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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson

Rescue Efforts Resume As Storms, New Lakes Threaten Flood Zone; More Than 500 Dead, 2,500 Plus Missing After Catastrophic Flood; Trump - U.S. Reaches Historic Oil Deal With Venezuela; Trump Signs Executive Order To Create U.S. Space Academy; Aired 12-1a ET

Aired August 29, 2026 - 00:00   ET

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

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LEO GONZALEZ, COMEDY CREATOR & ACTOR: -- going through this stuff now, 10 years later, so much more fun. I think when I first -- before I started and my mom was sick and a few things had happened. Things were not funny anymore, and I think that they're funny again. You can find that again.

LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: Well, Leo Gonzalez, you bring a lot of light into this world, and I'm so glad to know you. Thank you so much.

GONZALEZ: Thank you. Thank you, Laura.

COATES: Here comes Elex Michaelson, everyone. Can't wait to watch.

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Welcome to "The Story Is." I'm Elex Michaelson live in Los Angeles.

Coming up, "The Story Is" rescue choppers in the air searching for more than 2,500 people still missing after catastrophic flooding at the Nepal-China border were live in Kathmandu.

"The Story Is" Venezuelan oil. President Trump says the U.S. has taken a major stake in Venezuela's massive oil reserves, a deal he says to more than double America's reserves and drive gas prices down.

And "The Story Is" life is a dream. After a decades long career in film, Sir Anthony Hopkins is releasing his first album at '88. I sit down with him and Maestro Gustavo Dudamel for an exclusive interview on their new collaboration.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Los Angeles. "The Story Is" with Elex Michaelson.

MICHAELSON: Our top story is the emergency response to the catastrophic flooding along Nepal's border with China. Authorities say the death toll has risen to more than 500 people, and that could keep going up. More than 2,500 people are still missing, including hundreds of foreign nationals who were visiting the region. A CNN team heard helicopters flying from barracks in Nepal just a short time ago as rescue operations resumed. An army official says seven military and seven civilian helicopters rescued about 900 people on Friday. Authorities are closely monitoring two new lakes that were formed by Wednesday's disaster, adding to the growing concerns about further flooding and landslides. Officials are also watching for another round of monsoon storms that could develop through the weekend. Massive landslides and flash floods have wreaked havoc across the region, destroying buildings, washing away bridges, and burying towns under feet of mud and debris. Residents and visitors are learning the fate of their loved ones from lists and photos posted on the wall of a morgue.

CNN's Hanako Montgomery reports on the rescue efforts and the hope of finding more survivors.

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HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It looks as though people are getting off holding some kind of luggage. We can't tell if these people are survivors or whether these are people of loved ones who are trying to find any remaining survivors. Look another helicopter up in the sky there.

MONTGOMERY (voice-over): At this Nepali army barracks in Trishuli. Helicopter after helicopter ferries people out of some of the hardest hit areas. This survivor walked off showing no obvious signs of injury. He told us he'd spent days trapped on the mountain, convinced he'd die of hunger, waiting desperately for help.

KAPUR SINGH TAMANG, LANDSLIDE SURVIVOR (translated): There was no food or water with me. It was all swept away, and there was nothing I could do. I thought that my life was over, that I would not be able to see my family again.

MONTGOMERY (voice-over): Across the disaster zone, there are other extraordinary tales of survival. Rescuers pulled over a 100 people from tunnels inside a hydroelectric power plant in Rasuwa. Some emerged so completely caked in mud, it looked like a second skin. But as the hours tick by, this rescue effort is now racing against time. The critical 72 hour window for finding survivors will soon run out. And here outside the army barracks, hope gives way to anguish.

With power lines down and communications cut, many families still have no way of knowing whether their loved ones are alive. So they come here in search of answers.

MONTGOMERY: These are all relatives of people still missing. And because they can't get in contact with them. They've come here to the army barracks to give their contact information, their names, trying to see if the people that the army are finding are the same people as their loved ones.

MONTGOMERY (voice-over): After scanning this list with hundreds of names, there's little left to do but wait and cling to the hope that their families will soon make it home. Hanako Montgomery, CNN.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MICHAELSON: Joining us now live is Sumnima Udas in Kathmandu. She is a Member of Nepal's Parliament, Chair of the Foreign Relations and Tourism Committee, and a former Correspondent here at CNN. And we begin with some sad news that we just got moments ago. The death toll, which we just reported as 500, has now risen to 616.

