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Connect the World
Hurricane Melissa Hits Cuba, Weakens to Category 2 Strength; Trump on Xi Meeting: I think We're Going to have a Deal; Fed Making Interest Rate Decision Amid U.S. Government Shutdown; At Least 64 Killed in Massive Police Operation in Rio Favela; 100 Days to go Until 2026 Winter Olympics. Aired 9-9:45a ET
Aired October 29, 2025 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR CONNECT THE WORLD: Well, hello. It is 04:00 p.m. in Riyadh. I'm Becky Anderson, this is a special "Connect the World" from
the FII Annual Investment Summit convening some of the world's top investors and heads of state, including today, the President of Syria, who
will be speaking here an hour or so from now, making his case for massive financial support for his country.
More on that coming up later. And less than three weeks into the Israel- Hamas ceasefire and the U.S. broker deal is looking increasingly shaky. Israel again pounding Gaza with airstrikes after accusing Hamas of
violating the truce.
ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR CONNECT THE WORLD: I'm Erica Hill joining you from New York this hour. The second strongest Atlantic hurricane in history is
now battering Cuba after, of course, leaving massive devastation and destruction behind in Jamaica. We're also keeping a close watch on the
stock market here in New York, which opens just about 30 minutes from now.
And futures pointing to a higher open at this hour. Of course, there are hopes as well for another rate cut to be announced at today's Federal
Reserve meeting. We do begin though this hour in Cuba, where Hurricane Melissa has made landfall as a Category 3 storm.
Now the storm itself has just been downgraded to a Category 2 as it moves over land, losing some of that strength. But as you can see there, and you
can see from some of these images, the massive size the power of this storm. It is still incredibly large, and Cuba is still very much in the
thick of it, heavy rains, howling winds, severe flooding, already being reported.
Some 700,000 people were evacuated as Melissa approached. Officials warning of life-threatening flash floods and landslides. We are also, at this hour,
starting to get more of a sense of the devastation in Jamaica, where Melissa first hit as a Category 5, and that, of course, was less than 24
hours ago.
The prime minister has made an official disaster declaration, he says, hospitals, homes and businesses all impacted, damaged at last check, more
than half a million people across Jamaica were without power. CNN Meteorologist Chris Warren is tracking Hurricane Melissa. Joining us now
from the CNN Weather Center, so downgraded to a two, but this is still an incredibly powerful storm.
CHRIS WARREN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It is. Anytime you get up to hurricane, things can get very dangerous very quickly. And this is a Category 2
hurricane, so winds sustained at 105 miles an hour, gusting to 140 now. If you just kind of stare at this, you can kind of get the sense that it is
losing a little bit of its punch.
It is kind of getting a little bit smaller. There's not as much red and purple. Some of the bigger storms associated with this That being said,
these winds that 105, 140 tend to be right near the center of circulation, and that is where we're looking at right now in Eastern Cuba, where the
center of the storm has yet to move offshore.
It will, though in the next couple of hours, and then it's going to be raking across the Bahamas. And with that still expecting to have winds
stronger than 100 miles an hour, and these winds will be fierce, helping to push more of this sea water, that salt water, on land, while at the same
time, water is falling out of the sky.
We're going to see still quite a bit of rain with some of the more intense storms associated with the hurricane. You can see still getting absolutely
crushed here at five o'clock this evening in the Bahamas, and then by the late-night hours, it will continue to move out and head out to the
Atlantic.
The rainfall, again, could be enough to produce some flash flooding that includes Cuba, and, of course, the Bahamas as well. And then from there,
once again, Bermuda in the path, not right in the direct path, but on the side of the hurricane, Erica, that will bring some rough surf and
potentially some very strong winds.
HILL: All right, Chris, appreciate it. Thank you. CNN's Patrick Oppmann is in Cuba right now, where the storm is weakening. People though, huddling
inside, doing their very best to stay safe. He just filed this report.
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's pretty ugly. The sun is coming up, and you know, for about 12 hours, we just continue to get hit by these wind
gusts, torrential rain. All night long, you can hear roofs being torn off, trees coming down and tiles coming off roofs with incredible force and
banging into the side of the house where we are.
