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Trump Hosts Zelenskyy at the White House; Trump to Meet Putin in Hungary to Discuss Ukraine; Trump Critic John Bolton at Federal Court After Indictment; Kenya Holds State Funeral for Former Prime Minister; NYC Mayoral Debate Showdown; Tensions Rise Amid Clashes with Federal Agents in Chicago; Russian-Linked Ships Tracked Near Drone Activity in Europe; Netanyahu Says Struggle is Not Over Despite Ceasefire Deal; Maccabi Tel Aviv Fans Barred from Villa Park Over Safety Concerns. Aired 10-11a ET
Aired October 17, 2025 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:00:22]
ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN London, this is CONNECT THE WORLD.
CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Welcome to the second hour of the show. I'm Christina MacFarlane in London where the time is just
after 3:00 p.m. in the afternoon.
John Bolton turned himself in to a U.S. federal law enforcement. President Trump's former National Security adviser is facing 18 criminal charges.
Meanwhile, Mr. Trump has been chatting with Vladimir Putin ahead of his meeting today with President Zelenskyy.
Is the end of Russia's war on Ukraine in sight?
Plus, is the U.S. Democratic Party shifting further to the left? What New York's mayoral debate shows us about its new face, Zohran Mamdani.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will arrive at the White House in the coming hours to sit down with U.S. President Donald Trump. He's
expected to push for more heavy weaponry, including Tomahawk missiles capable of striking deep into Russian territory from Ukraine. But this
meeting comes on the heels of Mr. Trump's two and a half hour phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a conversation that apparently went
quite well.
The pair made plans to meet in person in Budapest, Hungary, a summit that could have in a matter of weeks -- happen in a matter of weeks, according
to the U.S. president.
Well, CNN chief international security correspondent Nick Paton Walsh is here with me this hour in the studio to discuss. And Kevin Liptak is at the
White House.
Nick, I just want to start with you. So we know Zelenskyy is arriving in the White House this afternoon, expected to push for those Tomahawk
missiles. Will he get them? And what is going to be the calculus for both parties heading into this meeting?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: I'd be hugely surprised if we had an open declaration from President Trump that
Tomahawks were on their way to Ukraine, or may already be on their way. This is a very complex delivery at the best of times, not huge numbers of
spare in the U.S. inventory. They're normally launched from submarines at sea.
There'd have to be a way to find a land launch system that Ukraine could potentially operate. And while their range is extraordinary, that's also
the distances that Ukraine's own drones have been reaching as well. So it's clearly, I think, more of a psychological threat that the U.S. has been
saying these are the best weapons we have essentially reserved for our allies, closest allies like the U.S., Japan, et cetera.
So it's certainly something they're going to push for. It does seem as though the Kremlin head has stepped in ahead of that and tried to engineer
yet another diplomatic process to potentially slow down this sense of escalation from President Trump. But remember, we've been down this road
before with the Kremlin offering talks that they critics say never meant to go anywhere. But Zelenskyy has now got through a Russian summer offensive
that has not yielded the significant gains that Putin may have been promised by his generals.
He's weathered that, and he also now is dealing with a President Trump who he knows how to handle better, certainly than earlier this year, and Trump,
too, knows that he's being ultimately played along by Putin for some time. So the ground has shifted. The playbook seems very familiar, but I think
we're dealing with Zelenskyy and Trump in better positions in terms of handling Putin, who was not taken the towns he thought he would this
summer.
MACFARLANE: And Kevin, tell us what you're hearing out of the White House about this meeting and if really anything has materially changed following
that phone call.
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think, you know, at least when it comes to those Tomahawks, the president has not
taken them off the table. We know behind the scenes he has been sounding more and more attuned to what Zelenskyy is asking for here. But yesterday
it was pretty interesting to listen to him after speaking with Vladimir Putin.
He's sort of downplaying the prospect that that approval could come through any time soon, saying that, "We actually need the Tomahawks in the United
States." That was his quote. "And we can't deplete our country." So even if the president still is holding out this option, it seems very evident that
it's not going to happen any time soon and probably won't happen until he sits down with Vladimir Putin in Budapest, in his words, sometime in the
next couple of weeks.
And so I think this meeting today will be Zelenskyy's opportunity to try and explain to the president how this could potentially change the
battlefield dynamics, but also what exactly he intends to do with them. You know, we've heard from officials that that's something that the president
wanted to get a clear picture on before he made that approval was how precisely Zelenskyy and the Ukrainians were intending to use this missile,
which has a thousand mile range and could potentially hit Moscow.
And I think the president wanted some assurances that this wouldn't escalate the war any further than perhaps he is intending to.
[10:05:02]
Now this will be Zelenskyy's third visit to the White House since President Trump returned to office back in January. It will be their sixth face-to-
face meeting overall. You know, aside from that one sort of famous blowup back in February, their meetings since then have been relatively cordial,
and the president seems to walk away from them having heard the Ukrainian point of view. I think for the Ukrainians, the problem is that the
president is also hearing the Russian point of view.
