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Trump Orders DOJ to Investigate Epstein Ties to Democrats; Trump Says He Has Obligation to Sue BBC; Russian Mass Attack Leaves Kyiv Residents Reeling; Ukrainians Rushing to Repair Power Grid ahead of Winter; Immersive Experience Recreates Final Hours of Pompeii. Aired 3-3:30a ET
Aired November 15, 2025 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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BEN HUNTE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): 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, Donald Trump launching a new federal investigation surrounding Jeffrey Epstein. But this probe has nothing to do with Trump's alleged ties to the convicted sex offender but, instead, to do with Epstein's ties to the president's political opponents.
Energy workers in Ukraine, in a race against time to repair damage from Russian strike with winter just weeks away as Moscow continues its brutal assault.
And heavy rain adding to an already dire situation for displaced Palestinians in Gaza.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Ben Hunte.
HUNTE: Welcome.
The U.S. president has ordered a new investigation into late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's connections with powerful people and institutions. But Donald Trump instructed the DOJ to target multiple high profile Democrats, including former president Bill Clinton.
This all comes after a House committee released 20,000 pages of documents it received from Epstein's estate. On a flight to Mar-a-Lago late on Friday, the president brushed off reporters' questions about the emails and redirected his focus toward Democrats.
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QUESTION: What did Jeffrey Epstein mean in his emails when you said you knew about the girls? DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I know nothing about that, they would have announced that a long time ago. It's really what did he mean when he spent all the time with Bill Clinton, with the president of Harvard, who, you know, that is Summers, Larry Summers, whatever his name is and all of the other people that he spent time with.
Jeffrey Epstein and I had a very bad relationship for many years. But he also saw strength because I was president.
So he dictated a couple of memos to himself?
Give me a break.
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HUNTE: The House is set to vote next week on releasing files from the criminal investigation into Epstein. Evan Perez has more on the inquiry ordered by the president just a few hours ago.
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EVAN PEREZ, CNN SR. JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Attorney general Pam Bondi says that federal prosecutors in New York are being tasked to launch yet another investigation of people associated with child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
The new investigation comes after president Trump said that he was asking Bondi to investigate Epstein's ties to prominent Democrats. And he named specific names, including former president Bill Clinton.
It's yet another extraordinary turn in a political mess that has consumed this White House for months. And it comes just days after Democrats released emails from the late Epstein estate that mentions Trump a number of times.
Trump announced in his directive in a social media post that accused Democrats of trying to revive attention to his past ties to Epstein, contending that they are, quote, "using the Epstein hoax involving Democrats, not Republicans, to try to deflect from their own disastrous shutdown and all of their other failures."
Bondi responded to the president's post by thanking the president and saying that she would have U.S. attorney Jay Clayton in Manhattan lead the new investigation.
This is the same office that led an earlier investigation of Epstein and of Ghislaine Maxwell, who worked for Epstein and was convicted of charges that she aided in the trafficking of girls.
We should note that the Justice Department this summer did an assessment of documents in their possession and determined that there were no additional defendants that could be charged with crimes associated with Epstein.
And, of course, this new investigation also means that Congress will likely have to wait much longer for any documents to be released. There's an effort gaining steam in the House to force the release of those documents.
But during an ongoing investigation, the Justice Department generally doesn't release investigative files out of concern that it would harm any possible prosecutions -- Evan Perez, CNN, Washington.
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HUNTE: President Trump says he will sue the BBC over a misleading edit to his speech ahead of the January 6th storming of the Capitol. The BBC apologized for the misleading video edit and the corporation's director general and head of news resigned.
President Trump previously threatened to sue for $1 billion. Now he says he'll probably sue for between $1 billion and $5 billion. The BBC said it strongly disagrees that there is any basis for a defamation claim.
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President Trump is suggesting he has made up his mind about his next steps in Venezuela. Four sources told us earlier that he was briefed about his military options this week. Here's what he said on Friday.
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QUESTION: Have you made up your mind on what you'd like to do as far as action?
TRUMP: I sort of made up my mind. I mean, I can't tell you what it would be but I sort of made up my mind.
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HUNTE: Mr. Trump spoke as the U.S. has deployed a large military force in the Caribbean and is preparing to hold drills in Trinidad and Tobago a short distance from Venezuela.
