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Connect the World
Hurricane Melissa Rakes over Cuba after Devastating Jamaica; Trump Says Trade Deal with South Korea "Pretty Much Finalized"; Four Alleged Drug Boats Bombed in Pacific Ocean by U.S., Killing 14; Search for Austin Tice Ends with His Captor; Rebuilding Syria after Fall of Assad Regime; Humain CEO Says Hunger for Computing Power is Accelerating; Real-World Impacts of AI. Aired 10-11a ET
Aired October 29, 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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ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR AND U.S. CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Welcome to the second hour of CONNECT THE WORLD. I'm Erica Hill in New York.
A fragile U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas facing its first test as Israel began airstrikes again on Gaza after accusing Hamas of
violating the truce.
Hurricane Melissa, the second strongest Atlantic hurricane in history, making landfall in Cuba after devastating Jamaica and leaving hundreds of
thousands without electricity or shelter.
And we do begin this hour with that devastating storm hitting island after island in the Caribbean. Hurricane Melissa has now weakened to a category
two after slamming into Cuba as a dangerous category three.
But that is little comfort as we look at the damage. Streets are flooded. We're now hearing from Cuban officials some 140,000 people have now been
cut off by the storm.
Meantime, in Jamaica, officials there say infrastructure is severely compromised following a direct hit from Melissa on Tuesday. A reminder,
Melissa roared ashore in Jamaica as a category five. The country's officially as a disaster declaration at this hour.
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HILL: U.S. President Donald Trump says a trade deal with South Korea pretty much finalized at this point. Speaking in South Korea on the final
leg of his three-nation tour of Asia, where he was also meeting with South Korea's president today, South Korea's president gifting him with various
items, including a replica of a golden crown.
Lee Jae-myung also announcing South Korea would increase its defense spending. That is something that president Trump has repeatedly demanded,
of course, from America's allies.
On Thursday, all eyes will be on this highly anticipated meeting between Mr. Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping. CNN's senior international
correspondent Ivan Watson joins me now from Hong Kong.
So much anticipation, so much expectation when it comes to this meeting.
Before we get to that, though, could we walk through quickly what we know about this trade deal with South Korea?
IVAN WATSON, CNN ANCHOR AND SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Sure. I mean, we know that there were tariffs that, of course, president Trump had
imposed on virtually every trading partner around the world. And they were 15 percent on North Korean goods, 25 percent on North Korean -- sorry,
South Korean automobiles.
[10:05:00]
I don't believe the North Koreans are exporting their cars. So that's a big mistake on my part.
And as part of this agreement, they've agreed to lower the export on the South Korean cars to 15 percent, which would put them at the same level as
Japan, which is a competitor.
Now president Trump had been asking for $350 billion in investment from Korea into the U.S. economy. In the end, what we're hearing from a top aide
to the Korean president is that that is going to be broken up into about a $200 billion cash commitment but, annually, a maximum of about $20 billion
a year.
And then a further $150 billion commitment through shipbuilding. The Koreans are keen to help the U.S. revive its faltering shipbuilding
industry. So these are some of the steps that these two leaders have agreed upon after their bilateral meeting taking place in Korea.
So a relative success, I think, for both leaders as they then went into this intimate dinner, where Trump was the guest of honor. There were seven
other heads of state there, including the Canadian prime minister, who, recently, Trump lashed out at him, imposing 10 percent tariffs on Canada.
Very little recorded interaction between those two leaders. And in fact, Trump saying he didn't travel to Asia to talk to Canada. So he's been on a
dealmaking roll. I saw the first leg of it in Kuala Lumpur, announcing trade deals with Malaysia, with Cambodia and now seems to be moving forward
on that.
And we're going to be looking forward to see what could happen with this highly anticipated meeting with Xi Jinping, leader of the world's second
largest economy, China.
HILL: Right. And to that point, there are -- there are high expectations for this meeting but there are also high stakes. Neither leader, of course,
wants to come out of this without a deal of some sort. Everybody wants to be able to save face.
Is there a sense that there will be some real -- some real substance and something, something that could come out of it in terms of more than just
the framework following this meeting?
WATSON: Well, that's what we'll have to see. We know that the trade negotiations -- we're really coming up almost to the last minute, last
weekend in Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital.
