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Early Start with Rahel Solomon
Trump Trying To Capitalize On New Diplomatic Momentum; Market Fears Eased As Trump Walked Back China Tariff Threat; At Least 64 Kiled After Days Of Torrential Rain. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired October 14, 2025 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[05:31:25]
BRIAN ABEL, CNN ANCHOR: An update now on our top story. The U.S. president is back in Washington after his trip to the Middle East and the White House has released the ceasefire deal Donald Trump signed during the peace summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.
The document describes a vision of the Middle East defined by "hope, security, and a shared vision for peace and prosperity" but it didn't have many details. President Trump says the agreement may be "the greatest deal of them all." But he declined to directly address whether he supports recognizing a Palestinian state.
And President Trump is riding a wave of international praise over his key role in the Middle East ceasefire and now his administration appears eager to use this new momentum to tackle other major conflicts.
CNN's Kristen Holmes explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Trump spent the day celebrating this phase one completion of this peace deal talking about how this was a historic dawn of the new Middle East. Talking about how this was a region transformed.
But it was clear from talking to administration officials as well as sources inside the White House that the White House and President Trump really want to use this time and use this period as momentum moving into other diplomatic issues.
For example, one, phase two of these peace deals. They believe that they have to keep the momentum going and that's part of why you saw this show of force. President Trump, when he was in Egypt with these Arab leaders around him, essentially thanking them for the work that they're going to do in the future to continue this phase two.
Also though, beyond just this peace deal. We heard President Trump, and we've heard from sources that they want this to turn into an Iran nuclear deal. Now whether or not they can get that accomplished obviously remains to be seen. But if you talk to experts in the region, they do believe that Iran is at one of its weakest points of all time.
And I will tell you that months ago when Israel first bombed Iran I was told by a senior administration official "We are going to get a nuclear Iran deal out of this." Clearly, they still believe that to be the case.
And then lastly, there is some talk about how they can pivot this into a win for the war in Ukraine. We know that on Friday President Trump is meeting at the White House with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy. They're going to talk about air defense and long-range missiles.
This comes after President Trump essentially threatened Putin with this idea that the White House or the U.S. would supply Tomahawk missiles -- those long-range missiles -- to Ukraine if Putin didn't end the war. These are missiles that could go deep inside Russia.
So they're clearly here trying to fire on all fronts. They believe they have the momentum now.
Now, of course, again, all of these are huge feats -- phase two, an Iran nuclear deal, ending what has been going on in Russia and Ukraine -- but they do believe if they can do it now is the time given what they're seeing and given what they have in support from these world leaders.
Kristen Holmes, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ABEL: The U.S. markets rebound as fears of a renewed trade war with China fade, at least for now. What's behind the recovery and how things look ahead of Tuesday trading next on CNN.
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[05:39:18]
ABEL: Welcome back to EARLY START.
And here is where the U.S. futures stand ahead of the opening bell on Wall Street. We are seeing lots of red. The Dow, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq all starting the day down. And this follows the anxiety in the Asia-Pacific markets over whether China and the U.S. can ever agree on a trade deal.
All right, let's check on some of today's other business headlines.
The founder and CEO of the loan company LendingTree, Doug Lebda, has died in an ATV accident. A company spokesperson says it happened Sunday at a family farm in North Carolina. Lebda was 55 and is survived by his wife and three daughters.
[05:40:00] LendingTree shares dropped more than four percent Monday following the news. The company's board called Lebda a visionary leader. They have chosen chief operating officer Scott Peyree as the new CEO.
Silver price have -- prices have surged by roughly 75 percent this year. Both gold and silver have reached all-time highs as investors turned to safer investments to hedge against political and economic uncertainty. In Monday's New York trading, silver futures surpassed their previous peak set back in 1980.
Researchers from the U.S., France, and the U.K. are sharing this year's Nobel Memorial Prize for Economics. Joel Mokry, Philippe Aghion, and Peter Howitt were honored for their work on how innovation affects economics growth and how new technologies replace older ones. It's a process known as creative destruction.
And back now to Wall Street, which saw a healthy rebound on Monday after President Trump seemed to walk back threats of massive new tariffs on China.
