Return to Transcripts main page

The Story Is with Elex Michaelson

Xi Hosts Trump At Communist Party's Leadership Compound; Indie Horror Film Obsession Opens In Theaters Friday; CIA Director Travels To Havana To Meet With Cuban Officials; At Least $1.3 Million In Fentanyl Seized In Los Angeles County Arrest; Interview with California Attorney General Rob Bonta; Trump: U.S. Doesn't Need Strait of Hormuz Opened; Trump Meeting with Xi at Communist Party Headquarters; Rubio Says U.S. Policy on Taiwan is "Unchanged". Aired 1-2a ET

Aired May 15, 2026 - 01:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:00:21]

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: NFL fans are now making plans for the next season. The National Football League has released the schedule for the 2026 regular season. The league of moved up its official kickoff by a day. Now on a Wednesday night and a break from the norm.

The season opener on September 9th will see the defending champions Seattle Seahawks hosting the New England Patriots. Week one will also feature the L.A. Rams and San Francisco 49ers facing off in Australia. Just hosting its first ever NFL game is one of nine international games in seven different countries this season.

And the road to a championship will end at Sofi Stadium in Englewood, California for Super Bowl LXI on February 14th.

We're excited to have it. Already putting in. I want to cover that. Thanks for watching this hour. The next hour The Story Is starts with breaking news around the world.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

MICHAELSON: And thanks for watching The Story Is. I'm Elex Michaelson live in Los Angeles following breaking news out of Beijing where U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are meeting for the second and final day of their summit. They are meeting right now.

They spoke with reporters a short time ago, not taking questions, but offering a positive assessment of their talk so far. President Trump says they are in agreement on a lot of issues and they've made a lot of trade deals for both countries. There was no mention of Taiwan today. But here's what President Trump said about the war with Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: We did discuss Iran. We feel very similar in Iran. We want that to end. We don't want them to have a nuclear weapon. We want the straits open. We're closing it now. They closed it and we closed it on top of them. But we want the strait open and we want them to get it ended because it's a crazy thing there, a little bit crazy when it's no good, can't have it.

They cannot have a nuclear weapon. But we discussed a lot of other things also, and I think we're very much on agreement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: That's what was said publicly. Probably most interesting stuff is what's being said privately right now. Let's bring in CNN's Beijing bureau chief Steven Jiang. Steven, is anything starting to leak out of that meeting that's happening now? What do we know about what's being said?

STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: Yes, Elex, it's not from the Chinese side for sure. Notice when President Trump brought the Iran issue doing the clip he just played. President Xi, I think, would rather talk about the trees and flowers in his ancient garden.

Now, the two presidents do seem to agree on the success so far from the summit, as well as the need for more face to face meetings down the road.

And on that front, President Trump mentioned again, he's inviting President Xi and his wife to a visit White House in September. So that gives the two leaders potentially at least two more chances to meet this year because the Chinese are also hosting the APEC Leadership Summit in November.

Now this is actually an important tangible outcome from the summit because it really provides this regularized and structured summit track, if you will, in this relationship, which can become a durable stabilizer, which has been sorely lacking in this relationship in recent years, years.

But Xi Jinping, for his part, has also really highlighted this one term they have just coined that is constructive strategic stability.

Now, it may sound a mouthful, but it is important for the Chinese because it indicates they actually now acknowledge the rivalry part in this relationship. They still insist cooperation is the main theme, but they also accept that there are so called moderate competition as well as manageable differences in this relationship.

Obviously, everything is open to interpretation. And they could also sell this demand domestically as how they stood their ground and negotiated and set terms from a position of equal strength.

But as we speak though, the two leaders are having a working lunch, their last official face to face interaction on the agenda. So, presumably they're trying to put a bond, especially in terms of all these potentially signable agreements.

Trump and his team, of course, have been dropping hints in the past few hours, including the President himself saying China has agreed to buy 200 Boeing jets, and the U.S. Trade Representative Greer, saying there is going to be double digit billion dollars worth of agricultural purchases.

[01:05:00]

So I think these things should be announced fairly soon. But these, of course, are the easy part. The Chinese can always, you know, easily spend this amount of money to placate Mr. Trump and his team to avoid actually talking about or addressing underlying structural issues that has caused this trade imbalance that's been so important for President Trump.

