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Early Start with Rahel Solomon
Trump Admin Will Reduce Air Traffic At 40 Airports; Venezuela Accused Of Using App To Spy With Citizens Help; CNN's "Guard Your Green Space" Initiative Underway; Tesla Shareholders To Vote On Elon Musk Pay Package; Paris Launches Lottery For Burial Plots Among Famous Artists. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired November 06, 2025 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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BRIAN ABEL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The U.S. government shutdown is now in its record 37th day, and the Trump administration is warning it will cut air traffic by 10 percent at dozens of airports across the country if the government doesn't reopen by Friday. The shutdown is taking a toll in other ways as well. CNN's Rene Marsh explains.
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RENE MARSH, CNN, U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Historically, the economic damage from shutdowns quickly resolves itself once the government reopens. But a number of factors will certainly make this shutdown one of the most damaging.
For starters, it is the longest shutdown in U.S. history. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the shutdown will reduce the GDP by 1 to 2 percentage points. The GDP is an indicator of the health of the economy and whether it's growing or shrinking.
The Congressional Budget Office says that although most of that decline will eventually be recovered, it estimates between 7 to 14 billion dollars will be permanently lost during the shutdown.
Now, the precise economic damage is difficult to measure, in part because of the information blackout data releases, including the all monthly jobs report and the Fed's inflation metric, all halted because of the shutdown. And we should note that this very long shutdown is happening on the
heels of massive layoffs across the federal government before the shutdown even began. And since October 1st, 1.4 million federal workers have been either furloughed or working without pay. And this Thursday, some employees will miss a second full paycheck.
Now, it is unclear if the administration will pay back pay to furloughed employees as has been done in previous shutdowns. Meanwhile, millions of Americans have lost access to food assistance.
Federal dollars sent to states for home heating assistance has also been delayed. And the FAA says it will cut air traffic by 10 percent at 40 airports across the country starting on Friday if the shutdown continues. Now, this shutdown is not like any other the nation has seen and really unclear when it will end. Rene Marsh, CNN, Washington.
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ABEL: President Trump is blaming Republicans for their poor showing at the ballot box, saying they didn't focus enough on his supposed economic accomplishments. He blasted New York City Mayor elect Democrat Zohran Mamdani for what he called a very angry victory speech. The president has threatened to freeze federal funding to the city if Mamdani won.
But on Wednesday, he struck a slightly more conciliatory tone.
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DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: You know, I'm so torn because I would like to see the new mayor do well because I love New York. I really love New York. He has to be a little bit respectful of Washington because if he's not, he doesn't have a chance of succeeding. And I want to make him succeed. I want to make the city succeed. I don't want to make him succeed. I want to make the city succeed. And we'll see what happens.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You see reaching out to him?
TRUMP: I would say he should reach out to us, really.
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TRUMP: The president also says he hoped for better results in the two key governors' races, but he acknowledges Virginia Republican Winsome Earl-Sears didn't really have his support.
Human rights advocates are concerned about how the Venezuelan government could be using an app to spy on its citizens. They say the government appears to be encouraging citizens to inform on each other by reporting on suspicious people or seditious or disloyal activities. CNN's Stefano Pozzebon reports.
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STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR (voice-over): Imagine living in a country where the government appears to ask your neighbor to spy on you. The Venezuelan government revamped an application this month to invite citizens to report on irregular activities.
NICOLAS MADURO, VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT (through translator): A new application so that the people can safely report everything they hear, everything they read.
POZZEBON (voice-over): CNN had a rare look at the app. [04:35:00]
It was originally launched in 2022 to report issues with utility services like water cuts or blackouts, but now it allows citizens to denounce attacks against the state or other disloyal activities, drone sightings or the presence of suspicious people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We haven't seen in our community any threat or anything similar, but if that were the case, I wouldn't hesitate a second to use the app.
POZZEBON (voice-over): Venezuela lives under tight control from security forces, and hundreds of dissidents have been jailed or forced to flee. But this has worsened as the United States has deployed warships and aircraft, putting pressure on Maduro and his government.
The government claims this is done to defend the fatherland and denies there are political prisoners in Venezuela. Civil society groups denounced the app, saying it promotes a system of social vigilance and militarization.