I'm in a hallway very thick cement walls, and that is what's keeping us safe being in this very sturdy house. I think if I walked down the street,
I'd probably get knocked down by a wind gust, and they come and they go, and you can probably hear the wind right there.
[09:05:00]
They are a lot less powerful than they were overnight. You know, the wind was just screaming, but still, it's dangerous. Your guard goes down. You
think you can go outside, take a look around, and then just a blast of wind comes in. So, this is what people here in Cuba will be dealing with all day
long.
We are in a blackout so people do not have power. It's been a blackout now for since late last night, and we have a generator. That's why we can
transmit. Most people do not have that luxury here, so people, hopefully are hunkering down. Police went by yesterday and announced that everyone
needs to be inside until the storm passed.
It's taking a while, though, and Cuba is taking a beating in a slow-moving storm. That just means there's more time to inflict really, really terrible
damage. The infrastructure here is already quite weak, and so you just wonder how people have been able to get through this.
And I think once we are able to go outside and look around a bit, we'll see some pretty stunning damage.
HILL: And we'll continue to keep you updated on those developments out of the Caribbean. The NBA's Miami Heat have teamed up with Carnival
Corporation and a Florida Medical nonprofit to donate a million dollars to help the recovery efforts in Jamaica. A spokesperson for the Heat saying
our hearts go out to the people of Jamaica.
And adding, in Florida, we're all too familiar with the widespread devastation caused by a Category 5 storm. Meantime, in Cuba, the Chinese
Ambassador sharing video of hundreds of boxes which are marked as family kits, saying these were donated by Beijing to help Cubans in the path of
Hurricane Melissa.
If you are hoping to help, there are a number of ways you can help those impacted by Hurricane Melissa. Just log on to cnn.com/impact. I want to
hand things back now to my colleague, Becky Anderson for more on what's happening in the region. She, of course, is in Riyadh, Becky.
ANDERSON: Thank you very much indeed. Israel says it will resume the ceasefire in Gaza after a wave of heavy overnight air strikes across the
enclave. At least 104 people were killed in the strikes late on Tuesday, according to hospital officials, in what was the deadliest day in Gaza
since U.S. backed truce began.
Now, the bombardment came after Israel accused Hamas of killing an IDF soldier and staging the discovery of a deceased hostage, with this video as
proof. Well Hamas denies all of this and says it is still committed to the ceasefire. Let's get you to CNN's Jeremy Diamond, who is live in Tel Aviv
for you today.
And Jeremy, what is the latest on the ground? Has this ceasefire been holding since Tuesday night strikes?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, the ceasefire is back in effect in Gaza, but that will be of little comfort to the victims of the
more than 100 people who were killed inside the Gaza Strip as the Israeli military unleashed a punishing set of strikes across Gaza.
At least 104 people were killed, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, 46 of whom were children. Nearly half were children. According to that health
ministry, 20 of them were women. And so, if those -- you know, those numbers suggest that a majority of the people who were killed in these
strikes were indeed civilians.
The Israeli military, for its part, claims that it struck dozens of Hamas targets in Gaza, including more than 30 militants in command positions as
well as individual warehouses, launch posts and tunnels. But the images also clearly speak for themselves, and I've been watching footage today
from our freelance journalists in Gaza, from morgues, from hospitals, from the rubble of some of these homes and these tents that were struck.
And you can see the toll that these punishing strikes have had on the civilian population in Gaza, once again. Again, Israel said that it carried
out these strikes, accusing Hamas of being in violation of the agreement, both because yesterday, an Israeli soldier was killed in what the Israeli
military said was an attack by Hamas militants in Southern Gaza.
Hamas, for its part, denied any connection to that incident, and then Israel also said that Hamas had staged this recovery of a body of a hostage
and returned the wrong body of a deceased hostage yesterday, all of that led to these strikes that Israel carried out. Hamas, for its part, says
that it is committed to this agreement and is calling on the mediators to assume their responsibilities in guaranteeing that this ceasefire will move
forward.
We know that Hamas has also located additional remains of deceased hostages, and it appears that that is going to move forward in terms of
another release of those remains. If indeed that takes place, it will mean that this tenuous ceasefire is back on track. Becky.
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ANDERSON: What's been the U.S. and very specifically, President Trump's response to this past, what, 24, 48 hours?
