st deadline, and then by the end of the week, the president will be in Scotland, where he's visiting his golf courses, but also meeting the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, talking about the trade deal that they struck earlier this year.

So certainly it has been an eventful six months for the president, but he is looking forward to the next 42 months that he has left in office -- Jessica.

DEAN: And in -- yes, in the meantime, he's escalating his call for the football team, the Washington Commanders, to change their name. What do you say about that today?

LIPTAK: Yes, and I would file this under topics that are not Jeffrey Epstein that the president does want to talk about. He's saying that the Washington Commanders who, you remember, changed their name from the Washington Redskins a couple of years ago, should revert back to that original name. He's also saying this about the Cleveland Guardians, the baseball team that used to be called the Indians.

Now, this is sort of one in a piece of the president's calls to roll back some of the name changes that occurred during that sort of nationwide reckoning on racial injustice that occurred about five years ago. The president is also attaching some conditions here. He's threatening the Washington Commanders that if they don't change their name back, he could attempt to stymie this deal that they're working on to move their stadium back into D.C., back to the old site of the RFK Stadium, where they played for decades and decades before moving out to Maryland.

Now, it's not exactly clear how the president would do that. President Biden, at the end of his term, transferred that land from the federal government to the D.C. government. But it's a threat nonetheless. Now, we did hear from President Trump early this morning on social media saying that the "Washington whatevers," as he called them, should revert back, and saying that, "Our great Indian people in massive numbers want this to happen."

He says, "Their heritage and prestige is systematically being taken away from them." The president says that, "Times are different now than they were three or four years ago. We are a country of passion and commonsense. Owners, get it done."

You know, this isn't the first time that the president has suggested the Commanders should change their name back to the Redskins. Listen to what he said earlier this month.

[19:05:09]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Should the Commanders change the name back to Redskins?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, do you want me to make a controversial statement? I would. I wouldn't have changed the name. But that said, this doesn't have the same -- it doesn't Have the same ring to me. But, you know, winning can make everything sound good. So if they win, all of a sudden the Commanders sounds good, but I wouldn't have changed the name.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIPTAK: So he has a point there. You know, Washingtonians, I think, began to embrace the Commanders' name after last year's winning season. The Commanders winning two playoff games, almost made it to the Super Bowl. At this point, neither the Commanders nor the Cleveland Guardians have said that there's any plans to change their names back.

DEAN: OK, Kevin Liptak from the White House, thanks so much for that.

I want to bring in CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter to talk more about this.

Brian, I think Kevin hit the nail on the head there when he said file this under something Trump can talk about that's not the Epstein files. Why is he -- is that what this is about, why he's kind of randomly going in on this issue right now?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Listen. I grew up in a Redskins household. I care a lot about this. And here's the thing about distractions. Yes, a lot of things that President Trump does can be labeled distractions. I kind of dispute that, though, because they're all also important. You know, every time the president of the United States weighs in on something it matters. And so, yes, he might want you to look over here and not over there.

But it is still relevant. And this is best explained as part of Trump's effort to take back cultural power as well as political power in his second term. If you look back at his first term, he was much less focused on cultural power, whether it's the Kennedy Center or the Commanders. So he's using his energy in this way. And it reminds me of what Peter Baker wrote in "The New York Times" a

couple of weeks ago. He said, "It's become evident that Mr. Trump simply prefers things the way he remembers them from his youth, or even before that."

Maybe it's that simple, Jessica, but I also think he's showing his base that he's on their side, even if he can't actually force these name changes to happen. And hey, only seven Sundays until regular season kickoff for the NFL.

DEAN: Wow. Only seven? Wow. That time, it goes quickly.

STELTER: Seven Sundays.

DEAN: But, and look, in the meantime, this is happening over here, the Epstein story continues to have legs. It continues to be talked about, especially among that same base that you're talking about that he -- I think he is trying to reach with cultural things like this. And so, you know, what do you make of where the Epstein thing is right now and how Trump can't quite seem yet to move past it?

STELTER: I think that this will continue to be a topic for as long as MAGA media influencers feel betrayed. And right now, from the quotes that I'm seeing and the Instagram videos that I'm seeing and the conversations that I'm having with them on background, there are many, many people who still feel like there is a lot that they want to know. They have a lot of questions and they are demanding answers.