And we know, you know, President Trump has said that he's grown frustrated with Vladimir Putin, that he thought this war would be easier to resolve
than it has been, in part because he has this longstanding relationship with the Russian leader. I think, you know, the objective today is to try
and get some more clarity, one, from the president about how he sees these new round of negotiations going, but two, to also impart on him the
imperative of remaining in Ukraine's court when it comes to the weaponry, when it comes to financial assistance and clearly, Zelenskyy's sort of
reckoning is that the more often that he's in front of President Trump, that the easier that will be to do.
MACFARLANE: Nick, Zelenskyy said ahead of this meeting that Putin's decision to seek talks with Donald Trump showed that he was on the
defensive. And I guess that speaks to your point about the fact that the summer offensive haven't played out, it seems, in Russia's favor. So in
heading into this meeting and asking, beseeching Donald Trump to supply more weaponry, I mean, how will he look to use the gains that Ukraine have
made on the battlefield to extract something more from the White House?
PATON WALSH: Yes. I mean, I think he'll say, look, we've held the Russians off. We are -- they're not winning. They've been losing territory, but
they've not been losing the towns that Putin has had his eyes on. So Zelenskyy can also point to the fact that he's gone to Washington now with
much more of a business case to some degree. He's been meeting energy officials. He's been talking to Raytheon, the producer of the Patriot
defense system, about joint production.
So it's much savvier sort of man in terms of his vision of President Trump this time round. I think he'll emphasize the fact that Putin hasn't got
what he wants. That could change in the weeks ahead. It's not really until November that we'll see the foliage on the battlefield disappear and
advancing for Russian troops to become so perilous, it's almost impossible. And I think he will say, look, pressure has worked.
But I think to some degree, Trump knows that. It's no accident that we've seen a number of leaks about intelligence being supplied to Ukraine to
assist their targeting of Russian energy infrastructure. And of course, this Tomahawk signaling has been very blunt. I think many when I first
heard that, I wasn't entirely sure it would ever happen in the same way that secondary sanctions would have been highly explosive in the global
economy if implied against China.
This is a hugely escalatory measure, and one that really Ukraine would love to see the psychological impact of, but probably doesn't need the
battlefield expense of. These are very expensive missiles, so I think this is a changed battlefield that we're seeing geopolitically in terms of
diplomacy. Trump is wiser, if indeed we believe he's ever willing to go against Vladimir Putin. Zelenskyy is wiser about Trump and perhaps Putin
has not had the playing for time that he spent the summer engaging in this diplomacy to win. It's not brought him the success yet that he's been
presumably told by his top brass he could have.
MACFARLANE: Kevin, if you're still there, obviously we're now looking ahead to this meeting happening in Budapest. And Donald Trump is saying the
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is going to be meeting with his counterpart, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, soon. Do we have any more details
as to when and where -- when, well, when this could happen and how that's setting itself up?
LIPTAK: Yes. The only timing that we've gotten is from President Trump himself, who said that he wanted this to occur within the next two weeks.
Of course, he's also expected to go to Asia at the end of October to meet in part with President Xi. And so his schedule is somewhat stacked in those
ways.
I think we'll probably get a lot more information once Rubio actually meets with his counterparts and gets a better sense of what all of these sides
are bringing to the table. And I thought it was interesting to hear what the Kremlin said about the timing of this meeting, which was that they
would have to determine some of the algorithm for peace before they decided it was good for the two leaders to sit down.
And I think it gives you a sense that even the Russians want a better idea of what Trump and Putin will actually discuss when they come to the table
before agreeing to the meeting. I think when they sat down in Alaska last month, there really wasn't a sense ahead of time of what these two sides
could agree to aside from agreeing to meet later down the road. And I think that there is an impression, at least among some American officials that
I've talked to, that they do want better clarity about what this meeting will actually produce before it happens. Whether President Trump wants
that, I think is unknown.
[10:10:01]
And certainly listening to him speak yesterday, it was evident that he thinks the meeting itself will be progress. And so we'll have to see how
these two sides sort of arrange it going forward. But I think it's evident that the president is in a hurry to get this meeting on the books.
MACFARLANE: Yes, much to watch here.
Kevin Liptak at the White House, thank you very much for now.
And Nick Paton Walsh here with me in London. Thank you.
And we will have our eye on a courthouse in Maryland this hour. Right now, President Trump's former National Security adviser, John Bolton, is inside
to face a federal criminal indictment. He is accused of keeping and sharing records of classified information from his time in the White House. Bolton
is vowing to face the charges, claiming he's just the latest target in the president's retribution campaign.
Here's what Mr. Trump had to say to that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I didn't know that. You tell me for the first time, but I think he's, you know, a bad person. I think he's a bad guy. Yes, he's a bad guy.