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So more people found. Unfortunately, they did not make it. What is the latest that you're seeing in terms of the rescue efforts that are happening right now? What's happening on the ground?

SUMNIMA UDAS, MEMBER OF NEPALI PARLIAMENT: Thanks Elex. As we move into day three of the flash floods, time is really of the essence to search and rescue as many survivors as we can. And it's particularly heartbreaking to hear some of those reports you just played, but also the interviews on this network and social media of family members in the U.S., Singapore, elsewhere anxiously waiting to hear about the whereabouts of their loved ones, their missing parents or siblings.

I really can't imagine how difficult it must be not to know, their whereabouts, and I thank them for their hope and patience in this difficult time. I can assure you the Government of Nepal is really trying to do everything it possibly can to find as many survivors during these critical hours. More than 2,000 are still missing. And among them, 517 are foreign nationals. This is the latest data that we have.

Many, as we discussed earlier, were pilgrims on their way back from Mount Kailash, which is a sacred site. This was also an access route to Langtang, which is a major trekking route. And another major concern is there's about 900 people still trapped in hydropower tunnels, engineers, mechanics, and they are still missing.

In terms of the humanitarian response, the latest is that about 15,000 security personnel have been deployed. Almost 4,500 citizens of people have been rescued. Among them, a 129 are foreign citizens, and they're the ones that they were able to identify. A major challenge has been to identify the dead bodies, because as some of the reports have mentioned, there's limbs and arms, legs, and a lot of them completely covered with mud sludge. So identification has been a problem.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs here has set up an emergency control room to coordinate with embassies everywhere and family members, because as I mentioned, that that's been a major concern, and a lot of people from everywhere are reaching out trying to find their loved ones. In addition to finding survivors, downstream search teams have been deployed to pick up dead bodies, and there's also the need to provide relief. And and as all of this, as you mentioned, with the overarching fear that this can happen again, there was an alert that came from the Chinese government yesterday, and we encourage everyone to move uphill. So it's a desperate situation, to be honest, Elex.

MICHAELSON: So you have reported on disasters in this region for this network before. You're now dealing with this disaster as a member of the government. Have you ever seen anything like this before, and how are you processing this?

UDAS: Well, I covered the 2015 earthquake in Nepal and covered many floods in India in the past. And this is different in that it is a vast area, but at it -- at the same time, it is concentrated. It is in three districts of Nepal, whereas the earthquake was spread throughout the country. And the most difficult part, I would say is just the access. The -- it's not water anymore. It's mud. It's sludge. So how do you get there? And helicopters has been really the only way. And just not knowing, I think, has been a major concern because all the telecommunications lines were down.

There's no electricity there. The telecommunication lines, a lot of it has been restored now. Electricity has come to the area as well. But still just not knowing where to look, how to look has been the major concern. So I would say that the nature of this is different from other floods that I've covered or even the earthquake.

MICHAELSON: Well, you've been a source of so much great information, and we appreciate you taking time during this busy period for you to help update our viewers all around the world. Sumnima Udas, thank you so much, and best of luck to you and your colleagues in the days ahead.

UDAS: Thank you.

MICHAELSON: Survivors of the deadly flooding say that they are still processing coming to terms with what they have witnessed.

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Some of them spoke with CNN's Will Ripley about the traumatic experience, a warning that his report contains some disturbing images.

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ANJANA RAJA, NEPAL FLOOD SURVIVOR: Violent. It was aggressive. Aggressive with anger. That's how I saw the water come. So I really asked him, I mean, why is God so angry with us?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Anjana Raja and Pattabi Venkatesan came to Nepal from Northern California for a spiritual journey, but not one like this.

PATTABIRAMAN VENKATESAN, AMERICAN SURVIVOR OF NEPAL FLOODS: Just seeing so many people die, I think that's going to last for a while. It's going to linger for a while. I don't know if we will get over it anytime soon.

RIPLEY: They were on a tour bus near the China-Nepal border about to cross into Tibet when people outside started running and screaming.

RAJA: There was no time to think. Our reflexes needed to be so fast. I saw something coming really brown up there going up, like 60 to 70 feet, something coming brown our way. At that point, I didn't know whether it was water or whether was dust. So the way it came is came just like a tsunami. It just came going all the way up and just like a tsunami, the how it sweeps going like a row. It just took the buses, the lands, houses, people, everything.

