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U.S. Justice Department Releases New Batch of Epstein Files; Trump's Name Appears in Latest Batch of Epstein Files; Israeli Government Approves Closure of Army Radio After 75 Years; U.S. Regulators Approve Pill Version of Wegovy; Philip Rivers Turns Back Clock in Colts' Loss to 49ers. Aired 9- 9:45a ET

Aired December 23, 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)

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN HOST, CONNECT THE WORLD: U.S. President Donald Trump is named several times in a new batch of the Epstein files that just dropped

today. It is 09:00 a.m. where he is in West Palm Beach, Florida. It is 06:00 p.m. here in Abu Dhabi. I'm Eleni Giokos. This is "Connect the

World".

Also coming up, the U.S. is still actively pursuing an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela as Donald Trump ramps up his rhetoric against its

leader, Nicolas Maduro. And even as Russia pummels Ukraine with fresh strikes, President Zelenskyy signals progress in peace talks.

Right, we are around 30 minutes to go before the start of trade in New York. I want to check in on those futures, because we just had fresh GDP

numbers that were just released. As you can see, NASDAQ, S&P and DOW all pointing down, and that is ahead of shortened trading week due to the

holidays.

I want to bring you up to speed on the GDP numbers for the third quarter. This is an inflation adjusted, annualized number. It came in at 4.3 percent

for the third quarter. That is up from what we saw in the second quarter of 3.8 percent. So, the U.S. economy doing much better than anticipated and a

lot better than people had priced in.

You also saw consumer spending increasing significantly, as well as exports. I'm going to bring you up to speed on those numbers a little later

in the show. In the meantime, I want to focus on what we're seeing in the United States. The U.S. Justice Department has released a new trove of

files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

CNN teams are reviewing those heavily redacted documents that dropped earlier today. And we'll bring you fresh updates as we get them among the

new details we are also learning so far. Flight records show President Donald Trump quote traveled on Epstein's private jets many more times than

previously had been reported during the 1990s.

That's what an Assistant U.S. Attorney from the Southern District of New York wrote in an email from 2020. U.S. President Donald Trump calls the

dump of documents and pictures over the past few days an effort to distract from his accomplishments.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A lot of people are very angry that pictures are being released of other people that really

had nothing to do with Epstein, but they're in a picture with him because he was at a party, and you ruin a reputation of somebody.

Look, I don't like the -- I like Bill Clinton. I've always gotten along with Bill Clinton. I've been nice to him. He's been nice to me. We've

always gotten along respect him. I hate to see photos come out of him, but this is what the Democrats, mostly Democrats, and a couple of bad

Republicans, are asking for.

So, they give me their photos of me too. Everybody was friendly with this guy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIOKOS: CNN's Katelyn Polantz is in Washington with much more on those new released Epstein files. Take a listen.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: There are a lot of mentions of Donald Trump, and they are new and noteworthy. The one that we

have been reporting on this morning so far, it is an email that a U.S. Attorney, so someone who would be working on the case against Ghislaine

Maxwell, the Co-Conspirator of Epstein, the criminal case.

This Assistant U.S. Attorney wrote to apparently supervisors or others within the Southern District of New York U.S. Attorney's office that they

realized Donald Trump was in the flight records traveling with Epstein alone and with only small groups of passengers, including women and someone

who was then 20 years old.

What this person writes, what this prosecutor writes, it comes during the time that Trump was president, and while those prosecutors were working on

the case against Ghislaine Maxwell, looking forward to a possible trial against her. And here is exactly what was said in this letter or this email

within the U.S. Attorney's Office.

The flight records we received yesterday reflect that Donald Trump traveled on Epstein's private jet many more times than previously had been reported,

or that we were aware, including during the period we would expect to charge. In a Maxwell case, those flights would have taken place between

1993 and 1996.

And this prosecutor says that there were eight flights that Donald Trump appeared to be on the flight records on with Epstein and with Maxwell.

Also, the prosecutor writes, they didn't want any of this to be a surprise down the road to the Trump Administration the Justice Department.

So, an internal communication that we have not seen before that is pretty notable. The other thing is, those Justice Department responses so far.

