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U.S. Secretary of State Returns to Israel Thursday; Vance Declines to Give Timeline for Hamas Disarmament and Return of All Israeli Hostage Remains; Russia Says Preps for Trump-Putin Summit "Ongoing"; International Court of Justice Says Israel is Obligated to Facilitate Aid in Gaza; Ceasefire Not the End of Gazans' Suffering; Warner Bros. Discovery Puts Itself Up for Sale; Shift to AI Presents Opportunity for More Resilient Internet Architecture; Iconic Music Memorabilia for Sale in London. Aired 10-11a ET
Aired October 22, 2025 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN London, this is CONNECT THE WORLD.
CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Welcome to our second hour of CONNECT THE WORLD. I'm Christina Macfarlane.
And we're following the Trump administration's moves on two key foreign policy fronts. U.S. vice president JD Vance continues to push -- to bolster
support for the Gaza ceasefire in Israel, with the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, to follow.
And when it comes to Russia's war in Ukraine, U.S. president Trump's peace talks with Russian president Putin appear to be on hold. But the Kremlin
says its preparations are ongoing.
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MACFARLANE: Now the Trump administration is stepping up its pressure campaign to keep the Israel-Hamas ceasefire intact. U.S. secretary of state
Marco Rubio will visit Israel for the third time in two weeks on Thursday.
Already this week, vice president JD Vance, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and president Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, have held
meetings with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The main message they're all conveying, stay the course, even as sources tell CNN some Trump administration officials privately are concerned the
ceasefire deal could collapse. CNN's senior White House reporter Kevin Liptak is joining me.
So Kevin, walk us through what came out of today's meeting between JD Vance and Netanyahu.
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And I think the message from Vance was one of optimism but certainly one of realism as well,
talking about the effort to try and keep this ceasefire in place, to try and ensure that this deal holds.
But also laying out some of the challenges that will -- to come in implementing the next phase of this deal and implementing the other points
that still have yet to be resolved.
And it was interesting listening to him, because, I think when you see this succession of very top-level American officials all heading to Israel,
whether it's Vance, whether it's Steve Witkoff or Jared Kushner or whether, tomorrow, it's Marco Rubio, there is an impression that they're there to
really keep Israel in line.
To ensure that it upholds its commitments as part of this ceasefire, the word that officials behind the scenes have been using is Bibi-sitting.
But Vance was very quick to push back on that notion, saying that they're not there to, quote, "monitor a toddler."
And that, quote, "We don't want a vassal state," but that they are there to monitor the ceasefire as it goes into effect on the ground. Listen to a
little more of how Vance framed what the mission was going to be.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This thing takes monitoring and it's going to take a lot of work. I was in the CMCC (ph),
which we opened up yesterday.
A lot of our Israeli friends working together with a lot of Americans to actually mediate this ceasefire process, to get some of the critical
infrastructure off the ground from the international security force to some of the reconstruction in Gaza.
It's not easy. I never said it was easy but what I am is optimistic that the ceasefire is going to hold and that we can actually build a better
future in the entire Middle East but that requires some work.
So it's not about monitoring in the sense of, you know, you monitor a toddler. It's about monitoring in the sense that there's a lot of work, a
lot of good people who are doing that work. And it's important for the principals and the administration to keep on ensuring that our people are
doing what we need them to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LIPTAK: Now when you talk to American officials behind the scenes, they do express a degree of concern about whether Israel will uphold what it's
agreed to as part of the deal.
And part of the strategy in having these officials on the ground consistently over the course of this week is to ensure that Israel doesn't
resume an all-out assault on Gaza.
Now when you listen to Vance there, it was evident that there's still a lot of work to do. You know, he was pressed on, just for one example, the idea
that Hamas would disarm.
And he wasn't able to provide any specifics about how the mediators would get Hamas to do that -- they've said that they won't -- or what would
happen if they do not do that. And so I think that there's still a lot of questions that Vance and, you
know, the president himself will have to answer about what the future holds for this ceasefire. But certainly for now, the goal is to keep what has
already happened in place.
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MACFARLANE: Yes, a lot of crucial details still remaining elusive so far.
On the other global conflict capturing Trump's attention, Russia's war in Ukraine, Trump is due to meet with NATO secretary general Mark Rutte soon,
after saying the meeting with Putin would be a waste of time. Have a quick listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I don't want to have a wasted meeting. I don't want to have a waste of time. So I'll see what happens. But we did all of these great deals,
great peace deals. They're all peace deals.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACFARLANE: So what's the latest there, Kevin?
And what can we expect from this meeting?
Any specifics on what the pair are likely to discuss?
