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All Trade Negotiations With Canada Terminated; Rubio: Next Steps in Gaza Remain Top Priority for Trump; Rohingya Refugees Feel Harsh Impact of U.S. Aid Cuts; Tropical Storm Melissa Crawls Through Caribbean; King and Pope Share Worship for the First Time Since 1534; Video Appears to Show Suspects Making Getaway from the Louvre. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired October 24, 2025 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[01:00:38]
POLO SANDOVAL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Polo Sandoval live in New York. Wherever you may be watching from around the world, welcome to CNN Newsroom. And here's what's ahead. President Trump hinting land strikes could be waged on drug cartels overseas as Washington ramps up its efforts to crack down on drug smugglers. An enormous scandal rocking U.S. pro-basketball, and it involves players past and present and the Italian mob.
The shocking details and what it could mean for the future of American sports betting. And Washington announcing not too long ago that it is cutting off trade negotiations with its neighbor to the north. But why?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from New York, this is CNN Newsroom with Polo Sandoval.
SANDOVAL: We want to begin with a surprise announcement from Donald Trump. The U.S. president says that he is ending all trade negotiations with Canada over a T.V. commercial. The ad, which Trump calls fake, features former President Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about tariffs. The president says that the ad that was put together and paid for by the Providence of Ontario is egregious. He calls it egregious behavior in his message that he posted late Thursday night.
A decision to end trade talks coming as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney plans to double exports to countries outside the U.S. Canada's economy is struggling under Trump's tariffs on key exports to the U.S. from cars to steel to aluminum and also recently softwood lumber. More than three quarters of Canada's exports, they go to the U.S. and nearly $2.7 billion worth of goods and services they cross the border on a daily basis. And we are closely watching the markets not just in the U.S. but around the world to see exactly how they react. You can see currently U.S. stock futures are actually up slightly ahead of Friday trading day. Turning now to Asia Pacific markets, you can see that increase is also there as well, but certainly going to be worth keeping a close eye as Donald Trump's trade war has potential impact on markets around the world.
Let's get some analysis now from Tempe, Arizona. Jack Buffington, he's the director of the supply chain program at the University of Denver.
Jack, thank you so much for staying up late with us.
JACK BUFFINGTON, DIRECTOR, SUPPLY CHAIN PROGRAM, UNIVERSITY OF DENVER: Yes. Thanks for having me.
SANDOVAL: Of course. I'm curious if I could get your immediate reaction to this announcement that Donald Trump made just a couple of hours ago that he is calling off trade with one of America's biggest trading partners over an ad?
BUFFINGTON: Yes, it's a really unfortunate situation given how important trade between the United States and Canada is for the supply chains and given all the challenges that we're facing with China. Over something that's a commercial, it's a distraction. And there's significant issues that the United States and Canada have to work on. So hopefully this is just something that happened real quickly and they'll get back to negotiations.
SANDOVAL: And we dived into it just a little while ago. And talking about Canada's current state of its economy, I'm wondering if you could just help our viewers better understand what is the current state of the economy from the cost of living to unemployment, perhaps one of the highest that country has seen in recent years.
BUFFINGTON: Yes. As you mentioned in the beginning, Canada's economy is contracting and largely having to do a lot with its reliance on the free trade zone between the United States and Canada. And, you know, there's key industries that the supply chain goes back and forth across the border zone that's important for both economies, agriculture, automotive. So, you know, I understand what Canada is saying is that they need to decouple, but that's not simple given how tightly woven these two countries are from a supply chain standpoint.
SANDOVAL: Could you also perhaps dig deeper into the situation right now with Ontario's prime minister, premier, I should say, Doug Ford. I mean, he's somebody, a leader that historically has not been eye to eye with the U.S. president. How did this all start? I mean, what do you believe to be the objective of running these ads in American markets?
[01:05:10]
BUFFINGTON: Well, mean the Reagan foundation said that this was not allowed to happen. They did not give approval for this app -- this clip of Ronald Reagan to be used. And so it's hyperbole between Doug Ford, which again would elicit the response that we'd expect from Donald Trump. And again, these two countries, this is the last thing that either country needs. We need to stabilize the North American supply chain, particularly given the challenges that the United States has with China.