[09:05:00]

So far there's been a tweet or a post on the social media platform X, from the Justice Department's official account just about 07:30 in the morning,

them saying that they've released nearly 30,000 more pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, and then they make their public statement about

Trump.

Quote, some of these documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before

the 2020 election. To be clear, the claims are unfounded and false, and if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized

against President Trump already.

And then the Justice Department says that they are releasing these documents because they are legally required to and that they want to be

transparent. These are documents that are publicly available on the Justice Department website now. And we are still going through them to see what

else we may be able to tell you about what's in them.

GIOKOS: All right. I want to bring in Corey Brettschneider for some analysis on this. He's a Professor of Political Science at Brown

University, and also the co-host of the podcast, "The Oath and the Office, and author of the book, "The Presidents and the People, Five Leaders Who

Threaten Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It".

Corey, great to have you with us at an important time. I want to look at what we saw in terms of the latest trove of documents released, and what

your analysis assessment is? I mean, it hasn't been that long, but of course, a lot of headlines coming through on this.

COREY BRETTSCHNEIDER, PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AT BROWN UNIVERSITY: Well, this president has been worried about this release and trying to do

damage control, and we're starting to see why this is a horrific sex trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein, and although the president has tried to

minimize his connection to him, it looks like they were very close.

And of course, it's raising suspicions of whether or not the crimes that Jeffrey Epstein was convicted of are while the president is implicated in

them. And that is, of course, a crisis for this country, if he was. We're going to find out more about them, rather than doing less investigation as

he wants, it's going to trigger more.

There was also an attempt by the Justice Department to really hide as much information as possible through redaction, even though there was

legislation ordering this release, and that's just made people more suspicious.

GIOKOS: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, what we have learned is a few things that he was on the Epstein jet, a lot more than we had previously known,

specifically in the 1990s. And then, importantly, the other piece of information that has come out is that Jeffrey Epstein cites our president

in a 2019 letter to convicted sex offender Larry Nassar.

And I wonder what you think in terms of how damning this is for President Trump.

BRETTSCHNEIDER: The more information we get, the more it looks like they were very close, that the president was perhaps involved in some of this.

Well, child molestation is the accusation against Epstein. That's what he was essentially convicted of in sex trafficking.

And so, the question is, whether or not the president was involved in this. The Epstein also made no. Wasn't embarrassed, evidently, at the time of the

fact that he was interested in having sex with girls who were under the age of consent. And the question is, is the president involved here too?

The president's party talked a lot about child molestation, about sex trafficking. So, his base is very concerned about the issue. I think they

didn't quite realize how implicated the president himself might be. And I don't see many of them backing off. We're starting to see members of his

own party defect.

And he alluded to that, including Representative Massie. And the more we learn, that's not going to end the issue. It's going to far from it. It's

going to stoke it. And if Democrats take the House, this is possibly issue of impeachment as well.

GIOKOS: So, we have a group of teams that are focusing on analyzing the latest tranche, but importantly, what we saw coming out on Friday, before

the deadline, was just heavily redacted information means some pages completely blacked out. And now there's been a question specifically

swirling over the last few days.

If you know whether you're seeing this being a deliberate move to try and conceal information, what are you defining in all of this?

BRETTSCHNEIDER: Yeah. Well, I think that's clearly what happened. I mean, just to back up a little bit, there was legislation passed by the House of

Representatives, in the Senate, signed by the president into law that required the release of this information. It wasn't done voluntarily.

Now, why was the president willing to sign this law? I think it's because he assumed that there would be a redaction process and that they would do

things like implicate President Clinton rather than him, and that you wouldn't see his name, that they would have control.

But that's not how legislation works. The legislation requires the release of these documents.

[09:10:00]

And increasingly, I think the Department of Justice as they face lawsuits from both the Senate and the House are realizing that they are going to be

compelled to release this stuff, and they better do it more and more. So, we're seeing an attempt at a kind of compromise that we're not seeing as

much redaction as we saw initially.

And I think that's going to increase, and they're going to try to withhold a lot of information, but might not succeed.