LIPTAK: Yes. And you know, this meeting with Mark Rutte is scheduled pretty last-minute. The NATO secretary-general essentially getting on a
plane and flying to Washington after that meeting on Friday in the Cabinet Room with president Zelenskyy that turned quite tense.
And, you know, Mark Rutte is seen as something of a Trump whisperer. And I think his goal will be twofold. One is to get a better read from president
Trump about what exactly his position is on Ukraine and Russia.
You know, the president did say yesterday that he would update us in two days about where his thinking stands on this, although, you know, given his
past record on deadlines, we probably shouldn't hold our breath for that.
But it is evident that the president wants this war to end. He thought that brokering the truce in Gaza would provide some momentum here. And when he
talked to Putin last week, it did seem as if he heard some glimmer of opportunity there.
But when Marco Rubio and Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, spoke earlier this week, it was evident that Russia had not backed off its
maximalist positions, namely that Ukraine give up the entire Donbas region.
And that is why the president now thinks a meeting with Putin, at least at this point in time, would be a waste of time.
I think the other goal for Russia will be to convey to the president what the Europeans are doing on this front. You know, there's talk about a
potential, you know, 12-point peace plan that the Europeans are developing, that president Trump would obviously have to -- have some buyin into if it
is to succeed.
And so I think his goal is to try and convey what the European perspective on all of this is, as the president determines what the path forward will
be.
MACFARLANE: All right. Kevin Liptak from Washington, thank you.
Let's turn to the Russian perspective on this, because, just days ago, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin were speeding toward their second summit
since August to discuss a possible ceasefire in Ukraine.
But as signs of an impasse emerged, those plans were put on hold and the U.S. president saying it could all just be a waste of time. But Russia
seems to disagree. A high-level official indicates that preparations for that meeting are ongoing. CNN chief global affairs correspondent Matthew
Chance is following this for us from Moscow.
So Matthew, what more are you hearing about those ongoing preparations and what Putin's strategy could be here?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Christina.
Well, I mean, look, those negotiations, the behind-the-scenes horse trading between the Russians and the Trump administration are still underway.
Behind the scenes, I understand there are still meetings taking place or at least conversations taking place.
But there's a fundamental disconnect between the position of president Trump, who has said, you know, clearly that he wants the war to end and be
frozen in Ukraine along the current battle lines, and what President Putin is prepared to accept.
And as Kevin was just mentioning, Putin has made it absolutely clear -- that's been reiterated by his spokesman again today, Dmitry Peskov -- that,
you know, they want there the full objectives of their special military operation, what they call the war in Ukraine.
Namely all of the territory in Donbas, the regions of Luhansk, Luhansk and Donetsk, which they've got the majority of already. But they still haven't
managed to capture some very important fortified towns and cities on the eastern part of those regions. They want all of those handed over as a
condition for ending the fighting.
The other territories in Kherson and Zaporizhzhya in Ukraine, it seems that the Russians behind the scenes are willing to compromise on. But none of
that is acceptable to the Ukrainians.
They refuse to give up any further territory, certainly territory that has been -- that they've managed to hold on to and that hasn't managed to be
captured by the Russians. And so that's the impasse. It's who will capitulate.
Can president Trump get the Russians to accept less of the Donbas than they've asked for?
Can he get the Ukrainians to hand over some of the Donbas in order for it to be a ceasefire?
At the moment, it is not looking good. But those talks, at least from the Kremlin point of view, are still, in essence, underway. Christina.
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MACFARLANE: Yes. We'll wait to see if that second meeting materializes, Matthew Chance there in Moscow. Thanks, Matthew.
And in his latest analysis online, CNN's Stephen Collinson writes, "Wishing for peace is far easier than making peace. President Donald Trump's grand
ambitions in the Middle East and Ukraine are struggling against their own internal limitations and the horrific hangovers of two brutal wars."
And Stephen joins us now.
So Stephen, let's discuss all of this. First, let's turn to Ukraine, where there was hope that the momentum from the truce in the Middle East would
flow into solving this conflict. But, of course, it continues to elude president Trump.
Why is this not working in the way he wants?
And what would it take to break through that gridlock that we've seen now all year?
STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think Matthew put his finger on it; simply, the fact is obvious. And Trump's peace efforts
are proving this, that Putin isn't prepared to make peace on any basis that would be acceptable to Ukrainians or, even apparently, president Trump
himself.
With his call now for the front lines to be frozen, I think the president's peace initiative keeps proving over and over again that, when there is a
hint of potential pressure on Putin from the White House, this talk of the Tomahawk cruise missiles, for example, going to Ukraine, which didn't take
place in the end but was out there last week.