That's where you had the U.S. Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent; the U.S. trade representative, where they were meeting with the Chinese delegation
and trying to get negotiations moving forward.
And they emerged from those talks, both sides sending optimistic signals, with Bessent going a step forward, not only saying that there was a
framework for some kind of an agreement for the two leaders when they meet face-to-face on Thursday.
But also that he anticipated that Trump's threat of 100 percent tariffs on Chinese goods, which was to go into effect on November 1st, that that was
effectively off the table.
And that, in exchange, he expected that China would delay imposing restrictions on the exports of its rare earths, where it has a virtual
monopoly on that, those critical elements that are important for our phones, our computers, for jet fighters, for everything.
But it's really going to depend on what happens when these two leaders meet face-to-face. And in fact, the Chinese government only confirmed today that
there would in fact be a meeting between Xi Jinping and president Trump.
So I think the Chinese have kept their cards very close to their collective chest. So this will be one to watch, as these two leaders meet face-to-
face. For the first time. Xi Jinping and Trump will see each other since 2019. That was during Trump's first term in office.
HILL: We will all be watching as the clock now starts to -- starts the countdown to that meeting. Ivan, appreciate it. Thank you.
Still ahead here this hour, the U.S.-backed ceasefire in Gaza facing a new test after Israel's prime minister orders his troops to launch powerful
strikes on the enclave. We have a live report from Tel Aviv just ahead.
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HILL: At least 104 people were killed in the deadliest day in Gaza since the U.S.- backed ceasefire took effect. That is according to health
officials in the enclave.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordering his military to carry out powerful and immediate strikes on Tuesday after Israel accused Hamas of
killing a soldier and staging the discovery of the remains of a deceased hostage. Hamas has denied those claims, saying it is committed to the
ceasefire.
CNN's Jeremy Diamond is following all these developments for us from Tel Aviv.
So Jeremy, the IDF earlier today said that it would resume the ceasefire but that it will continue to respond forcefully to any violation. Talk to
us more about what that could mean, what your sense is moving forward.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Well, the Israeli military says that the ceasefire is back into effect after
unleashing a punishing wave of airstrikes overnight in Gaza.
And the fact that this ceasefire is now technically back into effect will be of little comfort to the families of the more than 104 people who were
killed in Gaza overnight, of which 46 of them were children, according to Gaza's health ministry.
The toll of civilian deaths that we saw overnight is really just unfathomable. Child after child being brought into hospitals, emergency
rooms; children's lifeless bodies laying on the floors of morgues in Gaza's hospitals, being mourned by their relatives, saying final, painful, painful
goodbyes.
Made all the more painful, of course, by the fact that this was supposed to be a time when a ceasefire was in effect, a ceasefire that was supposed to
end the carnage in Gaza altogether. But that was clearly not the case last night.
Israel says that it carried out these strikes because Hamas killed an Israeli soldier yesterday in an attack that involved anti-tank missile fire
and sniper fire. Hamas denying any involvement in that attack, saying it has no connection to the Palestinian militants in southern Gaza, who have
now carried out several attacks on Israeli forces in that area.
Israel had also accused Hamas of mishandling the remains of deceased hostages, not returning those remains fast enough, while claiming that they
were trying to recover them from under the rubble.
Yesterday we saw the Israeli military published this really stunning drone video that shows Hamas militants staging the recovery of one of these
bodies from the ground after just burying that body in the ground, as you can see in that drone video.
But the bottom line is now that both Hamas and Israel say that they are committed to this ceasefire. We know that Hamas has retrieved additional
remains of deceased hostages and they appear prepared and inclined to return those.
If indeed they move forward with that, that would be the strongest indication yet that the ceasefire is back on track, that it has not
collapsed despite this very, very deadly night that we saw in Gaza last night.
And, of course, more broadly, this points to the possibility that Israel will continue to carry out strikes in Gaza as it sees fit, even as it
claims that there is a ceasefire in place.
Very similar to what we've seen, of course, in southern Lebanon, where Israel has continued to carry out strikes against Hezbollah from time to
time, accusing Hezbollah of violations when it does so, Erica.
HILL: Jeremy, really appreciate it. Thank you.