That might change from day to day, week to week. Maybe other story lines will come here and there, but this will always exist to some degree, even if it's mostly, you know, kind of percolating beneath the surface. It's always going to exist there because the conspiracy theories are always going to remain. The conspiracy theories are always going to linger.

You know, there are some data points, Jessica, that we can see that this interest is sustaining. There's an old Netflix docuseries about Epstein. The ratings are up 250 percent in the last week. There's an old book by Julie K. Brown about this topic. It is all sold out at every bookseller, and the publishers are having to rush to print more copies. There is demand to know more about this topic and that is going to continue to linger, I suspect.

DEAN: Yes, it's so fascinating that you point all of that out. I also do, while we have you, want to talk about the cancellation of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert." We actually talked about this here at work on Friday. Look, there are these -- we did, we had like a true conversation about this that was really interesting. And I think it brought up some really good points, which is there continue to be, again, going back to conspiracy theories, but also just I think you could call it questions around the timing of this. What's trying to happen with this merger.

STELTER: Sure.

DEAN: And getting the Trump administration, the FCC, to sign off on it, at the same time, late-night shows are expensive to produce, and it is a model for broadcast television that is evolving at this point. It's not the same as it was.

STELTER: Yes. And the best argument against the political theories about Colbert's cancellation is that CBS is leaving him on the air for 10 more months. That's why tomorrow night will be so interesting. It will be Colbert's first monologue since he announced the network's decision to pull the plug. He has 10 more months of episodes, and I've had CBS insiders say to me, look, if this was political, if we did this to appease Trump and get our merger approved, then we would have yanked the show right away.

I'm not sure if I entirely buy that theory, but it's an interesting argument. Colbert's contract is also up next May, so that helps explain the timing. That helps explain why the show continues through next spring.

[19:10:00]

Meanwhile, all of his rivals who happen to also be, in many cases his friends, are weighing in. Jimmy Kimmel's reaction to this was really interesting. Kimmel was on vacation last week. He went to one of those anti-Trump good trouble protests in Wyoming. He posted an Instagram from there. He's holding a sign saying, "Make America Good Again." But look what his wife Molly's sign says. His wife's sign says, "Don't bend the knee."

It's almost like a message to his network, ABC, saying, don't try to cancel Kimmel next. Don't try to give in to Trump. There is that fear in Hollywood of networks and companies trying to appease Trump, even if that's not what happened with CBS. The fear is palpable, and you can see it in the signs there.

We heard from John Oliver, by the way, this weekend as well. John Oliver of HBO, he said, "It's terrible, terrible news for the world of comedy to have Colbert canceled. I look forward to seeing what he's going to do next because that man will not stop." So that's John Oliver, Jimmy Kimmel, and I'm also interested in John Oliver. I'm sorry, Jon Stewart tomorrow night because Jon Stewart is on the same corporate.

He's in the same corporate umbrella as CBS. He's on Comedy Central. So he might be concerned about the same political pressures that were facing "The Late Show" and Jon Stewart's contract is up at the end of this year. So what he says and whether he weighs in on Colbert will be very interesting.

DEAN: Yes, it certainly will.

All right. Brian Stelter, our thanks to you. And I think you had a little helper with you, too. So give our thanks to him as well.

STELTER: I apologize for my 5-year-old. It's bedtime here at the Stelter house.

DEAN: Don't be. Don't be apologetic. We were a family show. It's always nice to have an extra -- some extra hands.

All right, Brian Stelter, thanks so much. Good to see you.

STELTER: Thanks.

DEAN: I want to turn back to this new CNN polling that's giving us a clearer picture of how Americans view the first six months of President Trump's second term, including one of the most central issues to Trump's agenda. That would be immigration. A majority saying the presidents gone too far when it comes to ramping up deportations of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.

Let's bring in CNN's Julia Benbrook, who's joining us now.

Julia, what else did the poll show us, tell us about Trump's presidency right now?

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, one of the big headlines here, Jessica, is that the president's approval ratings currently sit around 40 percent for his handling on both immigration in general and deportation specifically.