Putin starts to engage to release the pressure but then when it comes to talking about what he might be able to concede, the whole thing grinds to a
halt. And the president gets more and more frustrated.
We're basically back where we were a week ago, before this latest flurry of diplomacy.
The question, I think, that needs to be tested is, if the president did go ahead and impose more pressure on Putin, either through sanctions or
perhaps more aggressive weapons sales and shipments to Ukraine, whether that would shift Putin's position?
But so far, the United States isn't prepared to go there.
MACFARLANE: Yes, it's repeatedly shied away from any of that.
Second, Stephen, on the show of force, we've been talking about, if U.S. leaders visiting Israel, Rubio, Marco Rubio is expected there soon. JD
Vance is there. Trump's trip just last week. And this has been described by U.S. officials as Bibi-sitting.
What does that say to you?
COLLINSON: I think one of the questions that a lot of us had when this peace deal was created was whether the United States and the Trump
administration would be prepared to do all the hard work afterwards.
There's often been a scenario, where Trump declares a victory and regards it as a fait accompli and that's it, whatever unfolds afterwards. This does
seem to be that the administration is showing that it will be continually engaged, sending the vice president, now Rubio.
Clearly, it's trying to impose countervailing pressure on prime minister Netanyahu from those right-wing elements of his coalition that might like
to scupper this peace deal. We saw an exchange of fire between Israel and Hamas at the weekend that did have the potential, perhaps, to end all of
this agreement. And it didn't.
I think that's a symptom of U.S. pressure partly. And also, the U.S. clearly wants to send a message to Qatar and Turkiye and the countries that
can impose pressure on Hamas that it's engaged and that their relationships with Washington will be viewed through the prism of how much they do to
enable Trump's priorities.
The big question remains, however, how do you get from now the ceasefire agreement to the important steps of the peace plan, Hamas starting to
decommission its weapons to step back out of politics?
The international stabilization force for Gaza, how do you rebuild the Strip?
Those questions are being worked on by Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, the president's envoys right now. They need time and they need space. And I
think that's what some of this big, splashy U.S. diplomatic initiative is designed to achieve.
MACFARLANE: Yes. And as that continues, Donald Trump needing to work both around the clock on both fronts, of course. Steven, always great to speak
to you. Thank you.
COLLINSON: Thanks.
MACFARLANE: And we've talked about the diplomatic push by the Trump administration to keep the Israel-Hamas ceasefire intact.
But what's the reality right now inside Gaza?
Ahead on CONNECT THE WORLD, the ongoing crisis in the enclave, even after bombs stopped falling and the guns went silent.
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MACFARLANE: This just in to CNN. the International Court of Justice has issued a legal opinion stating that Israel, as an occupying power of the
Palestinian Territories, must facilitate humanitarian aid to Gaza.
These are live pictures you're seeing here coming from The Hague, where the United Nations; top legal body is at the ICJ. Let's bring in CNN's
Jerusalem bureau chief, Oren Liebermann, to break this down for us.
So Oren, just talk to the significance of this.
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF AND CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christina, there are at least two parts to this advisory legal opinion that
we're looking at here.
The first rebukes Israel and says it is required, as an occupying power, occupying Gaza, controlling what goes in and out, to facilitate
humanitarian aid and rebuking it for not doing so for a period of nearly two months, from about March to May, where Israel imposed a complete
blockade into Gaza and blocked all humanitarian aid from entering.
The second part of this advisory opinion also found that UNRWA, the U.N. agency dedicated to helping Palestinians and Palestinian refugees, did not
violate impartiality here. Now the legal opinion is nonbinding, so it doesn't force Israel or obligate Israel to carry out any action or change
its course of action.
Still, it carries tremendous political weight and will pressure Israel to work with the U.N. and to facilitate humanitarian aid.
Now on the question of current humanitarian aid, we are seeing that go in under the ceasefire deal, which requires Israel to transfer 600 trucks of
aid a day. And we have seen that that number has been exceeded at least several times, even though Israel doesn't currently put out the number of
trucks going in.
Still, the amount of aid, the restrictions that Israel imposed on aid, was, especially in the last year of the war, if not much more than that, a
serious question, especially after a U.N.-linked organization found that Israel had restricted aid to the point where that famine unfolded in
northern Gaza, which Israel denied. So that's one piece of this.
On the question of UNRWA, Israel banned cooperation or working with UNRWA several months ago; in fact, late last year into early this year. And this
legal opinion found that UNRWA had not violated questions of impartiality.
Israel had accused more than 1,000 UNRWA members of being affiliated with Hamas or being Hamas members. The advisory opinion said Israel had never
substantiated those allegations.