ANDRES AZPURUA, DIRECTOR, VENEZUELA SIN FILTROS: I would say that in 2024 we definitely saw a psychological campaign to intimidate and make people so afraid that they wouldn't speak out. It's not clear if this is what's going to happen, although the way Nicolas Naduro announced this re addition of this form on VenApp is definitely Orion (ph).
POZZEBON (voice-over): Apple and Google both removed the application from their app stores, but it still works for those who downloaded it and on a browser, not everyone sees it as a problem. CNN spoke with the user of the app. We're hiding his identity for fears of retaliation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): For the utility reports. I can tell you it works really well.
POZZEBON (voice-over): I asked him if he found it weird to put the two things in the same space the defense of the nation and utility outages.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We are prepared to defend our fatherland, our country, as the good, revolutionary we are.
POZZEBON: Stefano Pozzebon, CNN, Caracas.
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ABEL: CNN's Call to Earth Day is underway, with people around the world doing their part to fight climate change. Next, we'll go to Kenya, where students are learning how to use green spaces to avoid wasting food.
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[04:41:54] ABEL: Welcome back. Right now, CNN's annual Call to Earth Day is swinging into action in celebration of how people come together to help protect the planet. More than 600,000 people of all ages are taking part in a day long event around the world on TV, digital and social media in English, Spanish and Arabic.
This year's theme is called "Guard Your Green Space." We are asking participants to show us how they're guarding their shared spaces for future generations. CNN has a team of reporters covering Call to Earth Day across Los Angeles, Atlanta, London, Nairobi, Beijing, Hong Kong and Tokyo.
Let's now head to London where some students are trying to spruce up a green space outside their school. And Nada Bashir is there joining us now. Hey, Nada.
NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey Brian. We are at the North Bridge House Senior School in North London. We've been speaking to students all morning as part of Call to Earth Day. They are working, as you mentioned, on trying to redevelop and redesign this green space behind me and transform it into a sustainable eco garden focusing on sustainability as part of a broader sustainability project at the school.
We've been speaking to these students working on their design efforts. This morning, we're joined by Corentin and Mounira here. Mounira, just talk us through this project and what you've been working on.
MOUNIRA, STUDENT, NORTH BRIDGE HOUSE SENIOR AND SIXTH FORM SCHOOL: So right now we're witnessing a very big change with our transition to a lanes. But I think it's going to be something very positive because we're actually using this change to rework this whole area as a green space for our students, where we're going to be growing herbs, flowers, and if it's in season, definitely some berries.
And I think it's such a great opportunity for us to not just foster mindfulness in our students, but also promote biodiversity in our local environment. And we can also get the students to, like, tend to the garden and water the flowers and pick the berries.
BASHIR: And Corentin, focus to why this is so important for the students, for the school and for wider sustainability project as well.
CORENTIN, STUDENT, NORTH BRIDGE HOSUE SENIOR AND SIXTH FORM SCHOOL: So our school is in a really urban area. So having a green space is really important for both students and biodiversity to have somewhere where they can be with nature. And we're also working as a school and as sustainability prefects, Mounira, as reducing our energy consumption overall in the school.
BASHIR: Well, thank you so much, guys. And we'll be staying with these students at this school all day, looking at the other projects they're working on and the redesign efforts that all these kids behind me are working on at the moment to try to transform this garden into a sustainable green space as part of that effort, Brian, to guard their green space. ABEL: And it is a noble effort. Nasa Bashir in London for us. Thank
you.
In Kenya, some students are using the occasion to learn a lesson about not wasting food. But as Victoria Rubadiri reports, they're taking it to a whole new level.
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VICTORIA RUBADIRI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So we're here at one of the many gardens on the school premises, and the students here are learning about connecting green spaces with something extremely essential, and that is food security.
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Kenya loses up to 40 percent of food produced every year. And so what the students here are learning about growing plants in a smarter way and wasting less food. So let's get a sense of what that actually means when put into action. I have one of my friends here, Sama. So you're going to talk to me about pollinators. Why are they so important?
SAMA, STUDENT, PEPONI HOUSE: Because they help us to grow different plants and new food. And we can, by helping -- by them helping us to do that, we can grow new food and give it to the charity people so they cannot starve and eat food.