DIAMOND: Well, we've heard President Trump express frustration in the past with Israeli actions in Gaza. Not this time he was speaking aboard Air
Force One as some of these strikes had just begun to take place. And he said that, as he understood it, Hamas had killed an Israeli soldier, and
the Israelis were hitting back, and he said they should hit back.
He said that Hamas has to behave, and he insisted that he doesn't believe that all of this is going to jeopardize the ceasefire altogether,
expressing his confidence that the ceasefire will remain in effect. We have of course, seen, over the course of the last two weeks, beginning with
President Trump and then other Senior White House Officials, a parade of Senior Trump Administration Officials arriving in Israel in order to help
mediate the ceasefire going forward.
Ensure that Israel sticks to its commitments and to stand up that civilian military coordination center about a dozen miles away from the Gaza border.
On Friday, we're expecting that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff will be the latest U.S. official to arrive in country to address all of
this again, coming at a very tenuous time for the ceasefire, Becky.
ANDERSON: Jeremy Diamond is in Tel Aviv in Israel for you. Thank you. Erica.
HILL: All right. Becky, thanks. We're also closely following the developments with U.S. President Donald Trump, who is in South Korea now.
The final stop of his three nation Asia tours this week, meeting with his South Korean counterpart and perhaps even more importantly, announcing a
trade deal between the two countries, saying it is in the words of Trump, quote, pretty much finalized.
Lee Jae Myung is presenting, presented rather Mr. Trump with gifts, including a golden crown and also pledged to spend more on defense.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEE JAE MYUNG, SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT: I know that it is important to continue to lessen your burden, military and defense burden for us, so we
will continue to increase our military spending.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: China, meantime, has confirmed that this highly anticipated meeting between Xi Jinping and President Trump will, in fact, happen tomorrow in
South Korea. Kristen Holmes is in South Korea for us this hour, and, of course, has been traveling with the president across the region.
So, what more do we know Kristen about this deal, which the president seems is you know pretty much done in his words?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. And he actually later said it was done that it had been finalized when he was standing next
to the leader up on the stage. We are still getting the details of that deal. But just one thing to keep in mind is that this is something that
South Korea has been working towards for quite some time.
They have been deeply impacted by that 15 percent tariff, so just part of what we know is going to be in that trade deal, you know that it's going to
lower automobile tariffs to 15 percent. There's going to be $350 billion in U.S. investments, $250 billion in cash, and $150 billion through ship
building cooperations, which is something we know President Trump has tried to get these various countries to engage in whether it be steel or now,
shipbuilding as part of their investments.
And then it also says that the semiconductor tariff rate that is not unfavorable compared to Taiwan. Again, one of the things to keep in mind
here, we have always we America has always had this pretty strong relationship with South Korea, including trade.
And President Trump, when he impacted or when he imposed these tariffs, it caused a lot of tension and a lot of issues for the country, which started
to see a decline in exports. So likely this is going to be a relief to South Korea as they were trying to figure out a way to get this done as
quickly as possible.
HILL: Kristen, there's also been much made of this meeting coming on the heels of that meeting, of course, the anticipated meeting between President
Xi and President Trump tomorrow. What are the expectations for that meeting?
HOLMES: I mean, Erica, every single day, the expectations have gotten higher. It's actually been quite interesting to watch. When we left for the
trip, I was hearing from U.S. officials don't expect anything out of this meeting. It's just a sit down between the two leaders.
It's the first time they've been face to face since then, we now have President Trump saying he believes he's going to get a great deal out of
this meeting. Now there's probably several reasons for that one is that we know on the sidelines that these negotiators, China and the United States
have been trying to come up with a framework.
No one wants to be embarrassed here. No one wants to come out of this meeting with nothing. So, they want to make sure that they are prepping
both sides with enough information, enough of a framework, that they can just agree upon something so that both of them can come out of the meeting
with something.
Now does that mean 100 percent that's going to happen? No, of course not. These are two volatile individuals at times. So, whether or not they
actually sign something remains to be seen, but it's part of this framework. There's been a lot that has been agreed upon that would give
concessions to both sides.
For example, one of the things would be a substantial buy of soybeans by China from American farmers, something they had stopped doing, and American
farmers are suffering.