In response to this legal opinion, Israel accused the ICJ of being biased in carrying out what it called a politicized investigation and finding
here.
Crucially, into the question of does this change anything on the ground?
In all likelihood, it does not at this point. But again, it does increase pressure on Israel to work with the U.N., especially now that there is a
ceasefire. And the U.S. is trying to push that process forward, a process, crucially, that includes the U.N., especially when it comes to humanitarian
aid.
MACFARLANE: Yes, definitely does ramp up the pressure.
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And, of course, we'll continue to watch this as it plays out. Oren Liebermann there. Appreciate it. Thank you.
Now nearly 90 people inside Gaza have been killed since the ceasefire began, according to local health officials. Doctors working in the enclave
are warning that the truce must hold.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. MORTEN ROSTRUP, DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS: There is no resources, no physically or mentally, for people here to tolerate another full-fledged
war. It will be catastrophic.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACFARLANE: Our next guest is Karin Huster, the medical team lead for Doctors without Borders. She joins us live from inside Gaza.
Thank you so much for your time. As the medical lead for MSF, I know that you are moving in and out of hospitals right now, mostly in southern Gaza.
Can you walk us through what you've been seeing in Gaza over the past several days, since the ceasefire was called?
KARIN HUSTER, MEDICAL TEAM LEAD, DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS: Yes. Thank you for having me.
The ceasefire in Gaza has been quite fragile, as I'm sure you've seen and you've heard. There have been strikes, occasional strikes, two days ago,
one that caused the death of 44 civilians.
So it's a very fragile ceasefire that we're witnessing. The hospitals clearly are seeing a decrease in the number of trauma cases coming,
compared to what it was before. Which is good but what is going to happen now is that there will be a massive increase of all the cases that were put
on the back burner, so to speak.
MACFARLANE: Yes.
And on that point, I mean, are you seeing a significant reduction of trauma industries and an uptick of more long-term conditions coming, forward now
that people feel like they can return to medical facilities and hospitals?
HUSTER: I mean, people have always come because, when you need medical help, you know, you go to the hospital. But unfortunately, up until now,
the people who were coming for medical conditions were put on the sidelines and -- to focus on traumas.
We had so many mass casualty incidents that it was just not possible to deal with the strokes, with the heart attacks, with anything that was
medical. So this is a transition that is taking place now.
We are seeing indeed a decrease in the number of acute traumas and the number of incidents. That's really good. It's fragile but we want that to
continue because we know that there are tens of thousands of people waiting to get surgeries for strokes or to reconnect bowel that was disconnected
because of a trauma for example.
We have oncology patients that have been completely ignored. So all these people now are going to come forward.
MACFARLANE: So on the question of aid and what is actually reaching you, can you tell us how much you've seen getting in and what type of aid has
been making it to your medical facilities?
HUSTER: Yes, I think -- we work in Nasser Hospital, so I don't have a view of what Nasser Hospital is getting. A lot of it is getting through the WHO
channels.
But what I can tell you is that medical equipment continues to be scarce. It's difficult, for example, to get colostomy bags. It's difficult to get
external fixators to fix fractures. Central lines, I mean, just gauze even. We're still talking about gauze 1.5 years into this war.
It's the basic things that should be able to come. That's right on the other side of the wall. That's not too far away from me. We must allow
these trucks to go through.
MACFARLANE: The MSF issued a statement today calling for a step-up in medical evacuations.
How many patients are there that you simply can't treat?
And how important is that for that to happen?
HUSTER: Yes. Thank you for bringing this really important point. There are today over 15,600 patients waiting on that list to go outside. And the
reason is that these patients cannot be treated adequately here because of lack of equipment, because of lack of knowhow.
A lot of the physicians have either been killed or have left Gaza early in the war. So we don't have the expertise and we don't have the medical
equipment. And so these people, many of them children, are dying.
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Waiting to get the care that they so desperately need, I think there were 740 patients that were recorded to have died waiting for a medical
evacuation. We are counting medical evacuations, you know, almost on our fingers when we look at the monthly numbers. It's very, very little
compared to the -- to the needs.
MACFARLANE: Yes. And all of that reminds us that just because there is a ceasefire in place, that does not eliminate the suffering.
How devastating do the effects of this war continue to be for the Palestinian people, despite the ceasefire being called?
HUSTER: I mean, you know, ceasefire, it depends.
It depends if you ask a Palestinian if this is a ceasefire, when you have strikes coming every other day or you don't know when, that's a ceasefire
maybe for the Israelis but, for the Palestinian population, they continue to be very wary of what is going on.