VENKATESAN: A lot of it.

RAJA: We saw people just getting sucked in the water. It was so traumatizing to see that. People are screaming, but, of course, water doesn't hear anything. It just kind of sucked them in.

RIPLEY: They shared this photo showing what's left of their tour bus.

RAJA: It's very hard to express in words. A lot of turmoil inside. It was nerve racking, especially when you see death just five seconds away from you. I talked about everybody who lost their lives there because there were dead bodies within sight. Bodies where they were only half bodies, just hands, just legs, just face, just head, bodies like that lying around.

VENKATESAN: He's our lifesaver.

TASHI TAMANG, TOUR GUIDE: Yeah.

VENKATESAN: My brother.

RIPLEY: Their tour guide, Tashi Tumang, guided them up the mountain with just seconds to spare.

TAMANG: How can running.

RIPLEY: Just running. Just running.

TAMANG: Just running. 10 seconds is finished.

RIPLEY: 10 seconds. Everything's under water.

TAMANG: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh my god. Oh my god.

RIPLEY: After running to higher ground, they spent the night huddling in the woods with a small group of survivors.

VENKATESAN: We're about 70, 80 people in that little area. We got to put our bags, sit on the bag in that supported, you -- we had, like, 2-inch wiggle room. We couldn't move more than 2-inches because it was so full. Water all night, little or no food. We had share water whoever had water.

RIPLEY: Finally, a helicopter came to rescue them. And here you are now, and you have your temporary passport. You're going to go home and see your daughter and your son.

RAJA: I can't wait. I can't wait.

RIPLEY: What do you want to say to them? What are going to do when you see them?

RAJA: I'm going to hug them and cry because I am an emotional mama. I -- yeah. I am going to hug them and cry, and I'm just thankful to God that I'm alive and there for them. I'm going to tell them take life seriously and be ready for whatever it comes. This is a learning. Things could happen to anyone. It could happen to us again, so be ready. I'm going to tell them that.

RIPLEY (voice-over): They're among the handful of lucky ones. At one of the largest hospitals in Kathmandu, we watch as the number of registered missing people grows from 1,200 to more than 1,600 in just a few hours.

RIPLEY: People are signing up names of their loved ones who are missing. They're registering them, hoping that they'll be brought to this hospital.

RIPLEY (voice-over): But as the day goes by, no new names are added to this handwritten list of 31 survivors. Junisha Thapa came here searching for her uncle.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His name is Razoli. It is not included in this list.

RIPLEY: How often have you been checking?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Minute, minute.

RIPLEY: Minute-by-minute?

RIPLEY: Yes. She says he was at the tax office when the flood hit. What happened to the tax office?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It swept away from flood.

RIPLEY: It was swept away by the water. Photos of the missing fill this hospital wall. Just around the corner at the morgue, we find a very different photo wall. It's pictures of bodies from the flood zone, and there are men there. There are women. It looks like there are children. They even photograph body parts with tattoos. Anything that can be identified, it's just a really horrible scene. And with each passing hour, things here are only getting worse. Will Ripley, CNN, Kathmandu.

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MICHAELSON: We'll continue our team coverage from Nepal. Also coming up, we are following this out of Washington. The Trump administration approves a massive new oil deal with Venezuela. Our panel here to break down what it means live next.

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MICHAELSON: President Trump says that the U.S. has reached what he calls a historic oil deal with Venezuela. That announcement comes as the U.S. faces dwindling emergency reserves while the Iran war disrupts one-fifth of the world's oil supply. President Trump says the U.S. will get majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuela's oil reserves that will increase oil supply and lower gas prices.

He says the deal will also strengthen relations between the two countries. Venezuela acting President Delcy Rodriguez is also praising the agreement. A White House official says Rodriguez granted a private company a 100-year concession to develop the oil fields. It's a joint venture between the U.S. government and a private operator in Venezuela.

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Joining to talk about that and more is our political panel. Caroline Sunshine was a Communications Aid for the Trump 2024 Campaign, and Lucas Acosta, Principal with Pebble Beach Press and former Director of Broadcast Media with the Biden White House.