This new CNN polling shows, like you mentioned, that a rising majority believe that Trump has gone too far when it comes to deporting immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. While that number stood at 45 percent back in February, it now stands at 55 percent.

But let's dive into some of the other specifics in this survey. 53 percent oppose increasing the budget for Immigration and Customs Enforcement by billions of dollars. Nearly six in 10 oppose efforts to end birthright citizenship. A 57 percent majority also says that they oppose plans to build new detention facilities capable of holding up to 100,000 undocumented immigrants. And then 59 percent of Americans oppose arresting and detaining undocumented immigrants who have resided in the United States for years with no criminal record.

And I do want to add some extra context there. A CNN review of government data found that most immigrants taken into ICE custody between last October and May had no serious criminal convictions.

Now, in an interview earlier today that aired on CBS, acting ICE Director Todd Lyons detailed the administration's sweeping deportation efforts. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD LYONS, ACTING ICE DIRECTOR: ICE is always focused on the worst of the worst. One difference you'll see now is under this administration, we have opened up the whole aperture of the immigration portfolio, meaning that if you're here illegally and ICE goes out and arrests someone that is released from a sanctuary jurisdiction or one in their home country and an ICE officer finds other individuals with them who are in the country illegally, we're going to take them as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BENBROOK: And ICE is about to get a big funding boost, set to receive $75 billion from the president's sweeping agenda bill, the so-called one big beautiful bill. It's an unprecedented amount of cash for an agency that's historically been underfunded. And despite the reactions that we're seeing that we detailed just now from those surveys, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has said that this new funding will allow them to ramp up efforts even more -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right. Julia Benbrook with the latest. Thanks for that reporting.

The chairman of the Federal Reserve is under a lot of pressure right now. Will Jay Powell last until the end of his term? And what happens if he doesn't?

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:19:10]

DEAN: Fed chairman Jerome Powell has been getting a lot of public pressure from Donald Trump lately. The president suggested he might fire Powell, later backing away saying it was highly unlikely but leaving the door open. Trump has repeatedly called on the Fed to cut interest rates, but Powell has kept his eye on fighting inflation instead of fighting the president.

Joining us now, Greg Ip, chief economics commentator for the "Wall Street Journal."

Greg, thanks so much for being here with us. You've got a great piece out on this and you write that, "Despite inflationary shocks during COVID and a number of other issues over the last five years, investors have assumed the Fed can and will keep down inflation like the brakes on a car."

What happens, though, to those brakes if Jerome Powell is fired or has to leave before his term is over?

GREG IP, CHIEF ECONOMICS COMMENTATOR, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: I think if Powell were fired, then people would assume that the Fed is no longer independent, and that would be a profound change in the way everybody in the economy regards the future of inflation.

[19:20:05]

I mean, think about it. For the last 30 years, we've been through a lot. And yet inflation always seems to come back to the low 2 percent area. Even after that big spike in inflation, over 7 percent during the pandemic, after supply and demand normalized, people stopped asking for big wage and price increases. And here we are with inflation somewhere between 2 percent and 3 percent.

You credit that to the fact that people basically have instinctively come to believe that no matter what, the Fed will do what it takes to get inflation back down to low levels because it is independent. If it is no longer independent, inflation is no longer its number one mission. Its mission is basically doing what the president's priorities are. And we know from history that the president's priorities are normally I want low interest rates and stronger growth.

And that is not the kind of agenda that if it's incorporated in the Federal Reserve's behavior will give us low and stable inflation for the long run.

DEAN: Yes. And you reported, too, that one line of thinking is that whether Powell is forced out or even if he completed his term, that this line of thinking is that his successor will be damaged goods. Why would some people think that?

IP: Well, let's take this one piece at a time. If he is literally forced out, if the president finds a way to fire him or make life so difficult for him that he's forced out, then we have to assume that Trump's ability to fire this chairman means he can fire any future chairman as well. So it doesn't in some sense matter who he appoints to the Fed chairmanship. He could appoint the -- he could reappoint Alan Greenspan, and that person would still be seen as essentially serving at the pleasure of the president. The Fed would not be seen as independent.