SANDOVAL: Do you expect the Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, to perhaps be blindsided by this? He's recently said that he keeps in regular contact with his U.S. counterpart.
BUFFINGTON: Absolutely. I absolutely thought that he was blindsided by this. You know, the relationship between the United States and Canada is very tenuous right now. Like I mentioned, there's key industries such as agriculture and automotive. This is the last thing that Canada needs.
And you know, the worst thing that could happen is for these trade talks to be even delayed because of given what's going on in both economies.
SANDOVAL: We will both be watching this very closely, especially as Friday morning, and we hopefully hear from Canadian officials to see what this means not just to both of these countries, but also global markets.
Jack Buffington, really appreciate you joining us to help us better understand some of this breaking news. Thank you.
BUFFINGTON: Thank you for having me.
SANDOVAL: For the first time in his second term, President Trump will be meeting China's president -- with China's President Xi Jinping. Mr. Trump leaves for a trip to Asia on Friday. He'll be visiting Malaysia and Japan before attending the APEC summit in South Korea, where he'll be meeting with President Xi. The meeting coming amid growing tensions between the U.S. and China. American and Chinese officials, they are holding trade talks in Malaysia on Friday.
Those are expected to continue through the weekend. And the president says that he has every right to keep ordering strikes against suspected drug traffickers and their boats without first asking Congress to pass a declaration of war. He insists on -- he insisted on Thursday that, as he put it, that the administration would, quote, "kill people that are bringing drugs into the country. Donald Trump also suggested that his administration would start going after alleged cartel members within countries like Venezuela, adding that he would notify Congress before beginning any operations on land. But he also said that he doesn't expect any real opposition from lawmakers.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will be difficult for them to object.
TRUMP: I don't see any loss in going. No reason not to. You know, they'll always complain, oh, we should have gone. So, we're going to definitely -- I'd like to just say let's go. We go. We're going to tell them what we're going to do.
And I think they're going to probably like it except for the radical left lunatics.
(END VIDEO CLIP) SANDOVAL: President Trump went on to deny that the U.S. sent a B-1 bomber like this one that you're looking at to fly near the coastline of Venezuela on Thursday. Flight trackers, they clocked at about 50 miles from the mainland. It's not clear if the aircraft entered Venezuelan airspace at any time. But this show of force and also soaring tensions to have Venezuela on edge. Its government has been launching military drills as President Nicolas Maduro issued this message in English.
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NICOLAS MADURO, VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT: Not war, not war, not war. Just peace, just peace, just peace forever, forever, forever. Peace forever. No crazy war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANDOVAL: And then the United States, there are still questions that are mounting about the legality of these strikes. CNN's Kristen Holmes picks up our story from Washington.
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Trump again on Thursday reiterating that the administration might start to strike inside of countries like Venezuela targeting these alleged cartel members. He also reiterated that he didn't believe that he needed to go to Congress for a declaration of war to continue the strikes abroad.
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TRUMP: I don't think we're going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war. I think we're just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. OK. We're going to kill them. You know, they're going to be like dead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Now President Trump did say they would go to Congress before they launch any of these strikes on land, but noted that he would likely not have any pushback. And of course, given what we've seen since President Trump has took office or taken office, it certainly appears that Republican lawmakers on the Hill will be unlikely to push back on him Now, we also heard from the secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, who insisted that every boat that they had struck or every vessel that they had struck they had confirmed through the military were carrying narcotics, but no details further than that.
[01:10:03]
Kristen Holmes, CNN, the White House.
SANDOVAL: Ukraine's allies and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, they are set to meet in London in the coming hours. They are hoping to increase pressure on Russia. On Thursday, the European Union agreed to Bankroll Ukraine for two more years. The E.U. also approved its 19 set of sanctions on Russia, which includes a ban on buying Russian liquid natural gas. A day earlier, the U.S. slapped sanctions on Russia's top oil companies.
But President Vladimir Putin says those sanctions, they're not going to hurt Russia's economy, he says.