Well, the U.S. military carrying out more deadly strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats, this time in the eastern Pacific. Defense Secretary Pete
Hegseth says U.S. forces hit four boats in three strikes.
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This is the largest one-day operation that we know of in the campaign against alleged drug cartels. CNN's Zachary Cohen has more.
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ZACHARY COHEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: U.S. military conducting three strikes against four boats in the eastern Pacific Ocean on
Monday, killing what defense secretary Pete Hegseth called 14 "narcoterrorists."
Now Hegseth, like in the dozen or so strikes before this, not providing any evidence to back up that claim that these were indeed drug traffickers who
posed an imminent threat to the United States, that is the legal justification that the Trump administration has relied upon to validate its
ongoing military operation in Latin America.
And look, there was also a survivor of this -- of these military strikes, according to Hegseth, one whose status remains unclear at this stage.
Hegseth says Mexican authorities have the lead on the search and rescue operation for this individual, the Mexican president saying that the
Mexican navy is in fact, searching a very wide area for any possible survivors.
But again, look, the status of this person unclear at this stage and there were previous survivors earlier in a strike last week where these two
individuals were briefly detained by the U.S. Navy before they were summarily repatriated back to their home countries of Ecuador and Colombia,
respectively.
And look, the legal questions will continue to mount about this ongoing military operation in Latin America, the Trump administration facing
questions from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, as they have not provided yet this classified legal opinion that CNN reported was produced
to justify these military strikes.
And there are concerns, too, that the U.S. may be considering expanding this operation to potentially include strikes on land, against or in
Venezuela.
Donald Trump himself has alluded to that possibility and additional U.S. military assets are being moved into the region, raising even more
questions the USS Gerald Ford, a U.S. aircraft carrier making its way towards Latin America as we speak.
And so, look, the questions will continue to swirl around this military campaign and the legal justification for it.
So far today, 57 individuals have been killed in these U.S. military strikes, 14 boats destroyed, three survivors total in more than a dozen now
U.S. military strikes in both the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, as the Trump administration appears to be accelerating its military
operation in this region -- Zachary Cohen, CNN, Washington.
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HILL: Still ahead here on CONNECT THE WORLD, we are at the Future Investment Initiative in Saudi Arabia, learning about efforts to rebuild
Syria's economy after the fall of the Assad regime.
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HILL (voice-over): Welcome back to CONNECT THE WORLD. I'm Erica Hill. Here's a look at your headlines.
Officials in Cuba say more than 200 communities have been cut off by Hurricane Melissa. The storm striking the Cuban coast overnight as a
category three hurricane. Meantime, Jamaica is reporting significant damage and power blackouts after Melissa battered the island nation on Tuesday.
U.S. president Donald Trump says a trade deal with South Korea is pretty much finalized. In a meeting with president Lee Jae-myung in South Korea on
the final leg of his three-nation Asia tour, tomorrow, Mr. Trump will hold his highly anticipated meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping.
And Tuesday marks the deadliest day in Gaza since the U.S.-backed ceasefire took effect after Israel launched a wave of deadly strikes. Health
authorities in the enclave say at least 104 people were killed.
Israel accused Hamas of killing an IDF soldier and staging the discovery of the remains of a deceased hostage. Hamas has denied those claims and says
it is committed to the ceasefire.
HILL: Want to get you up to speed now on Hurricane Melissa, which slammed into Jamaica on Tuesday as a category five hurricane, the most powerful
storm to ever hit that island. It has knocked out power now to more than half a million people there.
Derek Van Dam was just able to go out and check the damage.
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DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Damaging winds are subsiding in Jamaica but now it is a race against time to get the critical aid to the hardest-
hit areas, especially over the western parts of the country, where major Hurricane Melissa made landfall.
The prime minister actually declaring the entire country a disaster area to prevent price gouging. And we have hundreds of thousands of people without
power. And as of late on Tuesday, internet activity and connectivity actually dropped to just 30 percent of normal levels across the entire
country.
Now the threats still remain, even though the storm has moved well offshore. Mudslides, landslides and even an additional 3-6 inches of rain -
- that's a half a foot of rain, potentially -- in the mountainous terrain across this region, so vulnerable, so susceptible to landslides and that
flash flooding as well.
We're going to see, once we get first daylight, what the true scope of the damage is, as will the residents of this beautiful island nation.
