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U.N. Experts Condemn "Dangerous" U.S. Actions In Venezuela; Hopes To Work And Study In U.S. Dwindle Amid Visa Changes; Trump Blames Homebuilders For U.S. Housing Shortage. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired October 22, 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]
BRIAN ABEL, CNN ANCHOR: A chaotic scene on the streets of New York on Tuesday after an ICE operation. Immigration officers arresting street vendors on Canal Street in downtown Manhattan, according to a law enforcement official. Some people started running while others tried to intervene. This chaos stopped traffic in a crowded area and it's not clear how many arrests were made.
Following the arrests a small crowd protested outside ICE offices in New York. The building has become a frequent gathering spot for protests.
And in Los Angeles two people were injured in another ICE operation gone wrong. An ICE agent's weapon discharged when the agent tried to grab an individual who apparently rammed into a vehicle involved in immigration enforcement. The Department of Homeland Security says the incident took place during a targeted traffic stop with a suspect that had previously escaped. A U.S. marshal is currently in stable condition after being injured in the incident. The suspect's condition is not currently known but a law enforcement source told CNN earlier that they were gravely wounded.
U.N. experts are sounding the alarm over the Trump administration's actions and threats directed at Venezuela, calling them an extremely dangerous escalation that could impact peace and security in the Caribbean. The experts say covert action in the South American country and threats of armed force violate Venezuela's sovereignty.
President Trump says he authorized the CIA to operate inside Venezuela to curb illegal flows of migrants and drugs and is also laying military action as part of a pressure campaign to oust President Nicolas Maduro.
The experts also noted reports of the U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean and recent strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats off Venezuela's coast.
CNN's Juan Carlos Lopez has more from Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JUAN CARLOS LOPEZ, CNN EN ESPANOL U.S. POLITICAL DIRECTOR AND ANCHOR: The report by three United Nations experts urges the United States government to seize what they describe as unlawful attacks and threats against Venezuela. They state that covert action and threats of using the armed forces against the government of Venezuela violate that country's sovereignty and the United Nations charter.
According to the experts, even if the allegations of vessels the United States military has attacked in the Caribbean are linked on narcotics trafficking were true the use of lethal force in international waters without proper legal basis violates the international Law of the Sea and amounts, according to the experts, to extrajudicial executions.
The United States has attacked at least six boats and a semisubmersible it claims were involved in transporting illicit drugs and killed at least 32 occupants. Two survived. And even though they were described as terrorists by the Trump administration they were repatriated to Colombia and Ecuador with no charges filed against them. The Ecuadorian government said there was no evidence linking their repatriated citizen with illegal activity.
The report says, and I quote, "The long history of external interventions in Latin America must not be repeated. The international community must stand firm in defending the rule of law, dialogue, and the peaceful settlement of disputes."
President Trump claims he has the authority for the attacks because he is engaged in armed conflict with drug cartels to stem the flow of drugs to the United States. But the experts said in their report that these moves are an extremely dangerous escalation with grave implications for peace and security in the Caribbean region.
Juan Carlos Lopez, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ABEL: The Trump administration has made the golden ticket of work visas much tougher to obtain. We'll find out how that's affecting foreign students just ahead.
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[05:38:18]
ABEL: Welcome back to EARLY START. This is your business breakout.
Trading gets underway on Wall Street in just a few hours, and U.S. futures are basically flat ahead of the opening bell. You see the Dow and the S&P up just a little bit. The Nasdaq slightly down.
Checking some of today's other business headlines, gold has posted its worst one-day loss in five years. The precious metal, which has recently been hitting record highs, is still up more than 50 percent overall this year. Silver also suffered its biggest loss in years Tuesday falling more than six percent.
The Louvre has reopened to the public for the first time since that daring daytime jewel heist on Sunday. The museum's curator estimates the jewelry stolen from the Apollo Gallery is worth about $102 million. Authorities haven't announced any solid leads on the missing artifacts or the four suspects.
America's largest private sector employer is pausing job offers to foreign candidates requiring H-1B visas. Walmart's hiring freeze comes after the Trump administration announced a $100,000 annual fee for those visas, which are meant for highly-skilled workers. Walmart currently employs 2,000 H-1B visa holders.
Changes to the H-1B visa program are taking a toll on foreigners who had planned to work in the U.S. and CNN's Ivan Watson has details on that.
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SATYA NADELLA, CEO, MICROSOFT: Good morning.
SUNDAR PICHAI, CEO, GOOGLE: Good morning.
ARVIND KRISHNA, CEO, IBM: Good morning, everyone.