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VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): They will have certain consequences but they will not significantly affect our economic wellbeing. What we are talking about is of course an attempt to put pressure on Russia. But no self-respecting country and no self- respecting people ever make decisions under pressure.
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SANDOVAL: The Russian Ministry of Foreign affairs says that it's open to setting up a meeting between the U.S. and Russian leaders eventually. U.S. President Donald Trump, he canceled an expected meeting between the two in Budapest, Moscow. Meanwhile, Moscow it is denying that two of its military jets they violated Lithuanian airspace. NATO officials say that two Spanish fighter jets taking part in a NATO mission scrambled in response to the incident on Thursday. Lithuania says that the Russian planes, they crossed into its airspace for about 18 seconds before they flew back.
Russia says that the planes were on a training mission and they did not deviate from their flight plan. It was just last month Estonia said that Russian warplanes violated its airspace and Russian drones flew into Poland and Romania. European countries are pushing to restock their military arsenals amid tensions with Russia. But the war in Ukraine and it is not the only reason that they're buying more weapons, the other reason is Donald Trump, as Germany's largest arms maker told our Frederik Pleitgen.
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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): As Ukraine continues to face a massive Russian onslaught and E.U. leaders gathered in Brussels vowing to help Kyiv and strengthen their own militaries, the head of Rheinmetall, one of Germany's largest defense companies, tells me the increase in European spending is significant.
PLEITGEN: What kind of things are being purchased?
ARMIN PAPPERGER, RHEINMENTALL CEO: Everything at the moment. So priority number one is for sure, ammunition, air defense is priority number two, then all the vehicles. But also on the naval stuff, a lot of naval stuff will come.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): One driving factor, Amin Papperger tells me U.S. President Trump pressuring Europe to do more for its own defense or risk losing the U.S.'s support.
PLEITGEN: Are you seeing then a Trump effect?
PAPPERGER: The pressure from the Americans is very high and I think without the pressure from America, the German government and also the European governments would not make that decision.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): Rheinmetall is one of the largest producers for artillery ammunition in the world. And the company's stock has soared as it's supplied massive quantities of shells to Ukraine. But the Ukraine war has significantly changed the nature of warfare. Cheap drones, often used to destroy expensive armored vehicles on the lines. Still, Papperger tells me he believes heavy armor will remain important in the future.
PAPPERGER: The Ukrainians, very clear say, without armored vehicles, we are lost. You cannot win a war only with drones. A drone is one effector, but there are a lot of other effectors.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): But with almost all types of weapons in high demand, Rheinmetall is branching out into new fields, producing jet fighter sections, recently purchasing a naval shipyard and even starting its own satellite venture. Armin Papperger saying he believes massive growth is possible on both sides of the Atlantic.
PAPPERGER: We expect over the next years that we have a potential of more than 50 billion every year out of the European Union side. And there is a huge potential also in the United States of America, there are huge programs, the new artillery program, the new infantry fighting vehicle, the new truck program.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): High demand from nations seeking to beef up their defenses in an increasingly uncertain world.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Berlin.
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SANDOVAL: In the U.S., federal prosecutors say that they have made 34 arrests, including two NBA veterans and a Hall of Fame coach. Details on the alleged game fixing and poker rigging just ahead. You're watching CNN Newsroom.
[01:14:53]
Also on the way, as Americans digest images of the rubble that was the East Wing of the White House, President Trump now says that he's got enough money to pay for this massive construction of his ballroom. Stay with CNN.
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SANDOVAL: The NBA season, it's less than a week old, but it is already being rocked by a massive scandal. A Hall of Fame coach accused of luring unsuspecting victims to rigged poker games. Hidden cameras, X- ray tables and special contact lenses that could read marked cards, not to mention an X-ray table. A star player charged with fixing basketball games, tipping off others who could bet and win big. There's a lot of evidence laid out in the indictments that were released on Thursday. CNN's Brynn Gingras puts it all together for us.
[01:20:09] (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOSEPH NOCELLA JR., U.S. ATTORNEY, EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK: Your winning streak has ended.
BRYNN GINGRASS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A takedown of an alleged gambling criminal enterprise linking four New York City mafia families and NBA stars.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcoming Chauncey to the Hall of Fame.
