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Early Start with Rahel Solomon
London's New Bond Street Named Most Expensive For Retailers; New X Feature Exposes Foreign-Based Pro-MAGA Accounts; JFK's Grandchild Schlossberg Confronts Terminal Cancer. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired November 25, 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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BRIAN ABEL, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to EARLY START. This is your business breakout.
U.S. financial markets are in negative territory ahead of the opening bell, and here is where they stand. The Dow, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq all starting the day in the red.
Let's check some of today's business headlines.
President Trump signing an executive order Monday to bolster artificial intelligence research. The new Genesis Mission is designed to allow data sharing between government agencies, tech companies, and academic researchers. Administration officials say the aim is to use AI to bolster research in health, energy, manufacturing, and other fields.
Amazon announced it's investing $50 billion to expand the U.S. government's AI and supercomputing capabilities. U.S. agencies will be given access to advanced AI tools and chips that will help develop a range of cutting-edge software for government initiatives. The move aims to position Amazon as a key AI partner for federal customers.
U.S. trade officials say they are open to the idea of lowering tariffs on steel and aluminum from the European Union but only if the EU changes the regulations for its tech sector. The Trump administration says the current EU policy unfairly targets U.S. tech companies. European officials have openly disagreed.
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The holiday shopping season kicks off this week in Europe and here in the U.S. and it's not just the shoppers who could be seeing higher prices; it's the shops as well.
CNN's Anna Cooban explains.
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ANNA COOBAN, CNN BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS REPORTER: I'm standing on the most expensive retail strip in the world. New Bond Street in London has overtaken Milan and New York as the priciest place to be selling stuff to the ultrawealthy.
According to a new report from commercial real estate company Cushman & Wakefield, rents over the last year on New Bond Street increased by 22 percent to over $2,200 per square foot per year. Rents in New York on Upper Fifth Avenue stayed at around $2,000 per square foot. And losing the top spot is Milan's Fashion District, Via Monte Napoleone. Again, there have been no rent increases this year.
So why are these luxury brands scrambling for a spot on this sidewalk?
Burberry -- it's an iconic British fashion brand, and the company recently posted its first quarter of growth in two years. Now, its CEO Joshua Schulman has talked recently about the importance of going back to basics, displaying the iconic scarves and trenchcoats in the shop windows.
And the report by Cushman & Wakefield has made it clear how important it is for brands to really lean into their flagship stores. Being in person, smelling, touching, feeling the clothes -- that is really good for business.
It's not just coats and scarves that are really pushing up the rents here. I'm here between Burlington Gardens and Clifford Street. Now this is the most hotly contested slice of retail real estate in the world right now and it's where you get your diamonds.
It's so easy to get swept up in the glitz and glamour before you remember the price tag. I guess I'll just settle for a spot of window shopping.
Most people will do their shopping a stone's throw from here on either Oxford Street or Regent Street. But even there, there have been double-digit rent increases.
So it's going to be an expensive Christmas not just for shoppers but for the shops.
Anna Cooban, CNN, London.
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ABEL: Anna, thank you.
Still ahead, X rolls out a new feature revealing where social media accounts are located. We'll explain why this update is sending shockwaves through the world of U.S. politics.
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ABEL: Welcome back. I'm Brian Abel. Here are some stories we are watching today.
The Justice Department will appeal the dismissal of charges against two of President Trump's political foes. A federal judge ruled indictments against former FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James are invalid because the interim U.S. attorney leading the prosecution was unlawfully appointment.
Senator Mark Kelly says he will not be intimidated by threats of a court martial. The Pentagon says it may recall the Navy veteran to active duty so he can face punishment. Kelly and five other lawmakers posted a video last week reminding service members of their duty to disobey illegal orders.
Russian officials say Ukraine launched a drone attack on its territory killing three people, while Ukraine says Moscow carried out major strikes across Ukraine killing at least six people. A source tells CNN U.S. and Russian officials are meeting in Abu Dhabi after a round of meetings between U.S. and Ukrainian officials in Geneva over the weekend.
The social media platform X is introducing a new feature that allows users to see where other accounts are located. And this update -- it aims to bring more transparency to sources of online information, and it's already begun exposing pockets of foreign influence in U.S. politics.
CNN's Hadas Gold explains.
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HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): The X account MAGA Nation, with nearly 400,000 followers, boasts itself as standing strong with President Trump and America First with post after post backing Trump. But one click shows it's based in Eastern Europe. One of its most popular posts about the Epstein files has been viewed 1.9 million times.
It's just one of a number of popular political accounts, mainly pro- Trump, outed when Elon Musk's X rolled out a new feature that shows where accounts are actually located from Russia to Nigeria. Dozens of accounts revealed to be based outside of the United States.
Another, this account named America First, featuring the image of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt -- it's operated by someone based in Bangladesh, posting things like this image saying President Trump "will go down in history as the greatest president of all time!"
Even President Trump himself reposting several accounts that are not from the United States on his Truth Social platform, like this account called Commentary Donald Trump, posting about whether foreign-born citizens should be barred from running for office. The account itself based in Africa.