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): They run America's biggest tech companies -- Google, Microsoft, Abode, IBM -- all four Indian nationals who started out on student visas and then H-1B work visas.
[05:40:00]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I've always said, you know, as an immigrant of this country it's given me everything that I have.
WATSON (voiceover): For decades the H-1B has been the golden ticket, turning students into CEOs and dreams into careers. So prized that in India, some temples are dedicated to praying for visa approval. But the Trump administration is cracking down.
HOWARD LUTNICK, U.S. COMMERCE SECRETARY: Train Americans and stop bringing in people to take our jobs. That's the policy here. A hundred thousand dollars a year for H-1B visas and all of the big companies are on board.
WATSON (voiceover): H-1B work visas will not cost employers $100,000 apiece. Until recently nearly 70 percent of those visas went to Indian nationals.
WATSON: We're not going to reveal your identity --
WATSON (voiceover): Many Indians in the U.S. now facing crushing debt with little chance of finding work in the U.S.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now I --
WATSON: How much are we talking about in terms of U.S. dollars?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So it's more than $90,000 for me and I took a pretty hefty loan. So for somebody like me who doesn't really have (INAUDIBLE) back home, it was a big and heavy investment. It almost feels like we're not wanted here.
WATSON (voiceover): Online hostility is rising with some people calling foreign workers job thieves and outsiders. The message: go back home.
SUDHANSHU KAUSHIK, FOUNDER, NORTH AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF INDIAN STUDENTS: It's a climate of fear and uncertainty and it goes against what we've been conditioned to for the past 20-30 years that you work hard, you study, you get the grades, you get admission, you know. You get the scholarships, or you pay the tuition. Then there will be a reward, you know, and you will be able to prosper, and you'll be able to contribute to the American growth story.
WATSON (voiceover): U.S. government statistics show a sharp drop in foreigners with student visas coming to the U.S. in 2025 versus 2024, with the arrivals of students from Indian plunging around 45 percent.
In India, the H-1B ripple effects are already visible. The dream of studying abroad reflected in entire neighborhoods in Indian cities.
Tutors and students describe a recent shift away from studying in the U.S.
HEMANKSH SWARA, GRADUATE SCHOOL APPLICANT: The reasoning now due to the Trump H-1B visa I have decided to drop U.S. from my plans. I'm looking into European countries, maybe even India.
WATSON (voiceover): And this appears to be the White House's message: international students should no longer dream of starting their careers in the U.S.
Ivan Watson, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ABEL: And Donald Trump is taking aim at America's largest homebuilders amid the ongoing housing shortage. Coming up, why he claims they're responsible for the industry's affordability crisis.
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[05:47:15]
ABEL: Welcome back. I'm Brian Abel. Here are some stories we are watching today.
The U.S. president says he may seek $230 million from his own Justice Department. Donald Trump claims he's owed compensation for past investigations into him, adding that he's not looking for money and might give it to charity. Any settlement to President Trump would come from taxpayer funds.
U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance is meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today. Vance is downplaying concerns about the fragility of the Gaza ceasefire as some Trump administration officials are privately worried it could fall apart.
The U.S. is now in the second-longest government shutdown in the country's history. President Trump says he's willing to meet with Democratic lawmakers to discuss changes to health care but will own do that if they let the country open. The longest shutdown in history was 35 days during President Trump's first term.
Meanwhile, the president is blaming America's largest homebuilders for the country's lingering housing shortage and affordability crisis. He accuses them of holding on to around two million empty lots keeping home prices artificially high.
CNN's Matt Egan reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: The American dream of home ownership is out of reach for far too many people right now And the president is right to be focused on supply because yes, there is this long-running housing shortage.
Now the problem is that homebuilding -- it never recovered from the Great Recession. You're looking at construction starts of private housing units and 20 years ago there was a building boom, right -- 2.1 million. It never recovered though even though demand largely has. In fact, you can see that construction starts are much lower today.
Now the problem is, according to economists and housing industry experts, it's not that homebuilders are purposefully inflating prices by sitting on empty lots. They say it's that financing costs are just too high right now and that regulation is too burdensome, especially at the local level where red tape slows projects down and also adds to the cost.
Now, Goldman Sachs says that the U.S. needs between three and four million more homes to address this shortage. The good news is Goldman Sachs says you could largely address this gap if land use regulations were rolled back. The bad news though, this would be really challenging because a lot of these regulations are at the local level. So this is not something that can be quickly solved through a Truth Social post or an executive order.