Now, even if Trump -- excuse me, even if Powell is allowed to finish his term and therefore nominally you still believe the Fed chair is independent, you can see that the people who are basically in the running for that job have been speaking in terms that they're clearly trying to curry favor with Trump, and Trump has said he's only interested in low interest rate people. And so I think there's a view out there among investors that whoever gets the job will be predisposed to have lower interest rates, even if that's not perhaps in the best interest of inflation or the view of other Fed officials.

DEAN: And so much about this, the economy and about the Fed, all of that is kind of swirls around that the independence of the Fed, as you've gotten at in our conversation, and just the value of trust, both from Americans, but also global investors, the global economy, in the American financial system, that seems quite important. Just the trust and that that has to be held carefully.

IP: Yes, I don't think people really appreciate, you know, how profoundly the world has come to trust the centrality of the United States economy and its institutions, and the fact that, you know, the Fed and other institutions are there to behave in a responsible, long, sort of forward-thinking way. You know, we've been through so many crises, whether it was the financial crisis of 2008, 2009, where cast your mind back to things like the Mexico crisis in '95, and the Fed has always been like a pillar of support.

And people believe that even if it sometimes made mistakes, it was always trying to do the right thing. If you undermine that belief, then that starts to, you know, have consequences. Now, I'm not predicting that we suddenly have a crisis in the country. I'm not even predicting the stock market will crash or that inflation will take off. There's a lot of great things about this country, and those benefits don't go away overnight.

But I think over time that you start to see some of the costs of that loss of trust. We've already seen, for example, the price of gold go up and the dollar go down. That looks to me like people are regarding the United States as a little bit less trustworthy and a little bit less safe than they used to. And if you look at the bond market carefully, you can see what they think inflation is going to be.

And then the last three weeks we've seen them start to raise their expectation of inflation, not immediately, but a few years from now. That's kind of troubling because it tells you that financial market participants who have a lot of money and are very calculating, are starting to prepare for a future where they cannot perhaps trust the Fed as much as they used to.

DEAN: Very interesting. Greg Ip, great to have you. Thank you so much.

IP: Thanks for having me.

DEAN: The Trump administration faces off against Harvard, not in the classroom, in the courtroom. We've got a preview of that just ahead.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:28:40]

DEAN: Tomorrow, the ongoing legal fight between Harvard University and the Trump administration heads back to court. Harvard is trying to restore billions in federal grants the school claims were frozen after it refused to comply with White House demands.

CNN's Gloria Pazmino has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's the next major step in the Trump administration's fight against Harvard University.

TRUMP: I think we're going to probably settle with Harvard. They want to settle very badly.

PAZMINO (voice-over): Oral arguments are expected Monday. Federal District Court Judge Allison Burroughs will hear from Harvard's legal team and lawyers for the Department of Justice. The beginning of a critical battle to restore more than $2 billion in federal funding after the White House froze the funds last spring.

TRUMP: We spend more money on higher education than any other country, and yet they're turning our students into communists and terrorists. We can't let this happen.

PAZMINO (voice-over): Monday's hearing could mark a turning point in the administration's ongoing attacks on higher education institutions. ANURIMA BHARGAVA, CRIMSON COURAGE, COORDINATOR OF HARVARD ALUMNI

AMICUS BRIEF: What we're seeing here is basically an attack on Harvard. The goal is to narrow our ability to think, to teach, to voice, to learn in a way that is open, that promotes free inquiry and discussion.

TRUMP: Pause or funding freeze.

PAZMINO (voice-over): Days after taking office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order increasing enforcement efforts against antisemitism on school campuses. The administration also targeted dozens of colleges and universities. It threatened to cut Harvard's critical research and funding grants unless it met a strict list of demands, including ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs, hiring new faculty and making sweeping changes to international student programs.

[19:30:29]

Harvard responded with force suing to restore its funding and accusing the administration of using unlawful tactics, saying the cuts and demands, "cut at the core of Harvard's constitutionally protected academic freedom." Funding cuts are already being felt.

ANURIMA BHARGAVA, CRIMSON COURAGE, COORDINATOR OF HARVARD ALUMNI AMICUS BRIEF: We're seeing those research projects about Alzheimer's disease, about what is it that we -- how do we do surgeries in a way that are actually going to save people's lives. Those research projects, those efforts that have been going on for years, if not decades, are being stopped in their tracks.

