Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Thailand and Cambodia Sign Peace Deal; U.S.-Canada Trade Tensions; Preparing for Hurricane Melissa. Aired 3-3:30a ET

Aired October 26, 2025 - 03:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:00:00]

BEN HUNTE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, wherever you are in the world. You are now in the CNN Newsroom with me, Ben Hunte, in Atlanta, and it is so good to have you with me.

Coming up on the show, U.S. President Donald Trump begins his Asia trip with a peace, joining the leaders of Thailand and Cambodia on stage in Malaysia.

Another 10 percent, Mr. Trump raises tariffs on Canadian goods as the U.S.-Canada trade spat heats up.

And preparing for Melissa, people in the path of the Category 3 hurricane are getting ready for potential destruction from a monstrous storm.

Welcome. Donald Trump is in Asia right now. It's his first trip to the region since he started his second term. A short time ago in K.L., he signed a new trade agreement with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. Then he gathered with other world leaders for a group photo ahead of the ASEAN Summit.

Earlier, he attended this signing ceremony for a peace deal between Cambodia and Thailand. That ceasefire came after Mr. Trump spoke to the leaders of the two countries. He told them he would not make trade deals with either country if their deadly border conflict continued.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Both countries are agreeing to cease all hostilities and work to build good, neighborly relationships, which have already started. 18 Cambodian prisoners of war will be released and under this agreement. Observers from ASEAN countries, including Malaysia, will be deployed to make sure that the piece prevails and endures. I have no doubt that it will.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTE: The president's trip will also take him to Japan and South Korea in the coming days. In South Korea, Mr. Trump is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The U.S. president says he's hoping for a comprehensive trade deal with China. Well, let's keep talking about it. CNN's Ivan Watson is live in K.L. with more on the president's trip. Thank you so much for being with me, Ivan.

We have already seen a pretty big moment, and this is only the start of the trip. How significant is this for Washington's relationships across Asia, and what are regional leaders still looking for from President Trump?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, I think the White House is calling this a huge deal. This is, in President Trump's word, the eighth conflict that he solved in just the first eight months of his administration. But I think that if you listen to the diplomats from Thailand, while trying to be very respectful to Trump and complimentary, they're kind of downplaying this a little bit, saying that this is just a reaffirmation of a ceasefire that we agreed upon back in July after five days of deadly fighting between Thailand and Cambodia, along their long and contested border, a conflict that erupted and resulted in the deaths of 35 people and some 200,000 people who were displaced.

So, the actual document that both sides signed was a joint declaration. Continuing this ceasefire, calling for measures, such as establishing observers in the area from ASEAN countries that would make sure both sides agree to follow through on things, like withdrawing heavy weapons from the border, cleaning up landmines that have been laid there.

And we're still trying to figure out whether Thailand has committed to immediately begin the release of 18 Cambodian soldiers who are held as prisoners of war since July, or if they're waiting to see progress before that will take place.

Let's take a listen to what the Thai and Cambodian prime ministers had to say during this signing ceremony.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HUN MANET, CAMBODIAN PRIME MINISTER: No matter how difficult or complex our dispute may be, they must always be resolved through peaceful means in full conformity with existing treaties and international law. Cambodia reaffirms a strong commitment to fully and faithfully implementing this joint declarations and to continuing to work closely with Thailand and all our partners to ensure that this peace endures and brings tangible benefit to our people.

[03:05:04]

ANUTIN CHARNVIRAKUL, THAILAND PRIME MINISTER: Thailand stands for peace. This declaration reflects our will to resolve differences peacefully in full respect of sovereignty and territorial integrity. This declaration, if fully implemented, will provide the building blocks for a lasting peace.

(END VIDEO CLIP) WATSON: And the name of the game here is really trade, and Trump has already signed deals, a trade deal with Malaysia, the host country here, another one with Cambodia, which, frankly, has a very small economy, and has agreed to an MOU with Thailand about critical minerals. He's the big dealmaker and these are the types of things that he's working for and wants to celebrate.

The biggest deal in town is being negotiated right now, Ben, and we don't know how it'll end up, and that is U.S. and Chinese trade negotiators who have been meeting here in Kuala Lumpur throughout the weekend. And this is an anticipation of a possible meeting face-to- face between Trump and the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, in Korea. The question of whether or not these, the world's two largest economies can get past their trade war and come to some kind of an agreement, or whether Trump will follow through on his threat to add 100 percent tariffs onto Chinese goods starting on November 1st, where you already have more than 30 percent tariffs slapped onto Chinese goods. Watch this space to see whether or not they'll move forward on that front. Ben?

