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Air Traffic Controllers Miss First Paycheck During Shutdown; "Extremely Dangerous" Melissa Makes Landfall On Eastern Cuba After Devastating Jamaica; 14 Killed As Four Alleged Drug Boats Bombed In Pacific Ocean. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired October 29, 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]
NATASSIA WRIGHT, CO-FOUNDER, MIND FOOD INTERNATIONAL: I've seen videos of floodwaters so high that individuals have to evacuate that entire area or town.
For example, the eastern side of the island in St. Thomas -- they -- the riverbanks broke, you know, and so the damages on those -- in those areas are going to be astronomical and it would be nothing compared to what I've seen so far. Broken poles, debris in the way. We've had to do quite a bit of a hop, jump, and skipping to get to this location because of the things in the road.
But again, I know that the damage outside of this area is so much greater than, you know, what we're seeing right now.
BRIAN ABEL, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah.
WRIGHT: But for now it's the loss of electricity and not being able to connect with our friends and families. So where I am we're completely disconnected. I had to drive to another location to be able to pick up data.
ABEL: Well, we are grateful for you for doing that so that you could talk with us and give us a sense of what's happening, and very glad to see that you made it through OK. And our thoughts will certainly be with you and your neighbors. Natassia Wright, thank you.
And to find out ways you can help those impacted by Hurricane Melissa go to CNN.com/IMPACT.
The U.S. government shutdown's impact on air traffic controllers and how that could impact you the next time you fly. It's coming up.
(COMMERCIAL)
[05:36:23]
ABEL: Welcome back to EARLY START. This is your business breakout.
Checking U.S. futures ahead of the opening bell -- we seem them here. The Dow is down but the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are up. Investors are watching for news today from the Federal Reserve. It's
expected to cut its key interest rate by a quarter percentage point for the second time this year despite having little official data to work with amid the government shutdown.
And let's check some of today's business headlines now.
Apple has joined an exclusive club, becoming just the third publicly traded company to top $4 trillion in market value. Fellow tech giants NVIDIA and Microsoft both reached that milestone earlier this year. Apple shares have been surging lately with the new iPhone 17 selling better than previous models.
New data shows U.S. consumer confidence falling to a six-month low. The Conference Board survey says Americans remain worried about rising inflation. Consumers also mentioning the labor market as a key concern amid the ongoing government shutdown.
And AI chip giant NVIDIA announcing a flurry of new corporate deals Tuesday. It's investing some $1 billion in finished telecom company Nokia, sending Nokia shares soaring more than 22 percent. NVIDIA also announcing partnerships with U.S. telecom giant T-Mobile and Uber. CEO Jensen Huang said in a speech Tuesday that his company's fastest AI chips are now being manufactured in the United States.
Air traffic controllers are going to work every day now but they're not getting paid, and as you can imagine they're not happy about it.
We get more details from CNN's Pete Muntean at Reagan National Airport here in Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): From LAX in Los Angeles to New York's LaGuardia, air traffic controllers are taking to airport curbsides calling for the government shutdown to end.
PETE LEFEVRE, AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: It's frustration. It's disappointment.
MUNTEAN (voiceover): Pete LeFevre is one of 10,000 controllers who just received their first zero-dollar paycheck of the shutdown. He is still showing up to the tower at Dulles International Airport in Virginia while his wife, also a federal worker, isn't getting paid either.
LEFEVRE: You just don't know how long this is going to go. So right now when you don't know when your next check is going to come you have to make tough choices.
MUNTEAN (voiceover): Controllers are handing out these leaflets at airports nationwide -- their latest effort to remind travelers they're still working without pay.
Since the shutdown began, FAA air traffic facilities have seen more than 275 staffing shortages, more than four times the number from a year ago.
NICK DANIELS, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS ASSOCIATION (NATCA): The anger is at level 10.
MUNTEAN (voiceover): Nick Daniels heads the union of controllers.
DANIELS: I'm going to work right now and I'm thinking about how do I pay my rent. Rent is due in a few days. How to put food on the table. How to put, you know, gas in my car just to show up to work. And those are levels of safety that are being reduced in the system, and the flying public doesn't deserve.