It's too bad. But it's the way it goes.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Have you reviewed the case against him?
TRUMP: That's the way it goes, right? That's the way it goes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACFARLANE: Well, CNN crime and justice correspondent Katelyn Polantz is outside the U.S. district court in Maryland, where John Bolton is right
now.
Katelyn, we heard Donald Trump there saying he's a bad guy. Bolton himself claiming that this -- he's just become the latest target in the
weaponization of the Justice Department. But the evidence against him, Katelyn, is substantial. So just walk us through that.
KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: It is. But today is going to be a proceeding where John Bolton will begin and have the
opportunity to fight his charges. We do expect him to go before a magistrate judge in this federal courthouse at 11:00 a.m. today. He's been
here since 8:00 with his defense lawyers, with prosecutors. They are all awaiting this first appearance of John Bolton before the judge.
But that indictment yesterday, it did come through a grand jury in this federal courthouse. And it was the culmination of a year's long
investigation by prosecutors that have worked under both types of administrations, Democrats and Republicans, in the Justice Department. In
this indictment, it's 26 pages long, and it goes into great detail on what Bolton is alleged to have done.
At the time, he was National Security adviser in Donald Trump's first presidency. So between 2018 and 2019, over a year, John Bolton is alleged
to have set up a plan essentially with his family members, two family members, where he would be sending them what he called diary entries for
the future. His own notes of what he was experiencing day by day in the Trump White House.
Ultimately, prosecutors are accusing him of 18 different charges that correspond to different pieces of information that he either had in an
unsecured way on an unsecured platform, printed out in a hard copy in his house, or that he transmitted to these family members from his AOL account
or other -- over other non-government messaging platforms, the sort of information that prosecutors say included information about foreign
leaders, information about missile attacks, information that was covert and held by the U.S. intelligence community and that should never have been
kept in a way where others could access it.
Ultimately, John Bolton's e-mail was hacked, and that's how prosecutors were beginning to spin up this investigation in 2021 and then 2022, when we
know it was formally opened and then resulted in the charges yesterday.
MACFARLANE: In addition to these sort of handwritten notes that are under inspection, we know the White House also filed a lawsuit to block the --
his memoir, his 2020 memoir from being published, arguing that that had classified information within.
Is that under examination, too?
POLANTZ: It is a part of it. But that -- my understanding is that was a separate investigation that was closed in the Biden administration. And
this one, this was much more serious than what that was at the time, although we do hear about Bolton and this book he was working on and that
he published after he left the Trump administration, he published it in 2020. He went to bat against Trump in court over that publication. He was
allowed to publish it.
And Donald Trump was very unhappy about that publication. There was a dispute at one time of whether there was classified information in that
book, although Bolton says he removed all of it before it was published. But it comes into play here because prosecutors say those diary entries he
was keeping, those became part of what he knew from his time in the Trump administration. And so he may have been trying to keep them potentially to
be working on that book.
But the meat of this case, it really is about what he had in that AOL account, what he was sending to his family members, and ultimately what he
was asking them to print out hard copies of.
[10:15:02]
MACFARLANE: All right, well, we will keep a close eye on the courthouse there, Katelyn, and come back to you as soon as anything happens.
Appreciate it for now there in Maryland.
OK. Still to come, Kenya pauses to remember veteran politician, democracy advocate and former prime minister, Raila Odinga. And rivals to be mayor of
New York go head to head and end up tussling over Donald Trump.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MACFARLANE: Thousands of Kenyans paid their respects earlier to their former prime minister. Raila Odinga, who also led the Kenyan opposition for
decades, was given a state funeral in Nairobi. It came one day after security forces opened fire on a crowd of mourners, reportedly killing at
least three as Odinga's body was lying in state. The 80-year-old died in India on Wednesday of an apparent heart attack.
Well, CNN's Larry Madowo is joining me now live from Nairobi.
And, Larry, I mean, after the scenes of yesterday, how have things been today for the unfolding of this state funeral? Has it been peaceful?
LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We were at the state funeral, Christina. It was very calm and orderly. Security services did a better job of
managing crowds. Sometimes they were passionate and charged and it went ahead as planned. This stadium celebration of the life of one of Kenya's
most best known politicians of the last three decades or so. Many dignitaries praised him as a towering icon of African democracy, a Pan-
Africanist and a patriot.
He ran and lost the presidency five times, but all the men that beat him had to work with him to govern. That's the influence that this man had. And
that's the kind of man that many people came to celebrate and to see his body one last time.
His daughter, Winnie Odinga, who was with him in India and was with him when he died, said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WINNIE ODINGA, DAUGHTER OF FORMER PRIME MINISTER OF KENYA: He died strong, with dignity and with pride, and you must be proud of that. You all must
also walk with your heads held high and walk strong and proud that he left as a gentleman.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MADOWO: Many of Raila Odinga's fans simply called him Baba. That is Swahili for dad, and they saw him as a father of democracy in this country. He
fought so much for the freedoms Kenyans enjoy. Imprisoned several times in the '80s and early '90s in the fight for multi-party democracy that he
achieved, and helped to bring in a progressive new constitution in 2010. That's why this outpouring of emotion has been so significant in the past
few days -- Christina.