The trade imbalance between the two economies actually has widened in recent months. Alex.

MICHAELSON: Can we talk about the difference not only in substance but of style, of these two men who are so different? President Trump was on with Sean Hannity earlier talking about the fact that Xi is all business. Not a lot of flattery, not a lot of talking about what else is happening, kind of gets right to it. We know President Trump loves hyperbole. He loves the relationships. He loves the back and forth. I mean, it's interesting, the contrast between the two.

JIANG: Yes. But, you know, from what we have seen so far, I think both men have been trying very hard to meet midway. Right. Xi Jinping, as you said, is now known to be the sentimental kind, actually. He has purged plenty of his longtime proteges and allies since taking power.

And Trump, of course, is very much known for making off the cuff remarks and giving impromptu interviews. But so far during this trip, he has done none of that. So both leaders have very much largely stuck to the script, which is probably not easy for Trump, but also by having these, you know, warmth, public display of warmth and closeness. You've seen how the two men shaking hands for a long time, Xi tapping Trump on the shoulder and, you know, throwing all sorts of flattering remarks at him.

That's probably not easy for Xi either. So both men are trying because they both realize, you know, politics is performative and it's important to have this kind of element to set the tone and set the backdrop for this relationship to move forward, at least in a relatively positive way. Elex?

MICHAELSON: Steven Jiang, so great to have you along with us as our guide for this coverage. And it'll be interesting to see in the next hour. We're going to learn a lot about what they're talking about. And we're going to see President Trump departing within the next hour as well. And we're grateful to have you along for our coverage.

Let me bring into our coverage now Drew Thompson, who's a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University. From 2011 to 2018, he was the director for China, Taiwan and Mongolia in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He's live now in Singapore.

Thank you so much. What do you see as the headline of this summit so far?

DREW THOMPSON, SENIOR FELLOW, NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY: Surprisingly positive atmospherics. I think both sides have really put a lot of investment into emphasizing they have both the willingness and importantly the capacity to manage their differences. The dialogue's important. The potential outcome of things like a board of trade managing trade differences, getting the announcements and really steering the discussion away from the differences, the conflict and the confrontation.

The message is pretty clear that, you know, both sides want you to take away from this summit is that there's a desire and an intention to maintain stability. And I think that's reassuring to a lot of people. There's still differences. The differences are not being, you know, plastered over.

Taiwan, obviously, was raised multiple times, but they're working it out together, and I think that's a very positive sign.

MICHAELSON: President Trump brought up one issue about an hour ago when the cameras were on him in that meeting that we were just looking at, which was Iran. Do we think that China has the incentive, wants to help on that front? How do you see them potentially getting involved in a more significant way?

THOMPSON: That's a great question. It's worth noting that President Trump is doing most of the talking about Iran, not President Xi. So what we have is President Trump interpreting his discussions with Xi Jinping, and that's unusual. Normally, the U.S. will leave the Chinese side to speak for themselves.

I think there's going to be limits to China's ability to really change the dynamic and the situation on the ground. I mean, China has influence, but they don't really have leverage over Tehran. I think it's also important to remember that we're talking a lot in these meetings, or Trump is talking in this meeting about opening the Strait of Hormuz, and really the U.S. primary interest is in eliminating the threat that Iran might pose to its neighbors and the acquisition of a nuclear weapon.

He said that Xi Jinping agrees that Iran should never have a nuclear weapon. But it's not clear yet whether Xi Jinping is going to spend serious political capital on and potentially get embroiled in a conflict with Iran just to get them to give up that hope that Iran has to have a nuclear weapon.

MICHAELSON: You've, you know, presumably been involved in some of the atmospherics, the planning, the discussions on sort of this.

[01:10:00]

Give us some insight on kind of what goes into making a meeting like this even happen.

THOMPSON: Well, from a staff perspective, it's exhausting. It's very intense. You know, you have long lead time to prepare. But really it's shocking how much comes down to the last minute arm wrestling and all night bargaining sessions beforehand.

There's an awful lot of moving parts. There's a lot of logistics. It's not just the optics, it's the movement of people. These are particularly large delegations.