MUNTEAN (voiceover): The frustration is being felt by passengers too, now caught in the middle of delays.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People need to be able to work, and they need to be able to get paid for their work.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, I do feel for them and for everybody who is not getting paid and still having to work because they need to get money to bring food to their families.
MUNTEAN (voiceover): At a news conference Tuesday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said nearly half of Sunday's 8,000 delays were caused by air traffic control staffing shortages, with L.A. and Atlanta emerging as new hotspots for controllers calling out sick.
[05:40:00]
SEAN DUFFY, U.S. TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: Almost every controller can't make it two paychecks. They can't make it without two paychecks.
MUNTEAN (voiceover): In his 16 years as a controller this is not Pete LeFevre's first government shutdown, but he says hopefully, it's his last.
LEFEVRE: Air traffic control, just by the nature of the job, is very stressful. Adding on the financial uncertainty of not knowing when I'm going to be paid again adds an extra layer of stress onto an already stressful job.
MUNTEAN: On Tuesday, flight delays, thankfully, remained relatively low even though the Federal Aviation Administration has warned of staffing shortages at air traffic control facilities in places Dallas- Fort Worth, and Denver, and Atlanta, and Newark.
The head of the Federal Aviation Administration, Bryan Bedford, just sent out a memo to all of the FAA's 46,000 employees warning that flight delays may increase as this shutdown drags into another week.
By the way, the rhetoric from the Trump administration on this has not changed. And Trump Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said at a news conference that he puts the blame for this on Democrats, like Chuck Schumer, even though it is Republicans who control the House, the Senate, and the White House.
Pete Muntean, CNN, Reagan National Airport.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ABEL: All right. We are going to go back to South Korea now. We have live images where it's President Lee Jae Myung hosting a special leader's dinner for President Donald Trump. You see him there. He's been getting the royal treatment during the final stop on his swing through Asia and this event here just the latest in a series of top honors. Guests include the leaders from regional partners. Among them, Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand, and Thailand.
We'll, of course, continue to monitor this for any comments from the president.
We are tracking Hurricane Melissa, which has made a second landfall in the Caribbean, this time in eastern Cuba. We'll have the very latest on the storm's impacts and where it's headed next.
(COMMERCIAL)
[05:46:23]
ABEL: Welcome back. I'm Brian Abel. Here are some of stories we are watching today.
The U.S. president is in South Korea for talks with world leaders. Earlier, Donald Trump meeting the South Korean president who presented him with the country's highest honor. President Trump is set for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday.
The U.S. government shutdown now entering its fifth week and for the first time since it began air traffic controllers are among those not getting paid. Vice President J.D. Vance says there are simply not enough emergency funds to pay everyone or to cover the SNAP federal food aid program, which will stop paying out benefits on Saturday.
Hurricane Melissa has made a second landfall in Cuba as an extremely dangerous category 3 storm. Cuba will see damaging winds, torrential rain, and dangerous storm surge as Melissa moves over the island. The storm's size, as measured by its full wingspan, is roughly the size of Texas, which is about 770 miles across.
And with that, let's check back in with our meteorologist Chris Warren with what Melissa is doing right now, Chris.
CHRIS WARREN, AMS METEOROLOGIST: And Brian, right now Melissa continues to tear across Cuba with the strong winds and that torrential rain that you were talking about here.
But also, some of these rain bands going into Haiti and the Dominican Republic are concerning, especially the fact that they have been seeing heavy rain for about a week now pretty much every day. So that's something to watch as we continue to monitor the winds associated with the eye of the storm, which is really falling apart as it moves inland but still gusts on the island there at times at hurricane force. And a category 2 hurricane is expected to move across the Bahamas this
afternoon and into the evening hours. Not until overnight tonight will it head out into the Atlantic and along the way bringing these strong, damaging winds. The strongest of winds are going to be here in the red. That's where it's going to be hurricane-force winds. And you can see moving across the Bahamas with some of the Turks and Caicos seeing some tropical storm-force winds, which is the yellow here -- and that moves off.
So winds remain dangerous with more power outages likely in some of these areas. But the rain also can be dangerous if not deadly with the flash flooding, mudslides, and landslides. And this is that -- that red and some pink is there is some very heavy rain. This tropical rain can come down very quickly in a short period of time creating some of that flash flooding. The amount of rain we're going to see here in red, more than six inches -- maybe even up to 10 inches in spots -- and that includes a lot of eastern Cuba and Haiti as well.