GINGRASS (voice-over): Portland Trail Blazers head coach and hall of Famer Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat star Terry Rozier and Cleveland Cavaliers Alum Damon Jones, among more than 30 people arrested for their alleged involvement in one of two elaborate schemes involving illegal betting on NBA games or rigged poker games.
KASH PATEL, FBI DIRECTOR: Let's not, you know, mince words. This is the insider trading saga for the NBA.
GINGRASS (voice-over): One document describing Rozier and Jones sending insider tips on players and teams such as whether a player, including Rozier himself, was going to be sidelined or sick, placing bets to favor their odds and maximize profits and then allegedly laundering their winnings totaling millions of dollars.
JESSICA TISCH, NEW YORK CITY POLICE COMMISSIONER: They placed wagers on unders on players to score less, rebound less, assist less, using information that was not yet public. In some instances, players altered their performance or took themselves out of games to make sure that those bets paid out.
GINGRASS (voice-over): In a second scheme, Billups and Jones allegedly teaming up with members of La Cosa Nostra crime families in underground poker games.
NOCELLA: The scheme targeted victims known as quote fish who were often lured to participate in these rigged games by the chance to play alongside former professional athletes who were known as, quote, "face cards." What the victims, the fish, didn't know is that everybody else at the poker game, from the dealer to the players, including the face cards, were in on the scam.
GINGRASS (voice-over): They allegedly also used high tech equipment to rig play like this X-ray machine which authorities say could read cards that were face down on the table. Also used hidden cameras and altered shuffling machines which --
NOCELLA: Read the cards in the deck, predict which player at the table had the best poker hand and relay that information to an off-site operator.
GINGRASS (voice-over): And then authorities say some defendants would resort to old school mafia tactics to collect their earnings such as robbery and extortion. I'm going to wait outside poker games and pistol whip five winners a week, one text message read in court documents.
Brynn Gingras, CNN, New York.
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SANDOVAL: President Trump has pardoned the co-founder of crypto exchange Binance. Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to a money laundering charge in 2023 and was sentenced to four months in prison, just four months. Zhao stepped down as the CEO of Binance and the company agreed to pay over $4 billion in fines. President Trump has shown support for Cryptocurrency during his second term. And he suggested that the Biden administration unfairly targeted this man.
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TRUMP: He had a lot of support. And they said that what he did is not even a crime. It wasn't a crime that he was persecuted by the Biden administration. And so I gave him a pardon at the request of a lot of very good people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANDOVAL: And the U.S. government shutdown, it will be extending into next week. And this is senators leave Washington without a deal to end the stalemate. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries says that he is willing to consider a bipartisan bill to pay federal workers during the shutdown. A number of senators admit that they are concerned about funding for federal food assistance running out. The White House says benefits for low income families could end within days in some states.
Republican Senator Roger Marshall says a lot of -- a lot of pregnant and breastfeeding women that they rely on these programs. And he thinks that the risk of cutoff is good pressure points for Democrats.
And as the funds for some government programs run out, President Trump says that there is plenty of money to build a massive ballroom that the East Wing of the White House, at least to build it where that part of the structure once stood. The president said that he has raised already $350 million from private donors to pay for construction of the ballroom. You can see what that site looks like from above. And also some satellite pictures that were taken on Thursday of the White House show you just how much Trump has dramatically altered the historic structure. The entire East Wing has been demolished, with piles of debris temporarily replacing the building which traditionally served as the office of the first lady.
It also greeted visitors to the White house. Here's what CNN's Chief Political Analyst David Axelrod had to say about this ballroom project.
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DAVID AXELROD, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: You could tap any American on the shoulder right now and say, you know, where does a ballroom at the White House rank on your list of priorities and desires? And not one of them will say, yes, that's what we need, especially in the middle of a tough economy, as we were back in 2010. There's -- the only American who was hungering for a ballroom was Donald Trump. And now he thinks that he has the authority to go and destroy, you know, what is essentially a sacred historic site and put up, you know, a palace because he thinks he's a king. And I don't think this is going to sit well with the American people who have much higher priorities than a gigantic ballroom in the -- where the part of the White House used to stand.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANDOVAL: A string of top U.S. officials there descending on Israel this week as they try to keep the Gaza ceasefire in place. That story and much and much more on the way here on CNN Newsroom.