They're going to wake up to a very, very different country after what will go down in the record books as the strongest storm to ever strike Jamaica
in its modern recordkeeping -- CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam, Kingston, Jamaica.
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HILL: Much more to come here. Stay with us. CONNECT THE WORLD continues on the other side of this short break.
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HILL: Turning now to a CNN exclusive and a deeply personal journey for our chief international correspondent, Clarissa Ward. She and her team traveled
to Damascus and Beirut to investigate the disappearance of her friend, U.S. journalist Austin Tice, who went missing inside Syria in 2012 while
covering the country's civil war.
Clarissa confronted the man who held Tice captive, asking him what happened. Here's her report.
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CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These are some of the last known videos of U.S. journalist Austin Tice shown here
for the first time.
AUSTIN TICE, U.S. JOURNALIST: It's clearly a popular revolution, right?
WARD (voice-over): They were shot in the city of Yabroud in Syria in July 2012, shortly before Austin went missing 13 years ago.
TICE: It's just -- it's so moving and peaceful. It's such like an act of community.
WARD (voice-over): Ten months after the collapse of the brutal dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad, his dungeons have been emptied. But the
ghosts of tens of thousands of his prisoners remain. Among the missing, Austin Tice, journalist, U.S. Marine captain, Georgetown Law student,
devoted son and brother and my friend.
For me, this is personal. I've come to Syria to find out what really happened to Austin and track down the shadowy figure who knows the answer.
WARD: I'm just looking back through all of these emails that Austin and I were sending each other. And I have one from Sunday, August 12th. He was
getting ready to cross into Lebanon. I was getting ready to meet him in Beirut.
And he says, "If I cross when I have plans to, we'll be throwing back those cocktails pretty soon." of course, plans never really work out here.
WARD (voice-over): I never heard from him again.
TICE: (Speaking foreign language).
Oh, Jesus. Oh, Jesus.
WARD (voice-over): Weeks after Austin disappeared, a video surfaced online purporting to show him held by jihadists. Former U.S. officials tell CNN
they quickly determined it was a ruse and that Austin was in the custody of the Assad regime.
Safwan Bahloul was a general in external intelligence at the time and one of the last people to see Austin alive, summoned in by the man who was
holding him.
SAFWAN BAHLOUL, FORMER SYRIAN EXTERNAL INTELLIGENCE GENERAL: I was contacted by a four-son general at that time. He was called Bassam Al-
Hassan. He's very close to the president. And he told me, we have caught an American journalist.
We want you to interrogate in a way or meet the guy and see the possibility if he's not a mere journalist, if he's a spy in a way. He told me that he's
an ex-Marine officer. He was brave. He was not a shaky character. He wasn't shaky. He was brave enough to face his custody.
WARD: Did he ever ask you for help?
BAHLOUL: If you mean help to be freed, no, not at all. But he told me if I could obtain some things to make his life easy in the cell he was kept
there. I told him, like what?
He told me, you know, some magazines, journals to read and, you know?
OK and what else?
And he told me, soap and a towel. And I told him, OK. And after that, I think the next day I was called by another guy in Bassam's office. He told
me in Arabic (foreign language), which it means our pal just escaped.
They discovered that he used the soap to rub his body, yes body, with the soap to lubricate his body. And he put the towel on broken shattered glass,
which is cemented to the external fence.
WARD (voice-over): We managed to get into the compound where Safwan says he interrogated Austin. At the time, under the control of Assad's
Republican Guard. It was never a formal prison. The perfect place to hide a high-value captive.
WARD: It could be this, look. Obviously, it's all been refurbished, so it's hard to match the descriptions exactly.
[10:30:00]
But one thing particularly that Safwan talked about was this high window. You can imagine he just spent days and days in here plotting how he was
going to escape.
WARD (voice-over): For more than 24 hours, we're told Austin was on the run in the upscale neighborhood of Mazzeh. Perhaps hoping to reach the many
embassies and United Nations offices in the area. But he didn't get far.
BAHLOUL: Every security apparatus in Damascus, which there are thousands of operatives, they started the search and he was caught by one of them.
And he was redelivered to the National Defense Forces militia, which headed at that time by Bassam Al-Hassan.