RUBADIRI: Fantastic. And the reason why they're called pollinators, if you notice there's netting around this greenhouse. It's to prevent the butterflies from escaping. They're pollinators by the way. Let's come over here to speak with another friend of mine, Martha, and we're going to talk about why worms are so essential in this whole process.
MARTHA, STUDENT, PEPONI HOUSE: Hello.
RUBADIRI: Hi Martha. So why we have the wormeries here?
MARTHA: So wormeries are special composting systems that turn organic matter and waste into nutrient filled compost called vermicompost. So we use food waste from the school kitchen, as you can see in here. So there are banana peels and watermelon scraps and rinds of all different kinds of fruits and vegetables. And the worms break down them and they mix it with soil and the microorganisms that they have in their body into a nutrient rich compost.
RUBADIRI: Fantastic. Yes, I can see some worms just wiggling around there in that soil. So this is part of what the school does to help manage food waste. And speaking of waste, we have Ann here just to talk to us about what the school is doing to ensure that they're not wasting as much food, Ann. So talk to me about that.
ANNE, STUDENT, PEPONI HOUSE: Here's an interesting fact. Do you know in rich countries 40 percent of food is wasted, but in poor countries that 40 percent would make a lot of families happy. In school we have a take what you'll finish rule. So anything you get served on your plate, you'll have to finish it because wasting food is not good.
Do you know -- did you know that it takes 150 liters of water just to grow a single mango --
RUBADIRI: Wow.
ANNE: -- and 160 liters of water just to grow an avocado? And wasting water and all these vegetables isn't good for the environment because water is very essential.
RUBADIRI: Absolutely. I mean this is what sustainability in action looks like from plate to plant and then back again.
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ABEL: Victoria Rubadiri in Nairobi. For our international viewers, join CNN chief climate correspondent Bill Weir as he sits down for an exclusive conversation with oceanographer Sylvia Earle, "No Blue, No Green" starts at 1:00 p.m. in London, 9:00 p.m. in Hong Kong, right here on CNN.
Ahead, could Elon Musk turn his hundreds of billions of dollars into a trillion? We'll have details on a key vote later today.
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ABEL: The wealthiest person on the planet could soon get the chance to become the first ever trillionaire. The Tesla shareholders will decide on CEO Elon Musk's new pay package later today. If it's approved, he could be granted more than 420 million additional shares of Tesla stock over the next decade, which could be worth about a trillion dollars.
The company warns that if Musk is denied this, he may pursue other interests. Musk's supporters insist he is pivotal to Tesla's success.
And Paris has announced a lottery with a most unusual prize. Instead of cash, it's the chance to be buried in one of the French capital's most celebrated cemeteries, the final resting place for several famous artists. CNN's Saskya Vandoorne has more from Paris.
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SASKYA VANDOORNE, CNN PARIS BUREAU CHIEF: People are entering a lottery to be buried in the same cemetery as celebrities such as Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde. This is the Pere-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, one of the most visited in the world.
But back in 1804, no one wanted to be buried here because it was far outside the city center and people preferred traditional church cemeteries.
So officials moved the remains of figures like Moliere Lafontaine. And it worked. The once empty cemetery suddenly became the place to be buried in Paris. And it's been that way pretty much ever since. Now the city's trying another unusual idea. And it's organized a modern day lottery that gives regular Parisians a chance to win a burial plot here if they help restore one of the cemetery's neglected tombs.
Each plot costs around $4,500. And if you win, you're responsible for restoring the old tomb and you'll earn a burial plot next to it. It's a rare opportunity since space in these cemeteries has been nearly impossible for more than 100 years. Saskya Vandoorne, CNN, Paris.
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ABEL: A fan favorite adventure movie series may be headed back to theaters.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have unleashed the creature that we have feared for more than three --
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ABEL: That's the trailer for the 1999 film "The Mummy" with stars Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz. They're reportedly in talks with to reunite for the next installment of the franchise that has quite the cult following. Since the first film, Fraser and Weisz have both won Oscars and they last appeared together in the sequel in 2001.
Thank you for joining us for this hour of Early Start. I'm Brian Abel in Washington. We'll be back with more news right after a quick break.
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