[09:15:00]
On the other side, we know that there is a lot of talk about lowering these tariffs on different products that President Trump had spiked the tariffs
on because of fentanyl. He was trying to get fentanyl to stop coming in from China. There's been a lot of talk about the fact that President Xi has
been working on that.
We haven't seen any of the data. This is just what's going on behind the scenes in the negotiations. So now there's talk of lowering those tariffs
in exchange. So again, all of this is meant to de-escalate the tensions that have just continued to rise between these two countries.
And really, it has felt as though these two countries have been in a trade war since President Trump took office. And now they're trying to at least
kind of calm the tensions. Because, of course, these are two superpowers, to giant world economies, and the tension has really caused problems for
the market worldwide.
HILL: Yeah, absolutely everyone will be certainly watching that one very closely. Kristen Holmes, appreciate it as always. Thank you. Amazon Web
Services says it plans to invest another $5 billion in South Korea. That's on top of a $4 billion investment that was just announced in June.
The head of AWS making this announcement during a meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung earlier. Amazon says it will build more artificial
intelligence data centers near Seoul. South Korea says its goal is to be one of the top three AI powers in the world.
Still ahead here on CNN, the U.S. Federal Reserve expected to make a move on interest rates later today. So how could that impact the U.S. economy as
the government here remains shut down?
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ANDERSON: Welcome back. I'm here at FII, the Annual Investment Summit in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, where the massive global spend on artificial
intelligence's front and center. It's easy to see why the AI boom has been nothing short of meteoric. Nvidia, the world leading producer for the chips
that power AI, is flirting with a $5 trillion valuation today.
Now it's been up around 4 percent in premarket trading, and if that holds to the open, then it will officially hit that 5 trillion marks, the first
company to ever do so there is a healthy amount of skepticism alongside the AI enthusiasm, driven by fears that we are in a bubble that could end far
worse than the dot-com bust of the late 1990s.
But for the most part, the industry and those I'm speaking to here shrugging off that those concerns as valuations, of course, tick ever
higher. Well here in Riyadh, I sat down with some industry leaders to get a sense of their thinking on this. My panelists included Tareq Amin, who is
the Chief Executive Officer of HUMAIN, which is the huge full stack AI company here in Saudi.
[09:20:00]
Vimal Kapoor, the CEO of Honeywell, Ruth Porat, the President and Chief Investment Officer of Google, and Mike Sicilia, who is the CEO of Oracle.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: There is a lot of talk of an AI bubble, concerned, correct?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're underestimating demand.
ANDERSON: Got it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No concerns. Long term value creation is very big.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very early days of implementation, the upside. Mike.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No concerns. There will be winners and those who don't make it like any technology revolution, but very excited.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, looking beyond company valuations and earnings potential, my panelists had a huge amount of optimism on what the real-world impacts
of this new technology will be. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RUTH PORAT, PRESIDENT OF ALPHABET: When we talk about the upside from AI. It's the economic upside, but it's also the ability to better deliver for
our people. The types of work we do around education that we're talking about together, as well as around health care, around food security and
other elements.
MIKE SICILIA, CEO OF ORACLE: We're actually seeing excellent impact already by combining these large language models, or in some cases, Frontier
models, with existing applications. So, as Ruth mentioned in health care, for example, we have now, or about a year and a half, had a cloud service
called AI service available.
It's embedded within our electronic medical records, electronic health records, clinical applications. We've had customers report that on an
average shift for a doctor, a nurse or some provider. They've actually returned 100 minutes back to that doctor. That was time that they had to
spend with the systems, time that they had to spend with obligatory documentation.
And as everybody said, we're still in very early days. So, I actually think that there's already dramatic impact with the AI that say set to go, you
know, set to deliver. We see the same thing in the banking industry. So, AI is a perfect complement to existing core banking systems to help automate
financial crimes investigations, anti-money laundering investigations, all of which are very laborious processes, very manual.
VIMAL KAPUR, CEO OF HONEYWELL: There are three problems to solve, the asset life, the operational excellence that you run it better, economic value
creation and the skill enhancement of the people. So, if we can solve the three Ds, if we can take care of data friction, if you have the right
domain knowledge, and if you build deterministic outcome, we know what problem to solve for.