Caracas believes the U.S. deployment could be a prelude to regime change. Venezuela's president, Nicolas Maduro, is now sending a new anti-war message to Americans. He urged them on Friday to say no to war. As Stefano Pozzebon reports, he also talked peace the day before.
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STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Caracas, the Venezuelan government.
Is yet to react.
To the announcement. Late on.
Thursday night, the U.S.
Department of War. Is renaming the deployment.
Of aircraft and warships in the -- in the southern Caribbean as a new Operation Southern Spear. That's the name that the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, gave to this deployment that, in theory, allegedly is meant to stem drug trafficking coming out of Venezuela.
But when we spoke with the Venezuelan president earlier on Thursday, he had a different message to send to Donald Trump.
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QUESTION (from captions): President, are you concerned about the possible aggression?
NICOLAS MADURO, PRESIDENT OF VENEZUELA (through translator): We're focused on the. People governing with. Peace, with these young people building. Unite for the peace of the continent. No more endless wars, no more unjust wars, no more Libya, no more Afghanistan.
QUESTION (from captions): Do you have a message for president Trump?
MADURO (through translator): My message is yes, peace. Yes, peace.
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POZZEBON: Now those. Words are consistent with previous messages that Maduro had given to the press and especially here on Venezuelan television, trying to mediate and trying to reach a negotiation with the White House.
However, it's important to notice that that was Maduro's first appearance in a non-controlled environment in weeks.
And especially he wanted to be seen surrounded by regular people, supporters of the Venezuelan government, and to send a message, perhaps to the White House, that he is not just ready to bend to the pressure coming out of Washington -- for CNN, this is Stefano Pozzebon, Caracas.
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HUNTE: A dramatic video shows the moment Ukrainian drones and missiles hit a key Russian oil terminal. Have a look.
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HUNTE (voice-over): Ukraine says the strikes caused a major fire and damage to oil facilities in the port of Novorossiysk on Thursday. Russia claims at least four people were wounded and multiple private homes were hit, too. Ukraine is ramping up strikes on Russian oil infrastructure to disrupt the cash flow for its war machine.
People in Ukraine's capital are doing what's become a familiar drill in recent months, which is picking up the pieces and trying to move on from Russian strikes that have ravaged their city.
The Kremlin launched a mass attack on Kyiv on Friday morning, according to the city's mayor, who says the strikes caused huge damage. Ben Wedeman spoke with some of the residents who were on the receiving end of it.
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BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Flashes in the sky over Kyiv. It's another night of Russian bombardment. Ukrainian air defenses managed to intercept most of the drones and missiles, but not all. This strike hitting the heart of the Ukrainian capital.
Ukrainian officials say the strikes killed at least six people, wounding dozens.
Peaceful residents live here, says Kyiv resident Anastasia Shevchenko (ph). There are no critical infrastructure facilities here. These are residential neighborhoods, ordinary people, peaceful residents are suffering.
Officials say Russia fired almost 450 drones and missiles ,overnight plunging parts of Kyiv and other areas into darkness.
My front door was blown off, recalls Maria Kalchenko (ph). Flames were bursting out of there. I grabbed my dog and searched for the cats, but I couldn't find them. I made my way out to the street through a hole.
The choice of targets is not accidental, says Kyiv Mayor, Vitaly Klitschko.
MAYOR VITALI KLITSCHKO, KYIV, UKRAINE: Kyiv's -- symbol of Kyiv -- symbol of Ukraine is heart of the country.
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And that's why, from beginning the war, always Kyiv wasn't still target of Russian army, and especially before the winter.
WEDEMAN (voice-over): Since August, after presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin met in Alaska, Russia has focused much of its fire on Ukraine's energy sector, depriving Ukrainians of heat and power as winter approaches. The fire, however, is going both ways.
Ukraine launched hundreds of drones at targets in Russia. At a time when diplomatic efforts to end or even pause this war have come to naught, the people on both sides are facing the prospect of a cold, brutal and bloody winter -- Ben Wedeman, CNN, Rome
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HUNTE: Ukraine is racing against time to fix as much of its power grid as it can ahead of that harsh winter. Kyiv residents are without electricity for up to 12 hours a day, just as temperatures are dropping into the single digits.
Energy workers are rushing to repair damaged facilities but that's a tall order in the middle of the war. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OLEKSANDR, UKRAINIAN ENERGY WORKER (through translator): Just look at all those wires.
How could they possibly be hidden underground?