GIOKOS: Yeah, and also, we know there's just a trove of information, and we were talking about major megabytes of, you know, documents and video

footage as well. You know, the DOJ said that they're taking an approach of, you know, over redaction in terms of ensuring that they protect victims in

all of this.

And clearly, it's a tight rope, isn't it? It's a fine line between putting out information into the public and ensuring they protect the people that

are most vulnerable.

BRETTSCHNEIDER: Yes, and I would think that would be their focus, would hopefully be.

GIOKOS: Yeah.

BRETTSCHNEIDER: Although there's reporting that they fail to actually redact where they should have, in the case of somebody who had been

anonymous throughout the process, and in some of these documents, was not, and I know CNN reported on that. That's what's appropriate when it comes to

redaction, not trying to protect the most powerful person in the world who the legislation was aimed at giving us transparency.

Let's just be clear, the reason this law was passed was partly to learn more about the Epstein case, but also to learn more about Donald Trump's

involvement with it. So, there's legislation requiring that.

GIOKOS: Yeah.

BRETTSCHNEIDER: And when the Department of Justice tries to redact what they're doing is defying the law. And I think that we'll see this legal

process unfold. They'll be forced to release more and more, and we're going to get more. We're going to get the truth, I think eventually.

GIOKOS: Yeah, I want to talk to you about whether, you know, lawmakers have any, you know, grounding on this, and whether they can push to, you know,

hold Pam Bondi as well as the DOJ in contempt of Congress. Is there legal standing for this?

BRETTSCHNEIDER: Well, there are two roots. And one thing that's gotten a lot of attention is a process that hasn't been used since the 1930s the

idea of inherent contempt. And there is an idea that the Congress can, in instances in which it's been defied, where subpoenas, for instance, have

been defied, use this inherent contempt power.

And there used to be, for instance, a jail in Congress that the congressional authorities could imprison people in. I don't really think

that's the real story. I don't think that's going to be used. It's really a defunct process. But what is not defunct is this recent legislation that

was passed, that is enforceable by courts.

And certainly, if you get a court order saying, let's be fewer redactions, let's honor the legislation, and then the Department of Justice defies

that. That's a normal contempt proceeding that might follow.

GIOKOS: Yeah.

BRETTSCHNEIDER: Now we have seen the Trump Administration disobey courts before, in the case involving Abrego Garcia, and there are potentially

going to be contempt investigations and hearings there. So, you know, we're in for a battle between potentially Congress, the judiciary and the office

of the president.

GIOKOS: All right. Corey Brettschneider, great to have you with us. Thank you so much. Right now, the U.S. Coast Guard is still in active pursuit of

an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. It's been around 48 hours since the chase began. The sanctioned tanker called the Bella 1 was sailing

towards Venezuela when the Coast Guard attempted to intercept it.

The Americans have already intercepted two tankers this month as the Trump Administration continues to pressure the Venezuelan President, Nicolas

Maduro. Here's what Donald Trump had to say about it on Monday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is the ultimate goal in Venezuela to force Maduro from power?

TRUMP: Well, I think it probably would. I can't tell that. It's up to him what he wants to do. I think it would be smart for him to do that. But

again, we're going to find out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIOKOS: Venezuela Foreign Minister is warning American actions will take a major toll on global stability.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YVAN GIL, VENEZUELAN FOREIGN MINISTER: The blockade and piracy against Venezuelan energy trade will affect oil and energy supplies, increase

instability in international markets and hit the economies of Latin America, the Caribbean and the world, especially the most vulnerable

countries.

Energy cannot be turned into a weapon of war or an instrument of political coercion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIOKOS: Right, I want to take a closer look at how oil markets are faring today. And of course, we did see a reaction. You've got crude, WTI crude up

two tenths of a percent, and Brent is up two tenths of a percent as well. Keeping in mind that Venezuela only accounts for around 1 percent of global

oil supply, so prices are higher.

While investors are assessing these geopolitical risks. Some analysts are pointing to a health of supply in 2026 even if the Venezuelan exports fall.