MACFARLANE: Yes, and those scenes there at the funeral really highlights the respect and love there is for this man.
Larry, appreciate you joining us there from Nairobi.
[10:20:01]
The election for New York's next mayor is just over two weeks away. Last night was the first debate, and it was fiery. Much of the two-hour debate
was focused on Democratic frontrunner Zoran Mamdani. His rivals, Republicans Curtis Sliwa and Democrat turned independent Andrew Cuomo
painted him as unprepared and inexperienced.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ZOHRAN MAMDANI, DEMOCRATIC NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL CANDIDATE: The difference between myself and Andrew Cuomo is that my campaign is not funded by the
very billionaires who put Donald Trump in D.C.
ANDREW CUOMO, INDEPENDENT NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump would go through Mr. Mamdani like a hot knife through butter. He's been in
government 27 minutes. He passed three bills. That's all he's done. He has no experience with Washington, no experience in New York City. He would be
Trump's delight.
CURTIS SLIWA, REPUBLICAN NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL CANDIDATE: You lost your own primary, right? You were rejected by your Democrats. You're not going to
stand up to Donald Trump.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACFARLANE: Well, CNN's Gloria Pazmino is in New York. She's been following all of this.
And, Gloria, Andrew Cuomo also came under scrutiny about his relationship with Donald Trump, especially from Mamdani, who called him a coward. So how
did he handle that?
GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. Donald Trump was very much looming large over this debate, Christina. And the reason for that is
because Andrew Cuomo has had a relationship with the president, something that he has tried to say is a positive, that he knows how to deal with the
Trump administration, that he knows how to stand up to the Trump administration because he has had to deal with him when he was governor of
New York for nearly 12 years.
But Zohran Mamdani has used Cuomo's ties and relationship to Trump to suggest that that is exactly the reason why he, in fact, won't be able to
stand up to him. He says that he's also compromised because many of Cuomo's donors and supporters are also the same donors and supporters of President
Trump. And we've heard President Trump say that he believes Cuomo is the better candidate in this race.
Now, often going into these types of debates, we're wondering if there's going to be a moment or just, you know, a line or a zinger from one of
these candidates that's really going to be able to shift the direction of the conversation and potentially shift the momentum of the race. And I
think what we saw last night was all of the candidates' sort of retreating to their corners and continuing the same arguments they have tried to make
during this election campaign.
For Andrew Cuomo, the experience argument, saying that he has the executive experience to run a complicated place like the city of New York. For Zohran
Mamdani saying that he is a new break from the status quo, that he is not supported by billionaire donors, and that he's focused on affordability,
something that so many New Yorkers are currently struggling with. And for the Republican Curtis Sliwa saying to the voters last night, I'm like
neither of these two candidates.
Curtis Sliwa also has never had a political experience. He's never held public office here in New York City, but he has tried to make the case that
he knows this city and that he should be given a chance because he is not a politician. So we have less than three weeks to go, and I think we're going
to be seeing a lot more of these types of attacks in the next few weeks, Christina.
MACFARLANE: Yes, certainly. And it was interesting to see Zohran Mamdani coming out fighting really in this, you know, kind of the friendly face or
he has been of this mayoral race so far, but his policies have previously come under scrutiny, particularly related to the issue of policing and
crime. What was his defense to that?
PAZMINO: Look, without question, Zohran Mamdani's policies have gotten a lot of scrutiny, especially because he has proposed raising taxes for the
city's wealthiest residents, something that a mayor does not have the power to do. They would need the governor and the state legislature to sign off
on tax increases. And he's been criticized because of his previous statements about the New York Police Department, at one point referring to
them as racist and wicked.
And last night, Mamdani explained that the reason he did that back in 2020 in the aftermath of the George Floyd protests was because he was frustrated
in these instances where he was watching, you know, the stories of black men who were dying at the hands of police and expressing that frustration.
But those comments have really haunted Mamdani throughout this entire race.
He's had to apologize to police officers, saying that he needs to be able to work with them if he becomes mayor. So that was definitely another
centerpiece of this debate. But look, to put this sort of in a broader national and even international context, we're seeing Mamdani really kind
of shift the conversation of how politics is done here in the United States.
[10:25:03]
He focused on affordability throughout his entire campaign. And he did so in a way that focused on speaking to people in plain terms, just kind of
meeting them where they were. And so far, the polls suggest that he has resonated with a lot of people. Of course, if he is able to win this
election, the hard part comes after, right? And that is governing what is a very complicated and complex place here in New York City. So he is
definitely under a giant microscope to see if he can succeed, Christina.
