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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

U.S.-Colombia Tensions Rise Over Alleged Drug Boat Strikes; Amazon: Systems Back Online After Global Outage; Manhunt On For Louvre Thieves Who Stole Crown Jewels. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired October 21, 2025 - 05:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[05:30:00]

HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now she also shares very good relations with Taiwan, a self-governing island that China lays claim to which, of course, ruffles many feathers in Beijing.

Now we are expecting under Takaichi's leadership looser fiscal policies, so what that means is bigger government spending and also some tax cuts.

Now her first foreign policy test, Brian, very critically, will come just in matter of days when the U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to make a visit to the region later in October. Now experts have told me that we can expect the two leaders to probably get along. They're both conservative and they also both support Japan boosting its defense spending, which the U.S. president has long pushed for.

But again, potentially, when it comes to tariffs and also, of course, the mercurial nature of Trump, that could cause some headaches for Takaichi, the very brand new leader of Japan -- Brian.

BRIAN ABEL, CNN ANCHOR: That first test coming right out the gates.

Hanako Montgomery in Tokyo for us. Hanako, thank you.

Well, Colombia has recalled its ambassador to the U.S. amid an escalating diplomatic feud between President Donald Trump and his Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro. Those tensions have been ramping up following a deployment of U.S. warships in the Caribbean and attacks on vessels the Trump administration claims were trafficking drugs.

CNN's Natasha Bertrand has more details from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: The U.S. has now conducted at least three strikes on boats carrying Colombian nationals, including as recently as last Friday, as tensions escalate between President Trump and Colombia President Gustavo Petro.

The last known strike that the U.S. carried out targeted individuals believed to be affiliated with Colombia's National Liberation Army, also known as ELN, an insurgent group that has operated out of Colombia for decades and that the U.S. has designated a terrorist organization. Secretary of Defense Hegseth also said that the U.S. believed that boat was involved in illegal drug trafficking in the Caribbean at the time it was struck, killing all three people on board.

But just a day before that strike the U.S. carried out another strike on a semisubmersible vessel in the Caribbean that killed only two out of the four people on board. One of the survivors was a Colombian national who is now going to be processed by the Colombian justice system after the U.S. released him to his home country, according to Petro.

The tensions have been steadily rising between the U.S. and Colombia for days over another strike the U.S. carried out in mid-September against yet another boat carrying Colombians that had actually departed from Colombia itself. Petro has said that an innocent Colombian fisherman was killed in that strike, which CNN has not been able to independently verify. And he also accused the U.S. of murder and of violating Colombia's territorial sovereignty.

Now, the U.S., it's worth noting, has not provided evidence for its claims that these individuals it's striking are drug traffickers. But at the same time, it's built up this huge military presence in the Caribbean that sources told CNN is aimed at pressuring the drug cartels and specifically, Venezuela's president.

But on Sunday, Trump continued to escalate the feud with Petro, Colombia's president, threatening to attack alleged drug targets inside Colombia itself. He also called Petro a "lunatic" and said he was going to cut off funding to Colombia over its cocaine production.

Colombia, meanwhile, said that it is going to be recalling its ambassador to Bogota for urgent consultations.

Natasha Bertrand, CNN, in Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABEL: The fallout from a massive Amazon Web Services outage ripple across the globe. Next, we'll bring you the latest on what caused it and the tech vulnerabilities it exposed.

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[05:38:13]

ABEL: Welcome back to EARLY START. This is your business breakout.

U.S. financial markets are looking to keep their momentum when trading begins in just a few hours, but U.S. futures appear to not be cooperating at the moment. The Dow, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq all slightly down to start the day.

Let's check on some of today's other business headlines. Kenvue, the company that makes Tylenol, is pushing back against a U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposal to change the painkiller's safety label. It would mention a possible link between Tylenol used during pregnancy and autism and ADHD in children. The company says the science doesn't support that claim despite pressure from the Trump administration for tougher warnings.

The Argentine peso weakening further on Monday despite support measures by the Trump administration. The U.S. began buying pesos earlier this month. And Argentina's central bank now says it signed a $20 billion exchange rate deal with the U.S. Treasury. All of this ahead of make or break midterm elections next week for the president, Javier Milei, a Trump ally who pledged to get the economy back on track.

The acting head of NASA says he is ready to open up the bidding process for the next moon landing mission known as Artemis III. SpaceX has the NASA contract right now to land humans on the moon as soon as 2027. But Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says Elon Musk's firm is falling behind schedule and he is willing to let other companies bid for that contract, including Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin. NASA hasn't landed an astronaut on the moon in over 50 years.