China of course has a very different political culture than the U.S. so, so that's a factor as well. There have been reports about, you know, scuffling between security forces and journalists being manhandled. That's pretty common not just at the presidential level, but at cabinet level visits as well because the stakes are high.

But you know, China tends to seek to really control the optics and the movements and any variables in these large delegations. Whereas the U.S. tends to be a bit more holistic about, about their approach in some ways. So yes, it's pretty intense.

And it's not over of course the moment it ends there's going to be the messaging signaling the release of statements, the follow up interviews and that'll be dueling banjos. The Chinese will release their products very quickly, sometimes even while the meetings are still taking place because they know what their readouts will be.

The U.S. to get a grip on what happens and then put out something. So we'll be parsing those carefully to see how the meetings actually went.

MICHAELSON: Yes, we saw that yesterday that the Chinese readout about Taiwan came out in the middle of the meeting and then we did not hear anything from the U.S. until after the meeting was over. Drew Thompson live for us in Singapore. Thank you so much for your expertise. We appreciate it.

We'll be back with more of the story is as we continue to follow this breaking news from China.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:16:15]

MICHAELSON: We are still monitoring President Trump's meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Until we get some more updates, we're going to get into some other news, including a moment for some fun. Let's talk entertainment.

That is the independent horror film "Obsession." The warning to be careful what we wish for. It releases in theaters on Friday. The movie was made for about a million dollars by 26-year-old Internet influencer Curry Barker and it sparked considerable buzz when it premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last year. Joining me now here is Grae Drake, our film critic for CBR.com. Grae, great to see you. Were you obsessed with Obsession?

GRAE DRAKE, FILM CRITIC. CBR.COM: Absolutely.

MICHAELSON: Really?

DRAKE: Oh my God. I saw this movie a long time ago. I haven't stopped thinking about it since.

MICHAELSON: Wow.

DRAKE: So effective. So creepy. Our main character's name is a guy, goes by Bear and he has been strictly friend zoned by Nikki. OK?

MICHAELSON: OK.

DRAKE: And instead of just telling her that he likes her and he'd like to go out on a date, he picks up that one wish willow that you saw in the clip, which is just this little toy. And he wishes that Nikki would love him and he breaks that thing and she ends up loving him way too much. It's awesome, it's gory, it's disturbing. And the actress that plays Nikki, her name is Inde Navarrette.

And I need to find out every other thing she's ever been in because she makes this movie so, so deeply upsetting and unforgettable. Loved it.

MICHAELSON: OK, that's quite a good review for you. The best I've heard from you in a long time. "Driver's Ed."

DRAKE: OK, so teens are still in trouble, but this time it's Jeremy. And his older girlfriend used to drive him around, so he never learned how to. But now she's at college and he's like, OK, I'll take a Driver's Ed class. But they're drifting apart because you know how that story's going to end. Basically. If you're a human on the planet, you know how it's going to end. But --

MICHAELSON: She dies.

DRAKE: Oh, God.

MICHAELSON: Oh, my God.

DRAKE: So he hijacks a whole car of his Driver's Ed friends and goes to visit her at the nearby college. It's disastrous, but really, like, nothing wild happens in a movie that could have been really wild and fun. And so I couldn't believe this was R rated. I was like, is it just because of language? Because, like, they're -- they're like the most mild children I've ever seen.

MICHAELSON: So they do fall in love with love in the end?

DRAKE: No.

MICHAELSON: What's -- What's "LifeHack" all about?

DRAKE: OK, now this one is kind of wild because it's using technology to tell a story. So essentially going to see this movie is like watching your computer screen and your phone for 90 minutes. But they've made other movies like this called, like, "Unfriended and Searching." They're very effective because we all speak that language of tech.

So these kids in the U.K. just want to steal crypto from a billionaire. That's really it. That's all the movie is. It's a heist film. And because we all understand to a certain extent all the things they're using, like Discord and they're tracking.

MICHAELSON: We all understand that.

DRAKE: Sure. But it's like you kind of get it --

MICHAELSON: Yes.

DRAKE: -- and, you know, you see a Venmo and you're like, oh, I use that.