[09:15:00]

The OPEC member exported around 900,000 barrels a day last month, mostly to China. That only accounts for about 1 percent of global supply. But it is

worth remembering as we talk about United States escalation, the Venezuela has the largest amount of oil reserves in the world.

We've got CNN's Kevin Liptak in West Palm Beach, Florida. Kevin, good to see you. You know, just putting it into perspective there that Venezuela

produces and exports around 900,000 barrels of oil per day, really gives you a sense of what this is going to mean for Maduro's money-making

machine, but also the fact that the United States really wants to intercept all these oil tankers. So where are we with the pursuit?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: I mean, I think it also gives you a sense of why President Trump seems to be so interested in

Venezuela at the moment. You know, we know behind the scenes, he's been talking about those oil fields for quite some time that really sort of

burst into the open last week when one, he announced this oil embargo.

But two, suggested that Venezuela had stolen United States' resources in oil when it took state control over the oil industry there in the 1970s.

So, you can be sure that President Trump is very intent on gaining access to these resources, because he thinks it will be a boon for the United

States, which I think is sort of a contributing layer to everything that's going on here.

Yes, he says this is about the drugs. And we just saw yesterday the 29th strike on an alleged drug boat, this one in the Eastern Pacific. He's also

said that it's about the migrants. He sorts of went on a screed yesterday talking about migrants coming from Venezuela to the United States.

He's also said it's about sanctions enforcement, which is what the rationale is for these attempted interdictions of the oil tankers in the

Caribbean Sea. And he suggested it's about regime change. And you heard him talk yesterday when he was asked explicitly whether his goal was to oust

Maduro from power, saying that he thinks it probably is.

So, you see all of these different objectives that the president has laid out, but oil certainly a significant one for the president, both in trying

to cut off Maduro's economic lifeline, what has really allowed him to retain his grip on power, but also to allow access for the United States.

You know, right now, Chevron is the only American company that is drilling in Venezuela. It's received some carve outs from American sanctions to

allow it to continue to operate there, but it has been, I think, tough going for that company as it works to navigate this incredibly complicated

and escalating geopolitical situation.

And so, it's something that I think will continue. Now when it comes to this tank, or the Bella 1 that the U.S. still seems to be chasing out in

the Caribbean Sea. What President Trump said yesterday was that he was confident that they would ultimately be able to intercept it.

And he said that the reason that they were going after it was because it was sanctioned, and that it was coming from Venezuela. You know, in

actuality, it was heading towards Venezuela. It was empty, and it turned around when the U.S. Coast Guard tried to board it and started fleeing.

And so, I think the president there really underscoring how important all of this is to the larger strategy. But I still think you know, in

everything that he said on this topic yesterday, he did not shed, ultimately, a whole lot of light on what his ultimate goal in all of this

is.

He sorts of hedge when he was asked about regime change, he offered some bullish rhetoric when it came to Maduro. But still, ultimately, I think,

not precisely clear what the end game might be in all of this.

GIOKOS: All right, so the burning question. Kevin Liptak, thank you so much. And still to come, Volodymyr Zelenskyy says a real outcome could be

on the cards for Ukraine after talks in the United States. We'll bring you the latest details on negotiations to end Russia's war, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:20:00]

GIOKOS: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is suggesting a real outcome could be on the horizon, following talks with the United States. A

Ukrainian delegation returned from Miami this week after holding discussions with American representatives, all in an effort to bring

Russia's war to an end.

Mr. Zelenskyy says, while not everything is perfect, so far, a plan is now in place, but that the United States must also pursue a resolution on the

Russian side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE: It's important that the American side can also get a response from Russia, real readiness on the part of

that state to focus on something other than aggression. Of course, after so many years of initially hybrid war and now full-scale war, it's hard to

believe that Putin can live without killings and invasions.

But lowering the price of Russian oil, strong global sanctions and continued other forms of pressure are what can convince even such a

stubborn --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIOKOS: All right, CNN's Clare Sebastian is across these developments for us. Clare, I mean these talks consequential, in essence. But are they

getting anywhere?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, President Zelenskyy is certainly making some positive noises, Eleni. Of course, we are not at the

point of this being what would amount to real peace talks between the two warring parties, of course. But he's just had, he said, a detailed report

today from his team, who spent the weekend in Miami talking to the U.S. side, and they have a number of draft documents.

