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Now: Hurricane Melissa Targeting Bahamas as Cat 2 Storm; Hurricane Melissa Leaves 140K People Cut Off in Cuba; Powell: Rate Cut in December is Far from Foregone Conclusion; Federal Reserve Cuts Interest Rates by 0.25 Percent; Deadliest Day in Gaza Since Oct. 8th Ceasefire Agreement. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired October 29, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: ... subsidies at the heart of the government shutdown battle. If the subsidies expire, Kaiser estimates those premiums will be even more expensive, more than double on average.

And a new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We're tracking devastation across the Caribbean after Hurricane Melissa slams into Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti, leaving behind a trail of destruction, and for many people, a long road to recovery. The storm now headed to the Bahamas.

KEILAR: And the Federal Reserve just cut interest rates, but what comes next? Stocks are down right now. We're going to hear what Fed Chief Jerome Powell said that may have worried investors.

And later, prosecutors investigating the Louvre heist say the two suspects they have in custody admit that they were involved. But there's a bigger question that authorities can't answer.

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

Hello, I'm Brianna Keilar alongside Boris Sanchez here in our nation's capital.

And Hurricane Melissa is far from done. It's now barreling toward the Bahamas as a Category 2 storm. Nearly 1,500 people were just evacuated from the Bahamas before all flights were suspended there. This week, Melissa has left a historic impact on the Caribbean, killing several dozen people in the region.

SANCHEZ: And in the last hour, a state minister in Jamaica told CNN that at least five people were killed after Melissa made landfall there. It was a Category 5 when it hit yesterday, becoming the strongest hurricane ever to make a landfall in the Atlantic. Video shows snapped or stripped trees, mud-swamped roads, and street after street covered in mud and debris.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now, Jamaica is a disaster. Yes, Jamaica is a disaster right now, so we just have to pray for the best and the good, help each one when we can help and that's it. I watched it fly away, yes? And I was scared. After I went outside my vehicle, the tree had fallen on my vehicle and some have to, like, run outside, move them, and, you know, and just move on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Let's go live now to Cuba, where Melissa made landfall there as a Category 3 storm earlier this morning. CNN's Patrick Oppmann is live in Santiago de Cuba.

Patrick, hundreds of thousand -- hundreds of thousands of people there had to evacuate.

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they did. And, you know, the rain coming down right now shows why -- that even though this storm didn't cause the damage we saw in Jamaica, it still caused quite a bit of pain here because so many roofs were damaged. We've been hearing people repair the roofs all morning long. And, you know, in Cuba, there's no one coming by to give you an insurance check. You can't just go to a hardware store. Those things are very limited here.

And so, people are repairing the roofs because as it -- when it rains, as it is right now, that means water comes in your house and you have further property damage. The tragedy is Cubans, of course, as you know, Boris, have so little that when you lose any of your belongings, as we saw in so much of the flooding that took place last night and this morning, when you have any damage to your house, it's just so hard to recover from that. It can take years. There are storms that I've covered, and you go back years later and you see that people are still trying to repair their homes.

So that's the situation we are in right now. The infrastructure here is already so fragile. There is no power right now in Cuba's second largest city, Santiago de Cuba. Hasn't been for about 24 hours. Government says they are trying to get it back on, but already the power situation was so fragile.

And just the concern there is that the longer you go on, people's food begins to spoil, their tempers begin to flare. And of course, we've seen when people protest because of power outages, the government has a very low tolerance for that. So, at this point -- at this point, people are -- are, you know, happy that it wasn't as bad as we thought it was, that it wasn't as bad as it was going to be in Jamaica. But, you know, the longer you go without power, with damage to your house, the tougher that gets.

SANCHEZ: Patrick Oppmann live for us in Santiago de Cuba. Thank you so much for the update, Patrick.

Let's talk more about Melissa with Porter Fox. He is the author of "Category 5: Superstorms and the Warming Oceans That Feed Them," which followed sailors and scientists around the world as they studied how the climate crisis has been impacting hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones and, generally, freak weather.

Porter, thank you for being with us. So, I -- I wonder, given this early state with Hurricane Melissa, what impact do you think climate change might've actually had on this storm?