PAZMINO (voice over): Harvard faculty says the future of scientific research is on the line.

RYAN ENOS, PROFESSOR, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: The big picture question is whether we will be rewarding research to where, based on scientific merit, or whether a university follows the political ideology of the President and his administration.

PAZMINO (voice over): In a statement, the White House said the administration's goal is to prevent antisemitism and DEI on Harvard's campus, adding, "We are confident that Harvard will eventually come around and support the President's vision and through good faith conversations and negotiations, a good deal is more than possible."

As the fight between the administration and Harvard continues, some faculty members and experts see the administration's focus on antisemitism as an excuse.

BHARGAVA: This is a battle about power. I think that this is really about -- this administration trying to take down cathedrals of power around the country that are not their own.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAZMINO: Jessica, that hearing is set to take place tomorrow morning in Boston. Harvard asking the judge in this case to make an expedited decision as early as September, noting that that is a critical deadline from when the university is supposed to submit paperwork to close out its grant funding -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right, Gloria Pazmino, thank you so much for that update.

The highly specialized metals needed to make so many products that are part of our modern life, wind turbines, data centers, electric cars, fighter planes are finally on their way back to the U.S. But what happens if China turns off the tap again? That's next in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:37:14]

DEAN: China's rare earth exports have come roaring back.

"The Wall Street Journal" analysis of exports of the key minerals between May and June shows they jumped more than sevenfold. Now this follows a tit-for-tat trade war of course between the U.S. and China, which ended with the deal to resume shipments. China dominates the supply of rare earth minerals, critical in everything from everyday electronics to vehicles.

CNN's Marc Stewart is joining us now from Beijing. And, Marc, between the tariffs and the escalating trade war, what has been this dynamic between these the world's two largest economies?

MARC STEWART, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jessica, I think at this moment and I'm going to stress at this moment, there appears to be some goodwill. The negotiations appear to be moving forward, as you mentioned, there appears to be agreement on these rare earth minerals, which we know are so important for American companies. They make products that depend on these minerals, electronics, every items that we use in our homes, electric vehicles. And then the United States last week announced that it will restart sales of chips, key A.I. chips back to China.

So, as we see this trade war, it's certainly about trade, but technology is also a big part of this tension and that also includes robotics.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEWART (voice over): This is where robots come to life. They mimic mankind yet depend on these Chinese engineers to function. We were given rare access to this lab by tech startup Booster Robotics on the outskirts of Beijing. We saw how robots can be built to play soccer.

STEWART (on camera): Look what happens when we try to make a goal. See, it sticks its leg out. Very much like a real life goalie would.

STEWART (voice over): The robots can also play on their own, powered by A.I., as they did in a recent tournament live streamed across China. The technology is still a work in progress. The robots often lose balance and fall scooped away on stretchers. They look very much human like in their movements.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, this is a new technology about imitation learning.

STEWART (voice over): Technology, the CEO thinks can be used in everything from food delivery to factories, even help kids learn new languages.

STEWART (on camera): This whole robotic push comes at a time when the Chinese government is making technology, including A.I. a national priority.

STEWART (voice over): Already, China is a proven innovator, as we've seen with EVs. Now, it's looking to dominate the field of A.I. enabled robots. And the gap with the U.S. is widening, according to Morgan Stanley research.

STEWART (on camera): What does this symbolize beyond the soccer field?

ALEX CAPRI, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE BUSINESS SCHOOL: China is really pushing the envelope in all things leading edge technology. And there are so many practical and also strategic applications of A.I. and robotics combined.

[19: 40:13]

STEWART (voice over): Here in China, we've seen robotics at work during our tours of factories and the Chinese military has shown off a robotic dog with an automatic rifle mounted on its back. The U.S. Air Force is utilizing similar technology. On the turf, the focus is on innovation and attention.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to push the technology development. So we need a real scenario to test our technology.

STEWART (voice over): Scrimmages on the soccer field that may help China to score further as a global tech leader.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: That's really wild to watch, Marc. Okay, what about the U.S.? Are we a player in all of this?