WARD (voice-over): Al-Hassan brought Safwan in to see Austin one more time.
BAHLOUL: It wasn't like the previous times I saw him. He was optimistic and energetic.
WARD: But he had lost hope.
BAHLOUL: Yes, absolutely, absolutely. Because I was talking to him and he was not responding. He was in a way we could say depressed. And I never saw
the guy again.
WARD: Did you understand when you left what was going to happen to him?
BAHLOUL: It's unimaginable even. In my wildest thinking, I wouldn't suspect that he will be -- let's say he will just disappear.
WARD: So let me ask you this, who knows what happened to Austin?
Who knows the truth?
BAHLOUL: Bassam.
WARD: Is this him?
BAHLOUL: Can I see it?
Yes, absolutely. 100 percent. 100 percent. WARD (voice-over): For years, Bassam Al-Hassan stayed in the shadows. Now CNN has obtained new, never-
before-seen images of him.
Known in regime circles as Khal or Uncle, he was a top Assad adviser and founder of the Iran-backed National Defense Forces militia, blamed for
brutal massacres.
After the fall of the Assad regime, Al-Hassan fled quickly to Iran. Then, in April of this year, he showed up in Beirut, Lebanon and sat down with
the FBI for a series of interrogations about Austin. We've been given a tip about where Al-Hassan is now hiding out, an upscale apartment complex in a
suburb of Beirut.
One balcony and one man in particular draws our attention. By the end of a long night of watching, we're convinced it's him.
Wearing hidden cameras, producer Sarah Sirgany and I go to confront him.
WARD: Hi, how are you?
My name is Clarissa Ward. I'm a journalist for CNN.
Can I ask you a couple of questions?
I'm looking for more information about my friend Austin Tice.
BASSAM AL-HASSAN, ADVISER TO FORMER SYRIAN PRESIDENT BASHAR AL-ASSAD (through translation): Come in.
WARD (voice-over): He invites us into the apartment but he is clearly rattled and asks over and over again how we found him.
AL-HASSAN (through translation): I insist to know, who told you about this place?
No one knows where I live.
WARD: I'm not going to tell you how we found out where you are. It's not important. We've been looking for you for a while. We know that you've
given multiple different stories. Can you just tell me, because he was my friend, is Austin Tice dead?
AL-HASSAN (through translation): Of course, Austin is dead. Austin is dead.
WARD (voice-over): He tells us he explained to a team from the FBI that President Assad gave him the order to execute Austin and that the order was
carried out by a subordinate.
AL-HASSAN (through translation): I don't want to protect Bashar al- Assad because he abandoned us and left us. This relates to President Bashar only.
WARD: Yes. But you sent him to his death.
AL-HASSAN (through translation): I don' t want to go into any details. These are details that I told the team. I told the team that I received the
order and I passed it on. That's it.
WARD: Can you just tell me one thing?
Can you tell me when Austin died?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): From 2012?
October?
AL-HASSAN (through translation): He passed away.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): He passed away. 2012?
2013?
2013?
WARD (voice-over): He refuses to give any more information. When he asks to take a photograph of us, we decide to leave.
At the door, he talks about Austin's mother, Debra Tice. His voice cracks.
AL-HASSAN (through translation): I owe her an apology and it upsets me to remember it.
[10:35:00]
Truly.
WARD: Understood.
AL-HASSAN (through translation): I wish what happened hadn't happened.
WARD (voice-over): It is a gut punch to think that Austin may have been killed 12 years ago.
WARD: One thing that he was very emphatic about is that Austin is dead. Austin is dead. And he wants to pass his condolences to Debra.
WARD (voice-over): CNN has confirmed that Al-Hassan failed the FBI polygraph test. What is less clear is what parts of his story are a lie. In
September, a U.S. delegation, including FBI investigators, came to Damascus to search for Austin's remains, based on a location given to them by Al-
Hassan. They came away empty-handed.
The full truth of what happened to my friend may well never be known, like the fate of countless Syrians.
WARD: Everyone was keeping so many secrets.
BAHLOUL: Well, in a way, in a way.
WARD: Everyone was lying?
BAHLOUL: It's all about loyalty and worship and nearly worshipping the commander. The supreme commander, he's a president, da-da-da-da-da. He's
everything.