[05:40:00]

Well, Amazon says its services are back online after a massive outage that brought down several major apps and websites. The disruption impacted flights, stalled online purchase, and halted work for millions.

CNN's Clare Duffy has more on what went wrong.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH REPORTER: Yeah, the internet was on quite the rollercoaster on Monday. Reports of outages began around 3:00 a.m. Eastern time as people started to wake up on the East Coast and were unable to order Starbucks on the app or play Wordle, continuing throughout the day. We saw some flight delays because United and Delta Airlines were affected. People were unable to access the normal services they do at work, like Zoom and Slack. And it even continued into this evening with some people worried that they would be unable to access tickets from Ticketmaster for live events.

Now part of the reason this continued throughout the day is we saw a number of different disruptions to Amazon Web Services' different systems. It solved one issue and said its systems were coming back online, but then as it was trying to bring customers back that caused yet another issue.

Now as of this evening Amazon says its services are mostly back up and running. The company said, "We continue to observe recovery across all AWS services."

But I think to understand why this had such a widespread impact, it's helpful to understand what AWS is because it really sits at the heart of much of the internet.

Now in the early days of the internet, companies would largely operate their websites, their web services, their apps based on their own computers and servers. Now millions of companies rent service space from Amazon Web Services. And that generally makes life easier, and it saves companies money unless there is an outage like we saw today. And then you get a sense of just how fragile the internet ecosystem can be because we are reliant on a small number of core infrastructure partners.

One expert that I spoke to estimated that the financial impact of the outage on Monday could be in the hundreds of billions of dollars because consumers weren't able to spend money normally and people weren't able to come and do their jobs as the normally would.

So you really get a sense of just how important these key players are, and the impact and the ripple effects it can have for consumers around the world.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABEL: All right, Clare Duffy reporting there.

A sign of strengthening ties between the U.S. and Australia as the two countries strike a deal on rare earth minerals. That came during a meeting between President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese who says the deal signifies an $8.5 billion pipeline that's ready to go. Australia has rich deposits of many rare earths that are used in a wide range of modern technology. As part of the deal, the U.S. and Australia will pay $1 billion over the next six months for new projects.

The subject of rare earth minerals has become somewhat of a sticking point between the U.S. and China after Beijing ramped up restrictions on its exports.

French President Emmanuel Macron is vowing to bring those who robbed the Louvre to justice. Coming up, the latest on the investigation and the stolen treasures.

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[05:47:28]

ABEL: Welcome back. I'm Brian Abel. Here are some stories we are watching today.

An appeals court has ruled the Trump administration can send National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon despite objections from state leaders. That ruling overturns one of two lower court decisions to block the deployment while the appeal process plays out. But because the second decision is still enforced the troops can't immediately be deployed. U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance arriving in Israel just a short time

ago for talks on the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire. Vance will join President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kusher and special envoy Steve Witkoff. They met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.

Former U.S. President Joe Biden has completed a course of radiation therapy for his cancer treatment, according to a spokesperson. His daughter Ashley posted videos and photos of Biden leaving the treatment. Biden is battling prostate cancer, but the spokesperson did not give details on next steps in his treatment. The former U.S. president will turn 83 next month.

A global manhunt is underway for the gang of thieves who carried out a heist that's become a national humiliation for France. Officials say two suspects broke through a window on a balcony of the Louvre Sunday and stole priceless crown jewels. Two accomplices waited on the ground with a latter and getaway scooters.

CNN's Melissa Bell has more on how it went down and why it's likely the jewels are lost forever.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): It was 9:30 a.m. when a witness calls the police from outside the Louvre to report suspicious individuals wearing motorcycle helmets breaking into the museum using a truck with a lifting platform. By 9:37 a.m. a museum alarm was triggered. Shortly after a camera captures one of the robbers wearing a yellow vest as they break into a display case then quickly escaping through the window they used to get in. By 9:38 the thieves flee the scene on scooters.

The entire heist was done in just seven minutes and involved the most rudimentary of tools -- this angle cutter and blow torch.

ARIEL WEIL, MAYOR OF PARIS CENTER: It does appear that these were extremely well-trained robbers. They planned this meticulously, obviously.

BELL (voiceover): The thieves made off with priceless jewelry worn by French queens in the 19th century, like this tiara, necklace, and a single earring of Queen Marie Ameli. This large bodice bow brooch of Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III, and her tiara.

[05:50:00]

BELL: One thing the robbers dropped as they fled from that window on the first floor was the crown of the Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III. What they made off with though were eight pieces of jewelry of inestimable value in historical and cultural troves. And they did so on the back of scooters as they headed down this bank of the Seine river.