Welcome back, both of you. Good to see you. Caroline, you're everywhere on this network. We saw you in New York last night. Good to have you here in Los Angeles tonight.

CAROLINE SUNSHINE, COMMUNICATIONS AIDE, TRUMP 2024 CAMPAIGN: Great to be here.

MICHAELSON: So let's start with this. Good idea? Is this a win for America? A win for Venezuela?

SUNSHINE: I think so. I think for both. Venezuela is the largest crude oil reserves in the world, and they're in our hemisphere. And while I might be skeptical of American intervention outside of our hemisphere, I'm very much in favor of us being dominant in our hemisphere, very supportive of the Monroe Doctrine. President Trump has kind of called this adoration the Donroe Doctrine. when a country has a resource as wide and vast as Venezuela does, it should be a rich thriving country, and the people should be benefiting from it.

And under Hugo Chavez and then under Maduro, they were not. That that resource was completely mismanaged. So what I'm hopeful is that, yes, it's beneficial for the United States, but that it's also beneficial for the people of Venezuela, that it allows more capitalism into their country, that it creates more ownership for them rather than the previous situation where the government owned it and the people didn't really benefit.

MICHAELSON: Does this feel like colonialism?

LUCAS ACOSTA, PRINCIPAL, PEBBLE BEACH PRESS: I mean, I think what this lays bare is seven months ago, the Trump administration, Trump himself, was saying that it was to oust a corrupt government. And Rubio was in front of Congress saying that we went to Venezuela to restore democracy to the nation. And I think what this lays bare is that it was about none of those things. It was about installing a compliant regime to give them whatever resources that were available to them. And, yes, great. Let's empower the Venezuelan people to be able to take advantage of the resources in their country.

But is this deal doing that? It seems like this deal is just stripping them of their resources, bringing it to the American people, which, great, lower gas prices. But it is also, at the end of the day, the Venezuelan people's resources.

MICHAELSON: And what do you say to that? This kind of feels a little icky.

SUNSHINE: Well, I think just what was ickier again was in their previous government, the people didn't have any access to the resource. Again, Chavez and Maduro really made that not possible. And so I'm a big believer that, the definition of insanity is trying the same thing, over and over. Let's give this a try. What I would hope to see is that, when the United States opened up trade relations with China in the 90s, the hope was that China was going to liberalize politically as well as economically. That that didn't happen, right? China ended up liberalizing economically, but not politically.

So let's try to do this better, and I'm all for giving this a chance because I've seen what the alternative is, and it wasn't good for Venezuela, it wasn't good for the United States given that that's a country in our hemisphere.

ACOSTA: Totally agree. And Maduro was a horrible leader, and the Venezuelan people were really suffering under his leadership. But also, again, Rubio said that this was about democratization in the country. Where is our free and fair election? Where is the opposition leader that Trump lost his Nobel Prize to that seems to have just went into the background and into a closet hiding away? Instead, he's removed the sanctions against the Vice President, now acting President, who is equally as corrupt as Maduro was, but is, again, just compliant to his deals. This isn't about empowering the Venezuelan people. This is about putting money in the Trump administration's pockets.

MICHAELSON: And American oil companies' pockets too. Many of whom are donors to the Trump administration.

ACOSTA: But it's a great thing, if it helps lower gas prices and really tackles that issue, which is obviously critical.

SUNSHINE: I think the only thing too about keeping Delcy Rodriguez in place and why the Nobel laureate wasn't going to be a viable option was. Venezuela is still a very divided country where it's not like everybody was critical of the Maduro regime. It is sort of split. And so I think the part of the thought of keeping Delcy in that position was the people weren't -- the Nobel laureate would have been viewed actually, I think, more as a puppet of the U.S. than the continuation of Delcy staying in the role.

ACOSTA: And that's fair. But let's have an election and find out.

MICHAELSON: Yeah. Maria created (inaudible) who was were talking about there. Meanwhile, not long after that Venezuela operation, we launched the war with Iran. Today is six months since we launched that war. And President Trump talking this week about the Strait of Hormuz, which is not operating at the way that it used to be. That's part of the reason why some of these oil issues are happening. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We don't want to speak to them. We're not looking to meet or anything. The strait is open. We're taking a lot of boats. Millions and millions of barrels of oil are coming out of the strait every day. Other countries recognize that. Every once in a while, they shoot some and they put some shots there. We totally cleared the strait of we have the best minesweepers in the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[00:25:00]

MICHAELSON: So the strait used to have, over a 100 ships a day. Now it's about 10 that's going through, which is better than zero, but it's not quite what it was when this war started.