So yes, lying is widely spread in the X regime, yes. It's nothing personal. I was doing my job. That's all it is.
Austin may simply be remembered as yet another victim of the endless lies and senseless cruelty of ruthless regimes -- Clarissa Ward, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HILL: The Tice family has repeatedly described Bassam al-Hassan as a liar.
In a statement to CNN, the family said, "Austin Tice is alive. We look forward to seeing him walk free."
For 13 years, the Assad government denied ever holding Tice captive. After the collapse of the regime, Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia. Attempts by CNN
to reach him for comment were unsuccessful.
We'll be right back.
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HILL: At the Future Investment Initiative in Saudi Arabia, Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa is speaking to an audience of investors and world
leaders that he's courting for the massive rebuild of his country. It's estimated it will cost over $200 billion. That estimate coming from the
World Bank.
The Syrian delegation meeting with the Saudi crown prince and royal court and leaders of companies, from JPMorgan to Hilton to Bombardier and Total
Energies, Saudi Arabia has led the charge in legitimizing Mr. Al-Sharaa's government and bringing international leaders into its rebuilding effort.
Becky Anderson asked Syria's minister of the economy just about what has come from this flurry of meetings.
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NIDAL AL-SHAAR, SYRIAN MINISTER OF ECONOMY AND INDUSTRY: The feedback is very encouraging. And the reason is that everybody feels today -- or maybe
there is a decision, an invisible hand that worked out its way -- that Syria must be a stable country. Enough is enough.
So this whole environment is conducive for people to come in and invest in a fresh, in a virgin land, which is Syria. Now we are at an embryonic
stage.
[10:40:00]
So anything you do, you'll get the yield of that. What you're doing maybe in a quicker way or maybe in a more lucrative way. But the economy, after
all the suffering that we went through, it's very hard to feed it in and to see the results, the tangible results, right away.
It's a cumulative process. And what we're doing now, we're starting from the individual. We're trying to empower individuals, workshops, small
businesses. We have hundreds and hundreds of factories went back to production. We're exporting now. Our currency is stable, which is
magnificent.
You know, you're talking, for the last 10 months, the Syrian pound has fluctuated within a margin of 10 percent to 12 percent. This is pretty much
amazing. You know, this is not to be expected. I mean, we were expecting collapse in our exchange system. But fortunately, there is an invisible
hand working its way. I think we're blessed.
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST: These Assad-era U.S. Caesar sanctions (ph) are stalled at present. Just fill me in on where you see the progress.
I mean, how confident you are that these will be repealed because, without those being repealed, these sanctions, you're not going to see the
investment and progress that you clearly need.
AL-SHAAR: Yes, well, we definitely need a complete lift of sanctions, that's for sure. Any country cannot work in a shifting grounds. I mean,
investors would like to have -- to see stability.
We're pushing hard to lift those sanctions and I think there is a homework that we have to do for the sanctions to be lifted. We have to show the
world that we are completely different country. We are friendly, we're peaceful, we're open, free economy, no restrictions, no bullying of anyone.
ANDERSON: U.S. lawmakers, as I understand it, have conditioned the repeal of these Caesar sanctions on seeing a government that can ensure the
protection of minorities, a country that is free of extremist fighters.
How can you convince the rest of the world, the investors who are looking at Syria as a big opportunity, that you have got those issues under
control, that this -- that this president is leading from the front on these issues?
AL-SHAAR: We pledge and we promise that minority rights will not only be protected, they will be celebrated because they are an essential part of
Syria. And we have done so as well, gotten rid of so many extremists, that Syria, has, you know, a heaven (ph) place at times.
And Bashar, because Bashar was -- Assad was nourishing them and feeding them. And I think that the coming conditions will be much easier to deal
with because they're about reviews. They're not compulsory or mandatory. Action will not be taken right away.
They will be, you know, a trip to go through or some kind of a journey before you can determine to (INAUDIBLE), impose them back or to keep them
lifted. So this is the best that we can get, you know, get at this point.
ANDERSON: You expect those sanctions to be lifted by the end of this year?
AL-SHAAR: I hope so. If the Senate approves it, I think president Trump is ready to sign the order for that.