MICHAELSON: Yes.

DRAKE: But this movie is definitely going to make you want to put two- factor authentication on everything you own. It's a really effective heist movie, and it is very upsetting when you think about how everything you worked for could disappear in an instant.

[01:20:02]

MICHAELSON: Wow. I mean, because you think about it, we've moved from the sort of bank robbery movies where you get into the vault --

DRAKE: Oh yes.

MICHAELSON: -- and you have stuff and the guns and everything. Now it's all -- it's all digital.

DRAKE: Oh, yes. We don't do any physical exertion anymore. That's very, very old school. We just beep bop boop now.

MICHAELSON: Do it all from your couch.

DRAKE: Yes. Goodbye money.

MICHAELSON: Yes. Right. Well, on that uplifting note, "Obsession" sounds like you're picking.

DRAKE: Oh, my God. Yes.

MICHAELSON: Yes. Grae, great to see you. Thank you so much. Thanks for some fun on a big news night as well.

Coming up here on The Story Is, we've got the Attorney General of California, Rob Bonta to discuss a massive drug bust. Plus, why he is investigating FIFA for potentially overcharging on your World Cup tick.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:25:04]

MICHAELSON: A U.S. delegation held talks with Cuban officials in Havana on Thursday as tensions between the two countries continue. Leading the U.S. delegation is CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who met Cuban intelligence officials from the Ministry of the Interior.

Cuba says their side stressed that Cuba is not a threat to the U.S. and shouldn't be listed as a state sponsor of terrorism. The U.S. has promised millions of dollars in aid to Cuba contingent upon reforms to its communist system.

Speaking on Fox News, Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed doubt that Cuba could turn things around with the current Cuban leadership at the helm. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: It's a broken, non-functional economy and it's impossible to change it. I wish it were different, but I believe it's my personal opinion. You cannot change the economic trajectory of Cuba as long as the people who are in charge of it now are in charge of it. That's what's to have to change because these people are proven incapable. I hope I'm wrong. We'll give them a chance, but I don't think it's going to happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Meanwhile, Ecuador is working to deepen ties with the U.S. as it fights increasing gang violence. Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa met U.S. Vice President JD Vance Wednesday in Washington. The two discussed their commitment to fighting narco trafficking as well as ongoing tensions with its neighbor Colombia.

In recent months, Ecuador has launched a sharp crackdown on drug crime. Back in March, the U.S. military began joint operations in the country targeting narco terrorists. However, the operations have been criticized by Ecuadorian human rights groups. CNN spoke to the President of Ecuador who defended the military operations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANIEL NOBOA, ECUADORIAN PRESIDENT: We welcome U.S. involvement respecting our laws and also respecting our military. Our military can lead the operations and have the support of American troops. That's the way that we've been working so far and we've been successful at doing so. Right now, we have cornered these narco terrorist groups into two areas in particular, which are the province of Guayas and the province of El Oro. So we have further operations going on there in the next few days.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: As Donald Trump pushes forward with the idea of making it the 51st state, Venezuela's main opposition leader is looking to get back home and lead the country. Nobel Prize winner Maria Corina Machado has been living in exile since winning the 2024 presidential primary, but ultimately was barred from running in the election.

Our Erin Burnett spoke with Machado and asked what assurances she has gotten from the Trump administration about free elections coming to Venezuela. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIA CORINA MACHADO, VENEZUELAN OPPOSITION LEADER: Well, certainly the Secretary of State has been very clear about that in public and private about a three-stage process. The first stage has already been concluded. The second one is in process and he has said that both can over. And the third one is actually a transition to democracy in which we can have free and fair elections in which every single Venezuelan inside our country and abroad can vote. It is time to move forward. Important steps are being taken as we speak.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Here in California, the Department of Justice has announced a massive drug bust. The Attorney General's office says it seized eight and a half million doses of Fentanyl. The drugs have a street value of $1.3 million.

The trafficker was arrested in Arcadia while transporting the drugs which are suspected to have originated in Mexico. Joining me live here is the California Attorney General, Rob Bonta. Mr. Attorney General, welcome back to The story Is.

ROB BONTA, CALIFORNIA ATTORNEY GENERAL: It's really good to be with you.