Many of them are not going north because they don't know how long this is going to hold. Their misery continues. Nothing has improved other than, you
know, bombs raining on a daily basis. Nothing has concretely improved.
We need massive -- a massive influx of unrestricted humanitarian assistance. We need a massive influx of medical equipment, food, water,
fuel, shelter. Winter is coming. And you should see the types of shelters that we have on the beach.
It's just unacceptable when we know we have the know-how. We're in 2025. And, there is no excuse for people living in the conditions that people are
living in today.
MACFARLANE: Well, Dr. Karin Huster, we really appreciate you coming on and painting the picture of what people are continuing to live through there.
Appreciate it. Thank you.
HUSTER: You're very welcome. Thank you for having me.
MACFARLANE: All right. Still to come. Why?
President Trump says he may be getting, quote, "a lot of money" from his own Justice Department and, ultimately, American taxpayers.
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MACFARLANE (voice-over): Welcome back to CONNECT THE WORLD. Here are your headlines this hour.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russian strikes overnight targeted energy infrastructure as well as ordinary cities. The attacks left
several people dead and came hours after the White House shelved plans for a meeting between president Trump and Vladimir Putin.
U.S. secretary of state Marco Rubio will visit Israel Thursday as part of the Trump administration's diplomatic blitz to keep the Israel-Hamas
ceasefire intact. Vice president JD Vance is in Israel for a second day meeting with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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He voiced optimism about the ceasefire holding but said keeping it in place won't be easy.
President Trump says he could be seeking $230 million from his own Justice Department as compensation for past investigations into his actions.
According to "The New York Times," he submitted complaints each of the past two years before he was reelected.
Well, our chief White House correspondent, Kaitlan Collins, directly asked the president about that reporting. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN HOST: Because "The New York Times" is reporting that your legal team is seeking $230 million from your own Justice Department
now in response to the investigations into you --
TRUMP: It could be.
COLLINS: -- is that something you want your legal team -- ?
TRUMP: I don't know what the numbers are. I don't even talk to them about it. All I know is that they would owe me a lot of money. But I'm not
looking for money. I'd give it to charity or something. I would give it to charity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACFARLANE: Well, let's break this down with CNN crime and justice correspondent Katelyn Polantz.
And Katelyn, I mean, this has been described as cartoonishly unethical by some.
But does the president have a legitimate case here for this claim?
KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: I don't know if that is the thing that we would be making a reaction to here, because
there's still a question of whether the Justice Department would even agree to giving him some of this money. So let's talk about what these actually
are.
They are forms that you file and send to the Justice Department, asking for money, typically because you have experienced some grievous harm --
personal injury, death of a family member that is wrongful or some property loss.
What Donald Trump is claiming is that he was harmed in both the Russia investigation in 2016 around that election. And then again, he was harmed
in the search of Mar-a-Lago, that there wasn't an agreement with his lawyers to go into the search and that it shouldn't have been done the way
that it was done.
In the forms that we are seeing and in "The New York Times" reporting, Trump is saying that he had legal costs. And also there should be punitive
damages, meaning punishment essentially, for him to get more than $100 million, potentially even up to $230 million.
But there's a lot of issues here.
One, we've never seen anything like this before.
Two, the amount of money that Trump is reportedly asking for, this $230 million, that is an extremely sizable amount for this sort of thing.
Typically even when people are injured in a federal hospital, a military hospital, a VA hospital or have the harm done to one of their children,
people who have lost family members in mass shootings, where courts have found that the federal government has some responsibility for, those
numbers are rarely at the level of $230 million.
And then the other issue here is the ethics question. Trump even seems to acknowledge it in his comments yesterday that it would be strange to make a
decision here to give him money where he is asking a government that he essentially runs.
And the people that would be making the decisions there are the top officials at the Justice Department who work for him and who also had been
defense lawyers in the Mar-a-Lago case.
So we're really in the annals of "we've never seen anything like this before." And whether the Justice Department comes to a conclusion that they
will pay Trump for some level of harm, that still remains to be seen and something that we're watching very closely.
MACFARLANE: And what do you think the chances are of those justice officials recusing themselves from overseeing this case?
POLANTZ: Well, that's a really great question. I mean, in the past, there have been issues previously about whether there would be a need to recuse.
That -- is there a difference between representing Donald Trump personally as a defendant in the Mar-a-Lago case, for instance, and then now being a
lawyer at the Justice Department, representing him as the president and his presidency?
There has not seemed to be a lot of daylight acknowledged. But there are career officials at the Justice Department who take a look at things like
this.