[15:05:01]

PORTER FOX, AUTHOR, "CATEGORY FIVE: SUPERSTORMS AND THE WARMING OCEANS THAT FEED THEM": Its fingerprints are all over it. This is one of the largest storms we've ever seen on the planet. You're looking at massive devastation to that island. I'm -- I'm sure that the toll is going to go up, sadly. And the real -- the saddest part of it is that this was predicted. This was predicted 30 years ago, that the more we warm the planet, the ocean absorbs 90 percent of that heat that we have created, and heat in the ocean is like gasoline on a fire to severe weather.

And so, you're seeing these storms cycle up into intensities that, you know, we really haven't seen before. Really, it's getting into what they call a ultra-intense Category 5, Melissa would be, which is essentially a Category 6 storm. They're having to change the terminology to account for 185 to 190 mile an hour winds at landfall, gusts over 250 miles per hour.

And you can just look off the South Shore of Jamaica as this storm came in, the waters there were two and a half degrees above average, and that heat gets sucked up into that storm nearly immediately. It can increase just two and a half degrees, will increase your wind speeds by 10 miles an hour or more, increase damage by around 50 percent. It really, these small increments of climate change have such a massive impact on storms and -- and on the poor folks that are beneath them.

SANCHEZ: But to that point, there are -- there are two aspects to it that I think are also notable. The fact that it underwent periods of rapid intensification, something that historically, at least to me, doesn't seem quite as common as it was in the past. This went from being a relatively mild storm to being, as you put it, an ultra- powerful Category 5, on the higher end of a Category 5.

And also, the fact that it got this strong so late in the season, we're almost to November. It's not typical to see a storm this size nearing the end of October, right?

FOX: I mean, the seasons are changing. You know, it's staying warmer later into fall. It's getting warmer earlier in the spring. You know, again, those fingerprints are -- are all over this storm. The rapid intensification again and again, like the Helene that hit North Carolina. You're looking at a record rapid intensification over, that was waters in the Gulf that were abnormally high. Now, we're in the Caribbean where they're abnormally high and all across the world, the oceans are warming so quickly that you can, again, it's like throwing gasoline on this fire. And so, you can expect more of that.

We live in a world right now where the current administration and about half the country, it seems, has their head under the blankets hiding from the boogeyman, but it's not making the boogeyman go away. It's still warming very rapidly. Again, these oceans are absorbing 90 percent of that heat, which is a great service to humanity. It would be a real disaster if that heat was up in the atmosphere. That's continuing and we're going to see, they're predicting by the end of this century, 70 years from now, you're going to see a 20 percent uptick of these Category 6 size storms. Just that -- that's just right now. We -- we don't totally know how much the planet is going to warm, but on our current track, you know, that's where it is.

There's some good news involved in that as well in that there's a direct correlation between storm intensity and the amount of CO2 that is in the atmosphere. And as much as it rises very quickly when the planet's warming, it also will drop within a year, degree by degree, if we can stop putting greenhouse gases up there where we'll see slower and smaller storms.

SANCHEZ: Given -- given the description that you just laid out of -- of folks putting their head in the sand, I thought it was curious to see Bill Gates yesterday, a leading proponent of carbon emission reductions, say that climate change is not going to wipe out humanity. He says that too much good money has been put into expensive and questionable efforts. Do you agree with him? How do you see it?

FOX: Well, Bill Gates invented a boat that had paddles on it that drove around in front of hurricanes and stirred up the surface water to try to dispel that heat back into the deep and see if they could slow them. That did not work. The boats weren't fast enough to get in front of the storm. So, he might be talking about personal experience there.

But as far as how he can predict that it's not going to wipe out humanity, hard to say. I mean, if there's 10,000 people left at the end of the climate crisis, is that a success story? I don't think so. I mean, what really is happening here is that first world countries are thinking about how to spend their money and how to talk about the climate crisis. Whereas 91 percent of the fatalities and about three quarters of the damage is happening in the developing world, like in the Caribbean.

That is -- that -- that is their reality.

[15:10:02]

And just a few countries created this crisis. And the U.S. is really the only one in -- in a hurricane path of -- of that group. But the Caribbean is far worse. And if you look over at typhoons and cyclones that are moving through the Pacific and even Southeastern Africa, I mean, they have -- these countries are seeing damage that equals double their GDP. It is impossible to dig out of that debt and they're already in debt to start with.

SANCHEZ: Well, Porter Fox, we have to leave the conversation there. Thank you for sharing your point of view.

FOX: Thanks.