MICHAELSON: So you say that there are as many fentanyl pills as people in L.A. County. This is a big problem.

BONTA: Oh yes. I mean we did a bust a number of weeks ago, months ago now that had enough deadly doses of fentanyl to kill every person in San Diego and every person in Los Angeles. Today we were able to seize 8.5 million deadly doses. That's more than the number of people in San Diego and Orange County, not quite the number in Los Angeles County.

But this is fentanyl. Obviously a major crisis right now. It's cheap, it's potent, it's deadly. And we are in a crisis. And so we are tackling fentanyl. And I'm proud of the bus, my teammate that we announced today.

MICHAELSON: President Trump says this has been a big priority for him. They've cracked down on the border itself. They've also cracked down on other countries. Are you seeing success? I know you fight with him on many other issues --

BONTA: Yes.

MICHAELSON: -- but is this one area where maybe you're seeing some agreement and working with the administration?

BONTA: I think there's agreement in the mission to tackle fentanyl and to look at the flow of fentanyl from other countries across our border and throughout our state and throughout our country. And I think that's it's appropriate for the federal government to play a role. We're still seeing way more fentanyl than we should see. We're going to keep cracking down on fentanyl until there's no more. It's still a problem. It's still crisis levels today.

[01:30:00]

But any assistance from the federal government is welcome. Any assistance from other states is welcome. And we work with federal and local jurisdictions, part of joint task forces.

The bust we made today was led by us, but we worked with others as well, and we're proud to do that -- work collaboratively.

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: I know you don't like what's happened with ICE within the country and all the rest of it, but does some of the crackdown at the border itself, has that helped at all when it comes to fentanyl?

BONTA: The crackdown of fentanyl at the border?

MICHAELSON: No, the crackdown -- the crackdown just of trying to close the border to try to make -- intensify some of the border crossing -- has that helped at all in terms of fentanyl?

BONTA: Well, an orderly border is obviously necessary and helpful to monitor all sorts of different things, including unlawful drugs coming across our border.

So I visited the border. I saw some of the evidence in the past that -- where seizures have been made and how they've been made. And you see fentanyl inside compartments built in cars and all sorts of creative ways to move the fentanyl across the border.

But yes, a tighter border will, by definition, help address fentanyl flow.

MICHAELSON: You're also making news this week when it comes to FIFA. We have the World Cup coming to all of North America. Here in southern California --

BONTA: Yes.

MICHAELSON: -- we're hosting the first match for Team USA at Sofi Stadium, which is a big deal. But the ticket prices are insane.

BONTA: They are.

MICHAELSON: But could they potentially be criminal? I mean, what are you looking at in terms of an investigation when it comes to the ticket prices?

BONTA: Yes, it could be civilly -- civil violations most likely. And first of all, the prices are way too high for the everyday person to be able to participate in watching, you know, the beautiful game here as we host it proudly in the United States of America.

This is the world's game. It's coming here to the United States. It's exciting. Everyday people -- Californians should be able to see the game.

But what FIFA has been doing is they've been selling tickets and saying, you're in -- you can buy a ticket in a certain category. They don't give you your specific seat and they show you a map. And they say your category is in this part of the stadium, and they show you the map of the stadium. And then they later changed that.

After you buy the ticket, they change that category. They change the place on the map. And so you get a different seat -- seating location than what you purchase. And so it's misleading.

It is unlawful to have -- for businesses to engage in, in deceptive or fraudulent practices. This could violate those laws. But we're seeking more information. We sent a letter to FIFA to gather more information so we can have a full sense of the facts before we make a decision.

MICHAELSON: And have you heard back from them at all?

BONTA: Not yet. Yes. Not yet. We recently sent the letter and but we do expect a response. They need to follow the laws of the states that they're engaged in business in, including the great state of California, the fourth largest economy in the world.

MICHAELSON: Yes. And speaking of, you're a big soccer player. You played in Yale. You still play --

BONTA: It's very generous to call me that today.

(CROSSTALKING)

MICHAELSON: -- against your colleagues in these big games of all the California lawmakers and you and you dominate that year after year.

BONTA: I don't know about that.