And I will be trying very hard in the coming days to figure out, has that question even been pursued internally at Justice?
MACFARLANE: I'm very interested to find that out. Good luck. Katelyn Polantz, appreciate it. Thank you.
All right. Still to come on CNN, a look at how the U.S. federal government shutdown, now in its third week, is causing pain and economic hardship for
some Americans.
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MACFARLANE: The U.S. federal shutdown -- government shutdown is now entering its fourth week with no end in sight. Roughly 1.4 million U.S.
government workers have been furloughed or are working without pay due to the shutdown.
And for some, it's causing pain and hardship, leading them to seek help from food banks to get by. One food bank in Maryland said it served more
than 370 households on Tuesday, more than double the number it expected.
Another troubling sign people are struggling is a crucial group of Americans falling behind on repaying car loans. Those with poor credit
scores who are 60 days late has doubled since 2021. Last year, 1.7 million repossessions was the highest since 2009.
CNN's Matt Egan has more on why these borrowers are falling behind, making their monthly car payments.
MATT EGAN, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR WRITER: Yes, Christina, this is more evidence of financial stress on Main Street, especially among lower income
Americans. And people have lower credit scores.
So looking at subprime borrowers, 6.4 percent are at least 60 days late on their car payments. Now that is more than during COVID. It's more than
during the 2008 financial crisis. In fact, it's the second highest delinquency rate on Fitch data that goes back to the early 1990s.
The only time that was higher was in January of this year. Now this is not a brand new trend, subprime auto delinquencies. They've been relatively
high for the last two years or so.
But this is coming to renewed focus because of that bankruptcy in September of a Texas subprime auto lender, a bankruptcy that really rattled
investors.
Now what's noteworthy is that we're not seeing the same issue among Americans who have higher credit scores. If you look at the delinquency
rate among prime borrowers, it's come up but it's not alarmingly high.
So this does look like more evidence of that K-shaped economy, where people have money in the market, people who own their increasingly valuable homes,
they're doing OK. But a lot of other people, they're struggling just to stay afloat right now.
And so why is this happening?
Well, first off, it's just the fact that life is very expensive -- groceries and daycare and housing. Right?
It's just so much more expensive than a few years ago. But it's also because it's more expensive to own and buy a car right now. Looking at the
average monthly payment on a new car, it has increased to $749 on average. And that's just the average.
Many are paying well above that, including above $1,000 a month. Payments on used cars are also very high. And then there's the costs associated with
having a car. Car insurance has gone up by almost 5 percent year-over-year as of August.
[10:40:00]
That has actually been an improvement from the recent trend but it's still well above the overall rate of inflation.
And look at the cost of repairing a car, spiking by 15 percent year-over- year. And we know car parts have been exposed to those tariffs from the Trump administration.
Now the fact that more Americans are falling behind on their car loans, that has been a positive for the repossession business. Car repossessions
last year hit the highest level since 2009 during the Great Recession. Now car repossessions, they've been relatively stable this year but still at
high levels.
And I spoke to an owner of a car repossession business in Detroit and he told me it is a, quote, "target-rich environment" at the moment. Big
picture, this is not a brand-new warning sign. This is one that's really been staring us in the face for a bit.
But it is a concerning one, especially when you consider the fact that, historically, car payments are the last ones that Americans would be
willing to miss because they just need their car to get around every day, to go to work, to take care of their family.
And yes, the numbers show that a significant number of Americans, especially ones with lower credit scores, a significant number, are, in
fact, falling behind on their car loans. Christina, back to you.
MACFARLANE: And developing today, Netflix shares are currently the red after a third quarter earnings report out yesterday fell short of
expectations. It comes as rumors swirl Netflix is among the parties interested in making a bid for at least parts of the Warner Bros. Discovery
company, the parent company, of course, of CNN.
And on Tuesday, Warner Bros. Discovery said it has fielded interest from multiple potential buyers. CNN's chief media analyst Brian Stelter is
joining us. He's also the author of "Network of Lies."
So Brian, we were talking last hour, despite those poor earnings we've seen from Netflix this quarter, that the -- they would be interested in this.
If that is so, how much of a game a game changer could this be for Netflix?
BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Certainly Netflix has indicated it's not interested in buying cable channels. But there has been a
suggestion from a number of Wall Street analysts that Netflix might be interested in the Warner Bros. movie studio.
If you think about what Warner Bros. represents, all of the brands like DC Comics, all of the intellectual property that Warner Bros. contains, that
would be of interest to a number of possible buyers. And that was the original idea behind this split that WBD has been pursuing.