ACOSTA: Yeah. I mean, we're six months into this war at this point, and this war has not only risen costs for Americans at the gas pump and their wallets on everyday issues, but what it's also done is it's reduced the amount of safety that Americans feel. I mean, last month, we learned about Iran hacking water companies in 12 states across the country. That's millions of Americans whose clean and safe drinking water was put at risk because of this needless and war of choice. And so I think --

MICHAELSON: What about the idea of stopping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, which is what they say this is all about?

ACOSTA: I'm all for that, but that's also exactly what the Obama administration already had done. Trump is the one who threw out that deal and put us in the situation where we needed to figure this out again all over again. What we needed was to keep that deal and keep the economy running smoothly, and Trump clearly hadn't like, didn't want that in mind. So --

MICHAELSON: We know you're critical of this war and have been the entire time. Where do we go now? I mean, we're here. How do we get out of this?

SUNSHINE: Well, I was impressed. I've always been impressed with the capabilities of the U.S. military. I was very impressed to hear how the navy has cleared out the middle part of the strait with the mines. I mean, we just have the most exceptional fighting force in the world. But I have said that I think the good military options in this war have been tried and have been completed and that it's no longer a military war. It's an economic one.

The President did say, as you saw in his Truth Social post yesterday, mission accomplished. I am absolutely supportive of that because history does not judge American presidents and their success by how long they stay in the Middle East. It judges them by how little they stay in the Middle East. So the only way for an American President and an American government to win in the Middle East when we are there, which every American President of the modern era has been, is to leave. And the faster you leave, the faster you win.

MICHAELSON: And that's something that he had talked about on the campaign trail, but then, of course, didn't do when he got in there. Caroline, Lucas, thank you. You're going to be with us in our next hour as well, including some interesting things happening here in California that we're going to get you guys to weigh in on.

But still to come this hour, jurors in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial failed to reach a verdict on day two of deliberations ahead what evidence they asked to see.

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MICHAELSON: Welcome back to "The Story Is" I'm Elex Michaelson. Let's take a look at today's top stories.

The Trump administration is challenging a federal judge's decision blocking new strictions on mail in voting. That move comes weeks before the midterm elections in November. The rule would have allowed the USPS to refuse to deliver ballots from states that didn't meet voter lists and certain envelope requirements. For now, those changes remain on hold for at least two weeks.

President Trump is praising a new deal that he says gives the U.S. access to 65 billion barrels of Venezuela's vast oil reserves. He says the move will more than double American oil reserves and lower gas prices. The deal comes as U.S. emergency reserves have fallen to their lowest level since the early 1980s. National average price of gas is now above $4 a gallon.

Police in Nepal say the death toll from the catastrophic flooding along the border with China has risen to more than 600 people. More than 2,500 people are still missing on both sides of the border, including hundreds of foreign nationals. Police say more than 2,300 people were injured in Wednesday's disaster. Another round of heavy rain is expected this weekend, threatening to complicate search and rescue efforts.

An Italian photographer is speaking out about his narrow escape from those raging floodwaters. Stefano Lutolomolo was riding a bus near the Nepal-China border when the floods hit. He told CNN he was able to reach higher ground, taking shelter in a small hut with about 50 other survivors. They waited there until military helicopters rescued them the next morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEFANO LOTUMOLO, NEPAL FLOOD SURVIVOR: It was just a big sound of death everywhere. We had like, 30 seconds, one minute to get out of the bus and to just start to climb the side of the mountain. I wasn't affected by the landslide. And, I mean, the dead just knocks at the bus door and tell us, OK. Please, you can just go down quickly, please, and it will be your turn next time maybe, but not this time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Day two of jury deliberations in Lindsay Clancy's murder trial ended on Friday without reaching a verdict. Clancy's defense attorney says the jury sent one note to the judge asking to see prescription pill bottles and the knife that Clancy used when attempting to take her own life. CNN's Jean Casarez says the latest from Massachusetts.

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JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Judge William Sullivan, Friday afternoon, told the jury you are excused for the weekend, but asked them to come back to this courthouse in Plymouth, Massachusetts, Monday morning at 9:00 A.M.