NATHALIE GOULET, FRENCH SENATOR: I think the pieces are already far from the country. So "Ocean's Thirteen" -- it's Thomas Crown -- so easy and not sophisticated. It's a -- it's a drama for the French culture and also for our image.

BELL (voiceover): By Monday, the Louvre remained closed as investigators tried to piece together how so much could have been stolen so quickly and why.

LAURE BECCUAU, PARIS PROSECUTOR (through translator): Either it was commissioned by a collector, in which case if we identify this collector and commissioner and can find the jewels in good condition, or it could also happen that it was commissioned by people who just want the stones and pearls that they were made of.

BELL (voiceover): Authorities say the investigation continues but the longer it takes to identify the suspects the slimmer the chances of recovering the jewels.

Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABEL: Still ahead, luxury on rails, and CNN's Richard Quest has the ticket. He'll take us all aboard Spain's most exclusive train experience after the break.

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[05:55:48]

ABEL: Yeah, it's tough job but somebody's got to do it. CNN's Richard Quest climbs aboard the luxury European train that is so in demand that you need to book your spot at least a year in advance. But the trip promises to be a once in a lifetime experience. So let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR (voiceover): All aboard the Transcantabrico train, a lavish hotel on rails. Over the course of eight days and seven nights it takes passengers through the breathtaking coastline of northern Spain, through the Basque Country. It goes all the way from Santiago de Compostela to San Sebastian, and the back again.

The train has a cozy bar for a cocktail and serves dishes showcasing local favorites. As for those accommodations they are comfy and beautiful. But it is expensive -- $23,000 per couple.

Of course, for those on board this train is about the visit and experience, not getting from A to B.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Train travel is very romantic. Much nicer than being squished in an airplane or sitting in a tour bus the whole time.

QUEST (voiceover): The Transcantabrico was Spain's first tourist train, making its inaugural run in 1983.

GONZALO PASTOR BARAHONA, DIRECTOR OF TOURIST TRAINS, RENFE: The idea was to transform original coaches -- Pullman coaches from the 19 -- 1920s. So -- and with this essence, you know, to have this special and unique train that where you have this experience.

QUEST: It's quite an extraordinary -- it's a beautiful, beautiful train, isn't it?

BARAHONA: Yeah. It's -- I mean, remember as in the times of La Belle Epoque in the 1920s when we -- when to travel was an experience and adventure. It's a romantic way of traveling, I'll say.

QUEST: This is extremely important. You have to book ahead on this train, don't you, because it's very popular.

BARAHONA: It's fully booked all the time. So you have to buy tickets in advance for one or two years.

QUEST: Really?

BARAHONA: One or two years, yeah. We have a very good web page, the Spanish luxury train, because most of our clients come from abroad -- 80 percent of our clients -- and 20 percent are Spanish.

QUEST: Of course, food is incredibly important.

BARAHONA: Yeah. Yeah.

QUEST: And on the train you must have a lot of good food.

BARAHONA: The Castrami Express is great. When you travel with us you will taste the different types of food of the north of Spain from the Basque Country to Galicia, because we also have a kitchen and a special chef -- a great chef in the train that will provide us, you know, all you want, all you need.

QUEST (voiceover): For the passengers, they're taking full advantage.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We feel like we are just eating all day, every day.

QUEST: And you're planning the next meal before you finish the last one.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just about.

QUEST (voiceover): The Transcantabrico train is a jewel of Spanish railways. Elegance of the past, comfort of today.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABEL: Richard definitely drew the long straw with that assignment.

There is no shortage of action in "MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL's" doubleheader.

First let's go to Detroit where running back Jahmyr Gibbs led the Lions with a career-high 218 yards from scrimmage. He scored two touchdowns, including this 78-yard in the second quarter. The final score, Lions 24, Buccaneers 9.

Now to Seattle where the Seahawks dominated the Houston Texans on offense and defense. Quarterback Sam Darnold threading the needle with this 11-yard touchdown pass at the end of the first quarter. Seahawks win 27-19.

[06:00:05]

And the Toronto Blue Jays are headed to the World Series. George Springer's dramatic three-run homer put his team up 4-3 ahead of the Seattle Mariners in the seventh inning of game seven of baseball's American League Championship Series. A very happy man as you can imagine. Toronto's defense holding on.

And the Jays are through to face the reigning World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers for MLB's ultimate prize. Game one of the best of seven series takes place on Friday in Toronto.

Thank you so much for joining us here on EARLY START. I'm Brian Abel in Washington. "CNN THIS MORNING WITH AUDIE CORNISH" starts right now.