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Two Arrests Made in Louvre Heist; Third Trump Term?; Government Shutdown Continues as Trump Visits Asia; Jamaica Braces For Hurricane. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired October 27, 2025 - 13:00   ET

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

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: A monster churning in the Atlantic. Jamaica is bracing for the strongest hurricane to hit the country in recorded history, a Category 5 storm that could change people's lives forever.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN HOST: And Trump 2028? The president and his closest aides keep teasing the idea of a third term, despite that constitutional amendment that's supposed to make that impossible. We will talk about it.

Plus, the shutdown is hitting America's air traffic control towers. Staff are one day from missing their first paycheck, and the union worries its members may be approaching a -- quote -- "breaking point."

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here at the CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KEILAR: Hi there. I'm Brianna Keilar here in Washington, alongside Omar Jimenez.

JIMENEZ: Good to see you.

KEILAR: Good to have you here in for Boris today.

And bracing for catastrophe, that is Jamaica, which is hours from what may be the worst hurricane ever to hit the Caribbean island. These are some live images that we are keeping our eye on from Jamaica, where conditions are expected to get much worse within hours, Hurricane Melissa forecast to make landfall tomorrow morning somewhere on the southern coast as a Category 5 storm.

It would be the first Cat 5 for the country of 2.8 million people. The government has told people along much of the coast that they have to evacuate.

JIMENEZ: And that's because Melissa might bring as much as 40 inches of rain, 13-foot storm surge, and 160 mile-per-hour sustained winds.That -- 160 miles per hour, I just want to emphasize that -- 100 mile-per-hour winds have torn roofs off of homes.

Melissa has already killed people elsewhere in the Caribbean, one person in the Dominican Republic and three in Haiti. Some were victims of landslides, so a lot to keep an eye on here.

I want to bring in meteorologist Chris Warren, who's tracking this dangerous storm.

So, Chris, Jamaica's climate change minister said the time for preparation is now over. Where are we?

CHRIS WARREN, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I mean, absolutely.

This is a shelter-in-place situation right now. This is what we're dealing with. This is the Category 5 Hurricane Melissa. Now, this is the visible satellite that uses reflected light from the sun to bounce back up to the satellite. This is about as close as you're going to get to being in space looking at the storm. And that is a well-defined eye.

And it's important to explain why it's a well-defined eye. It's organized. And the more organized these are, the more dangerous they are. So this is the dangerous part of the storm in terms of the wind. But the dangerous part in terms of the rain goes from here all the way over to here. And that's Jamaica.

So all of this is heading to Jamaica. And, with that, a 165 mile-per- hour Category 5 hurricane may be what it is when it makes landfall. This is now a forecast satellite, what the satellite could look like, infrared satellite, through time.

So here's Jamaica. And here it is. And we go through the rest of this evening. Any of this red and purple are the taller storms that are going to produce some very heavy rain. And this would be the eye again, future by tomorrow morning, future satellite. So if this were to even move over here, you're still in this.

If it were to move over here, you're still in that, right, this part right here. So you really cannot avoid it now. There is no good scenario for Jamaica, and then beyond that, still a dangerous storm moving into Cuba. But the extent of this, the timing coming onshore here tomorrow morning, but the landfall is like halftime.

So several hours ahead of landfall will be a nightmare situation tonight. And then here's all the rain for Jamaica and then eventually into Cuba and Haiti as well. But, for Jamaica, this area of low pressure 9:00 tonight, it is nasty. It is dangerous to be outside, continuing through a sleepless night tonight for pretty much everybody here in Jamaica with that heavy rain being wrung out, made that much worse by the mountains.

Meanwhile, Melissa is going to be pushing seawater into Kingston, into Jamaica as the water is trying to drain out of the mountains.

KEILAR: Yes, potentially historymaking here. We're expecting that.

Chris, talk to us about the impact that the climate crisis is having on this storm.

WARREN: Well, a big factor with this storm has been the explosive development over the weekend. And a lot of that is the warm, borderline hot waters here in the Caribbean, so water temperatures, surface temperatures in the mid to upper 80s.

And for a tropical system to get the fuel it needs, 80 degrees is all it takes. So these are some very warm waters, not just warm at the surface, but warm in the depth. So what happens, you blow wind across the water, it moves water away from the top, water comes up from the bottom to fill it. This is much colder water down here.