[00:35:00]

Our producer in the courtroom noted that several of the jurors were speaking to each other as they walked into the courtroom, as they walked out of the courtroom, but that is to be expected because they've gotten to know each other. They have sat listening to the testimony for several weeks now. Now as far as the evidence, the juror asked for two pieces of evidence on Friday. One prescription pill bottles from Lindsay Clancy, the other being the knife.

Prescription pill bottles were entered into evidence by the prosecution. Patrick Clancy was the first witness on the stand. He had a paper bag of pill bottles, and he wanted to take them after the event to law enforcement and officials. The jury saw those pill bottles, and it was learned that only a few pills out of every prescription were actually out of the bottle.

The defense showed the jury during closing arguments a drawer from the nightstand next to the bed with a plastic ziplock bag filled with prescription bottles, and law enforcement had never collected that. Secondly, the knife. The knife is truly and not an issue in regard to the suicide attempt because both sides believe this was a very serious suicide attempt, but there was blood on the knife, blood in the bedroom. As we know, the jury did a jury view where they went into that bedroom now. And so but they wanted to see the knife up close. We do not know why, but it is something that they wanted to see.

In other news, Dr. Avram Mack, who was a prosecution rebuttal witness, CNN has confirmed that he has resigned from a children's hospital in Delaware. We do not know why he has resigned. CNN has reached out to Dr. Mack, but he was a board certified forensic psychiatrist that testified that he did not believe Lindsay Clancy had bipolar shortly before she killed her children. He thought it was an episode of depression and also anxiety. The reasons why he is no longer with that children's hospital remain unknown.

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MICHAELSON: That's Jean Casarez reporting in Massachusetts. Norway's Prime Minister says the entire nation is in mourning following the death of its longtime king. Harald the V died on Friday at the age of 89 after 35 years on the throne. He was Europe's oldest reigning monarch. Long line of people came to pay their respects at a makeshift memorial in the capital of Oslo on Friday. King Harald is succeeded by his son who thanked the country for its support and compassion.

People in Iceland are set to vote on Saturday on whether to restart talks to join the European Union. The main issues facing voters are sovereignty, security, and the strategic Arctic North, plus fishing rights. CNN's Sebastian Shukla has the story.

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SEBASTIAN SHUKLA, CNN FIELD PRODUCER (voice-over): A referendum to determine Iceland's future. A simple yes or no question that could restart talks of the tiny Nordic island joining the European Union. But the issue has sharply divided the country. Opponents say Iceland should keep its independence that it gained from Denmark in 1944. And they say Iceland already benefits from its ties to Europe as a NATO member that participates in the EU single market and is part of the Schengen free travel zone. Sovereignty, according to some voters, is a top concern.

OLAFUR BJORN SVERRISSON, ICELAND RESIDENT: I think it's most important whether we have something to say about our resources and how much power we are lacking to letting go to the EU.

SHUKLA (voice-over): Others argue it's a changing world, and joining the EU would help protect the country in a world that's increasingly focused on the strategic Arctic North. And it could potentially lower interest rates and inflation if Iceland adopts the euro.

AGUSTA UNNUR GUNNARSDOTTIR, ICELAND RESIDENT: I think it's more steady for us. We are very small nation, and most of the companies, the big companies, they use euros. So why not the public?

SHUKLA (voice-over): But it could all boil down to fish. Fishing is a cornerstone of Iceland's culture and economy, and for many, sharing its rich fishing grounds with Europe is a deal breaker.

HEIDRUN MARTEINSDOTTIR, FISHERIES ICELAND CEO: We have 100 percent of the profit in Iceland, and we want to keep it that way. So that is our worries if we join the common fisheries policy is that this value chain that has generated all this profit for the Icelandic population, that that will be torn apart.

SHUKLA (voice-over): Fishing rights are fiercely protected in Iceland. From 1958 to 1976, the country clashed with Great Britain in the so called Cod Wars, which was a series of sea skirmishes involving boat rammings and net cutting. Iceland ultimately won out, gaining full control of its 320 kilometer fishing zone.

[00:40:00] Security is also on people's minds. Iceland has a coast guard but no army relying on NATO for defense, which is a growing concern in the country. As Russia expands its presence in the Arctic and U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to acquire neighboring Greenland.