SANCHEZ: Still to come, the Fed cutting interest rates, but what Jerome Powell, the Fed Chair, said about future cuts has knocked down stocks a peg. KEILAR: Plus, after more than 100 Palestinians are killed in Israeli

strikes, is the ceasefire in jeopardy? We'll have the latest on the conflict.

And later, Paris prosecutors give an update on their investigation into the heist at the Louvre, including what two suspects in custody have told them.

We'll have that and much more coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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[15:15:28]

SANCHEZ: Breaking news to CNN, the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates this afternoon by a quarter of a percentage point for the second time in a row. That matched Wall Street's expectations. But as you see there, soon after 2:30, there's a bit of a drop after Fed Chair Jerome Powell began speaking about what could happen next.

KEILAR: The Fed Chair signaling that another rate cut when the Fed meets again in December is by no means set in stone

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEROME POWELL, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: We will continue to determine the appropriate stance of monetary policy based on the incoming data, the evolving outlook and the balance of risks. We continue to face two-sided risks. In the Committee's discussions at this meeting, there were strongly differing views about how to proceed in December. A further reduction in the policy rate at the December meeting is not a foregone conclusion but far from it. Policy is not on a pre-set course.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: We're joined now by Aaron Klein, former Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Treasury Department. He's now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. All right, Aaron, you know, what did you hear from Powell there and would it make sense for there to be, you know, just two cuts in a row?

AARON KLEIN, FORMER TREASURY DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY: Yes. So, look, what I heard from Powell was a walk back from market expectations. The market had been expecting three cuts of a quarter point each, September, October and December. And Powell is now saying, whoa, whoa, whoa, pause on December. We're not sure which way the economy is going yet. And that makes some sense.

Inflation has remained high and elevated. We don't really know what's going on in the labor market, because we're not getting the employment data that we do because of the government shutdown. And he's trying to get a little bit of some wiggle room here and reset market expectations. And that's what you're seeing the stock market bounce negatively because they thought three rates were -- cuts were coming.

SANCHEZ: Talk to us about the difficulty of assessing the jobs market when you don't have official data.

KLEIN: Yes. Look, so it's very difficult. The Federal Reserve collects a lot of data on its own. They have 12 regional banks, many of whom vote for monetary policy. One of whom dissented from Kansas City saying let's not cut rates at all this time. They get data from ADP, which is the payroll company. That's been a big source of contention. They were getting some private data. Now, ADT is making it public.

But fundamentally, the jobs report is the gold standard. It's the benchmark. It's the data that's been going on for years And they're flying a little bit blind here And so, it makes their job already challenging, more challenging, already more challenging.

KEILAR: And Trump is expected to make his pick for the next Fed Chair. He could do that pretty soon, actually, by the end of the year, right? So how is that going to factor into things and -- and upcoming decisions?

KLEIN: Yes. So, look, Trump is already factored in Jay Powell's mind. He's kind of living there rent-free to some degree. He's put on his guy, Stephen Miran. The White House chief economist is currently on the Fed. He voted to cut rates 50 basis points, dissenting now for the second time.

Look, if you think of Jay Powell, he's driving a car, right? He's the driver. He's got everybody in this car. And he's got Trump's guy, Miran, in the backseat saying step on the gas, step on the gas, right? And meanwhile, he's trying to figure out how fast should I be going. The unemployment data is not coming in, so his speedometer just went off, right? And now he's trying to figure out when do I hit on the gas? When do I hit on the brake?

SANCHEZ: Yes, not an easy gig, especially when the boss, ostensibly the boss, keeps suggesting that you're on the way out fairly soon. And you have your potential successor, as you said, in the backseat waiting. Does that change Powell's calculus at all, seeing that his term is likely over in May?

KLEIN: So, look, I think Powell is playing this as true and straightforward as possible. I think he has his legacy. I think he's picked his battles with Trump. And to his credit, he's going to go down as an independent Fed Chair. Whether he made the right or wrong choices, he did what he thought was best.

But the FOMC is a collection of people, right? The market thinks it's one guy who sets it, it's just Powell. But in reality, he's shepherding these 12 different voters. Right now, he had one dissent saying no cut, Trump's handpicked guy saying cut more, right? So, he's trying to hold the balance and hold the line.

One thing about Powell to note is his term as chair ends, but he's still a governor. He's still one of those 12 people for years down the road if he chooses to. It hasn't happened in recent time, but it did in the 1950s and '40s under President Truman. So, Powell could still be around for a while longer.