And that's what excites us that the journey here is very exciting. The value creation is real, and I see our customers feeling urgency to drive
that, whether customers in Saudi Arabia or rest of the world.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HILL: We will have much more to come, including more on artificial intelligence. Some big news from Nvidia as well. Stay with us. You're
watching "Connect the World", which is going to fit in a quick break.
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[09:25:00]
HILL: Investors are keeping a close eye on the U.S. Federal Reserve today, the central bank is expected to announce a quarter point rate cut in the
coming hours, despite having little official data to work with. That is because, of course, the U.S. government is shut down. CNN's Matt Egan has
more for us from Washington.
MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah, Erica, some Fed meetings are full of suspense over what's going to happen to interest rates. Today's meeting is
not one of those instances. It's basically a foregone conclusion that the Fed is going to cut interest rates by another quarter of a point.
Wall Street is pricing in a nearly 100 percent chance of an interest rate cut today. And yet, this is an unusual meeting, because for the first time
since the Fed's rate setting committee was established back in the 1930s Fed officials have to decide on interest rates without the benefit of the
monthly jobs report.
Now that is significant, because that jobs report is basically like the North Star for the Fed, guiding officials on whether or not to raise or
lower interest rates. But because of the government shutdown, we still have not seen the September jobs report, and by the way, it's almost November.
It's not just that monthly jobs report. There's been key numbers on jobless claims and job openings that have been delayed by the shutdown. A number of
major inflation reports have also been delayed, and so have numbers that normally would come out each month on consumer spending and retail sales.
This is significant for a Fed that likes to say that it's data dependent, right? Right now, when it comes to official government data, they're
operating mostly in the dark, mostly because there are some alternative private numbers that get released, but that's really no substitute for
those official monthly numbers from the government.
This would be like trying to navigate through your living room during a power outage without a flashlight. It would probably be OK. Although I
think in my house, I would probably end up stepping on a Lego along the way. But you can see how this is causing some problems for the Fed.
And yet, every economist I talked to says that an interest rate cut is imminent, not because Fed officials think that inflation has been defeated,
right? It hasn't been. The annual inflation rate actually has moved up to 3 percent moving the wrong direction, in part, because of the president's
tariffs.
But Fed officials are cutting interest rates because they're worried about the health of the job market. And those worries are only going to be
amplified by the mass layoffs and downs just yesterday by Amazon. Now, no matter the reason, the good news for consumers is that interest rates are
finally moving the right direction.
This cut that's expected today will lower the Fed rate to a range of between 3.75 percent and 4 percent it's not low. It was lower during the
president's first term, lower, of course, during the COVID emergency, but it is notable because this would be a three year low for the Fed rate.
So, this is helpful for people who have credit card debt and also for people who have home equity lines of credit. Now for Wall Street, the big
focus is going to be on what Fed Chair Jerome Powell says about interest rates going forward. How confident is he about an interest rate cut at the
next meeting in December.
And also, what does he say about how Fed officials are navigating during this information blackout caused by the government shutdown. Back to you,
Erica.
HILL: All right, Matt, appreciate it. Well, as we, of course, have been talking about for so many days, in fact, 29 now the U.S. government remains
shut down. This is day 29. And there is no sign that either side is willing to make a deal. Air traffic controllers missed their first full paychecks
on Tuesday.
All members of the military branches may not get paid on Friday. Tens of millions of Americans are also at risk of losing critical food aid. More
than 42 million Americans, as CNN's Manu Raju reports.
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We are now entering the fifth week of the federal government shutdown, and the consequences are
getting much grimmer for so many Americans, not only are there hundreds of thousands of federal employees who are living without paychecks and many
who have been fired from their jobs, now benefits are bound to dry up, including SNAP benefits, that's Federal Food Aid.
There are roughly 42 million Americans who do rely on food aid. But starting in November, starting on Saturday, the administration says that
that money will dry up. There's calls on Capitol Hill for the administration to tap into $6 billion of a reserve fund to help that
lifeline for that program, at least for several more weeks, but the administration says that it will not tap into that money.