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POLO SANDOVAL, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says that reaching the next phase of the fragile ceasefire in place in Gaza remains a top priority for President Donald Trump. Rubio arrived in Israel for a meeting with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday.
He landed just hours after Vice President J.D. JD Vance wrapped up his trip to that country.
The ceasefire, it's already allowed aid groups to surge more supplies into Gaza, but the World Health Organization is now warning that it's still just a fraction of what's truly needed.
CNN's Jeremy Diamond, following the latest from Jerusalem.
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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yet another senior U.S. official touching down in Israel to meet with the Israeli prime minister and senior members of his government.
This time, it's the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who is the latest in a parade of senior U.S. officials who visited Israel just this past week, a week that began with Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff arriving in Israel. And then you saw the U.S. Vice President, J.D. Vance, doing the same. And now, we're up to the secretary of state.
It's all part of an effort that one U.S. official termed as "Bibi- sitting", a play on the Israeli prime minister's nickname, Bibi Netanyahu.
And that's because U.S. officials, you know, have been concerned that the Israeli prime minister is simply not as committed to this ceasefire agreement as the United States is, not as committed to ensuring that this ceasefire agreement not only holds, but actually results in that enduring end to the war in Gaza that President Trump has described.
We have seen that Vance and Rubio have already talked about, you know, the efforts necessary to ensure that this ceasefire actually sticks as the U.S. is expending really significant diplomatic and political capital here in Israel in order to not just monitor this ceasefire, but actually mediate potential disputes that may arise, standing up this new civilian military coordination center about a dozen miles away from the Gaza border, where you have U.S. military officials and others monitoring the ceasefire, ensuring the entry of humanitarian aid, and starting to prepare for the next phases of this ceasefire.
And we heard the vice president, J.D. Vance, on Thursday, talk about some of those efforts, standing up this international stabilization force that will go into Gaza and take over parts of the strip from both Hamas and from the Israeli military. We also heard for the first time from the vice president a timeline for the potential rebuilding of parts of Gaza, including the southern city of Rafah.
J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think that we could actually have tens of thousands of Gazans moving into southern Gaza, where again, you have the Hamas-free zone in the next couple of months and then tens of thousands beyond that.
I think the hope is to rebuild Rafah over the next two to three years. And theoretically, you could have half a million people live in a rebuilt Rafah.
DIAMOND: The vice president also addressed the vote that happened in Israel's parliament while he was in Israel. This was a vote to advance a bill that would see Israel annex large swaths of the West Bank.
J.D. Vance, the vice president, saying that he was not only insulted by this vote, calling it a stupid political stunt, but also reiterating that the U.S. would not allow Israel to do so.
The Israeli prime minister, for his part, his office blaming Israel's opposition even though most of the votes in favor of this bill came from his own governing coalition.
[01:34:45]
DIAMOND: But he did say that without his party's support, the Likud, this vote would not go anywhere.
Jeremy Diamond, CNN -- Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANDOVAL: And joining me live now from Al-Mawasi, Gaza is Tess Ingram, spokesperson for UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund.
Tess, thank you so much for taking the time.
TESS INGRAM, SPOKESPERSON, UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND (UNICEF): Thanks for having me. SANDOVAL: Let's begin with -- perhaps you can give us an update on the
situation there on the ground in Gaza now, weeks into this -- into the ceasefire and with some aid supposedly coming in. Is there any measurable improvement when it comes to trying to reverse the enclave's hunger crisis from what you've seen?
INGRAM: That's right. Two weeks today -- two weeks ago today, the ceasefire went into effect. And in that time we have seen the volume of aid trucks coming into the Gaza Strip increase. The services that we're able to provide increase. But it's still not enough.
Is it making a big difference for families here on the ground? Not yet. We're talking to families who have said that they're seeing a small improvement in their living conditions.
But of course, after two years of absolute devastation, we need far more trucks to come in and services to scale up to meet their needs.