MACFARLANE: Yes, that's useful context for us watching on from outside the United States here.
Gloria Pazmino, appreciate it. More to come on this I know.
Now in a loss for the Trump administration, an appeals court has denied the government's effort to deploy National Guard troops in Illinois. However,
the troops will be allowed to remain in the state under federal control. And in another case, a judge is calling the Trump administration back to
court for possibly not following another order to avoid violent encounters with protesters.
CNN's Shimon Prokupecz reports now on those incidents.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nineteen-year-old Warren King tackled by a Border Patrol agent outside of a
Chicago drugstore.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's a citizen. He's a citizen. That's my brother-in- law.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED). You don't know what's going on, so get the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED) back up.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): King was detained after a Border Patrol vehicle crashed into a red SUV. Then a chase for the occupants. King was not
involved in the crash and was later released.
WARREN KING, DETAINED BY BORDER PATROL: I'm telling them I'm a U.S. Citizen. I'm here. I'm legal. I'm born here. So they didn't -- they didn't
try to hear none of that, though.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): The Department of Homeland Security said the driver of that SUV was in the country illegally, and that the crowd in the area
became hostile. That's when tear gas was dispersed.
The incident Tuesday in Chicago is just one of many recent ICE encounters caught on tape. A pastor repeatedly shot in the head by pepper balls during
a peaceful demonstration outside an Illinois ICE facility. A 79-year-old U.S. citizen body slammed during an immigration raid at his Los Angeles
business. A Chicago TV station employee, another U.S. citizen, taken to the ground by officers. Her pants coming off in the altercation.
A woman shoved by an ICE officer at an immigration courthouse in New York. Masked federal agents broke windows of a vehicle and opened fire at a
family in San Bernardino. The agents called it self-defense. The family said they fled in fear. The governor of Illinois says federal officers are
acting aggressively.
GOV. J.B. PRITZKER (D), ILLINOIS: ICE is causing this mayhem. They're the ones who are tossing tear gas when people are peacefully protesting. ICE is
the one who's going into neighborhoods where they frankly, are causing fear.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Concerns over these latest incidents were brought up in a federal courtroom in Chicago today. A judge ordered federal
officers in Illinois to turn on their body-worn cameras. And just last week, the judge banned officers from using violent tactics against
protesters unless justified. It's the same judge saying today, quote, "I'm getting images and seeing images on the news, in the paper, reading reports
where at least from what I'm seeing, I'm having serious concerns that my orders are being followed."
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson was asked this week if agents have gone too far, and if there should be federal oversight.
REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): I've not seen them cross the line yet, and we have committees that are jurisdiction who have that responsibility, but
it's not risen to that level.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Shimon Prokupecz, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MACFARLANE: All right. Still to come, will it be Alaska 2.0? Donald Trump says he'll meet with Vladimir Putin within two weeks or so as the U.S.
president shifts his attention to Russia's conflict with Ukraine.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:31:26]
MACFARLANE: Welcome back to CONNECT THE WORLD with me, Christina Macfarlane. Here are your headlines.
Former U.S. National Security adviser John Bolton is set to appear before a federal judge in Maryland in the next hour. He's been charged with sharing
classified information from his time in Donald Trump's first administration. Bolton denies wrongdoing and says the charges have been
brought as retribution for his criticism of the president.
Kenya held a state funeral today for former prime minister Raila Odinga. The longtime political opposition leader and pro-democracy advocate died
Wednesday in India at the age of 80. On Thursday, police fired tear gas on a crowd at his public viewing and security forces opened fire, reportedly
killing at least three mourners.
Well, U.S. President Trump will host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the coming hours. Mr. Zelenskyy will be aiming to convince the
Americans to provide long range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, which would give Kyiv the ability to strike deep into Russian territory.
With his focus now turned to ending the Russia-Ukraine war, U.S. President Donald Trump says he'll travel to Budapest, Hungary, within two weeks or so
to meet with President Vladimir Putin. No official date has yet been set. The announcement followed a two and a half hour phone call between the two
leaders on Thursday that Mr. Trump described as very productive.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban says preparations are already in full swing for the summit, describing his country in a social media post as,
quote, "an island of peace."
CNN's chief global affairs correspondent Matthew Chance is joining us with the latest from Moscow.
And Matthew, pressed by CNN's Kristen Holmes on why this upcoming summit in Hungary would deliver different results than the August summit in
Anchorage, President Trump said that he thinks Alaska may actually set the stage. So do we know what the president and his administration hope to
achieve this time around?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, no. I heard that. And it didn't, Christina, give us much insight, did it, into what's
different in the mind of the president of the United States this time? I mean, certainly there are differences. I mean, look, I mean, you could
argue that Vladimir Putin is under a bit more pressure on the battlefield. He hasn't achieved the sort of results that he hoped his offensive would
achieve in Ukraine.