ANDERSON: I covered the sectarian violence in Suwayda very closely. There is massive distrust toward this government from the Druze community. Even
Syria's biggest backer in Washington, U.S. envoy Tom Barrack, has warned recently that you cannot afford another Suwayda.
What is president al-Sharaa tangibly doing to protect minorities?
AL-SHAAR: Everybody has the right to have some concerns and everybody has the right to worry. But this is natural, Becky. You know, we are building a
new state. So some people are taking it, exaggerating with their concerns. Some people are being humble with their concerns.
ANDERSON: And with respect, you know, we've done a lot of reporting on the community, on the ground, those who are just trying to survive. And you
hear a massive distrust of this government amongst the Druze community, significant number of Druze communities.
So I think it would be unfair to kind of dismiss, you know, that concern --
(CROSSTALK)
AL-SHAAR: Believe me, that concern is with other communities as well. I think it's natural but it's subsiding. We have to also notice that this
concern is subsiding and it's subsiding because we are taking the appropriate measures to protect, you know, what you might want to call
minorities.
[10:45:04]
And I don't look at the Druze as minority myself, as a Syrian citizen (ph). I see them the original part of Syria and they are known to be patriotic
and nationalists. We know them as such. So in my opinion -- and I'm now not talking about -- as a minister now but as a Syrian citizen. I think this
concern, this whole thing will subside.
ANDERSON: What more can be done substantively by al-Sharaa and this government to ensure that rights are enshrined and that people feel
represented?
AL-SHAAR: Listening. Listening wholeheartedly. Both of us, we have to listen to each other. That's the only way we can move forward.
ANDERSON: I don't want to lose the picture here, that, you know, Syrians are struggling on a daily basis. The U.N. says more than 90 percent of
Syrians are living in poverty. I mean, none of this will come as a surprise to you.
Simply put, when and how do you believe Syrians will feel some relief and the sectors that you've identified as priorities for Syrians so that, you
know, the community can see a benefit as quickly as possible, are which sectors?
AL-SHAAR: The most important for us is human capital (ph). We need today to focus on human capital. We are a young country. The young generation is
about 60-65 percent of us and we need to focus on them.
And maybe the best way for us to use them and utilize their efforts and their abilities is through technology. So we are in desperate need for
technological transformation. And we're seeking that from all over the place.
I was in the States last week and I first thing I asked for technology, technological transfer. Once we do that, we lay the grounds for, you know,
good economic base that we can launch, you know, whatever projects that we need.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HILL: Well, in addition to regional development and investment in the Middle East, specifically, the Future Investment Initiative has been
uniquely focused on artificial intelligence, a subject that is never far from the headlines.
In just the last hour, Nvidia officially became the first company to ever hit a $5 trillion in market value. You see shares there of just over 4
percent at this point. The markets have been open for well over an hour now here in New York. Shares continuing to trade up.
Becky Anderson, of course, is in Riyadh this week for the FII. The Saudi kingdom is looking to shake up the AI industry in a major way with its new
company, Humain. Becky caught up with the CEO on the sidelines of the conference.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Introducing Humain. Born in Saudi Arabia, built for the world.
ANDERSON (voice-over): Humain is building the full AI stack infrastructure models applications. Announced by Saudi Arabia's crown prince Mohammed bin
Salman in May around president Trump's visit to Riyadh, the PIF-backed company is the kingdom's audacious bid to become a global AI powerhouse.
I went to their HQ to talk to CEO Tareq Amin about his push to build six gigawatts of data center capacity and scale up a range of AI-powered
products.
The goal: to turn this nascent project into the world's third largest AI market, trailing only the two superpowers he continues to court, the United
States and China.
Where's the competitive edge for the kingdom and Humain?
TAREQ AMIN, CEO, HUMAIN: Whether you're in U.S., China, Europe, Asia, there is scarcity today of power.
Whoever gets to a stage where they could really offer an abundance of power and the right type of power at the right cost, has a remarkable opportunity
to convince off-takers, regardless from where they come from, that this is a good place for you to host your applications.
And that's why we're building these data centers. We have secured an unbelievable number of off-taker (ph), not just one. It is -- it's a
diversified list of partners that have committed to put their international workloads in Saudi Arabia, to serve their international customers.