Right now, the split is still being pursued. It means that the streamer, HBO Max and the studio is going off in one direction and CNN and the other
cable channels are going off in another direction. That's supposed to take effect next spring.
But now, according to WBD, there are multiple interested parties in buying some or all of the company. We know that Paramount has been bidding for the
entire company but apparently there's been interest in -- from other directions as well.
And so there is this renewed chatter about Netflix as one of those possibilities. I'm told by sources that Comcast is also taking a look at
the assets and we don't know what the other possibilities are right now. It's a very open question about who those bidders could be and who will
ultimately prevail.
MACFARLANE: But what does all of this say, then, Brian, about the future of the entertainment and the streaming industry as they kind of take a
closer look at this?
STELTER: I think, number one, Netflix is the undisputed leader. Yes, the stock is down almost 10 percent today. That's because their earnings were
not quite as perfect as analysts expected. But the stock has been bidded up so dramatically this year that we're just seeing some profit taking. It's
not that surprising.
Overall, Netflix is the streaming king. Everybody else wants to be Netflix right now. And so when you look at the media industry M&A landscape, you
look at who's trying to grow, who might try to bid for parts of WBD, it's in part in order to try to keep up and catch up to Netflix.
In fact, we heard from the co-CEOs yesterday on the earnings call, saying, we don't particularly need any assets right now. We have a growth plan.
We're engaging on it. We're growing on the ad business, for example. So Netflix very much the envy of the industry, even though the stock happens
to be down today.
Everybody else trying to catch up. When it comes to WBD, the stock has been in a slump for a number of years. When this company was formed about three
years ago, it was around $25 a share. It then slumped by more than half. Just today it's back around $20 a share.
So the pressure is on WBD to try to get back to where it was three years ago. And that is partly why these Paramount bids are so interesting.
Paramount reportedly bidding up to $24 per share in recent days. And the board has rebuffed that bid.
I'm really struck by what Wall Street analysts are saying about the WBD possibilities, because they keep pointing out the political ramifications,
pointing out that president Trump seems to have a friendly relationship with Paramount. He seems hostile toward Comcast.
All of the Wall Street analysts watching this bidding war are focusing on the Trump factor.
[10:45:03]
And whether Trump's government, whether the Trump administration would bless any possible deal. It's really a stark reminder of how Trump has
weaponized the government to his own ends.
So as people wonder what's going to happen to CNN and the rest of WBD, it is telling how much of a focus there is on the Trump aspect of it all and
whether the Trump administration will approve any such deal.
MACFARLANE: Yes, it may all -- the buck may all stop with Trump at the end of the day.
STELTER: Right.
MACFARLANE: Brian Stelter, appreciate it. Thank you.
STELTER: Thanks.
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MACFARLANE (voice-over): All right. Let's get you up to speed on some other stories that are on our radar right now.
North Korea has launched a ballistic missile tests just days before U.S. president Trump and other leaders are scheduled to meet in South Korea.
Officials in Seoul say they detected several short-range ballistic missiles fired from an area south of Pyongyang.
Peru's new president, Jose Jeri, has declared a 30-day state of emergency in Lima and neighboring Callao province to combat rising crime. It comes
after massive protests last week that left one dead and more than 100 people hurt. The declaration allows for armed forces to join police to
maintain order.
And in Paris, The Louvre museum has been reopened to tourists for the first time since Sunday's daring Jewel heist. French investigators are still
searching for the bandits, who made off with the crown jewels. The museum said they are worth $100 million.
MACFARLANE: OK, coming up --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MACFARLANE (voice-over): A look at how the president of the United States is weaponizing artificial intelligence, even against American citizens.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
MACFARLANE: Well, as many of us experienced firsthand, Monday's Amazon Web Services outage caused major disruptions for millions of internet users
around the world.
And while everything is up and running again, that experience highlights just how reliant hundreds of major companies have become on a small number
of tech companies that provide cloud and other core services.
Analysts warn the ramifications of such outages could only get worse if artificial intelligence becomes central to work and daily life, as many
suggest it will in the near future. For more, let's bring in CNN's Clare Duffy. She just wrote an analysis piece for CNN Digital.
So Clare, what are the key risks here as companies lean more into the AI space?
CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the concerns really break down into two buckets. So the first is that this concentration that we're seeing
around a small number of core infrastructure providers that prop up much of the internet, that is continuing and maybe even getting worse in the AI
era.
And that's because the computers that are needed to power AI systems are so expensive and so powerful that it just doesn't make sense for most
companies to buy their own and operate them.
So they're really reliant on those big cloud providers, the Amazon, Microsoft, Googles of the world, that can invest in those very powerful
computing systems. So they are continuing to prop up most of the internet as we transition to AI.
