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Early Start with Rahel Solomon
Funeral For Valentino Is Underway In Rome; Trump Returns To Washington Claiming Success In Davos; "Sinners" Earns Record-Breaking 16 Oscar Nominations. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired January 23, 2026 - 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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[05:30:30]
RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back.
Family, friends, and lovers of high fashion are in Rome right now for funeral services for the designer known simply as Valentino. He died Monday at his home at the age of 93. His full name was Valentino Garavani.
As a young man he learned his trade in Paris before founding his own fashion house. He created elegant designs for glamorous women from Elizabeth Taylor to Audrey Hepburn, often dressing them in rich scarlet shades that came to be known as "Valentino Red."
Joining us live this morning from Rome is CNN's Barbie Nadeau. Barbie, give us a sense of what the mood is like out there as people say their goodbyes to the fashion icon.
BARBIE LATZA NADEAU, CNN REPORTER: Yeah. You know, we've just seen a steady stream here of celebrities. We've seen Anne Hathaway. Anna Wintour was here. Tom Ford walked by. It was almost like a red carpet here going into this beautiful basilica behind me. This is a 16th- century basilica that was designed by Michelangelo. Nothing could be more perfect.
But we've also seen just an outpouring of everyday Romans and Italians here, many with signs. Many of them wearing their versions of the Valentino Red. And it really is sort of a somber moment.
You know, you've got to think back to just five months ago when Giorgio Armani's funeral was. This really is an end of an era. This is, you know, the last of the big designers. We saw Donatella Versace. I guess she's left even though she inherited the line from her brother. So this is a very momentous occasion here for Italian fashion.
But what's interesting is he chose to be buried in Rome and have his funeral in Rome, and not Milan. You know, he was one who loved this city -- loved everything about it. Loved the beauty of the city. Lived on the ancient Appia Antica for years and years while the rest of his contemporaries and peers all lived in Milan and Paris. He spent some time, of course, in Paris and New York too.
But this is an end of an era, and we've just seen a lot of appreciation, a lot of respect, and really, a lot of very beautiful people walking here behind me, Rahel.
SOLOMON: OK. Well, keep us posted. Barbie Latza Nadeau there for us in Rome. Barbie, thank you.
We're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back.
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[05:37:17]
SOLOMON: Welcome back to EARLY START. The time now is 5:36 Eastern, and this is your business breakout.
Let's starts with where U.S. futures stand ahead of the opening bell on Wall Street. Right now, green across the board of futures, although watch to see if we get another positive session. We've seen two straight positive sessions on the back of those easing geopolitical tensions in Greenland. Obviously, a very eventful week as well for the markets with the World Economic Forum in Davos.
All right. Let's check some of today's other business headlines.
Elon Musk says that his Optimus robots will be on sale by the end of next year. The world's richest man spoke yesterday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and he said last year that the humanoid robots would generate $10 trillion in revenue. At Davos, he predicted there will be unprecedented growth in the global economy fed by AI, as well as by robotics.
Lawmakers in Venezuela backed a plan Thursday that would make it easier for foreign companies to participate in the country's oil industry. The plan is the latest move by acting President Delsi Rodriguez to try to meet the demands of U.S. President Donald Trump. Under this new policy foreign companies could operate their own oil fields at their own cost and at their own risk.
U.S. President Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase and its CEO Jamie Dimon. He's accused the bank of dropping him as a client in 2021 for political reasons and placing him and his businesses on a banking blacklist. The suit, filed in Florida state court, seeks $5 billion in damages. JPMorgan denies the allegations and says it will fight the case in court.
CNN's Richard Quest has been covering the World Economic Forum in Davos for years. The gathering of the rich and powerful in an alpine paradise sometimes seems far removed from the problems of people in the real world, but with so much turmoil around these days, Richard went looking for answers. Check it out.
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RICHARD QUEST, CNN ANCHOR: The question is what gives you hope? I'll give you a choice of color -- here we go. You get to choose your poison and write your answer on the board anywhere you like.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Economy. I'll be a little bit unoriginal and circle economy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Technology. What gives me hope is the inventiveness of people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stability.
QUEST: Oh!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Human adaptability.
QUEST: Oh! That's good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shared interests.
QUEST: Oh! Interesting.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cooperation.
QUEST: Oh! That's a good one.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The world is still full of good people.
QUEST: Madam President, choose your color.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The blue up here.
QUEST: Oh!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
QUEST: The blue of Europe.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. (Writes "My grandchildren).
QUEST: Oh!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Viola.
[05:40:00]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it is what has transformed humanity for the better -- reason.
QUEST: Oh! Oh! Trust.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Something everybody should be thinking about.
QUEST: Oh.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Really important.