The revelations bringing back memories of 2016 when Russian state-run networks of fake accounts and bogus online personas tried to influence that year's election by boosting Trump.
JEH JOHNSON, FORMER U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: It's going to get worse before it gets better. And bad cyber actors, all the time, are more and more ingenious, more tenacious, and more aggressive.
GOLD (voiceover): While it's not clear any of these accounts are from a coordinated foreign influence campaign, experts say there are financial and political incentives behind such accounts.
JAKE SHAPIRO, PROFESSOR, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: There are some people who hop on lot of different issues that can get attention and therefore drive revenue and monetization and ads, and then there are people who have political goals, both benign and more maligned. Foreign countries that have organizations that are dedicated to trying to shape U.S. politics.
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GOLD (voiceover): While X has suspended some of the MAGA accounts, the company did not respond to a request for comment. Its head of products said the new feature is an important first step to securing the integrity of the global town square while warning there were still some kinks to work out on the feature.
SHAPIRO: Well, I think X and many other companies have an existential problem that's coming, which is it's going to become increasingly hard to figure out what is real human and what is AI agents.
GOLD: We don't know yet whether any of these accounts are part of a coordinated foreign influence campaign. Researchers are now digging into this data. But it's important to remember that X now incentivizes creators on its platform, so the more posts and engagement and followers that people have, they can get paid actual money as a result of that engagement.
And a lot of these accounts that were revealed to be run from other countries -- they posted a lot of, sort of, questions and polls to try to get people to engage with their content.
But what this teaches us is that a lot of things on social media need to be viewed through a skeptical lens because a lot of accounts and even follower accounts can be bought. They can be automated. They can be generated by artificial intelligence. And as we're seeing from this news now, a lot of them can be run from foreign countries.
Hadas Gold, CNN, New York.
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ABEL: Experts believe this Thanksgiving could be one of the busiest in years for holiday travelers across the U.S.
Our meteorologist Derek Van Dam looks at the weather conditions we can expect.
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DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, there's certainly the potential for some Thanksgiving holiday travel chaos not only on the roads but also in the skies. We've got quite a bit of wet weather moving through much of the eastern half of the country.
In fact, we've been tracking stronger storms that have impacted the state of Texas over the past 12 hours or so. But really, this line of thunderstorms is going to advance eastward through the course of the day today impacting portions of Mississippi into Alabama, as well as Georgia.
So the Storm Prediction Center has really highlighted this area where we need to be weather aware and keep an eye to the sky as you hit the road. Maybe Interstate 20, for instance, strong winds, large hail, and an isolated tornado.
Chattanooga to Atlanta, Birmingham, Montgomery, Jackson, even further to the south and west near Baton Rouge -- this is an area that we'll look for the potential of some stronger storms as this cold front advances eastward.
So this is part of a bigger storm system so potentially, if you're traveling to the major East Coast airports this could impact your flights, right? So you've got a lot of wet weather. On the backside of this it's cold enough to draw down some snowfall downwind of the lakes, right, so the lake effect snow machine is going to kick in. Meanwhile, we still have that warm surge in the front part of this system. So that means it'll be all rain and quite a bit of wind, especially as we head into the day on Wednesday.
What happens after that? Thursday being the holiday, Thanksgiving Day, the cold front will be offshore. We will bring in the cooler temperatures but there will be still a lot of wind associated with this. So the favored lake effect snow band areas -- they will get several inches of snow.
But the big question here for the Macy's Day Thanksgiving Parade is whether or not they can fly balloons. And we take a closer look at the wind forecast and it could gust to 30 miles per hour at times in and around New York City on Thursday morning. So that could certainly impact some of the parade plans that they have in place for that city.
So let's talk about the temperatures, right? So we've had temperatures well above average. We've been enjoying this for the eastern half of the country but look what's coming. A significant shot of cooler air will settle in, more seasonable for this time of year. Places like Atlanta, St. Louis -- even as far south as Orlando and Houston. These areas will cool down, and it will feel like it should this time of year.
Happy Thanksgiving. Back to you.
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ABEL: All right, Derek. Thank you.
The oldest living survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre has passed away at the age of 111. Viola Ford Fletcher, who is in the middle here, had been interviewed multiple times by CNN. She and other survivors sued the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, accusing them of being complicit in the carnage. But last year the state's Supreme Court dismissed that lawsuit.
In 1921, a white mob destroyed Tulsa's thriving Black-owned business district, arresting thousands of Black residents while robbing, beating, and killing others.
Still to come, JFK's granddaughter reveals she has terminal cancer. We will bring you the latest on her diagnosis and her criticism of her estranged cousin, Health Secretary RFK Jr.
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JIMMY CLIFF, JAMAICAN MUSICIAN: Singing "You Can Get It If You Really Want.
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ABEL: Jimmy Cliff, who helped popularize reggae music, has died at the age of 81. Born during a hurricane, Cliff had his first hit at age 14 and later starred in the 1972 movie "The Harder They Come." He was inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010.
In a statement on X, Jamaica's prime minister called Cliff "a true cultural giant whose music carried the hearts of our nation to the world."