GUNNAR TRYGGVASON, ICELAND RESIDENT: Trump and Greenland and the response, that frightens me. Secondly, the tariffs that he's putting on Canada and is threatening to put on European countries as well, it might help us to be part of a block.

SHUKLA (voice-over): Iceland has considered joining the EU before. In 2009, talks started and later stopped without gaining traction. If Iceland votes yes in this referendum, negotiations will begin to try to reach a formal agreement, followed by a second referendum in Iceland, which will be the deciding vote on whether it will join the block or not. Sebastian Shukla, CNN, Berlin.

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MICHAELSON: Still to come, President Trump announces a new U.S. service academy, how it could shape the future of America's space program. And I sit down with Academy Award winning actor, sir Anthony Hopkins, to talk about his lifelong love of composing music, his new recording project. It's one of my all-time favorite interviews. Stick around for it. It's next.

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[00:45:00]

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MICHAELSON: President Trump has signed an executive order creating a new service academy to train future members of the U.S. Space Force. The President announcing the move in Houston, Texas while presenting the Artemis II crew for the congressional space medal of honor. The President said the U.S. Space Academy would train personnel for the Space Force and NASA while also supporting the civilian space industry.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Given the rapid growth of the space force and the commercial space industry and the expansion of our ambitions to the moon and far beyond the moon, it's clear that we will need to educate and train an entire generation of skilled service members, engineers, civil operators, and everything else.

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MICHAELSON: Sir Anthony Hopkins is one of the most celebrated actors of our time with a career spanning more than six decades across film, television, and theater. But he's even more passionate about another form of art, and he's launching a new career at age 88. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir Anthony Hopkins is listening to a performance of music he composed.

ANTHONY HOPKINS, ACTOR: I'm sitting there thinking, where did that come from?

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Where did it come from?

HOPKINS: From inside my soul.

MICHAELSON: Hopkins is best known for playing the cannibalistic killer Hannibal Lecter in several movies starting with The Silence of the Lambs.

HOPKINS: A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti.

MICHAELSON: The real life Hopkins just released his first ever album of his own classical compositions. Do you think Hannibal Lecter would like this album?

HOPKINS: It's a silly that's a question. Hello, Clarice. I like the Clarice. The Clarice. Sorry.

MICHAELSON: Album is titled Life Is a Dream. What does Life Is a Dream mean?

HOPKINS: Exactly that. Life Is a Dream. That is what I see it now at 88.5 years of age going on to my 90s. I just see it as one long dream. I look back over my life. I think that's impossible. How did I get here?

MICHAELSON: Hopkins grew up as an only child in Wales. He'll never forget when his parents took him to see the classical music star Jose Iturbi.

HOPKINS: I went backstage and got his autograph, but that's where my love of music started.

MICHAELSON: His favorite musical performance still bring Tony to tears.

HOPKINS: I can't even talk about it without getting choked up.

MICHAELSON: By age 7, Hopkins was playing piano. By 15, he taught himself how to write his own music, but he didn't want to publish it.

HOPKINS: I was cynical. And --

MICHAELSON: You didn't think people would like it?

HOPKINS: I didn't believe in myself at all. That's why I became an actor because --

MICHAELSON: The legendary actor, Sir Laurence Olivier, believed in Hopkins' acting ability and became his lifelong mentor.

HOPKINS: I think he was taken by my pugnacious strength. I was a bit of a rebel. Bad boy.

MICHAELSON: That bad boy would become one of the most celebrated actors of all time. He'd win an Oscar for The Silence of the Lambs and another for the father.

HOPKINS: I don't know what's happening anymore.

MICHAELSON: He'd earn Oscar nominations for the remains of the day, Amistad, Nixon, and The Two Popes. But through it all, he never stopped writing music.

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Do you feel is more of your passion than even acting?

HOPKINS: More so now than ever.

MICHAELSON: Yeah.

HOPKINS: But it's been in me.

MICHAELSON: Hopkins' wife, Stella, encouraged him to compile his seven decades worth of songwriting into one album. Is there something though about it's never too late to try something new too?

HOPKINS: Never too late. And realization that this is it. So we better wake up and live.