MICHAELSON: What do you make of this moment, though, of the World Cup itself, it coming here, this big moment for the world?

BONTA: It's a beautiful moment. It's an exciting moment. It's a moment where this beautiful game played and loved throughout the world, so much passion around it is bringing people together. We need more of that today, I think, where there's a lot of polarization, a lot of divisiveness, and coming together around sport and common humanity and joy and celebration and our country hosting that is a beautiful thing.

So I have high hopes. I'm optimistic, I'm hopeful. I'm excited. And I think it could really, be an important moment for the United States and for the world.

California, of course, hosting matches here in southern California and northern California as well.

BONTA: Yes.

MICHAELSON: And we know cities all across North America are going to be hosting. It's going to be a lot of fun. BONTA: That's right.

MICHAELSON: Rob Bonta, Attorney General of California, great to see you.

BONTA: Thank you Elex. Great to see you, too.

MICHAELSON: Thank you so much.

Coming up, new comments from President Trump on the Strait of Hormuz as he meets with the Chinese leader as we are speaking. What the president is saying now.

And then within the next 20, 30 minutes, we expect to see the end of this meeting. All that breaking news ahead on THE STORY IS.

[01:34:02]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELSON: A live picture right now from Beijing. This is our first look at Air Force One, which is getting set for the exit ceremony of the United States president as he prepares to leave China.

We see a red carpet rolled out now for him and some of the precision of the Chinese military.

As far as we know, President Trump and president and the leader of China, Xi, are still meeting and are meeting overtime, which is interesting that the meeting is going longer than expected. So we don't know if there is some last-minute deal-making happening.

But at this point, we expected them to be on the move and they are not yet on the move. So we're going to keep an eye on this and let you know when that meeting wraps up.

It will be fascinating to learn in the coming hours what was said and what potential deals are going to be announced.

Now, the war with Iran is a key topic at the summit. President Trump now says the U.S. doesn't need the Strait of Hormuz open at all, or at least as much as China does. He says he could even make the case that the U.S. is trying to reopen the waterway to help Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

On Thursday and again today, the president said Chinese leader Xi Jinping agreed with him that the strait should be open.

Let's bring in CNN's Kristie Lu Stout, who is with us live in Hong Kong, following all of this. And it's so important in the global economy, Kristie.

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Big time, Elex. And the Strait of Hormuz, the global energy crisis is in focus today with more reported oil tanker crossings through that critical waterway, all coinciding with the talks underway right now in Beijing between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Earlier, we heard from the White House. It said that both leaders are urging for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

[01:39:45]

STOUT: And earlier, we heard through an interview from U.S. President Donald Trump saying that China has agreed to buy American crude. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So what has happened? And one thing I think that we're going to make a deal on is they've agreed they want to buy oil from the United States. They're going to go to Texas. We're going to start sending Chinese ships to Texas and to Louisiana and to Alaska.

And I think that was another thing that was agreed to. That's a big thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STOUT: Now, China has yet to confirm that energy purchase. And meanwhile, we continue to monitor the price of oil. And despite the signals that we're getting out of Beijing, again, according to the White House, this call from both Xi and Trump to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the price of oil is gaining. It is on the rise.

You're looking at the oil benchmark, the global one Brent Crude. It's up one and a quarter of 1 percent. Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate, that is the U.S. benchmark for oil. That is up 1.75 percent.

On the back of those comments, we're also keeping an eye on gas prices in America, and they continue to be at elevated levels at highs not seen since 2022. And there you see it according to AAA, it's at $4.53 a gallon. The average price at the pump in America.

We're also keeping an eye on marine traffic, especially through that critical channel that is the Strait of Hormuz. And since Wednesday evening, this is according to Iranian state media, about 30 vessels managed to cross the strait, among them flagged vessels flagged by China and Japan and these are oil tankers.

Now, this is a pretty significant amount if you're thinking about wartime levels. 30 vessels is a big number, but not in comparison to pre-war levels where we were witnessing about 140 vessels cross the Strait of Hormuz per day.

So why are we seeing this relatively higher number? Well, according to one economist, he's drawing a line between that phenomenon and the talks that have been underway in Beijing.