There's a strain that's been growing on the economy as well here in Russia with fuel shortages and things like that. But I think the, you know, the
main factor is that President Trump himself feels invigorated. He's, you know, flushed with this idea of his own success diplomatically in the
Middle East with the hostage releases from Gaza and the -- and the Israeli ceasefire. And he kind of sees himself as a sort of a figure who is a
peacemaker, essential, and with momentum.
And I think -- I think it's that that the Russians have kind of exploited in holding out the prospect of engagement and a potential peace process in
the future. Unfortunately, and we'll see what happens, but I think it's very possible that when Putin and Trump sit across the table from each
other, the parameters are not going to have changed that much from when we were in Alaska back in August.
Certainly publicly Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, has offered no indication whatsoever that he's prepared to compromise on any of his
military objectives. But, you know, but we'll see. But certainly there's no sort of indication that we can sense over here that the Kremlin is on the
verge of some kind of capitulation or has changed its mind over any of the key issues, the core issues, regarding the conflict in Ukraine.
[10:35:09]
MACFARLANE: Matthew, Viktor Orban is, of course, a longtime Trump ally who's also kept very close ties with Russia throughout the war in Ukraine.
He said this meeting will be about peace. Just talk to us about what stake Hungary has in this meeting.
CHANCE: Well, I mean, you're right. I mean, he is, Viktor Orban is a, you know, a right-wing politician within the context of the European Union,
very close to the political affiliates of President Trump, very close to MAGA. And he's very much an outlier in that sense. He's also, Hungary,
under Viktor Orban, has also maintained, you know, a relatively good relationship with Russia.
In the past, they've been very dependent on Russian energy supplies, and I think they hope to be so in the future as well, to boost the Hungarian
economy. And Hungary is interesting as well, because it's recently opted out or the process of opting out of the ICC, the International Criminal
Court. It did that when it hosted Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, there so they wouldn't have to arrest him. But it also means that
Hungary is now virtually unique in Europe by being a location which would not be legally obligated to arrest Vladimir Putin, who was indicted in the
ICC, would he -- when he eventually arrives there.
And so, you know, that position, you know, between Russia and the United States, within Europe, I think, has given Viktor Orban and Hungary a sort
of, or at least he thinks a sort of special status. And I expect he wants to exploit that politically and economically.
MACFARLANE: We will certainly wait to see how this develops and appreciate your analysis there from Moscow, Matthew Chance.
Well, CNN has carried out an exclusive investigation into the appearance of mysterious drones in the skies over several NATO countries, some of them
over key military sites. Russian President Vladimir Putin is mocking accusations that the Kremlin is behind it all. But CNN's extensive
examination of shipping routes that show that it is a possible explanation.
Katie Polglase has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATIE POLGLASE, CNN INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER (voice-over): From Norway to Romania, lately drones have been spotted over key civilian and military
sites in Europe. Many suspect Russia is behind it.
BORIS PISTORIUS, GERMAN DEFENSE MINISTER (through translator): The suspicion is obvious. This is part of Vladimir Putin's strategy.
POLGLASE (voice-over): But suspecting Russia is a lot easier than proving it. CNN has now looked into these drone incidents, examining shipping
routes, flight data and speaking to Western intelligence sources, and found that while in some cases hard evidence was left on the ground, found here
in Poland, in other cases like Denmark, it left only mystery and confusion.
For these murkier cases, intelligence sources do keep mentioning one theory, that Russia's shadow fleet, this secretive grouping of boats
sailing around Europe, evading Western sanctions, could be involved, although there is no proof.
(Voice-over): Let's look at the incident over Copenhagen Airport, Denmark on September 22nd. Police said they were investigating the presence of
ships in the area from which the drones may have launched or landed. Indeed, two Russian-linked ships under Western sanctions were in the area
at the time and have been caught up in the mystery.
This one, 60 miles away from the airport, sanctioned by the U.S., has a highly-erratic route leading up to the incident and then afterwards sails
on to St. Petersburg, Russia. Then this ship sails all around the coast of Denmark, passing several other airports and military installations where
drones were sighted. A French defense source said that this route could be viewed as suspicious, but it's difficult to draw definitive conclusions at
this stage. It was then detained by French authorities on maritime offenses, suspected of being part of Russia's Shadow Fleet.
They found no evidence of drone operations, a French defense source said, but added, "Even if the vessel had been used as a launch platform, it's
plausible nothing would be detectable." CNN was unable to reach the management company of either ship for comment for this. Western authorities
are clearly closely monitoring Russia's fleet. Air traffic data shows American and British military aircraft circling close to Kaliningrad, a key
Russian military hub and port in the days after Denmark's drone sightings. But so far, authorities are staying tight-lipped about their findings.
The Kremlin has said the allegation that they launched drones over Denmark is unfounded. Russian President Vladimir Putin even joking about the claims
in an interview in the weeks after.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Vladimir Vladimirovich, why are you sending so many drones to Denmark?