[09:30:00]
The Vice President of United States, JD Vance told me that that money is limited and there's only so much they can do legally. And I asked the
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, why not allow for that money to continue to flow, as past administrations have done during government shutdowns?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN: JOHN THUNE (R-SD): Well, does it make any sense to any American, with the exception of the obviously, it would benefit people who are getting
receiving food assistance through SNAP, but to keep the government shut down for another three weeks. Why wouldn't you just open it up and have
everybody get their benefits now?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU: And Democrats, for their part, they're not budging either, even though the largest federal employee union called for them to back off their
demands and actually agree with the Republican approach, which is to vote to reopen the government now and negotiate all their demands later.
Democrats say that that is not going to move them off their position. They want a negotiation and extension of expiring subsidies under the Affordable
Care Act. Those are set to expire at the end of the year, but they say that must be dealt with immediately, because people are going to see their
health care premiums rise starting when open enrollment begins.
For many Americans, starting on Saturday, but the administration and Republican leaders say there will be absolutely be no negotiations until
Senate Democrats vote to reopen the government. So, what did we see on Tuesday? Senate Democrats, for a 13th time, voted to block that Republican
plan.
Meantime, the House remains on a session. It's been out since September 19th, as the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, says that they will not
return till Senate Democrats vote for the Republican plan, meaning this standoff in crisis is bound to deepen and drag on for much longer. Manu
Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.
HILL: Well, for the first time since the government shutdown started, air traffic controllers are going without pay. CNN actually got a look at the
pay stub one controller received on Tuesday. So, take a look there at the figure in the top right corner. You see net pay $0.
The FAA reporting 12 different air traffic facilities across the country, did experience staffing shortages on Tuesday. Now at the same time, the
Head of the FAA sent an email to staff thanking them for doing their jobs, warning that air travel delays could get worse, but said safety would not
be compromised.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy also thanked the workers and acknowledged the stress caused by this shutdown.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEAN DUFFY, U.S. TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: I've been clear to our air traffic controllers. They need to show up for work. They do really
important work for our country, and they need to show up. But I'm not going to lie to anybody, to not say that they're not feeling the stress, the fact
that they are working, and oftentimes they are head of households.
They're the only income earners in their homes, and they have families, and the fact that they're having a hard time paying their bills.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: Democrats on the U.S. House Oversight Committee are criticizing a Republican led investigation into Former President Joe Biden's use of the
auto pen. This after the committee sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi urging her to take action for potential prosecution against some of
Biden's aides. CNN's Annie Grayer has more.
ANNIE GRAYER, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: The Republican led House Oversight Committee is calling all of Former President Joe Biden's presidential
pardons void, and is asking the Department of Justice to look into this further. The committee is basing their claims off of interviews with 14 of
Biden's former aides, and is raising serious questions about how Biden went about his pardon process and use of the auto pen.
But all of those aides stand by the former president, and Biden maintains that he made all of his own decisions. It is really unprecedented for the
Department of Justice to look into this, though, because there's no record of ever overturning a presidential pardon. DOJ has its own ongoing
investigation into Biden's use of the auto pen, so this Republican led report just continues to bolster their own investigation.
On top of this report, the committee is also asking DOJ to look at three of Biden's former aides who pled the Fifth Amendment in their testimony.
Pleading the fifth is when an individual doesn't want to answer specific questions, doesn't necessarily mean evidence of wrongdoing.
And the committee is also asking the D.C. Board of Medicine to look at Biden's Former Doctor and whether there were any issues in his care of the
former president during his term. So, there is a lot to unpack with this report, but we will see what happens with the Department of Justice now
that it has it in their hands. Annie Grayer, CNN from Capitol Hill.
HILL: In Brazil, it is being called the largest police operation ever in Rio de Janeiro. At least 64 people killed in a massive police raid
targeting organized crime. You see these huge columns of smoke so they're rising from a lower income neighborhood north of Rio. Officials say 81
people in all were arrested. Here's CNN's Julia Vargas Jones with more of the details.
JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A massive operation, no doubt, the governor of Rio de Janeiro said it was the largest in Rio's history. 2500
police officers involved in this. But that death toll, 64 people killed, that is quite high, and it does beg the question of what went wrong?
[09:35:00]
Did they just severely underestimate the firepower that this gang had or was capable of firing upon them? We saw videos of drones with explosives
going from the favelas towards the police. We got updated numbers. Now 92 rifles were seized large quantities of drugs.