But when there's a lot of heat deep into the ocean, or in this case, the Caribbean Sea, the water that's coming up is more warm water, which is just that much more fuel for the storm. It's also a slow mover, as we see here, Jamaica and the mountains, 9:00, 10:00, 2:00, still going.

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So this is a catastrophe close to the center because of the winds, but much of Jamaica at risk for catastrophic flooding, landslides and mud flows.

KEILAR: All right, Chris Warren, we know you're keeping a close eye on this serious stuff heading for Jamaica here.

CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam is in Jamaica and is finding a safe place to join us live next hour.

JIMENEZ: Yes, before he left, he did take a look at how hurricane hunters fly into the eye of the storm to determine just how strong the winds are inside.

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DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: These airborne laboratories capture critical weather information from all corners of a storm. This crisscross pattern that you see here allows for weather conditions to be sampled at different altitudes and quadrants of a hurricane.

At this stage, the storm could be rapidly strengthening. Significant drops in pressure and increases in wind speed are adding stresses to the aircraft. Now, the crew can experience extreme turbulence with drops in altitude of hundreds of feet in a matter of seconds. The plane descends to 10,000 feet so they can punch through the eye wall, the strongest part of the storm where winds can exceed 150 miles per hour.

And just like that, conditions go eerily quiet. The clouds clear above them as the air descends into the center of the storm, creating a stadium effect, where the towering clouds of the eye wall surrounding the storm's clear center can create the look of a stadium. How? You could see all the way to the blue sky.

At this point, the navigator marks the center of the storm, an important waypoint for predicting the future path of a hurricane. While a device known as a dropsonde is released from the belly of the plane. This little instrument transmits crucial weather data back to the plane as it falls all the way down to the ocean's surface.

That data is analyzed by meteorologists and computers back at the National Hurricane Center, helping to create the updated forecast that you see at home so you can make informed decisions ahead of the storm.

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JIMENEZ: Wow.

KEILAR: Very cool look there.

JIMENEZ: Yes.

KEILAR: Now to President Trump's high-stakes Asia trip. Right now, the president is in Japan. He is set to meet with the nation's first ever female prime minister. But all eyes are on his Thursday meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the framework of a trade deal with Beijing just announced.

JIMENEZ: But with Trump out of Washington, frustration over the government shutdown is building. This Saturday, for example, food benefits run out for tens of millions of Americans and more federal workers are about to miss their first full paychecks.

CNN's Mike Valerio is live in Beijing for us.

So, Mike, let's get right to this trade deal framework between the U.S. and China. What is the latest? What do we know about this deal?

MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Omar, we got a new indication just a couple hours ago here in Beijing that things thankfully are moving in the right direction.

And that came in the form of Wang Yi, the foreign minister here in China, calling Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, saying that -- quote -- he "hopes the U.S. can work with China to prepare for high- level interactions between the two nations going forward," so a positive sign This meeting between Trump and Xi is going to happen on Thursday.

But why this matters to everybody watching at home when there's a shutdown, so many things going on in our lives, if you're on Amazon preparing for the holiday season, shopping, and you think things are expensive now, we potentially just avoided placing tariffs on China, of goods coming in from China to the United States up to 157 percent.

And we also potentially avoided China cutting off the United States from rare earth minerals that we need for our cars, phones, laptops, even fighter jets. So this is the outline of the trade deal that we have, the agreement in four points, as we understand it so far.

More details coming into focus in the next couple days. But, point one, China will further help to stem the flow of fentanyl precursor chemicals into the U.S., point two, China to buy substantial amounts of U.S. soybeans. That's a key part of this agreement. Farmers are absolutely hurting in, let's see, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, a huge contingent of Trump supporters whose number one market is China.

And China said over the past couple of months, forget it, we're not going to buy any soybeans from you anymore. Third point, China could delay rare earth export controls. And what that is, it's essentially the biggest card that China has played in these negotiations.

Simplifying, for the sake of friendly conversation, China would say something to the effect that if you're selling a product that has a trace of rare earth metals and minerals from China, you will need a license to export that product anywhere. So we're talking about huge potential disruptions to supply chains.

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And then, the fourth point, finalizing the TikTok deal, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said that the details are done, ironed out. Xi and Trump just have to agree.

KEILAR: It's a lot, a long list there.

VALERIO: Yes.