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I won't anymore. I won't anymore. Not to France, not to Denmark, not to Copenhagen. Where else
are they flying to?
[10:40:04]
POLGLASE (voice-over): We spoke to a former member of Danish intelligence, who said authorities have good reason to scrutinize these ships.
Do you think the Danish authorities would be looking into these ships?
JACOB KAARSBO, FORMER CHIEF ANALYST, DANISH DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE SERVICE: Well, I suspect they are investigating and tracking and see what they can
dig out, because all these ships have displayed some suspect maneuvers and tendencies. So, I think it would be -- it would be odd if they didn't try
to pursue and investigate these ships and see.
POLGLASE (voice-over): Russia has been increasingly suspected of launching drones over Europe since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Many flew over
places of strategic significance. In September and October 2022, drones flew over Norwegian energy installations here. In August and December 2024,
drones were sighted over German military sites.
It's still unclear who sent the drones. But what is clear is that Europe urgently needs better equipment to track them, with Denmark now installing
this drone radar equipment at Copenhagen Airport.
Katie Polglase, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MACFARLANE: Well, still to come, a ceasefire is in place but the struggle is not over, says Benjamin Netanyahu. More on what the Israeli prime
minister had to say after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MACFARLANE: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says, quote, "The struggle is not over," despite agreeing to the Gaza ceasefire deal. The
agreement had been blighted by a dispute over the return of deceased hostages. It's led to threats over restricting aid to Gaza. However,
Israeli and U.S. officials are now saying supplies are entering the enclave in line with the deal.
U.S. President Donald Trump remains confident the ceasefire will hold. But if the conflict does restart, he has ruled out the U.S. forces becoming
involved.
CNN's Jeremy Diamond is joining us from Tel Aviv.
So, Jeremy, can you explain what the Israeli prime minister was referring to here when he said the struggle is not over?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, it seems that the Israeli prime minister was saying that the struggle against Israel's
enemies is not over, and that should those enemies once again threaten Israel or its existence, that Israel is prepared to once again meet them
with the kind of disproportionate force that we have seen them apply over the course of the last two years.
The prime minister also made reference to the fact that Israel is determined to, quote, "complete the victory," a victory that he said would
shape the course of the country for many years. And that seems to be a reference to the fact that many of the elements of this ceasefire agreement
have yet to be finalized, and many of those will hinge on whether the prime minister can proclaim a picture of victory as he has set out to do.
[10:45:04]
That would involve, of course, agreements over Hamas disarming inside of Gaza, removing itself, and handing over its power to this transitional
force inside of the Gaza Strip. And only then would the Israeli military withdraw, and the prime minister be able to try and proclaim a victory in
this instance.
And if anything, this really highlights, you know, the tenuous nature of this ceasefire, how much still needs to be resolved here. And also, you
know, how the different actors are perceiving things. I mean, we've heard a lot from President Trump in the last couple of days as well, indicating
that, you know, Hamas must disarm. If it doesn't, then all he has to do is say the word and the Israeli government and its military will go back to
war in Gaza.
We've also heard the president speak out on those public executions that Hamas has been conducting, saying that they must stop, or, in his words, we
will go back in and kill Hamas. So, you know, it just kind of underlines that everything is still very dynamic and that as much as we have heard
President Trump and the mediators say this is an end to the war in Gaza, you know, the finality of that still remains to be determined.
MACFARLANE: And, Jeremy, do we know if humanitarian aid is now entering the enclave in line with the ceasefire deal, as the U.S. and Israeli
authorities say it is?
DIAMOND: It certainly seems that way so far. I mean, we know that on Wednesday, for example, 700 trucks entered Gaza, according to internal
Israeli numbers that we were able to obtain. And that suggests that despite some of the bluster from Israeli officials, including directly, you know,
information that the Israelis had told the United Nations, despite some of this bluster about reducing the amount of aid because they weren't
satisfied with the number of remains of deceased hostages that Hamas was handing over, Israel is actually keeping up its end of the agreement and
allowing this surge of humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza.
We've even seen aid trucks going into the Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza. The loophole there is that they're not going directly from Egypt into
the Gaza Strip, but instead going through this Rafah crossing, diverting towards the Kerem Shalom Crossing, which is just along the border between
Israel, Egypt and Gaza. And then they're officially making their entry into the Gaza Strip.
All of this is to say that there's a lot of public posturing that we're seeing from the Israeli government about the issue of aid here. But in
reality, it seems like they are upholding their commitments. What we're also seeing is that that controversial American and Israeli backed Gaza
Humanitarian Foundation is now temporarily suspending its operations, according to an Israeli official.