MICHAELSON: Fellow actor Bradley Cooper suggested to Hopkins that he team up with world renowned Maestro Gustavo Dudamel. Dudamel taught Cooper how to conduct for his role in Maestro. Dudamel is now preparing to lead the New York Philharmonic. He recently conducted the halftime show at the World Cup final.

HOPKINS: Hey. Congratulations. How are you?

MICHAELSON: This is the first time these two have ever done a TV interview together. Dudamel recalling the first time he read Hopkins sheet music.

GUSTAVO DUDAMEL, CONDUCTOR LIFE IS A DREAM: And I was digesting all of that inside of me. All of the sound, I was completely in love. Immediately, say, like, wow.

MICHAELSON: Soon afterwards, Dudamel agreed to conduct the recording sessions in London.

HOPKINS: I'm sitting thinking, did I write that?

DUDAMEL: Yes. You did.

MICHAELSON: They performed their album live in Saudi Arabia. We met up with them at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles shortly before they appeared on stage together.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congratulations on this new album, Life is a Dream.

MICHAELSON: The two discussing the album's tracks, which are largely inspired by Hopkins' childhood. They play the music for the audience. How would you describe Sir Anthony Hopkins, the composer?

DUDAMEL: The most generous person.

MICHAELSON: Dudamel says Hopkins' pure joy for living, evidenced by all the dancing videos he posts to social media is inspiring.

DUDAMEL: The most honest thing I believe is when somebody opens his heart, his soul, and he shares that with you. This is generosity. Welcome to the Hollywood Bowl.

MICHAELSON: Dudamel just wrapped up his 17-year run leading the LA Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. His final weekend, including a performance with the Foo Fighters.

DUDAMEL: Life changing experience.

MICHAELSON: And a collaboration with Coldplay's Chris Martin, raising money for earthquake victims and dutamized native Venezuela.

DUDAMEL: No. Music is not only entertainment. Music heals. And it heals the spirit, and we need more of that.

MICHAELSON: A share of the proceeds from Life is a Dream will support earthquake relief in Venezuela. Why was that important for you?

HOPKINS: Well, was such a tragedy, and my friend goes to Venezuela. And then the opportunity came, well, put all that in into the relief fund.

MICHAELSON: In less than a year, Hopkins and Dudamel have become good friends. Two men from different generations and different continents united by the universal language of music, something they both learned to love as little boys.

HOPKINS: We never grew up.

MICHAELSON: What do you mean by that?

HOPKINS: We're both kids.

MICHAELSON: Yeah.

HOPKINS: We're both children.

MICHAELSON: Even at 88?

HOPKINS: Yes. He hasn't grown up, watched one on the podium conducting the other night. Yeah. He's a child. That's what it's about. It's about the power of childhood.

MICHAELSON: Wow.

HOPKINS: The child of enthusiasm. Absolutely. Passion.

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MICHAELSON: How great is that? Power of childhood. Life is a Dream is out now wherever you buy or stream your music. It is a great listen. Check it out. And so what is Hopkins' dream to do next? He wants to perform the album at Carnegie Hall and said, let's put that out in the universe. I'd love to come for that performance. Thanks to both Anthony Hopkins and Gustavo Dudamel for that fantastic conversation.

Still to come, stiff person syndrome kept Celine Dion off the stage for years, but now the music superstar says she's ready to perform again or on her highly anticipated comeback shows in Paris ahead.

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MICHAELSON: Celine Dion is celebrating what she's calling the best birthday gift of her life, the chance to perform again live for fans in an upcoming residency. The Grammy award winning superstar arrived in Paris on Friday where she's set to perform 10 concerts in September and October. After singing at the Olympics in 2024, the concerts in Paris mark her long awaited comeback tour.

Dion has been battling stiff person syndrome. Rare condition affects the nervous system causing painful spasms that Dion says make it difficult for her to walk and to sing. Now she says she's ready for the show to go on but is playing coy with the tales.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What will be the 1st song of your concert here?

CELINE DION, SINGER: It's a big secret.

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MICHAELSON: Nashville's Grand Ole Opry will honor Dolly Parton with a formal tribute on Saturday night. Dolly was first introduced to the iconic venue at just 13-years-old alongside Johnny Cash, beginning of a legendary career that span nearly six decades. A number of artists are slated to perform to honor the life of the extraordinary legacy of the little girl from East Tennessee.

Thanks for watching the first hour of "The Story Is." The next hour starts right now.