As far as malnutrition is concerned, that's something that UNICEF is really focused on. We're fighting the famine in Gaza City. But we're, you know, there's tremendous challenges in doing that.
For example, in the Israeli offensive in the months leading into the ceasefire, the number of centers we had there reduced dramatically over eight weeks. It went from 42 to 7 centers. And we're now trying to scale back up again.
In the last few days, we've got to about a dozen centers again now, which is good because more children can access our services. But we have to keep scaling up. And to do that, we need the ceasefire to hold.
SANDOVAL: You know, much of this sounds so familiar too when you hear from the WHO chief who said this week that the situation remains catastrophic, as they put it, and that there is no dent in the hunger because there is not enough food. So really echoing what we just heard.
What needs to be done to increase the flow of aid into Gaza? You mentioned the drastic decrease of some of those distribution centers, and your hope that that will go back up. What else, Tess, would you like to see happen?
Unfortunately, we may have just lost Tess Ingram. All right. I think we just have you back. Can you hear me?
INGRAM: Hi. Yes, I can hear you now. Yes.
SANDOVAL: Please, if you could just tell us what you would like to see happen to try to expedite the improvement there on the ground.
INGRAM: We really need to see the ceasefire hold. We need all of the terms of the ceasefire to be adhered to so that it leads to lasting peace. That's number one.
But in order to enable the humanitarian response on the ground, we need to see all of the available crossings into the Gaza Strip to open. It's been two weeks of this ceasefire, and we still only have two of the crossings open.
We need to see other crossings open so that aid can come in at scale, including into the north of the Gaza Strip, where those direct access routes remain closed.
We also need to see the types of aid into the Gaza Strip meet the needs of the population here. We need to be able to bring in what we're saying the families need, and that includes supplies that have been blocked for far too long. For example, we want to get kids back to school. To do that, we need education materials, but these continue to be denied entry.
So we need to not only increase the volume of supplies, we need to vary the kinds of supplies coming in to meet life-saving needs, but also to begin that early recovery work for families.
SANDOVAL: Yes, there's so many parts of the world that would take the simple act of going to school for granted. That would mean a monumental difference for the children in Gaza, I'm sure.
Finally, while I have you, I'm sure you heard the International Court of Justice stated that Israel has a legal obligation to facilitate humanitarian aid into Gaza.
What is your message perhaps to the Israeli government that rejected that opinion from the ICJ, especially as Israeli officials meet with U.S. officials?
INGRAM: The children of Gaza should not be punished. And yet, over two years, we've consistently seen aid restricted and at some points completely blocked from entering the Gaza Strip. And it's children who bear the brunt of that decision.
We've spoken about the education supplies that can't get in, but also really critical life-saving items -- food, water, shelter for families.
They have an obligation, the Israeli authorities, to facilitate that aid and to work with the United Nations, including UNRWA, who is the backbone of the humanitarian response here.
[01:39:47]
INGRAM: So we need to see UNRWA be able to resume operations at scale in the Gaza Strip and for the United Nations as a whole, to be allowed to do our jobs.
SANDOVAL: Tess Ingram, we know your time is incredibly valuable. So we thank you so much for sharing a little bit with us. And certainly wish you and the rest of the humanitarian presence there on the ground the best.
INGRAM: Thank you. SANDOVAL: More than a million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, they face a new crisis and that's hunger. When the U.S. slashed funding to international aid groups, it left one of the world's most vulnerable populations with very few options.
Here's CNN's Ivan Watson to explain.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Safiya Bibi is 13 months old, but hunger and illness leave her looking much younger.
Her mother feeds her baby ready-to-use therapeutic food, an emergency ration provided by the U.S. government.
"I'm so grateful for this assistance," Safiya's mother says. "If they didn't send this money, how could we survive?"
That is an increasingly urgent question here in the world's largest refugee camp. Around a million Rohingya Muslims have fled to this corner of Bangladesh over the last decade, escaping ethnic cleansing in neighboring Myanmar that U.S. and U.N. experts have called acts of genocide. An impoverished community of refugees utterly dependent on international assistance.
But that budget was dramatically cut this year. So far the U.N. says these refugees only got 37 percent of their annual budget.