ANDERSON (voice-over): It's an ever-growing Rolodex of partnerships -- Nvidia, AMD, Grok, Amazon Web Services, Qualcomm, Cisco -- virtually all
the big name players in AI infrastructure. And announced this week, a $3 billion investment from Blackstone for a data center campus.
AMIN (voice-over): The hunger for compute is not ending. It's actually accelerating. We have an advantage in Saudi Arabia that I looked at. I
said, look at this country. Amazing energy grid.
[10:50:03]
That doesn't require a company like Humain to build the substations and the power to deliver that to data center. So that means I have saved 18 months
of time.
So now the idea is to build a standard reference architecture for these data centers, scale them out, leverage the existing power availability,
great connectivity, and do state-of-the-art liquid cooling technology to make sure that we could cool these data center at the right energy
efficiency.
ANDERSON (voice-over): All that compute power goes into another key element of the stack, Humain One. It's an AI operating system that powers a
Humain laptop called the Horizon Pro.
AMIN (voice-over): Imagine there is no icons in desktop. Like literally no icons. So this is your interface. The only thing you need at the business
side is this prompt. And this prompt, you could speak to it, talk to it, you could engage with it.
When you type a simple statement, "Show me my task for today," this platform is intelligent enough to say, "Oh, I need to call this AI manager
called Task Manager."
And rather than you jumping application to application, it actually launches that AI manager. And then, from business trip booking to payroll
to looking at your P&L, everything is done through either typing or speaking.
ANDERSON: You believe this is the future and the future is now.
AMIN: One hundred percent.
ANDERSON: Right.
AMIN: And we were the first in the world to do this.
ANDERSON (voice-over): The global enthusiasm for an AI boom is surging. Record high rallies in U.S. markets this year. While some experts warn we
are entering an AI bubble, Amin says the opposite.
AMIN (voice-over): I don't believe we are in a hype cycle. I actually think we are underestimating what we need.
So far, the world has been busy in building models and there is no doubt we needed to do this. Now to take advantage of these models and really
benefit, whether you are in health care or an enterprise like Humain or you need it for your core business in oil and gas, this is the discovery of
what I call value realization.
And I don't think yet we have really touched the surface on the true value of AI.
ANDERSON (voice-over): Humain is the second comer to AI in this region. Abu Dhabi has gotten a head start in its ambitions to trade oil for data,
building its own large language models and signing multibillion-dollar partnerships with the likes of Microsoft and OpenAI, including plans to
build Stargate UAE, a $500 billion data center campus.
is there room in the market for two regional behemoths?
AMIN: I'm really excited to see what is happening in the region. It is good for humanity to have, number one, knowledge, especially around AI; not
to be all centralized in one location. Humain is not a holding company. We are an operating company.
ANDERSON: Given the inherent risks of this massive sovereign investment and the fact that the kingdom has put your success at the heart of and as
key to Saudi's ambitions, there must be times when you think, what have I taken on?
AMIN: I'm really humbled and honored I was picked to do this. As complicated, as stressful this job is, I have to tell you, I am too
excited. Too excited because the possibility, again, if we really execute, is just tremendous.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HILL: Becky this week also had a roundtable with the CEO of Humain and several of his fellow tech leaders from Honeywell, Google and Oracle,
asking about the fears of an AI market correction that may be looming.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: There is a lot of talk of an AI bubble.
Concerned, Tareq?
AMIN: We're underestimating demand.
ANDERSON: (INAUDIBLE)?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No concerns. Long-term value creation is very big.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: With very early days of implementation the upside.
ANDERSON: Mike (ph)?
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)
HILL: So looking beyond earnings potential, Becky's panelists had a great deal of optimism on the real-world impacts of this new technology. Take a
listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUTH PORAT, PRESIDENT, 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, ORACLE: We're actually seeing excellent impact already by combining these large language models.
[10:55:00]
Or in some cases, frontier (ph) models with existing applications.
So as Ruth mentioned in health care, for example, we have now over about 1.5 years had a cloud service, cloud 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 or 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 a dramatic impact with the AI that's set to go, you
know, set to -- 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, 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 we 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 VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: That is going to do it for today's edition of CONNECT THE WORLD. Be sure to stay with CNN. I'm Erica Hill, "ONE WORLD" is up next.
[11:00:00]
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