STEWART: The U.S. is a player in all of this. This is not necessarily a zero sum game, if you will. The United States, like China, is developing its own areas of expertise.

So, in the United States, for example, it's really made a niche with space robotics, robots that can mine on asteroids that could set up infrastructure in space and as we know, that's a big area of growth. But I should also point out, a lot of this just seems like novelty when we see these robots playing soccer these humanoid robots.

But in some parts of the world, robots are really going to be a necessity. Here in China, for example, the population is getting older, fewer people are deciding to have children. So, Jessica, robots are going to perhaps be the vehicle to complete

tasks to keep up productivity, completing many tasks that that humans do. But as we see in many parts of the world, populations are declining. So, robots may have a bigger role even at that very basic level.

DEAN: Interesting. All right, Marc Stewart, great stuff. Thanks so much. We really appreciate it.

Well, for more than two weeks search crews in Texas have been searching for dozens of missing people and that number just got a lot lower.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:46:55]

DEAN: Police in Long Island are investigating the death of a man who they say was physically pulled into an MRI machine while he was wearing a large metal necklace. MRI, which stands for Magnetic Resonance Imaging, uses powerful magnets that can be dangerous if there are nearby metal objects, which then can become a projectile. Police say the man entered the MRI room without authorization while his wife was being scanned, and according to our affiliate, News 12, the man's wife said he was wearing a 20-pound chain, with a large lock that he used for weight training. He died from his injuries the next day.

We're also getting some new updates from Texas, where officials in Kerr County have dramatically cut the number of people missing in the catastrophic flooding two weeks ago from 97 down to three people who remain missing. Now, Kerrville says many of those have been found safe and accounted for. The historic flooding killed at least 135 people, including 37 children of course, many of them were at summer camp over the Fourth of July weekend. CNN correspondent Julia Vargas Jones has more.

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jessica, local officials say that its thanks to days of tireless follow up phone calls, cross- checking names and coordination across multiple agencies that that number had such a dramatic drop. In a statement, the city of Kerrville said, "Through extensive follow-up work among state and local agencies, many individuals who were initially reported as missing have been verified as safe and removed from the list."

Now, it's important to note that those listed as missing weren't campers or local residents. According to County Judge Rob Kelly, they were mostly tourists in the area for the July 4th holiday, whose families had not heard from them, which made it especially difficult for officials to track who was actually lost.

Now, the focus is on those three people that remain missing. Kerrville City manager called the response so far extraordinary saying, "We are profoundly grateful to the more than 1,000 local, state and federal authorities who have worked tirelessly in the wake of the devastating flood that struck our community. Thanks to their extraordinary efforts, the number of individuals previously listed as missing has dropped from over 160 to three."

Those teams are still combing the 60 miles of the Guadalupe River through thick mud and flood debris, and that is a painstaking process, both delicate and complicated, because these teams first need to look by hand or with cadaver dogs to then bring in the machines that we've seen in some of the videos there that can handle a larger swath of the river, Jessica, and search and rescue teams are looking for people who might be under a lot of debris, gravel, rocks and tree limbs.

In the last county meeting on Monday, which we were present for, the sheriff said that search could last months, and granted, that was before this revised number was announced.

Now, there is a lot of anger still in that community and so many questions about the level of preparedness, the lack of alerts, and how the flood caught so many people off guard, including local authorities.

Kerr County is expected to host a public meeting on Tuesday for residents and families affected by the disaster, and at the state level, Governor Greg Abbott is now calling for a special legislative session for tomorrow, where the agenda will be strengthening flood warning systems, improving emergency communications in those flood prone areas, allocating relief legislative session for tomorrow, where the agenda will be strengthening flood warning systems, improving emergency communications in those flood prone areas, allocating relief funding for all of Texas Hill Country, and fast tracking policies for recovery and preparedness from natural disasters.

Now, we will be looking for what those changes will be to ensure that communities like this one are left so vulnerable in the future -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right, Julia, thank you so much for that. And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:55:17]

DEAN: Next on "The Whole Story" with Anderson Cooper, some of music's biggest names show Bill Weir how they want to harness their star power to make a difference when it comes to climate change.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Billie Eilish, immediately set out to bend the industry around her values. Haters and big oil companies be damned.