Obviously, the main framework peace deal, which we believe now, is 20 points. And he said, has been set out in such a way to correspond to the

objective of actually ending the war and the need to prevent a third Russian invasion. There's a document on Ukraine's recovery from an economic

perspective.

And then there's the security guarantees with Europe, and crucially, with the U.S., Zelenskyy has maintained all along that he cannot foresee a true

and lasting peace settlement without U.S. security guarantees. So now it seems he has something along those lines in writing, which he said looks

quite solid and dignified in his words.

So, I think that is a big step forward. Of course, we still have Russia signaling that it will reject anything that deviates from its maximalist

demands, many of which were in that original 28-point peace plan. But in terms of the track that involves the U.S. and Ukraine, it does seem that

they have taken steps forward, Eleni.

GIOKOS: Yeah, I think there was a lot of hope that we'd maybe see some kind of ceasefire for the Christmas season, and of course, the latest round of

strikes showing that we're not anywhere close to that.

SEBASTIAN: Yeah, look, President Zelenskyy certainly had warned that Russia, having roundly rejected the idea that was endorsed by some in

Europe and himself of a Christmas ceasefire might step up attacks around Christmas. I think you have to be careful with you know, assuming that this

is part of that, this attack that we saw overnight Monday night into Tuesday, was only the second biggest in December.

But it still involved more than 600 drones and almost 40 missiles. So, it was a major attack multiple regions affected. The power grid clearly still

a major target DTEK, which is the biggest private energy company in Ukraine. So, this was the seventh major attack on its thermal power

stations since October.

And we heard from the International Atomic Energy Agency as well warning that two of Ukraine's nuclear power plants had to reduce power generation

because of concerns about the stability of the grid. It was also deadly. Of course, civilians coming under attack, two adults killed in the Kyiv region

and one four-year-old child in the Western Zhytomyr region.

And underscoring, I think, the scale of this attack, Poland once again having to scramble jets. It said, as a preventative measure, because, of

course, some of those drones and missiles targeted the far west of Ukraine, Eleni.

GIOKOS: Yeah.

SEBASTIAN: So, this is an attritional war. This is par for the course, but of course, we do have that warning from President Zelenskyy that this could

step up into the holiday season.

GIOKOS: All right, Clare Sebastian, thank you so much. While negotiations continue abroad, fighting on the front line continues in Ukraine, but the

country is facing a growing man power crisis with no end currently in sight.

[09:25:00]

Some Ukrainian men are going to extreme measures to avoid the draft.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You can see how steep these mountains are. It is frankly astonishing that up to 100 Ukrainians

are making this crossing still every single week.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIOKOS: CNN's Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward is getting a closer look at the dangerous journey taken by draft evaders. We'll bring

you that report that's next hour on "Connect the World". In the meantime, I want to get you up to speed on some other stories that are on our radar

right now.

Israel's government is pulling the plug on one of the country's oldest media institutions, Army Radio next year, is raising concerns over press

freedom and the state of public broadcasting. Army Radio is a unit of the Israeli military, but as a vibrant news department operated by soldiers and

civilian journalists. Brown University has placed it's on campus police chief on leave after the recent mass shooting that killed two students and

injured nine others.

Officials say a Former Providence Rhode Island Police Chief will be in charge pending the investigation and security review of the attack. At

least five people, including a two-year-old child, were killed when a Mexican naval plane crashed in Texas on Monday. The plane was transporting

burn victims and Mexican Navy says eight people were on board.

Two people were recovered live, and one person is still missing. Right, we're moments away from the opening bell. We've got those fresh GDP numbers

out for the third quarter that came out today. It's painting a picture of a U.S. economy that's stronger than previously anticipated.

I'll break down those numbers for you. And importantly, how is Wall Street reacting to the latest set of economic data? That's coming up after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GIOKOS: Welcome back. I'm Eleni Giokos in Dubai, and you in Abu Dhabi Hall and you're watching "Connect the World". These are your headlines. U.S.