KEILAR: I'm curious what you think about what billionaire investor Ray Dalio said on CNBC this week about A.I.

[15:20:03]

He said, quote, "there's a lot of bubble stuff going on with A.I. in the markets. And bubbles don't pop until they're popped but tightness of monetary policy."

And A.I. is something that a lot of Americans, right, they have on their mind. Amazon just announced they're cutting 14,000 jobs to prepare for wide adoption of A.I. Do you agree with that assessment? Are we kind of in bubble territory?

KLEIN: Well, I mean, if you want to pick bubbles that we should talk about, we should a bit about crypto because I think that's also a potential bubble right there of a new technology. I don't know what a Bitcoin is, neither does the market here. But there seems to be a lot of froth in Bitcoin and increasingly more leverage. Could A.I. be transformative? Absolutely Could it be a lot of investment and take a while to play through? Absolutely.

Remember, desktop computing was going to change everything and it eventually did, but it took quite a long time. So, I think Dalio is right about these things. And it's another reason why the stock market isn't the real economy. You know, most of this run-up and the stock market has been driven by NVIDIA and a handful of big tech companies.

You know, I'm old enough to remember when Netscape and Pets.com were the ...

SANCHEZ: Pets.com ...

KLEIN: ... you know, apples of -- of -- of Wall Street's eye. It turned out this little company showing -- selling shoes known as Amazon ended up being the -- the big winner here. So, we don't know how it's all going to shake out. But, you know, I would say the A.I. bubble has longer to run And if you're -- if you're bubble hunting, I'd keep an eye on crypto.

SANCHEZ: We'll -- we'll always have that Super Bowl commercial for Pets.com, I never forget that.

KLEIN: There you go.

SANCHEZ: You know, puppet holding a microphone.

KEILAR: Never -- never forget.

SANCHEZ: Always in our hearts.

KEILAR: Always in our hearts.

Aaron Klein, you're always in our hearts, thank you for being with us.

SANCHEZ: Thanks so much.

KEILAR: Coming up, Israel launching a new strike in Gaza. It was carried out just one day after Israeli strikes killed more than a hundred Palestinians. So, what does this mean for the U.S.-brokered ceasefire? We'll have the latest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:26:33]

KEILAR: At least 104 people, including dozens of children were killed overnight in Israeli strikes in Gaza according to the Hamas-run ministry of health. You can see people pulling a body out from under the rubble and it's been the deadliest day in Gaza since the ceasefire agreement was struck about three weeks ago.

SANCHEZ: The latest strikes come after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire by returning remains not linked to the 13 hostages who are still unaccounted for. A U.S. official tells CNN that the U.S. was notified before the strikes occurred. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has the latest from Tel Aviv.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Gaza ceasefire now seems to be back into effect, but that will be of little comfort to the families of the more than 100 Palestinians who were killed in Israeli airstrikes overnight. Of those, 46 were children according to Gaza's health ministry. And in looking at footage from the aftermath of these strikes, whether at hospitals or in morgues or in the rubble of some of these buildings that were targeted, it is striking to see just how many children there are in the aftermath of all of that.

We've seen scenes of parents bidding a final farewell to their children, asking what kind of a ceasefire could be in effect that would allow their children to be killed. Israel says it carried out these strikes after one of its soldiers was killed in Southern Gaza on Tuesday. Israel blames Hamas for that attack. Hamas denies any responsibility saying that any militants there are not connected to Hamas.

Israel also accuses Hamas of other violations though, including as it relates to the return of the remains of deceased hostages. They released drone video from Gaza that shows Hamas militants Appearing to stage the recovery of one of those remains of deceased hostages in a -- a -- freshly dug hole in Gaza City. Israel claims to have targeted more than 30 militants in command positions as part of this round of strikes overnight. And it is also making clear that it reserves the right to carry out further strikes should it see more violations of this ceasefire agreement.

But for now, Israel says that this ceasefire is back into effect. Hamas for its part says it is committed to this agreement and urged the mediators to ensure that Israel complies with the agreement going forward.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SANCHEZ: Our thanks to Jeremy for that report.

Still ahead, it is their first meeting since 2019, President Trump about to sit down with China's Xi Jinping in just a few hours. And topping the agenda, a trade war that has upended the global economy. We'll discuss next.

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