BILLIE EILISH, AMERICAN SINGER-SONGWRITER AND MUSICIAN: Yes, it was funny that that video really went kind of viral in the kind of, oh, my God, she's satanic world, which was really funny to me because I was, like, no, no, you guys, this is a metaphor for climate change. I'm a bird falling into a thing of oil. Like, that's kind of the whole point.

I have been trying to change the way that the industry has been running for a really long time. So for like, food backstage, all of my catering is vegan. Yes, we have like refillable water stations, we don't sell like plastic water bottles. And I have like a no idling policy for all the trucks. You know, to save all those all those fossil fuels.

WEIR (on camera): Yes, and save your lungs and all of your fans.

EILISH: Save your lungs and save all of it, yes, but yes, it's really amazing.

WEIR (on camera): So it's leading by example, sort of.

WEIR (voice over): As someone who attended the first Lollapalooza and Coachellas and Bonnaroos --

I can testify that the influence of Billie and others like her is catching on.

WEIR (on camera): You can now get a concert t-shirt in exchange for filling a plastic bag with recyclables. I talked to one guy who said it took him 45 minutes because the place is too clean.

We've reached a point where it is cool to refill your own water bottle.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just refilled the water to keep me hydrated.

WEIR: We didn't plan that at all. I have never met her.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: CNN chief climate correspondent, Bill Weir joins us now.

Bill, this is -- it's so interesting to see like how everything has changed when it comes to especially concertgoers and how these young musicians or any musician really is trying to take what they have and their star power and make a difference.

Obviously, Billie Eilish is incredibly popular, very famous. But have you found that, like, what she's trying to do is reaching beyond just let's call it Gen Z and some of the younger generations into older generations?

WEIR: Well, it's interesting. You find different demographics. Different genres of artists plugged into this.

So Bonnie Raitt has been performing since the Nixon administration. She started the Green Highways Tour coming out of Lilith Fair in the 90s, and just tried to show concertgoers that there were alternative forms of energy and new ways to drive, and new ways to think about food supplies and that carried through Willie Nelson and the Farm Aid days and so many artists going back to Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, who have the conscience and the voice and thinks that's a responsibility that comes with those huge crowds.

And these days, there's no leadership when it comes to climate and the environment. Especially at the federal level, corporations are backing off. So, these artists who have such trust with their fan bases are sort of the influencers.

We looked at MIT had the first study on the live music carbon footprint and it's tiny compared to fashion or cement or other industries, but they have enormous influence. And because these pop-up festivals are sort of like temporary cities, the lessons learned when it comes to battery powered stages or plastic free shows or new ways to put on a big festival for people at a much lower impact environmentally, the hope is that trickles out into communities.

So, the bonds made at a show might lead to a grassroots connection in your community. So, every stop on the tour, it's about connecting people far beyond just getting them to register to vote, but also plugging them into earth repair locally and turning anxiety into action.

DEAN: Yes, and I'm curious too, like, it seems like people have really caught on to this, that they're -- as you said, it's cool to be filling up your water bottle. It seems like people are really embracing this.

WEIR: The youngest generation, too. I mean, they grieve about this stuff probably more than the grownups in the room. But yes, it is really -- it's taking an effect and it is uncool to be a wasteful concertgoer. I never gave it a second thought most of my career, right.

But now, outdoor festivals are more vulnerable. Steve Miller band just canceled his summer tour because of worries about inclement weather and violent weather out there. The Bonnaroo Festival in Tennessee canceled this year three out of four days because of flooding and just happened a couple of years ago there. So, there's a lot happening in this space, but there's so much motivated trust in those fan bases.

The idea is maybe tapping into those folks and leaving a better place behind.

DEAN: It's really smart. It'll be a great one. Thank you so much, Bill Weir, we really appreciate it. We'll be watching.

Stick around, "The Whole Story" with Anderson Cooper is next with Bill Weir about "Change Amplified: Live Music and the Climate Crisis."

Thank you so much for watching tonight. I'm Jessica Dean, I'm going to see you right back here next weekend, have a great night.

[20:00:32]