I want to bring up his comments for you because they're interesting. His name is Tim Snyder, chief economist at "Matador". He says, "Many are wondering if Iran is allowing the ships to pass, to not tip the scales of the talks away from China's protection of Iran." Because remember, China is very close to Iran, a key ally and a major, if not the main buyer of Iranian oil.

Now, a number of maritime incidents have happened, and we continue to monitor the safety of seafarers and crews there operating in the Middle East.

We have learned that one vessel that was off the coast of the UAE was seized and that was steered towards Iran.

We also learned that an Indian container ship that had livestock on board came under attack -- under attack and then sank off the coast of Oman. We did hear a statement from the Iranian -- pardon me, from the Indian foreign ministry condemning that attack.

Elex, back to you.

MICHAELSON: It'll be fascinating, Kristie. We just looked at the Brent Crude price with you.

STOUT: Yes.

MICHAELSON: In the next few hours, were likely going to hear from President Trump aboard Air Force One in terms of is there any tangible deliverables when it comes to Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, which clearly was on President Trump's mind?

And depending on what he says, we could see that price go way up or way down. And so that is definitely something to watch in the next few hours.

And in terms of the global economy and so many of the top business leaders there making their own side deals. How do you sort of see that at this moment with the war going on? But also plenty of business going on and China as well?

STOUT: You know, the point that you raise about deliverables is really key here. And that's what we're looking for, is that more concrete readout from both the U.S. side and the Chinese side in regards to business deals, in regards to what's happening with Iran in the Strait of Hormuz.

We did get those comments from Scott Bessent. He was speaking to the media saying that China will do what they can in order to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz. But those are very abstract words, and the markets are looking for more concrete guidance here.

Now, in regards to the global economic forecast, it still remains quite dire because of this ongoing conflict. We just heard a new forecast from the IMF saying that the economy is moving towards a, quote, "adverse scenario". It gave its forecast for GDP growth this year at 2.5 percent. That is lower than 3.4 percent growth the year before.

And it's citing the war in the Middle East. It is citing the ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz because, Elex, as we've been reporting nonstop on your program for the last ten weeks plus, the war in the Middle East has spawned an energy crisis which has turned into an everything crisis.

We are seeing shortages and rising prices in everything from gas, crude, jet fuel, diesel, liquefied natural gas, as well as fertilizer, plastics and, of course, food.

And so we're looking at an economic outlook that's looking increasingly more pessimistic, as well as issues like food insecurity coming down the line, Elex.

[01:44:50]

MICHAELSON: And those are a lot of countries in Southeast Asia that China is used to exporting to. And so if those economies are not doing well, that hurts the Chinese economy as well, which could be a reason that they have incentive to try to move along this situation in the Strait of Hormuz.

Kristie Lu Stout with us in Hong Kong. Great to see you.

STOUT: Thank you.

MICHAELSON: We continue to keep an eye on developments in China. We are awaiting President Trump, wrapping up his second day of talks. Those talks are in overtime right now.

We will continue to take you back live to Beijing when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:49:52]

MICHAELSON: A live picture once again from Beijing. This is the preparations underway for the departure ceremony for President Trump.

We see that kids are in place. We know that kids were in place for his welcome ceremony. Something that he commented how much he liked seeing.

We saw kids in place for his ceremony as well for his meeting with president -- or with Xi yesterday. And so we see this sort of elaborate stagecraft happening.

As far as we know, the motorcade is not in motion yet, which means that the meeting between the leaders of the two biggest and most important economies in the world is in overtime. And it will be interesting to see what comes of that.

We continue our team coverage. We have correspondents all over the world, including Steven Jiang, who is our Beijing bureau chief, and Will Ripley, who is live for us in Taipei.

Steven, what do you read into the fact that this meeting is going in overtime? STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Elex, they often do,

although we just saw some reporting from my colleague Betsy Klein about the menu for this working lunch, including seafood soup, kung pao chicken, and apparently brownie as dessert.

That reminded me -- remember that famous moment when Xi went to visit Trump in Mar-a-Lago back in 2017? And Trump famously boasted the dessert being one of the most beautiful pieces of chocolate cake you've ever seen. And later, he claimed Xi enjoyed that piece of chocolate cake.