Maybe it's doable. Maybe that's how modern power stations are designed. But ours was built in peaceful times, not for war.
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HUNTE: For more, we're joined by Oleksandr Merezhko, the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Ukrainian Parliament. He's speaking to us from Kyiv.
Thanks so much for being with me. I'll get straight to it. You've warned that this winter may be the most difficult in Ukraine's history.
Can you just tell me what are some of your biggest fears right now?
And how are you preparing for them?
OLEKSANDR MEREZHKO, CHAIR, FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE, UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT: Thank you for having me. Yes, unfortunately, it might be the most difficult winter in the whole history of Ukraine.
And the thing is that Putin deliberately wants to destroy our power grid. He wants to plunge us, the whole Ukraine, into darkness. And he is planning to break our will to continue to fight. And that's why he's using all kinds of terroristic methods.
And he hopes that somehow he will make Ukrainians to be more submissive to his demands about surrender, which is not going to happen, of course. But you know, it's a fact that Putin is a terrorist and he is using terror to destroy resilience.
HUNTE: We have seen Russia's recent attacks kill several people in Ukraine.
How do you interpret this latest escalation and what does it tell you about Moscow's strategy at this stage of the war?
MEREZHKO: Putin understands that he doesn't have success on the battlefield. He didn't manage to achieve the goals which he set for himself three years ago, more than three years ago. And the only way for him is to use again terror against civilian population.
This is genocidal war. And Putin is deliberately -- Russia is deliberately targeting civilian objects. And this is a kind of war which is waged not only against Ukrainian army but primarily against Ukrainian civilian population. That's his plan. He hopes that somehow he will manage to terrorize us.
But the thing is that people in Ukraine, we continue to be defiant no matter what. We -- our, for example, authorities, they have managed to adjust to adapt our power grid to this constant shellings, constant bombardments. And we have no doubt that we will survive this winter, no matter what, against all odds.
HUNTE: And while you are speaking, we're just seeing some images there from Ukraine. It's just awful. Combat is intensifying as Russian forces try to advance.
What is the current situation on the front line right now and how concerned are you about further territorial losses?
MEREZHKO: Situation on the battlefield continues to be difficult, especially when we are talking about Pokrovsk. Putin wanted to take Pokrovsk two years ago. So far he has failed at the same time. As far as I know, there are some Russian troops inside the city. But Ukrainian army continues to repel attacks.
And Putin's plan is to destroy completely the city, to leave only ruins. Well, and if it happens, of course, we continue to fight until we have such an opportunity. But the thing is that Russia has more manpower and we have to think about our soldiers. We have to save lives of our soldiers.
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And I don't allow that, at certain point, we might take decision to withdraw. But at present moment, a situation, despite being difficult, it's not hopeless and we continue to fight.
HUNTE: Well, while the fight occurs (ph), can we just talk about some of the international support?
How crucial are new commitments from world leaders to Ukraine's ability to keep on fighting and what additional support do you need still, as winter approaches?
MEREZHKO: Well, first of all, we need, of course, air defense systems. We also need long-range missiles because, to win the war, we need to inflict damages on Russian military objects and to deprive Russia of military capabilities.
And the Achilles heel of Russian war machine is, of course, its oil. That's why it's the most effective way to bring closer peace by damaging Russian, for example, oil refineries and military objects. And to do that, we need more support. We need long-range missiles, for example, like Tomahawks.
And we continue to hope that, at some point, president Trump will take this decision, because it will help us to defeat Russia on the battlefield.
HUNTE: Well, let's see how things change over the next few days, weeks, months and potentially years. Oleksandr Merezhko, thank you for now.
MEREZHKO: Thank you. HUNTE: Palestinians in Gaza are struggling with flooding after days
of heavy rain. The situation is only made worse by a lack of aid and resources after two years of war. Our report from the region, straight ahead. See you in a moment.
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HUNTE: Welcome back.
Palestinians in Gaza are now dealing with flooding after days of heavy rain inundated the enclave. The floodwaters swept into the main pediatric hospital in northern Gaza on Friday. You can see here a baby being carried out of the flooded ward in Gaza City.
The rain and flooding has drenched tent encampments for displaced Palestinians. More now from CNN's Nic Robertson in Jerusalem.