KEILAR: Mike Valerio, thank you so much live for us from China.

And still to come: President Trump responding to a reporter's question about whether he's considering running for a third presidential term. And here's the thing. His answer isn't a no.

Plus, French police arresting two of four suspects wanted in the Louvre heist, but were the stolen jewels with them? We will have a live report from Paris.

JIMENEZ: And, later, stressed and soon to be unpaid, air traffic controllers are about to miss their first paychecks, as sick-outs trigger nationwide flight delays.

We will bring the details, that much more coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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KEILAR: President Trump once again not ruling out running for a third term. He was asked about it aboard Air Force One earlier today and here's part of his response.

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TRUMP: I would love to do it. I have my best numbers ever. It's very terrible. I have my best numbers. If you read it...

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

TRUMP: Am I not ruling it out? You will have to tell me. All I can tell you is that we have a great -- a great group of people.

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KEILAR: In that great group of people, Trump mentioned Vice President J.D. Vance and then Secretary of State Marco Rubio who was standing next to him as he made those comments possibly running.

But the questions about Trump running for a third term were prompted by Steve Bannon, Trump's campaign CEO from 2016 and former White House chief strategist, revealing that there is a plan in place for 2028.

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STEVE BANNON, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF STRATEGIST: He's going to get a third term, so Trump '28. Trump is going to be president in '28. And people just ought to get accommodated with that.

QUESTION: So, what about the 22nd Amendment?

BANNON: There's many different alternatives. At the appropriate time, we will lay out what the plan is. But there's a plan and President Trump will be the president in '28.

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KEILAR: Just weeks ago, President Trump posted photos, you see them here, of his 2028 hats in the Oval Office during talks ahead of the government shutdown.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who was there at that meeting said of the hats coming out, with also a roving cameraman there to capture it -- quote -- "It was the most -- it was the random most thing in the world. It was also unserious."

Let's talk about that now with the Alexis Coe, presidential historian and the author of the book "You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington," who will factor large in this discussion we're going to have, Alexis.

First off, just are you taking this idea of Trump running for a third term seriously?

ALEXIS COE, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Yes and no. I mean, it's hard to tell what's going on because they do flood the zone and it's an excellent distraction from what's going on, the government shutdown, the Epstein files.

But I don't think it's a thought experiment. I think we have to consider what he says to be legitimate. He keeps telling us things, we don't believe him, and then he tries to do them. And it fits in general with sort of democratic backsliding that we have been seeing.

KEILAR: So your book, as I mentioned, is about George Washington, who sent that historic precedent of a two-term presidency. Why did he decide to do that and how should Washington's decision inform how Americans think about this concept today?

COE: I'm so glad you asked that because Washington believed that -- he considered stepping down after one term and then he stayed on for a second. After the second, his concerns were manifold, but he really felt that the most important thing was that Americans did not become too used to one leader, that the presidency was supposed to be defined by different Americans and it should evolve over time.

It shouldn't just be about him, although he did -- he was very aware that he was setting precedents. And the other thing that was a factor is Washington at that point had outlived all the men in his family, all the people in his family. And he did not think that having such an old person in office was ideal.

And you have to remember, at the Constitutional Convention, the framers could not conceive of an upper limit, because people simply did not live as long as they do now. And the only reason they had a floor is, it's because the Constitution, in order to pass, to get through, they had to have one. Someone there really wanted it.

But it definitely -- age was never something that they thought would be a factor on the other side.

KEILAR: Be so curious what they think about these recent years here that we're having.

So after FDR was elected to four terms, Congress, of course, decided two was the way to go, passing the 22nd Amendment, sort of reinstating that precedent.

COE: Yes, absolutely.

And it's important to remember that was in reaction to a deviation from democratic norms. And so it is important to remember that checks on executive power have happened over time, not as many as we should have had. And I say that as a presidential historian.

But, I mean, calling it a third term is something that Washington, in his farewell address, would have called something different. He called it a despot. But something like despot, dictator, monarch, that's not going to poll well with focus groups. And so I think calling it a third term is an interesting choice of words when combined with, as Steve Bannon said the other day, words like providence.

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KEILAR: Yes, what's the -- this sort of flirtation that Trump has of a third term coupled with what Steve Bannon is talking about in raising this idea of maybe there's different ways, I think so some people question even this idea of, what about kind of an acolyte or a proxy and then Trump staying very involved as an ex-president, who would be then, let's be clear, well into his 80s?