[05:50:00]
Now there are concerns about some Trump policies adding to the cost of building homes, namely tariffs, right? It's an odd time to put tariffs on building materials if you're trying to inspire a building boom, but that's exactly what's happened where we have tariffs on steel, aluminum, copper, and lumber. UBS estimates that this is adding almost $9,000 to the cost of building a home in the United States. Now homebuilders might not have to absorb all of that cost, but this is just another obstacle.
Another concern is the president's immigration crackdown. One homebuilder in Texas told us that they're worried that this crackdown is going to backfire but not only making it more expensive to build homes but by shrinking the already small pool of construction workers.
I spoke to Shaun Donovan, former housing secretary under President Obama, and he told me that this not something that's going to get fixed instantly. Take a listen.
SHAUN DONOVAN, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT: I will tell you I've been working in housing for 30 years and I have never seen the affordability crisis this bad. Record high home prices, record high rents. You don't solve the housing crisis overnight. It took us years to get into this and it's going to take us years to get out.
EGAN: Now meanwhile, many homebuyers are struggling right now. We spoke to a woman in Rochester, New York who tried and failed for five months to buy a home. And finally, this month, she landed a home but only after paying $100,000 above asking price to beat out 36 other bidders. That shows in this housing market even the lucky ones who are able to buy -- they're being forced to stretch their budgets.
Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ABEL: Matt Egan, thank you.
Using AI to mock opponents. Still ahead we will examine President Trump's increasing appetite for posting manipulated images.
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[05:56:10]
ABEL: President Trump is no stranger to using artificial intelligence to insult his perceived enemies, like Democrats and the millions of No Kings protesters who rallied across the country last weekend. His latest fake video may have turned some stomachs but allies and aides are defending his use of manipulated images.
CNN's Tom Foreman has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
President Donald Trump's AI-generated video of himself as a king dropping brown liquid over No Kings demonstrators, featuring Kenny Loggins' popular song "Danger Zone."
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): With the unauthorized use of a popular song and an unabashed taste for trolling, President Donald Trump has once again posted an AI-generated video ridiculing millions of Americans who oppose him and energizing those on his side.
GREG GUTFELD, FOX NEWS HOST: Something as absurd as protesting kings in a country without kings doesn't merit anything more than a meme with poop landing on protesters.
FOREMAN (voiceover): Fake videos of former President Barack Obama being arrested, Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries as a mariachi, and a dark promise to keep firing federal workers as the government shutdown grinds on.
The White House shrugs off the parade of presidential propaganda as just good fun.
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: He lives to share memes. He likes to share videos. He likes to repost things that he sees other people post on social media as well. And I think it's quite refreshing that we have a president who is so open and honest.
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will make America great again.
FOREMAN (voiceover): Trump's campaign to retake the White House last year sizzled with AI-created images, including this one claiming mega popstar Taylor Swift endorsed him, although she actually ended up backing Democrat Kamala Harris.
And these after Trump lied about Haitian immigrants in a debate.
TRUMP: They're eating the dogs -- the people that came in. They're eating the cats.
FOREMAN (voiceover): As president, Trump posted this AI video months ago suggesting he would turn war-torn Gaza into a beach resort, and this one of him dancing with billionaire Elon Musk, and more and more and more.
The New York Times found Trump has posted AI-generated images or videos at least 62 times on his Truth Social account since late 2022.
FOREMAN: It's all counterfeit -- much of it patently untrue. Yet top Republicans show virtually no qualms with Trump's fakery.
REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: He is using satire to make a point. He is not calling for the murder of his political opponents, and that's what these people are doing.
FOREMAN (voiceover): Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ABEL: She's been described as a once-in-a-generation artist, Misty Copeland. If you haven't heard of her, she made history as the first African American principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre and is just hours away from her final performance with the company. The trailblazing ballerina broke barriers on stage and now she is making dance more accessible for children of color through her nonprofit foundation.
She'll be celebrated today at a star-studded gala where she will take her final bow. Congratulations to her.
A vast collection of music memorabilia is heading to auction this week in London. Hundreds of items will be up for sale from renowned artists and bands, including The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Michael Jackson, and many others.
Among the highlights John Lennon's iconic tinted glasses worn during his so-called lost weekend period in the early 1970s. They are expected to sell for up to $400,000. And more than 150 Oasis items will also be sold, including Noel Gallagher's 1960 red Gibson guitar.
[06:00:05]
This entire auction is expected to raise more than $4 million. That is impressive.
Thank you for joining us here on EARLY START. I'm Brian Abel in Washington. "CNN THIS MORNING WITH AUDIE CORNISH" starts right now.