HUNTE: What sort of ideals are we going to be seeing potentially in this trip that's going to see whether this is going to be a successful trip or not? What do we need to see? What are we going to be signaling?

WATSON: Well, I mean, I think one of the biggest things around is whether or not Beijing and Washington can work out some kind of a trade deal, and that will affect the global economy, quite frankly, and have implications for Chinese and American citizens as well. China has stopped buying soybeans, for example, which is hurting American farmers. It has imposed export restrictions on its rare earth virtual monopoly, which very much angered Trump.

And so we're going to have to watch to see whether they can come to some kind of agreement, whether Trump will in fact follow through on his threat to impose 100 percent additional tariffs on Chinese goods starting on November 1st.

The other countries that are involved in these meetings are also trying to work out more beneficial trade terms with Trump, who upended basically free trade when he came into office and slapped tariffs on all the countries around the world. So, every world leader is trying to figure out a way to lower the tariffs that Trump is imposing on their economies. That's what we're going to be seeing, the new Japanese prime minister, probably trying to talk about the Korean president as well.

And then, again, I think the big thing to be looking for is what will happen. Will Trump and Xi Jinping actually meet, because that has been up in the air just over the past two weeks? Back to you.

HUNTE: Okay. We'll leave it there. Thank you so much, Ivan Watson, in Malaysia. We appreciate it. Thank you.

Okay. Well, let's keep talking about it. Joining me now is Victor Cha, a professor of government at Georgetown University and an Asia expert. Thank you so much for being with me, Victor. How are you doing?

VICTOR CHA, PROFESSOR OF GOVERNMENT, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: Good. How are you (INAUDIBLE)?

HUNTE: Oh, your audio's a little bit patchy there. Let's see if we can get through this.

We'll start with the peace deal between Cambodia and Thailand. How significant is this?

Okay. We can't hear you. I'm afraid we're going to have to try and come back to you later, if that's okay, Victor. But for now, we're going to sort this out and we'll speak to you in a bit. Thank you.

Let's keep going. President Trump says he's increasing tariffs on Canada by another 10 percent after the province of Ontario aired an anti-tariff ad during the World Series. This all comes after Ontario said it would pause the ad campaign on USTV by Monday. Trump claims the commercial misrepresented a speech by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, which the province has denied.

CNN's Julia Benbrook has the details.

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Donald Trump said he is ending trade negotiations with Canada, and now he says he is increasing the tariff on Canada by 10 percent over and above what they're already paying.

Let's take a step back to look at what seemed to spark this frustration.

[03:10:00]

Trump took issue with an ad released by the Ontario government that featured audio from a 1987 speech by then-President Ronald Reagan, where he criticized tariffs on foreign goods.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RONALD REAGAN, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars.

Then the worst happens, markets shrink and collapse, businesses and industry shut down and millions of people lose their jobs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BENBROOK: The Reagan Foundation put out a statement saying that the ad misrepresents what Reagan said. While it does lack context and was edited down, the overall theme of his speech was support for free and fair trade. So, it's not immediately clear which specifics the foundation took issue with.

But Trump ramped up the stakes he wrote on social media, the Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is fake, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about tariffs, adding in all caps, all trade negotiations with Canada are hereby terminated.

Trump was recently asked what Canada needs to do in order to get talks back on track. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: What can they do to get it back on track though?

TRUMP: I don't know. I mean, I'm satisfied with the deal we have. We have a deal right now that's very good for us. Any deal that would've been made would've been better for them than the one they have right now. That's why I was surprised they did this to try and influence the Supreme Court. And many foreign countries aren't particularly happy, but they took advantage of us for years. For years and years, they took advantage. And presidents shouldn't have allowed that to happen, but they did.

So, really, I don't think there's much they can do. I just assumed leaving the way it is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BENBROOK: The relationship between the United States and Canada has been tense in recent months, in part due to Trump's trade policies.

Now, after Trump said that he had canceled trade talks, Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney, while speaking with reporters, said that his country is focused on what it can control, which he says includes developing new partnerships and opportunities.

Julia Benbrook, CNN, Washington.