President Trump calls the Justice Department's Jeffrey Epstein ongoing document dump quotes, an effort to distract from his accomplishments, and

he's expressing frustration that some high-profile people are under scrutiny for being associated with a convicted sex offender.

CNN is reviewing the newly released documents. And will bring you details throughout the day. The U.S. Coast Guard has now been chasing a third oil

tanker near Venezuela for 48 hours as the Trump Administration increases its pressure campaign against President Nicolas Maduro.

[09:30:00]

The U.S. has already intercepted and seized two other tankers this month for carrying what it called sanctioned oil. Right. We're a few seconds away

from the start of trade in New York. These are live pictures from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. And there you have it.

Markets have just started trading in what is going to be a short week. And frankly, there's just a few days left of 2025. They are going to be closed

for Thursday for Christmas, so investors eyeing a slew of economic data that has been released last week, and importantly throughout this week as

well.

We are waiting for that Consumer Confidence Report, which is coming out in the next hour. We've already had the third quarter GDP numbers through, and

we are red all-round down. NASDAQ and S&P sitting slightly lower as we head into trade today. Now Wall Street is digesting the U.S. government's

initial GDP reading just released in the last hour.

It shows America's economy unexpectedly accelerated in the third quarter at a rate of 4.3 percent that is far faster than the 3.8 percent recorded in

the second quarter. And importantly, people had anticipated a much lower GDP number. So good news all round. Remember, this is for the third

quarter.

This is a figure we should have had out earlier, but because of the government shutdown, everything has been delayed. We've got CNN Senior

Reporter Matt Eagan covering these numbers for us from New York. Matt, always good to see you. Markets are still trying to find their footing as

they're digesting these numbers, even though better than anticipated.

What are you reading into what this means, and importantly, how this plays into the overall economy?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Eleni, as you mentioned, this was a big surprise, right? We were expecting a slow down to 3 percent in this

quarter. Instead, we got this unexpected acceleration to 4.3 percent. Now that is a very solid pace of growth, especially considering all the gloom

and doom in public polling.

And when you look at the trend, you can see that GDP, it did go negative earlier this year. That was during the first quarter, and then it went

positive in the third quarter, and you can see it on that bar chart all the way to the right of the screen, and now it's even higher in the most recent

quarter.

Now one thing to note is that this report was delayed by almost two months because of the government shutdown, and it's possible that the government

shutdown also caused some measurement issues, right? We've seen that in the past, most recently, the inflation report, which was also much better than

expected.

Economists say we should brace for some larger than usual revisions, again because of the government shutdown, but let's dig into why GDP accelerated

during the third quarter. Now, one of the big factors here is the fact that consumer spending heated up. It went from 2.5 percent in the second quarter

to 3.5 percent in the third quarter.

That is really important in a consumer led economy. I would just note though that we don't know who was doing that spending, and economists say a

lot of the increase was likely from higher income households and also from retirees. Another factor is imports. Imports went down because of high

tariffs, exports went up.

And anytime you have a big increase in net exports, that mechanically drives GDP higher. Another factor, government spending heated up,

especially defense spending, that was a little bit of a surprise, and that also contributed to this increase in GDP. Now, economists like to look at

what's known as core GDP, because it strips out trade and government spending.

And look that came in solid too, right? It went from 2.9 percent to 3 percent as well. So that was encouraging. One last point for you, Eleni, as

you alluded to, everyone's really interested in what is happening in the current quarter and next year this report out today is a bit stale.

It's measuring from months ago. And economists are bracing for a slow down during the current quarter, in part because of the government shutdown.

Back to you.

GIOKOS: All right, so I want to talk about consumer confidence. And there's a real big fear that the U.S. consumer is just not feeling any sort of

positivity right now with the cost of living that they're experiencing, specifically when they head to the grocery store.

EGAN: Yeah, well, look, in some ways this report is a little hard to square with the public polling out there, right? Consumer confidence is very low.

GIOKOS: Yeah.

EGAN: The president gets very low marks on the economy. But you know what I mean, it's entirely possible that two things can be true at the same time,

right? You can have a strong pace of growth, and that doesn't necessarily mean that the economy is any more affordable.