JULIE BISHOP, SPECIAL ENVOY FOR U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL IN MYANMAR: This is already having dire consequences for the Rohingya in camps, with critical cuts to their food rations and a sharp decline in access to education.
WATSON: Each refugee in these crowded camps subsists on rations of $12 worth of food a month. But now aid workers are seeing more children going hungry.
DEEPIKA SHARMA, UNICEF: More and more children are being detected with the severest form of malnutrition and they're at a risk of mortality because of that.
WATSON: When aid money dries up, that also affects access to health care and medicine.
Mariam Khatun's family suffered unthinkable tragedy earlier this year. In February, her 7-year-old daughter Estapha (ph) suddenly got sick. She was rushed to a camp hospital, but within three days she was gone. Cause of death -- pneumonia and encephalitis.
Her grieving mother claims a lack of health care.
MARIAM KHATUN, ROHINGYA REFUGEE (through translator): Big countries used to support us. We still need their help.
My child died by the will of God. But the place where I took her couldn't treat her properly. My child suffered and died in pain. WATSON: The U.S. has long been the world's biggest aid donor, but this
year the Trump administration cut some $8 billion in international assistance.
Since then CNN has documented disruptions in basic services for refugees from war-torn Myanmar living in camps in both Bangladesh and Thailand.
Aid workers predict it will only get worse.
SHARMA: If that money is not there, if that funding is not there, there is no hope. Children will be impacted. They will die.
MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We are not going to fund an NGO industrial complex that built itself up, that was taking a substantial percentage of the money and not going directly to the recipients.
WATSON: The Trump administration insists it is cutting wasteful spending.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS ANCHOR: No one has died --
RUBIO: No one has died because the United States has cut aid. No.
WATSON: When a war leaves so many people with so little to survive, any disruption can make the difference between life and death.
Ivan Watson, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[01:43:44]
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SANDOVAL: And welcome back. I'm Polo Sandoval in New York.
We are closely following Tropical Storm Melissa as it hovers over the Caribbean, and it is forecast to become a major hurricane over the weekend, one that could create a dangerous situation for several islands in the storm's path. As you see here, that includes Jamaica.
Let's go now to CNN's meteorologist Allison Chinchar for more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Tropical Storm Melissa is essentially crawling through the Caribbean Sea as it makes its way slowly towards the north and west.
Now one of the big concerns with this storm is how far west does it go because that means it would be entering a much more favorable environment for strengthening.
You'll notice the main track here has it going a little bit farther to the north before finally making that turn to the west. And as it does, notice these numbers begin to tick up. You get up to a
hurricane, then a major hurricane, perhaps as strong as a category four storm by the time we wrap up the weekend and head into next week.
Now, one thing to note is a lot of the models, there's still a lot of discrepancy here on exactly when this storm is going to make a turn to the north. We know it will eventually, just whether or not how quickly it goes. That depends on which model you go with.
You can see some of them have it making that northward turn pretty quickly. Others have it going a little bit farther west before making that turn. And yes, even a few models having it get awfully close to the Yucatan Peninsula before finally making that right hand turn to the north.
The thing is, the farther west it goes, the more likely it is to enter the much warmer waters. And we all know warm water is fuel for storms like this that would allow it to intensify.
[01:49:51]
CHINCHAR: Another thing that would allow it to intensify is it's actually going to be entering an area that has very little shear. That too can often help these storms intensify rather quickly.
So that's why the hurricane center is saying we anticipate this storm to get to hurricane strength and eventually major hurricane by the latter half of the weekend.
Winds are definitely going to be the biggest concern here for a lot of these island nations, not only Hispaniola, but also Jamaica, where we could be looking at winds of 100 even as much as 130 or 140 miles per hour.
But rain is certainly going to be the biggest concern. And a lot of that has to do with the incredibly slow movement over these areas, because that means it has a lot of time to dump a lot of rain.
And you'll notice a lot of red and even that pink color here that you can see on the map. Basically, what that is showing is at least 10 to 12 inches of rain along the southern coastline of Hispaniola.
Similar numbers for much of south and eastern portions of Jamaica, with some totals as high as 20 inches.
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SANDOVAL: Thank you, Allison.