HUNTE: Hurricane Melissa is now a major Category 3 storm and forecasters warn it could intensify into a rare Category 5 hurricane in the coming days as it moves slowly over some of the world's hottest ocean water.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Melissa could bring more than a meter or 40 inches of total rainfall to portions of Jamaica and Espanola. A hurricane warning is already in effect for parts of Haiti and all of Jamaica. The likely epicenter for Melissa's extreme flooding, winds damage, and storm surge. Preparations are underway on the island nation for what could be the strongest hurricane to ever make landfall.

Our Meteorologist Derek Van Dam has the latest from Kingston.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Jamaica is facing the strongest landfall hurricane in modern record keeping to ever strike this island nation. 2012 was the last hurricane landfall, but 1988, Gilbert was the last major hurricane, and that devastated the economy in Jamaica for decades.

Now, it's the test of their modern infrastructure as it's a race against time to clear up what is a manmade gully. This gully goes as far as the eye can see into those distant mountains. That is where it will rain the heaviest, and that water will funnel down into this area. This gully, in effect, basically splits Kingston in half.

If this fails, the potential here could be devastating for this community. There are people who live along the banks of this gully. If the water overflows, that's a problem. If the debris hits this bridge, this major thoroughfare in Kingston, that's also an issue. So, that is the test of the infrastructure that they are facing now.

But this slow-moving storm is going to cause a triple threat. We're talking month's worth of rain in a matter of days, hurricane force winds that will be prolonged for several days as well. Mudslides, landslides, and storm surge could effectively impact transportation, the airport here in Kingston, for instance.

So, it is a race against time, maybe a futile effort. We have seen people just driving around Kingston. We've seen people boarding up their homes, but, largely, people taking this as business as usual, carrying on with their day-to-day lives. Maybe that's the problem. They're not prepared or they don't know what's coming their way.

Meteorologist Derek Van Dam, Kingston, Jamaica.

HUNTE: We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:15:00]

HUNTE: Welcome back. Back to our top story this hour, President Trump is in Asia for a full week of summits and meetings.

And let's talk again to you, Victor Cha, a professor of government at Georgetown University and an Asia expert. Thank you so much for being with me again. Let's get straight into it.

We know that President Trump used the threat of higher U.S tariffs to reach an agreement between Cambodia and Thailand. How unusual is it for a U.S. president to use economic pressure this way to push for peace?

CHA: Well, it is, Ben. It is quite unusual. We have not seen this before. This was a pretty serious conflict between the two sides, a longstanding border dispute, and there are thousands of forces mobilized on both sides, and for the president to step in and threaten to raise tariffs or on both sides unless they reach some sort of ceasefire, we've never seen that particular tool of diplomacy used by anybody but Donald Trump.

HUNTE: Trump's team is framing him as a peacemaker on this Asia trip. We've seen that repeatedly. Do you see a consistent foreign policy strategy here, or is this more about short-term optics before the big China meeting next week?

CHA: Well, I think it's a little bit of both. I mean, I think they're trying to craft three messages on this trip.

[03:20:02]

One, as you said, is in Southeast Asia, he's going to be seen as the peacemaker, the Cambodia-Thailand deal. He also takes credit for the Pakistan-India ceasefire, although Prime Minister Modi of India won't get, give him credit for that. And then when he goes to Japan and Korea, he is going to talk about Trump as really the rainmaker, if you will, between the two allies, $900 billion of promised investment in the United States. And all this is to tee up the big meeting with Xi Jinping of China, where it will be Trump, the dealmaker, to try to make some sort of big trade deal to get us out of this sanction spiral that the United States and China are now in.

HUNTE: There is also this possible meeting with Kim Jong-un. It's like deja vu from the last term, right? The president said he wants it to happen. But how likely is it that Kim will agree to meet him again?

CHA: You know, so I was just in the region, I was just in Tokyo, and at the time, I didn't think it was highly likely. But in the last 24 hours, I feel like there's a greater than 50 percent chance now that it could happen, because we're seeing things happening around the DMZ area where access from the southern side has been restricted. And on the northern side, the north winds are actually cleaning up the area around the joint security area when these meetings would take place. And the North Koreans usually don't do that unless they're expecting companies.

So, I think it's, you know, much more likely than it was at the beginning of the trip. And President Trump intimated as much when he said, you know, Kim knows I'm coming, you know, that they've sent them a message. So, I think it's possible.