[09:35:00]

You can have strong growth, and it doesn't mean that there's a hiring boom. In fact, we know that the unemployment rate has gone up, right? It went

from 4 percent at the start of the year to 4.6 percent as of September.

GIOKOS: Yeah.

EGAN: So, this solid pace of growth was not accompanied by it being easier to find a job. Hiring is low. And so, I do think that that helps to sort of

explain the contrast between where you have really solid growth in GDP and you also have people not loving this economy, in part because of how

expensive it is, Eleni.

GIOKOS: Yeah. All right. Matt Egan, great to have you with us. Thank you so much for breaking all that data down.

EGAN: Thank you.

GIOKOS: We're into very short break. We'll be back right after this. Stick with CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GIOKOS: Welcome back. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a pearl version of the popular weight loss drug, Wegovy. Currently it is

given as a weekly injection. The daily pill uses the same active ingredient, semaglutide, as the original Wegovy.

It is due to be available by prescription in the United States in January. For more on this, I want to bring in CNN's Health Reporter Jacqueline

Howard, great to have you with us. I mean, now it's even easier. No injection needed. There's a pull available. And I'm just wondering who's

break this down for us, supply demand scenarios as these weight loss drugs are becoming extremely popular.

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Absolutely, Eleni. And really these drugs, up until now, they were administered as injections. So, this really

is a big development that we are seeing the emergence of more of these pill forms of the medications.

And as you mentioned just yesterday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Novo Nordisk's week go the medication in pill form. So how does

the pill form measure up against the injection form? Well, they're very similar when it comes to safety and efficacy. As you mentioned, Eleni, the

pill form does include the same active ingredient, semaglutide and the safety profiles appear to be the same.

In clinical trials, patients who took the pills mostly had gastrointestinal related side effects. That's what we see with the injections. And clinical

trial data showed that patients who took the week over the pill, on average, they saw a weight loss of 14 percent over the course of 64 weeks.

[09:40:00]

So really, the key difference here is how this medication is administered. Again, we're talking about an oral pill versus an injection. So, while the

Wegovy injections, which have been widely used, widely available so far, those are weekly, so you consume or you administer the injection weekly.

But the pill form that will be a daily pill. It's a daily pill that patients should take on an empty stomach. They should avoid food, drinks,

other medications for at least 30 minutes after taking the pill. And again, that's the key difference here, Eleni. And this latest FDA approval of the

Wegovy pill.

It's just one example of the pill form of these GLP-1s that we're seeing another pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, which makes Mounjaro and

Zepbound, it also is working on a GLP-1 pill. So again, Eleni, this Wegovy pill is just the first of what I anticipate will be even more developments

that we may see in the next year.

GIOKOS: All right, fascinating. Jacqueline Howard, thank you so much. Moving on now, a 44-year-old grandpa Philip Rivers continued his fairy tale

story on Monday night, making his home debut for the NFL Indianapolis Colts in just his second game after coming out of retirement two weeks ago.

Don Riddell joining me now. Don, do you think some sports movies seem unrealistic for what rivers is doing is even more unbelievable. I mean,

this guy coming out of retirement, this is amazing.

DON RIDDELL, CNN WORLD SPORT: Yeah, everything about this story is absolutely amazing. He's been retired for five years. He's been coaching

high school kids in that time. He's got 10 kids. He's a grandfather as well.

GIOKOS: Yeah.

RIDDELL: And he just walks his back into the NFL, playing in one of the hardest positions there is, and he plays really, really well. Unfortunately

for him and the colt, they haven't won either the games. But take nothing away from Philip Rivers. This is an absolutely incredible story.

I would argue it transcend sports, certainly the NFL. And it's exactly the kind of thing that Hollywood script writers get really excited about, win,

lose or draw. It doesn't matter. It's just an incredible story.

GIOKOS: Yeah, it is indeed, very inspirational. All right, we're going to see you right after the short break at "World Sports". I'll be back at the

top of the hour. Stick with CNN.

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[09:45:00]

(WORLD SPORT)

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