COE: Yes. KEILAR: What is the precedent for that and why have presidents so shied away from that kind of thing?

COE: We have a president, and then that is supposed to be the leader. That is the democratically elected leader of what is now the longest- running republic in the history of the world. And perhaps the providence is that, at 250, it's no longer.

But the president should not -- the Constitution is really clear. You are elected, you can serve a certain amount of time and then no longer. And I think that there are -- as Bannon threatened, I would say, like, we do have to take this quite seriously. We should view it as a threat. There are patterns that are established and we should we should look at them.

I think that when he threatens that there are work-arounds, there's all sorts of nightmare scenarios that we can imagine. But we do have to decide here, as Americans, no matter what party we belong to is, what kind of country do we have?

KEILAR: Yes. And the founders were clear about that.

Alexis Coe, thank you so much for being with us. Really appreciate it.

COE: Thank you.

KEILAR: Next, we're live from Paris, where police have arrested two of the four suspects wanted in the Louvre heist. Hear how investigators tracked them down.

Plus, what caused a helicopter and a fighter jet to crash in the South China Sea just minutes apart? We have the latest on the Navy's investigation.

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JIMENEZ: Two suspects in last week's brazen Louvre jewelry heist are now in police custody. Paris prosecutors say one of the men was captured at the airport about to board a flight to Algeria. Investigators used DNA from the scene to locate the suspects.

KEILAR: CNN's senior international correspondent Melissa Bell is with us now from Paris.

Melissa, who are these suspects and have any of the jewels been recovered?

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: For now, as we understand it, Brianna and Omar, there is no sign of the jewels.

It's more than $100 million worth of jewelry that was taken more than a week ago now. But the investigation is making progress, and the good news is that we understand that the investigators had been looking at the four suspects that they believe were actually involved in that heist on that Sunday morning, you will remember, in just seven minutes making away with all those jewels of the queens of 19th century France.

We understand that, thanks to a bunch of clues that they left behind, they'd managed to track down the four people that they believed had been there on that morning that were responsible for the actual robbery. What happened, we understand, is that they were hoping to arrest all four of them at the same time.

They had to act faster, though, for two of the suspect's that they arrested in the end on Saturday night ahead of the others because one of them had been trying to board a flight from Charles de Gaulle Airport here in Paris to head to Algeria, and the other, they feared, was hoping or preparing, rather, to flee to Mali.

So they had no choice but to act relatively quickly, and they did so on Saturday night with those two suspects. They also released, by the way, the Paris prosecutor's statement explaining that they were not happy that this news had been leaked and that therefore they had to confirm it, because this hampered the investigation, their hunt for the other two suspects, but, of course, also the jewels.

JIMENEZ: And so what do we know about police progress on identifying their alleged accomplices at this point?

BELL: Well, we believe, Omar, that they have identified the four, certainly the four that they believe were involved.

The two now in custody, we understand, are two men in their 30s that come from a suburb just outside of Paris, and that were known for robberies before. The other two suspects that are still at large, but we understand already identified by police, just have not been brought into custody, we don't know much more about.

But, certainly, the police have been working on an also lot of clues that were left behind, 150 traces of DNA on things like inside the room where the jewels were taken from, the ladder, the mechanical lift that they used to get in, a bunch of stuff that they left behind in their hasty retreat, in their fleet -- in their flight from the Louvre, one of the scooters they used, a motorcycle helmet, a glove that they left behind.

And so what specialists who are looking at this crime scene and what investigators have found and people close to the investigation are telling us is that it looks like this could have been masterminded very carefully, perhaps by someone else, and this is one of the theories that they're working on, and that then was executed by these thieves, who were used to -- for instance, the two in custody, we know they were found on the database because they had been in the habit of robbing jewelry stores.

So, lower-level common criminals that might have been involved in the execution of this plot and left all those clues behind -- Omar and Brianna.

JIMENEZ: Wow, progress, but still a lot more to go. We will see.

Melissa Bell in Paris, thank you so much.

Coming up: A potential visit with the world leader President Trump calls Little Rocket Man, could that happen? The president considering stretching his whirlwind trip overseas to include a sit-down with North Korea's Kim Jong-un.

We're going to take a look at their complicated relationship next.

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