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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: It's water seeping into tents. It's water gushing in through holes in roofs and non-existent roofs and a patchwork of efforts for people to give shelter to their families when there are tens of thousands, if not more, tents that are waiting to be allowed into Gaza by Israel.
Stored up in countries like Jordan and massive overstuffed warehouses, unable to get it into -- to the people that need it in Gaza.
So it's a reminder that, look, it was about 10 centimeters of rain that fell, almost four inches. It started 2:30 in the morning, absolutely torrential, not the worst flooding that Gazans have experienced over the years.
But in terms of their current predicament and situation with -- and you can see it, you know, broken homes, broken infrastructure, broken sewage networks.
You can see in some of the images, water, literally in the -- in the overstuffed and broken sewage systems flowing out of those sewage covers saturating around the tents.
But in all of this, as we've seen during the war part of the last couple of years, it is children who suffer the most. And this witness in a parent in Gaza says, still the same. It's the children that they worry about the most. This is what he said.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We had to look after our children in these conditions. There are children here as you can see, this child was submerged in the water. We carried some of the children and some of the children have been
working to get rid of the water. This is our situation and it's actually harder than the displacement itself.
ROBERTSON: So you know, you have this situation where there is a ceasefire, where there's the bare bones of an agreement of how you move forward on a ceasefire but really no international momentum.
And there's no way, obviously, that -- that a switch can be flicked, that that can all be put into place, that suddenly people can have shelters.
But the reality for those people in those saturated, oversaturated tents is they're going to have a winter of this. Because even that glimmer of hope, the glimmer that there could be an international stabilization force, so there could be an inflow of reconstruction for them, for their livelihoods, for their children.
It's not happening and it really just underscores the lack of momentum there on that ceasefire that looked so optimistic just a month ago.
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HUNTE: About 100 indigenous protesters from Brazil's Amazon blocked the main entrance to the U.N.'s COP30 climate conference. The peaceful demonstration on Friday was the second in four days. Protesters demanded to be heard about threats to the Amazon rainforest from agribusiness and other commercial plans.
The protest ended after the climate talks president joined them for a conversation.
California governor Gavin Newsom visited the Amazon rainforest after days of the climate talks in Brazil. He criticized Donald Trump's decision to not send a high-level delegation to the conference.
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HUNTE: A new exhibit in London is giving people an amazing look at one of history's most famous disasters. Visitors can step a little closer to the fiery destruction of Pompeii and see what life was like there.
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HUNTE (voice-over): Step back in time to witness the last days of Pompeii, reimagined in a new immersive exhibition in London. The city was famously frozen in place after Mount Vesuvius erupted nearly 2,000 years ago, burying its surroundings in volcanic ash.
JORDI SEILAS, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: The volcano is one of the iconic things of The Last Days of Pompeii exhibition. And we built it in the latest cutting-edge 3D technology.
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So you will be inside our immersive room, being in the moment when the volcano exploded and living, like in first person, what the people of Pompeii should have lived at that time.
HUNTE (voice-over): And while visitors may be familiar with the city's catastrophic end, the exhibit also shows what life might have looked like before the eruption.
People can tour a suburban villa with frescoed walls and gardens, recreated by large-scale projection screens and virtual reality, for a glimpse of life in the once-thriving city.
But some of the most haunting images from Pompeii are the plaster casts of bodies recovered from the archeological site. The exhibition created replicas of them to put on display.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): But given the.
Challenges of taking, for.
Example, the.
Recovered bodies for.
All the security that these objects had, we opted to display objects from a private collection that would illustrate daily life in the city and at the same time to create 3D printed replicas of the corpses to understand the history and everything related to Pompeii.
HUNTE (voice-over): With the help of technology, Pompeii is resurrected from its ashen shadows. The exhibition runs in London for 16 weeks.
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HUNTE: Britain's King Charles has just celebrated his 77th birthday. And to mark the occasion, Buckingham Palace released this photo of the king, taken in May at the Sandringham estate in Norfolk, England.
Earlier, Charles and Queen Camilla traveled to Wales, where he received a birthday cake in the shape of a local castle.
And in London, cannon salutes were fired near Buckingham Palace and Tower Bridge. Royal watchers say the king's trip is a sign of his determination to keep working while receiving cancer treatment.
And that's all I've got for you. Thanks for joining me and the team. I'm Ben Hunte in Atlanta and I will see you at the same times tomorrow. "GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES" is next. Enjoy. See you. Later.