The Kennedy family is rallying around John F. Kennedy's granddaughter Tatiana Schlossberg, who recently revealed she has terminal cancer. Now she's openly criticizing deep cuts to health care imposed by her own relative Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
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Katherine Schwarzenegger, daughter of Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger, also addressed her cousin's cancer diagnosis saying, "I am and continue to be grateful for all the doctors and nurses helping her and encourage you to read her words about how the state of the country, the cuts and uncertainty, impacts and terrifies those in medicine and receiving treatment like Tatiana."
CNN's Sunlen Serfaty with more on Schlossberg's diagnosis.
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TATIANA SCHLOSSBERG, DIAGNOSED WITH TERMINAL CANCER: Hi. I'm Tatiana Schlossberg --
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Five years ago, Tatiana Schlossberg seemed healthy.
SCHLOSSBERG: I'm always so surprised that people I don't know want to listen to me talk, so -- SERFATY (voiceover): But now, 35 years old, with all forms of treatment exhausted, Schlossberg is sharing that her doctors say she has less than one year to live.
"I feel so cheated and so said that I don't get to keep living this wonderful life."
The daughter of Caroline Kennedy --
JOHN F. KENNEDY, THEN-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We shall pay any price --
SERFATY (voiceover): -- and granddaughter of President John F. Kennedy, Schlossberg says routine bloodwork performed the same day she gave birth to her daughter last year, revealed a rare version of acute myeloid leukemia that does not have a cure.
Her brother, Jack Schlossberg, who recently announced he is running for Congress, posting "Life is short -- let it rip." Her cousin, Katherine Schwarzenegger, saying she has "only tears and anger reading that this is her reality." Maria Shriver, the journalist and cousin to Schlossberg's mother Caroline Kennedy, saying, "Let it be a reminder to be grateful for the life you are living today, right now, this very minute."
Schlossberg is, herself, a journalist and author, writing about the environment and climate change.
SCHLOSSBERG: Somebody actually does pay for the cost. Like, we pay for the cost in terms of the ecosystem health or the health to the ocean.
SERFATY (voiceover): She's the mother of two young children, a 1-year- old daughter and a 3-year-old son, part of a broader family that has a history of tragedy, which has often played out for the world to see. Her grandfather's assassination as president, the assassination of her great uncle Robert Kennedy, the plane crash that killed her uncle John F. Kennedy Jr., among many others. She painfully acknowledges she is now adding to it.
"For my whole life, I have tried to be good, to be a good student, and a good sister and a good daughter, and to protect my mother and never make her upset or angry. Now I have added a new tragedy to her life, to our family's life, and there's nothing I can do to stop it."
DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Ted Kennedy once said he wonders if there's such a thing as Kennedy curse because of so many untimely deaths or family members who had freak accidents. The historian and the pragmatist in me doesn't believe in curses. I think it's just sad.
SERFATY (voiceover): Schlossberg described undergoing a series of treatments -- chemotherapy, bone marrow transplants, and a clinical trial of immunotherapy as her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is at odds with much of the rest of the family, was confirmed as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services -- calling him an embarrassment. "I watched from my hospital bed as Bobby, in the face of logic and
common sense, was confirmed for the position despite never having worked in medicine, public health or the government."
Schlossberg says that her remaining time is not going to be about politics, but about her children, writing that as she watches her young kids play, "sometimes I trick myself into thinking I'll remember this forever. I'll remember this when I'm dead."
SERFATY: And we reached out to HHS to get comment from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. They did not get back to CNN and RFK has not yet said anything publicly about his second cousin -- about her diagnosis or her mention of him in this article. But it's this family tension RFK has addressed in the past without this new context. He has said that they have a large family and that they were raised to differ with each other on issues.
Sunlen Serfaty, CNN, Washington.
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ABEL: Temple staff in Thailand got he shock of a lifetime when a woman brought in for cremation started moving inside her coffin. Temple officials say the 65-year-old had been bedridden for two years and become unresponsive, leading her brother to believe she had died.
He drove her over 300 miles to Bangkok to honor her wishes to donate her organs, but the hospital refused the body because of a lack of a death certificate. He then brought her to a temple offering free cremation and that's where staff there heard knocking from inside the coffin and discovered that she was alive.
She was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment and the temple says it will cover her medical expenses -- wow.
Well, holiday festivities are kicking off here in D.C. where first lady Melania Trump welcomed the official White House Christmas tree. The tree traveled over 650 miles from Michigan and arrived on a horsedrawn carriage. That's a longstanding White House tradition. It will take center stage in the Blue Room for the holiday season. White House tours will resume once holiday decorations are complete.
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And a new crystal ball will be dropped in New York's Time Square this year to ring in 2026. The ball unveiled Monday has almost 5,300 Waterford crystals. That's nearly twice as many as the last one. It also has circular crystals for the first time. This is only the ninth time the ball has been updated since the tradition back in 1907. Looking forward to seeing that.
Thank you for joining us here on EARLY START. I'm Brian Abel in Washington. "CNN THIS MORNING WITH AUDIE CORNISH" starts right now.