That's also in line with this ceasefire agreement, which, you know, allows for and envisions the entry of aid going through the traditional U.N.
backed humanitarian aid channels and not through this GHF mechanism, which, of course, has been the source and the site of the killing of hundreds of
Palestinians as they have been making their way to those GHF sites, killed in many of those cases by Israeli troops.
MACFARLANE: Well, those are important updates, Jeremy. Appreciate your reporting there. Thank you.
All right. Let's get you up to speed on some other stories that are on our radar right now.
CNN has learned the U.S. Military carried out another strike on a boat in the Caribbean as part of a White House campaign against what it calls narco
terrorists. Sources say it appears some people on the boat survived. It's at least the sixth U.S. attack in recent weeks on vessels in international
waters.
Following last week's deadly flash floods in Mexico, the death toll has risen to 77, according to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. Several
people have been safely located, but 72 others remain missing.
And we will be back with more after this short break. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:50:29]
MACFARLANE: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says it was the wrong decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending a Europa League match
in England next month. Authorities recommended that supporters of the Israeli side be barred from the Aston Villa game in Birmingham due to
public safety concerns and the ability to deal with any protests. Today talks are underway among officials to try and reverse the decision.
For more on this, I'm joined now by Richard Hester. He is a criminology lecturer at Oxford Brookes University and a former police officer.
Thank you so much for your time. You'll have seen no doubt today that this decision has set off a firestorm of reaction, outrage, many believing that
this was a political decision and not something based on security issues. But I have to say, there hasn't been that much detail provided from the
Birmingham police force that would help us understand, you know, what contributed to this decision.
So could you tell me? Could you explain to us what factors would have prompted a decision like this from police and security experts to move
ahead and label this a high risk fixture?
RICHARD HESTER, FORMER FOOTBALL POLICING OFFICER, THAMES VALLEY POLICE: Yes, sure. So, typically, a month, sort of three weeks before a fixture,
the police would meet with the football club and routinely that wouldn't involve the Safety Advisory Group who have been mentioned a lot in this --
in this coverage. So they would agree and discuss the kind of threat level for the fixture.
Obviously, the football club is concerned predominantly with what happens within the stadium, but the police has to take into account what happens
within the broader kind of community city centers, you know, immediate environment near the ground and such. So the police have obviously come up
with a threat assessment based on perhaps specific intelligence, but they'll also be looking at what's happened previously.
Obviously, there was the incident in Amsterdam where Maccabi Tel Aviv played their last season. There was quite a bit of disorder and threats
directed towards their fans. So they'd have then come up with this high- risk grading for it. Now, normally the Safety Advisory Group would only kind of get involved at the point of kind of disagreement between the club
and the police force to sort of adjudicate or tiebreak the decision.
So I don't know the specifics of this, whether they've been invited to sort of input because of perhaps the contentious nature of it. But normally they
wouldn't be involved.
MACFARLANE: So is it reasonable. Richard, for, you know, given the violence we saw following the Ajax-Maccabi Tel Aviv game in Amsterdam almost a year
ago now for police to be using that as part of their justification for this move?
HESTER: Those -- the violence we saw in Amsterdam seemed, obviously, you know, it's not a good thing to happen, but it didn't seem that out of the
norm compared to what you would get. A lot of football fixtures, particularly European football fixtures. There's obviously been issues with
the Israeli national team. They've recently had protests directed towards the football team when they played in Norway and Italy.
So the police are taking into account a kind of protest angle, as well as a kind of normal football disorder related angle. So they've obviously
reached this decision which I, again, it's difficult to judge without having seen any kind of intelligence, but I would have expected there to be
quite specific intelligence suggesting that there was a direct threat that was credible, towards the Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, not just some general
concerns that there will be disorder or protest in relations to the event. The police normally would have the capability to deal with that on a
routine basis.
MACFARLANE: Yes. That's interesting you think that there would have been a specific direct threat potentially.
And just briefly, Richard, I mean, we know Prime Minister Keir Starmer has come out and said the role of police is to ensure that football fans can
enjoy the game without fear or intimidation. There is, of course, a possibility this decision is going to be overturned, that it's actually
going to go ahead. If that happens, how much police -- much more police and security do you think will be required to ensure this goes smoothly?
HESTER: Yes. I mean, we're probably talking in the hundreds in terms of the number of police officers will be required to deal with the picturesque
nature.
[10:55:05]
I've no doubt if it does get overturned, that West Midlands Police would look to enhance their operation to ensure that absolutely nothing goes
wrong with it. And they're kind of prepared to deal with every eventuality. So yes, in the absence of any sort of intelligence that we're aware of
within the public domain, they would be geared out to deal with the sorts of things that you would expect an event such as this.
MACFARLANE: All right. Well, we will wait to see if that comes to pass. If it is reversed. But in the meantime, Dr. Richard Hester, thank you for your
thoughts.
HESTER: Thank you.
MACFARLANE: And that is it for us here at CONNECT THE WORLD. Stay with CNN. "ONE WORLD" is up after this quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