And then after that, Brian, we're going to watch Hurricane Melissa go very close to Bermuda, and it does not have to make a direct hit on Bermuda for this to be a problem. Being on the right side of the storm you can kind of see -- you can kind of split it into quarters here. And this part right here of the hurricane is the most dangerous part. You have the forward motion of it. You've got the winds coming around in counterclockwise fashion.
So Brian, again, Bermuda does also need to be on alert. They've seen a lot of these close passes by of hurricanes and this, once again, will be another one.
ABEL: And they do have enough time to get everything in order before it arrives so hopefully, people are preparing.
Chris Warren, thank you.
The U.S. military has carried out more deadly strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats, this time in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.
[05:50:00]
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says U.S. forces hit four boats in three strikes, the largest one-day operation in this campaign against alleged drug cartels.
CNN's Zachary Cohen has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZACHARY COHEN, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: The 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.
There were previous survivors earlier in a -- in a strike last week where there were -- 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 ramp -- 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 to date, 57 individuals have been killed in these U.S. military strikes. Fourteen 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.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ABEL: In 100 days the Winter Olympics will kick off in Italy. Just ahead, a look at the preparations being made in Italy for the elite games and athletes from around the globe.
(COMMERCIAL)
[05:57:15]
ABEL: Final preparations are underway for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Northern Italy and one of the main centers for the games is Milan.
CNN's Antonia Mortensen is there, and she took a look at the new Olympic Village designed to be an asset to the city long after the games are done. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANTONIA MORTENSEN, CNN FIELD PRODUCER (voiceover): Countdown to the 25th addition of the Winter Olympics is on. Preparations are in full swing in Northern Italy where the games will be spread cross eight locations with major hubs in Milan, Cortina, and across the Dolomites.
Indoor sports competitions, like ice hockey and skating, will be held here in Milan, while outdoor disciplines will be spread across the mountain resorts.
MORTENSEN: We're about to give you a sneak peek of this Olympic Village where all the athletes competing here in Milan will be staying.
MORTENSEN (voiceover): This newly completed village has 1,000 rooms with 1,700 beds. This development is part of a larger redevelopment project in the Porto Romano area of Milan.
MORTENSEN: There is a real lack of affordable housing here in Milan and that's because prices have shot up over the last few years. This development has been built with that in mind so that when the games finish this will become student housing.
LUCA MANGIA, GENERAL MANAGER, COIMA: All the square is empty because this a request for Milan-Cortina because they need to have the free space during the Olympic Games. And after, when we complete the Olympic Games, we completed all of the external works with the landscaping and the trees.
MORTENSEN: OK. So now we're going to see where the athletes are going to be staying.
MANGIA: This is --
MORTENSEN: There it is.
MANGIA: -- the first room. This is a double room.
MORTENSEN: So this is the furniture that the athletes will --
MANGIA: Yes. This is --
MORTENSEN: -- be sleeping on.
MANGIA: Exactly. Not temporary beds but final and solid.
MORTENSEN: It's pretty comfortable, actually.
MORTENSEN (voiceover): This is one of the first venues to be completed and after the games it will become Italy's largest student housing development. Organizers say that the other venues are also on track.
KIRSTY COVENTRY, PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE: We were earlier at the ice -- what will be the home of ice hockey, and it was really wonderful to see the fast pace and the progression. And now we're here in this beautiful venue that is making me want to become a winter athlete.
So the venue -- the rooms are beautiful. Even more importantly, the legacy of the venue for student housing, which I know is so important for Milano, it's incredible. So we're looking forward to walking back in in a few months and seeing all the countries' flags out the windows.
[06:00:00]
MORTENSEN (voiceover): The online booking system for students is already open for the 2026-27 academic year, and rent will be significantly below the market average.
Organizers hoping that the games will leave a positive legacy on the fast-growing city.
Antonia Mortensen, CNN, Milan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ABEL: Looking forward to that.
Thank you for joining us here on EARLY START. I'm Brian Abel in Washington, D.C. "CNN THIS MORNING" starts right now.