Maybe there was a bit of friendly rivalry here in terms of the dessert on the menu when the two leaders, you know, were meeting again this time.

But in all seriousness, they are probably trying to wrap up the meeting by putting a bow on it in terms of the announced agreements for the teams to highlight when it comes to trade and agreements as well as commitments.

Of course, Trump and his team have been dropping some hints with the president himself saying China has agreed to buy 200 Boeing jets and the U.S. Trade Representative Grier also mentioning how there will be double-digit billion dollars' worth of agricultural purchases from China.

But there are a few things to note here. One, of course, is commitments and contracts are one thing, but actually following through is another thing, because by Trump's team's own assessment, the Chinese never follow through their commitments back in the first term of Trump, Trump's time in office, when they reached that trade deal 1.0.

So that is something they obviously are going to be concerned about for anything they reach this time around.

The other thing, of course, spending billions of dollars to buy American products is the easy part for the Chinese. They can always easily do that to placate the president and his team to, in a way, avoid addressing these underlying structural issues that has been -- indeed been the real cause of a lot of friction in this trade relationship, as well as the huge trade imbalance which has widened in recent months between the two economies, Elex.

MICHAELSON: Yes. And speaking of the lunch and the way all this works, I remember when I had the opportunity to visit China as part of the pool reporter with Governor Newsom when he visited, I was astounded by the amount of alcohol that was served in almost every single event.

And even -- we saw President Trump yesterday, who famously does not drink, take a sip of alcohol as a sign of respect to the Chinese leader as well, which is something you almost never see.

So you wonder if any drinks were served during this working lunch as well. I will say during that trip, there was a lot of drinks served during working lunches, which is not something you often see here. All right. Will Ripley, unless you want to weigh in on the food, let's

talk about the serious issues here.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm getting hungry listening to you guys talk about -- I mean, I haven't had lunch yet. I'm starving. My stomach's growling.

MICHAELSON: Yes, but the serious issues. You're joining us from Taiwan. Yesterday, the reporting was that the first and most important thing that the Chinese leader brought up was the issue of Taiwan.

But today we heard from Marco Rubio in an interview with NBC, and he said that, yes, he brought up Taiwan and he said what he had to say, and we said what we had to say. And basically, nothing has changed.

RIPLEY: Which is like, as we discussed yesterday, like the best possible outcome from the perspective of the Taiwanese, the fact that the headline this morning in "The Taipei Times" is no surprises. That is music to the ears of leadership here in Taipei.

Now, obviously, they're waiting to get a briefing from the State Department officials who are at the de facto embassy here in Taipei, the American Institute in Taiwan. And they will give their Taiwanese counterparts a readout of what happened.

[01:54:52]

RIPLEY: So until there is more tangible and specific information, they're probably doing what you folks at home are doing right now, they're watching the news. They're waiting for any Truth Social posts.

I mean, given the amount of alcohol that may have been served at the dinner last night, it might be a good thing that everybody had burner phones, Elex, and weren't tweeting because as a result, we're not getting a whole lot of information aside from, like you said, that interview with Marco Rubio where he said the U.S. reiterated its longstanding position and then moved on.

He did confirm, as you said, that Taiwan came up, but nothing elaborated beyond that. So obviously, the big fear here of a surprise of Taiwan being on the menu at least what's being publicly projected, that has not come to fruition.

And that is very much a welcome sigh of relief here in Taipei, because what they want, what the leadership wants, what the vast majority of Taiwanese want is for the status quo to continue, which is peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. No abrupt changes so that the semiconductor industry can continue to boom.

I mean right below that headline in the newspaper, Elex, was another one about TSMC, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company expecting global chip revenue to hit $1.5 trillion by 2030.

That kind of money can only be made if the supply chain doesn't get disrupted because of some sort of misunderstanding or military action on the Taiwan Strait.

MICHAELSON: Will, thank you. Steven, thank you.

We just have some breaking news that the meeting just ended and that they are now in the motorcade. It's about a 30-minute drive to the airport. And so we will see that ceremony in the next hour on CNN with Lynda Kinkade.

For now, I'm Elex Michaelson in Los Angeles. Thanks for watching THE STORY IS.

[01:56:33]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)