HUNTE: Okay. Well we shall soon find out. Victor Cha, for now, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it.

Ukraine says overnight Russian attacks on Kyiv have left at least three people dead and dozens wounded, including six children. Drones struck several high rises across the capital, and one strike ignited a fire at a nine-storey residential building where 13 people were rescued from the upper floors. This all comes a day after Ukraine reported four deaths in a previous air assaults. It prompted President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to renew calls for U.S.-made Patriot missile defense systems.

U.S. President Trump has been pressing for a peace deal between both sides, but there's been little progress so far. He says he doesn't plan to meet Russia's leader until a deal seems achievable.

Lithuania has shut down its main airport and closed its border with Belarus after more weather balloons entered its airspace. This is the fourth time this month that the capital's airport has been closed due to balloon sightings. Lithuania says that they're sentient by smugglers to transport contraband cigarettes, but it blames the Belarusian president for not stopping them. Several European airports have closed in recent weeks due to drone sightings and other air incursions.

Israel carried out a strike in Gaza just hours after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrapped up his trip to the region. The Israeli military says it was targeting a Palestinian Islamic jihad militant who was planning an imminent attack. Health officials say four people were injured in the Saturday strike in Central Gaza.

Meanwhile, Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv to call for the return of the remaining deceased hostages. Among those in a crowd was Ruby Chen, father of Hostage Itay Chen, whose body is still in Gaza.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUBY CHEN, FATHER OF ITAY CHEN, ISRAELI HOSTAGE IN GAZA: My family met Secretary Rubio again today. I think this is the fifth time that we met him since he entered office. We wanted to make sure that he and the team focused on the fact that there's still 13 hostages including 2 U.S. citizens, one of them being my son. We got the reassurance that we were looking for from the secretary that they understand that the job is not done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTE: U.S. President Donald Trump is demanding that Hamas quickly hand over the remaining hostages, warning that he's watching very closely over the next 48 hours.

Independent Candidate Catherine Connolly has won the Irish presidential election in a landslide. The 68-year-old lawyer and former clinical psychologist is considered on the far left of the Irish political spectrum. She is a veteran lawmaker, critical of the European Union, and wary of trusting the U.S. She's a leading pro- Palestinian voice in parliament, and her campaign was able to galvanize younger voters and bring together a previously divided left wing opposition with the result that she won more than double the number of votes of her closest rival.

Argentina's voters head to the polls later today. They'll be voting in midterm elections that are seen as a test of President Javier Milei's economic plans. Figures close to his government have faced allegations of fraud and corruption in recent weeks. And the governor of Buenos Aires province is looking to gain strength as a leading opposition figure. Donald Trump has publicly backed Milei.

[03:25:00]

The election will set the balance of power in Congress and give an indication of the stability of Milei's government.

HUNTE: The Los Angeles Dodgers exacted some revenge in Saturday's World Series showdown against the Toronto Blue Jays. After a devastating loss on Friday, they stifled Toronto's battles in game two in what became a dramatic pitchers' duel. L.A. starter Yoshinubo Yamamoto pitched the whole game, holding the Jays to just one run. Blue Jays' Pitcher Kevin Gausman also sent many Dodgers uniforms back to the dugout throughout the game. But L.A. Catcher Will Smith broke a low-scoring stalemate in the seventh inning, putting the Dodgers out front when they go ahead home run.

Final score, Dodgers win 5-1. This series is now tied one to one and heads to California on Monday.

The World Artistic Gymnastics Championships has wrapped up in Jakarta, Indonesia. In the men's vault, Olympic Champion Carlos Yulo of the Philippines added another goal to his collection on Saturday. Much better than his third place finished the day before in the floor exercise. China's Zhang Qingying took gold in a women's balance beam. In second was Kaylia Nemour of Algeria. On Friday, she won the final of the uneven bars, making her Africa's first gymnastics world champion.

Nearly 150,000 people braved the rain in Taipei for one of East Asia's largest pride parades. The annual march celebrates LGBTQ equality in Taiwan, a regional leader for gay rights since legalizing same-sex marriage in 2019. Some participants traveled from Hong Kong to join the celebrations where similar events and initiatives promoting gay rights have been increasingly restricted in recent years.

We got there. Thanks so much for joining me and the team. I'm Ben Hunte in Atlanta. And I'll be back with you hopefully in the CNN Newsroom at the same times tomorrow. For now, have a good day. See you later.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:30:00]