Clare Duffy has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH REPORTER: Yeah. Over the last few weeks investors had actually been hopeful that trade relations between the U.S. and China were improving following talks between U.S. and Chinese officials in Madrid last month and ahead of this planned meeting between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the APEC summit later this month.
But that progress hit a snag last week when Beijing announced new restrictions on exports of rare earth minerals. These are materials that are essential for building everything from electronics and semiconductors to electric vehicles and military equipment and could potentially cause problems for President Trump's goal of bringing back more manufacturing capacity to the United States.
So we saw President Trump respond on Friday with that Truth Social post that really roiled the markets threatening to impose new triple- digit tariffs on exports from China starting on November 1. That, of course, caused concern that the U.S.-China trade war could be back on and could have significant implications both for individuals and U.S. businesses that rely on goods from China. That is what caused this massive sell-off that we saw on Friday.
But since then we've seen U.S. officials trying to sort of deescalate the situation and quell some of these investor concerns. President Trump posted on Truth Social on Sunday saying, "Don't worry about China. It will all be fine. Highly respected President Xi just had a bad moment. He doesn't want depression for his country, and neither do I."
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also saying that he does expect that meeting between President Trump and President Xi to go forward later this month. And all of this does appear to have mollified investors, at least for
now. We saw all of the major indices in the U.S. ending in the green on Monday.
But I do think this raises the stakes for that meeting later this month between the two world leaders to go well.
Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ABEL: Clare Duffy, thank you.
Still to come, the latest on the deadly flooding and landslides in Mexico where dozens are still missing and rescue efforts are underway.
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[05:47:30]
ABEL: Welcome back. I'm Brian Abel. Here are some stories we are watching today.
Donald Trump is back at the White House after a whirlwind trip to Israel and Egypt. The U.S. president and other leaders took part in a signing ceremony in Sharm El-Sheikh Monday for the Gaza ceasefire deal. His trip coincided with the first phase of the agreement that saw the release of all living Israeli hostages and the freeing of hundreds of Palestinian detainees.
The Ukrainian president will head to the White House Friday for talks with President Trump. Volodymyr Zelenskyy telling reporters that the main topics of conversation will include air defenses and long-range missiles. The U.S. president has warned he may provide powerful U.S.- made Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine that are capable of hitting Moscow.
Some stock market analysts say the U.S. government shutdown will likely result in a hit to the U.S. economy in the fourth quarter. They also warn a prolonged shutdown, even just another week, could cause unemployment numbers to rise and have negative impacts for investors, businesses, and the Federal Reserve.
At least three people are dead after a powerful nor'easter battered the U.S. East Coast flooding streets and damaging homes. The storm is moving offshore now and high pressure will build behind the storm resulting in dry weather and decreasing winds. But cleanup will continue after high tides and strong winds left roads underwater and tens of thousands without power across six states.
And in more extreme weather news at least one person is dead after remnants of Typhoon Halong slammed into western Alaska this weekend. Homes were ripped from their foundations as hurricane-force winds tore through coastal villages. And a record storm surge left widespread flooding in its wake. At least 51 people have been rescued and two people are still missing in one of the hardest-hit communities. The Alaska National Guard and Coast Guard are leading the state's largest rescue effort in years.
And at least 64 people are dead and 65 still missing after days of torrential rain triggered flooding and landslides across Mexico. Thousands of troops have been -- have been deployed as rescuers struggle to reach more than 80 towns that remain inaccessible.
[05:50:00]
CNN's Valeria Leon has more from one of the hardest hit regions.
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VALERIA LEON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Days of heavy rain have caused widespread destruction across central and southeastern Mexico where landslide and mudslide floodings have put houses like this one under the ground. As you can see here these two crosses are because two babies were -- died here. And it was during the flooding two days ago when this tragedy happened.
And there -- no authorities in this town in Hildalgo, Mexico but there were the neighbors -- the one -- the ones who come and help this family. This is Enrique (INAUDIBLE). He was the one that helped these babies.
(Speaking foreign language).
ENRIQUE: (Speaking foreign language).
LEON: (Speaking foreign language).
ENRIQUE: (Speaking foreign language).
LEON: OK. He said that most of the neighbors came here to try to rescue these two children, but they couldn't save them.