And still to come here on CNN NEWSROOM, brand new video -- new information on that stunning jewelry heist at a museum in Paris.
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SANDOVAL: Well, for the first time in nearly 500 years, a British monarch and a Catholic pontiff shared a worship service. King Charles and Pope Leo, they both prayed together in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel on Thursday. Latin chants mixed with English prayer during the service.
King Charles and also Queen Camilla, they are currently on a state visit to the Vatican and Rome. Christopher Lamb is in Rome with more details.
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CHRISTOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: History made in the Sistine Chapel.
POPE LEO XIV, CATHOLIC CHURCH: Let us pray.
LAMB: For the first time in more than half a millennium, an English king and a pope prayed together. King Charles III and Queen Camilla on an historic visit to the Vatican, emphasizing unity, and the king and the pope's concern for the environment. The royal and Vatican choirs singing together underneath the famous Michelangelo frescoes.
The King's trip is an extraordinary historical turnaround. Five hundred years ago, Henry VIII broke with Rome and established himself as head of the Church of England.
For centuries, the papacy and the monarchy saw each other with suspicion. Now, King Charles, who is the supreme governor of the Church of England, and the first American pope have put those historic divisions to one side.
Charles and Pope Leo exchanged gifts and honors. A papal knighthood for Charles, and membership of the Order of the Bath for Leo, an ancient British title traditionally given to heads of state.
POPE LEO: In 1959 --
LAMB: Later, at the Basilica of St. Paul's outside the walls, Charles took part in another service. He was seated on a specially- commissioned chair engraved with the motto "That They May Be One".
The king's visit comes as his brother Prince Andrew is embroiled in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal that risked overshadowing this trip, and as the king continues with his treatment for cancer. At a moment of difficulty, the king is drawing on his faith.
And at the Vatican, showing his desire to build bridges between churches in a way no British monarch has done for centuries.
Christopher Lamb, CNN -- Rome.
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SANDOVAL: Now I want to get to the latest on the investigation into the jewelry heist at the Louvre Museum in Paris.
[01:54:44] SANDOVAL: There's new video now that emerged that appears to show the suspects escaping the museum. And this after they carried out the stunning heist on Sunday.
get more now from CNN's Melissa Bell in Paris.
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MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: New video appearing to show the moment robbers left the Louvre on their mechanical lift, carrying off eight pieces from France's crown jewels.
It took just seven minutes from the moment a member of the public called the police on Sunday morning at 9:30 about suspicious individuals wearing motorcycle helmets outside the museum.
By 9:37 a.m., a museum alarm was triggered as the robbers wearing yellow vests broke into display cases before escaping through the window they'd used to get in.
The thieves made off with jewelry worth about $102 million, but historically priceless; items worn by French queens in the 19th century. The headpiece, necklace and one earring of Queen Marie Amelie; the large bodice, bow and tiara of Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III.
The Louvre has now reopened to the public with a reckoning about the security failures that allowed its Apollo Gallery to be broken into.
LAURENCE DES CARS, LOUVRE MUSEUM DIRECTOR (through translator): Unfortunately, on the Apollo Gallery side, the only camera that is installed is in the west direction and therefore does not cover the balcony affected by the break in.
BELL: The window used by the robbers to get in and out of the Louvre are now something of a tourist attraction in its own right.
CHRIS TABRIZI, CANADIAN TOURIST: I think it's like an eventful thing in Paris. And I think it's a new tourist attraction, honestly.
So we're like, oh, wow, this is happening in real life. So we're like, you know what? Let's go take a picture. He just got here. So, like, it's the perfect time.
BELL: 100 investigators are working on this case to try and figure out who was behind this most brazen of heists. They're considering not just the equipment that was used by the robbers, but some of the things they left behind -- a glove, a helmet, one of the scooters they made their escape on, and of course, the truck that they're combing through for fingerprints.
But for now, a big breakthrough in this case remains elusive.
Melissa Bell, CNN -- Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE) SANDOVAL: And with that, we do want to thank you for joining us here on CNN NEWSROOM.
I'm Polo Sandoval.
The news continues with my colleague Kim Brunhuber standing by in Atlanta.
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