Of course, none of that is surprising, but it is surprising to see such a high number of deaths, and that's why now Brazil's federal government is
getting involved. They're saying there was no cooperation here. And there's a bit of a blame game as to why the death toll was so high.
The governor of Rio saying, I got no help from the federal government. The federal government saying, well, you didn't ask for our help, but we are
now going to look at this investigation and this operation very closely to make sure that you did respect the rights, the human rights, of the people
that live in those areas.
That perhaps had nothing to do with organized crime and that were at the very least, very much inconvenience for an entire day where they did not
have access and a way to go in or out of their homes. Entire streets, neighborhoods were completely blocked off for this operation to take place,
and so many people who lost their lives.
So that is a question now the federal government asking the State of Rio de Janeiro this as President Luiz Inacio Lulu da Silva was still making his
way back to Brazil from the summit in Asia. So, the Vice President Geraldo Alckmin called a meeting of his cabinet to discuss this very issue.
Sources telling CNN Brazil that the federal government now seeking to find a strategy to help support Rio de Janeiro going forward. This, of course,
as these gangs both Comando Vermelho, the Red Command and the PCC, Primeiro Comando da Capital, the PCC being their main rival, acting out of Sao Paulo
have expanded greatly in the past decade.
Not only in these two major cities, but into smaller cities in Brazil and into other countries, even Paraguay, Bolivia, Colombia. That is why the
Governor of Rio was calling these people, narco-terrorists, a term that we have heard more and more, being thrown around in the region and even by the
U.S. President, Donald Trump, as he refers to some of these organizations, the PCC was called a terrorist organization in the past.
So, we'll see if this operation now triggers another response, surely from the Brazilian government. We'll see what happens next. One of the options
flying around is the proposition to bring the military to help out for security in the streets of Rio de Janeiro, but that remains to be seen.
Julia Vargas Jones, CNN, Los Angeles.
HILL: We have been closely following shares of Nvidia today, the microchip giant. Take a look at this, in just the first few minutes of trading, it
has now become the first company in history with a valuation of $5 trillion. You can see it is up just over 4.5 percent at this point.
Nvidia, of course, is also at the very center of this artificial intelligence boom. Yesterday, its CEO laying out his vision for the company
with ambitions far beyond the chips that power the world's data centers. He also spoke about projects from partnerships with major telecom companies to
working with Uber to build self-driving cars.
The stock price for the year is up 50 percent. Stay with us. You're watching "Connect the World". More to come right here in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:40:00]
HILL: Wednesday marks a major milestone in the countdown to next year's winter Olympics. It is 100 days, officially, until the competitions begin
on the snow and the ice in Milano Cortina. Amanda Davies joins me now. I cannot wait. I love an Olympics.
AMANDA DAVIES, CNN WORLD SPORT: Yeah. And isn't it weird, Erica, how it can seem two days, but equally, two lifetimes since that covid impact last
winter Olympic Games in Beijing in 2022 where there were all the COVID precautions, the bubbles, the lack of fans, and this is going to be the
first winter games since then.
The athletes and the organizers are so excited about the winter games coming back to life once again. And this is going to be games, that takes
place over eight different venues around Northern Italy, Milan, and then six hour drive up to the mountains, the Dolomites in Cortina, these
pictures that we're seeing here.
And there's always these big milestone moments in the build up to a game. So, the unveiling of the medals, the lighting of the torch, and you always
feel 100 days to go is a massive one, isn't it? We can really start getting excited for the athletes. It is within touching distance.
And we've got a brilliant look inside one of the athletes' villages coming up in just a couple of minutes, really to whet people's appetite and see
what's to come in February.
HILL: I'm very much looking forward to it. I would also just like to officially pledge my help to Amanda and to the entire CNN sport team. With
so many venues, you may need help covering it all, and I am here to help you. You just let me be on that plane, my friend.
DAVIES: I think, without doubt, and I have to say, from a very female perspective, I'm loving the facts. I'm going to need ski outfits in the
mountains. We're going to need the chic Milan Street where we're doing the figure skating.
HILL: Yes.
DAVIES: It's going to be brilliant --
HILL: OK, so we're going to talk shouting offline. I will be there. And we'll see you in just a minute. Quick break here. "World Sport" is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:45:00]
(WORLD SPORT)
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