At the same time, AI systems are taking on more and more critical tasks, the kind of work that previously human workers might have done.
As we hear the AI companies talk about the promise of AI, they talk about things like AI that can help doctors diagnose patients, AI that potentially
could make hiring decisions or financial transactions within companies.
[10:50:03]
However, if companies are reliant on these AI systems and an outage takes those down and they then don't have the human intelligence that's needed to
do that work, you could see how that could have really serious implications.
I mean, already Monday's outage, the financial impact of that is expected to be in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Just think about what that's
going to look like when AI systems are doing the jobs of human workers, Christina.
So that is really what this worry is about, the fallout that we could see from these kind of outages getting even worse as AI becomes more
implemented into our daily lives and our work.
MACFARLANE: Yes. And worth considering in light of a key report out from "The New York Times" today, saying that Amazon is looking to replace more
than half a million jobs with robots. And we should note, of course, Amazon is the United States' second largest employer.
What more are you hearing about that?
DUFFY: Yes. So Amazon, according to these internal documents that were obtained by "The New York Times," is guessing basically that, by adding new
AI capabilities, there are 600,000 workers that they will not have to hire by 2033, despite the fact that they plan to double the amount of products
that they're going to sell.
The company also looking at automating 75 percent of the work that is done in its warehouses and distribution centers. Now Amazon is pushing back on
this report, saying that it is, you know, these documents are misleading. They don't fully represent the company's hiring plans.
Also emphasizing the fact that, as you said, Amazon is a huge employer at this point. However, this isn't the first time that we've heard something
like this from Amazon itself.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said back in June in a memo to employees that the company's investments in AI technology are likely to mean that it's going
to need a smaller human workforce going forward.
So I think just another indication here of the fact that automation from AI is continuing to move ahead, even despite the risk that that might -- that
that might present for human workers and for companies, again, if we do see an outage like we saw on Monday.
MACFARLANE: All right, Clare Duffy, appreciate it. Thank you.
President Trump is no stranger to using artificial intelligence to insult his perceived enemies, like Democrats and the millions of No Kings
protesters who rallied across the country last weekend.
His latest fake video may have turned some stomachs but allies and aides are defending his use of manipulated images. CNN's Tom Foreman has this
report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(VIDEO CLIP)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With the unauthorized use of a popular song and an unabashed taste for trolling, President Donald Trump
has once again posted an AI generated video ridiculing millions of Americans who oppose him and energizing those on his side.
GREG GUTFELD, FOX NEWS HOST: Something as absurd as protesting kings in a country without kings doesn't merit anything more than a meme with poop
landing on protesters.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Fake videos of former President Barack Obama being arrested, Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries as a mariachi and a dark
promise to keep firing federal workers as the government shutdown grinds on. The White House shrugs off the parade of presidential propaganda as
just good fun.
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: He likes to share memes. He likes to share videos. He likes to repost, things that he sees other people
post on social media as well. And I think it's quite refreshing that we have a president who is so open and honest.
TRUMP: We will make America great again.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Trump's campaign to retake the White House last year sizzled with AI created images, including this one claiming mega pop star
Taylor Swift endorsed him, although she actually ended up backing Democrat Kamala Harris.
And these after Trump lied about Haitian immigrants in a debate.
TRUMP: They're eating the dogs. The people that came in, they're eating the cats.
FOREMAN (voice-over): As President Trump posted this AI video months ago, suggesting he would turn wartorn Gaza into a beach resort.
And this one of him dancing with billionaire Elon Musk and more and more and more, "The New York Times" found Trump has posted AI generated images
or videos at least 62 times on his Truth Social account since late 2022.
FOREMAN: It's all counterfeit, much of it patently untrue. Yet top Republicans show virtually no qualms with Trump's fakery.
REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), MAJORITY LEADER: He is using satire to make a point. He is not calling for the murder of his political opponents. And
that's what these people are doing.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MACFARLANE: And finally, a vast collection of music memorabilia is heading to auction this week in London. Hundreds of items will be up for sale from
renowned artists and bands, including The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Michael Jackson and many others.
[10:55:03]
Among the highlights are John Lennon's iconic tinted glasses. There they are. Worn during his so-called "Lost Weekend" period in the early 1970s.
They're expected to sell for up to $400,000.
And more than 150 Oasis items will also be sold, including Noel Gallagher's 1960s red Gibson guitar. Well, the entire auction is expected to raise more
than $4 million.
Very nice.
And that is it for CONNECT THE WORLD for now. I'm Christina Macfarlane. Stay with CNN. "ONE WORLD" is up next.
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