So this family had moved to a remote community a few kilometers away from here. But we can see part of the belongings. And this is the frig that used to be inside of this house and here we have still this food left.
And all the roads in this community have -- show like this destruction in part of this trail. Most of the -- of the neighbors now are looking for help, asking the government to distribute aid to part of this community and others that have been cut off for more than three days. The federal government has announced a census starting this week to help and distribute aid to most of the people. There are hundreds of people that need this help and that they have been incommunicated (sic) for the last days.
This is the situation on the ground.
I'm Valeria Leon in Hildalgo, Mexico.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ABEL: Just ahead, candid comments from Barack Obama, who reflects on his presidency and the bitter political divide in the U.S.
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[05:56:43]
ABEL: Barack Obama is criticizing President Trump's deployment of the National Guard to Chicago, calling it "a genuine effort to weaken how we have understood democracy." The former U.S. president, whose political career began in Chicago, discussed the deployment on the final episode of comedian Marc Maron's podcast.
Obama also reflected on his time in the White House and the division he sees among Americans due to political differences. Take a listen.
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BARACK OBAMA, (D) FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And what you're seeing right now is a reassertion of this idea of, like, nope -- if you don't look a certain way, you don't think a certain way, you don't practice a certain faith, you're not a real American. And I started to see this during my -- that's what birtherism was about, right?
MARC MARON, "WTF WITH MARC MARON" PODCAST: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
OBAMA: That's what -- when Sarah Palin was talking about real Americans versus --
MARON: Right, right.
OBAMA: -- I guess the unreal Americans.
You have to put up with folks.
MARON: That's right.
OBAMA: If they -- as long as they're not actively hurting you --
MARON: Right.
OBAMA: -- you've got to put up with them. And you can battle them and ultimately it gets sorted out in politics and the winners get to move their agenda forward and the losers lick their wounds and come back later.
MARON: Yeah.
OBAMA: But there's always that sense of yeah, but we're not going to call each other vermin.
MARON: Right.
OBAMA: And we're not going to try to crush you if you lose.
(END VIDEOTAPE) ABEL: Several major airports, including Las Vegas, Seattle, and three in New York, are refusing to play a Homeland Security Department video that blames Democrats for the government shutdown.
The video is intended to play at airport security lines with Secretary Kristi Noem saying it's the TSA's top priority to ensure passengers have a pleasant and efficient airport experience while the agency keeps people safe. She then points an accusatory finger at Democratic lawmakers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KRISTI NOEM, SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Democrats in Congress refuse to fund the federal government. And because of this many of our operations are impacted and most of our TSA employees are working without pay.
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ABEL: Some airports say they won't play the video because of its political nature and possibly a violation of the Hatch Act. The 1939 law bars political activity by federal employees.
This surveillance video shows, right here, the moment a Tesla crashes into the patio of a bar in Miami Beach, Florida. Scary moments there. Three people then get out of the car and leave before law enforcement arrive. Police have since confirmed two of the three occupants were later detained. The investigation is still ongoing, but officials say the passengers were tourists from New York and noted the Tesla was a rental car. No injuries or weapons were reported on the scene.
And now to sports starting with the NFL. The Tennessee Titans have fired head coach Brian Callahan after a pretty miserable start to the season. The Titans winning just one game and losing five. Callahan had been in charge since January of last year. He was let go after losing to the Las Vegas Raiders, who also entered that game with only one win.
And the Seattle Mariners are two games away from the World Series after blasting their way to a 10-3 win in the second game of the American League Championship Series in Toronto against the Blue Jays.
[06:00:05]
Julio Rodriguez opening the scoring with a 3-run blast in the first inning. Look at that. The Blue Jays -- they would come back to tie the game in the second with a string of hits of their own, but that was all. In the fifth, Jorge Polanco doubling Seattle's tally when he launched another 3-run shot. Then the Mariners rubbed it in a little bit with another four runs, including a 2-run bomb by Josh Naylor, and he knew it right away.
They'll be in Seattle for game three. That's on Wednesday night.
That does it for us. Thank you for joining us here on EARLY START. I'm Brian Abel in Washington. "CNN THIS MORNING WITH AUDIE CORNISH" starts right now.