QUEST: That's very good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to relax. I mean, everyone gets so excited here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will join those who said history because things are moving in the right direction.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The word "calm."
QUEST: Oh!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).
QUEST: Multinationalism. Oh, that's very good.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nigeria paving the way.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Resilience.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, I can tell you what gives me hope.
QUEST: A drink.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drinks, always -- beer.
QUEST: Oh! (Laughing)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SOLOMON: OK. Nice end on a humorous note there.
President Trump is back from the World Economic Forum in Davos. Just ahead we'll take a look at how his claims of success align with reality.
We'll be right back.
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[05:45:15]
SOLOMON: Welcome back. I'm Rahel Solomon. And here are some of the stories we are watching for you this morning.
More than half of the United States is bracing a massive winter storm this weekend. States have begun preparing by treating roadways with tons of brine and salt. The storm threatens to deliver historic amounts of snow and ice over a 1,500-mile path from Texas to the Northeast. Widespread and potentially long-lasting power outages are also possible.
A 5-year-old has become one of the latest children caught up in the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign after he and his father were taken by federal agents outside their Minneapolis area home. The family's attorney says that they applied for asylum in December of 2024. The boy and his father are currently being held at an immigration facility in Texas.
The U.S., Russia, and Ukraine set to begin their first three-way talks on ending Moscow's war on Ukraine. The two-day meeting in the United Arab Emirates is expected to get underway in the coming hours. It follows yesterday's talks between the U.S. and Ukrainian presidents at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
And it's been an eventful week for President Trump on the world stage. He is now back in Washington claiming success of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He signed the charter for his Board of Peace meant to oversee the reconstruction of Gaza, and he says that he struck a framework agreement that will let the U.S. do whatever it wants in Greenland.
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DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The trip was great. We had a lot of good response even from the fake news. And I think Greenland is going very well. It's in negotiation. And I think what we did today was -- it was great. It was great. There's going to be a great board. That'll be a board, I think, like no other.
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SOLOMON: Experts say that all of the international posturing may have done lasting damage to key alliances with Europe making plans for a future less dependent on the U.S.
EU leaders ended an emergency meeting in Brussels, presenting a calm and united front in the face of Trump's tariff threats and Greenland drama. The council president pledging to "engage constructively with the U.S.," which is language more usually reserved for unfriendly nations.
And then there's Canada, which President Trump disinvited from his Board of Peace following some sobering comments from Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
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MARK CARNEY, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: The middle powers must act together because if we're not at the table we're on the menu. We understand that this rupture calls for more than adaptation. It calls for honesty about the world as it is. We are taking the sign out of the window. We know the old order is not coming back. We shouldn't mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy.
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SOLOMON: OK, let's go live now to Berlin and Steven Erlanger, New York Times chief diplomatic correspondent in Europe. Steven, appreciate the time this morning.
We just heard that soundbite from Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney say, "If we're not at the table we're on the menu." To me that sort of felt like the sound bite heard around the world. I mean, how do you think this World Economic Forum will be remembered?
STEVEN ERLANGER, CHIEF DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT, EUROPE, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Well, it'll be remembered partly for the Carney speech. It'll be remembered partly for President Trump's willingness to insult everyone in the room, including European allies. And it will be remembered for a climbdown on Greenland, which I think Denmark, the Europeans, NATO all hope will come to fruition. That President Trump will be satisfied with this framework agreement and stop threatening to take another country's territory by force.
So I think all those things will be important.
And I think also it'll be remembered as a place where Europeans who actually know this have realized that their efforts to sustain the post-war international order to hold to the sovereignty of individual countries is under threat not just from Russia, which is attacking Ukraine, and China, which is pushing economically but from the United States itself, which seems to be willing to ignore those principles.
SOLOMON: Hmm.
ERLANGER: So I think it has been a very important wakeup call.
SOLOMON: Yeah. You told my colleague Polo Sandoval that in Europe -- that there's a sense -- an increasing sense that there is a madman in the White House. Steven, how much did Trump, if at all, walk back those fears after Davos because of that climbdown on Greenland?
[05:50:00]
ERLANGER: Well, I think people understood that Trump has a strategy, which is to push, push, push and then come away with what he can. I mean, he's been doing that regularly. I think what people have understood is you have to push back hard. In other words you have to mix a degree of flattery, which Trump insists on, but have a gun in your pocket that you're actually ready to use.
SOLOMON: Hmm.
ERLANGER: And if you're ready to use it -- and the EU had serious counter-tariffs ready to go -- then you have chance of coming to a better conclusion.
I do think, you know, listening to Mr. Trump's wandering speech and his narcissism and his willingness to create undignified insults against even his hosts -- I think people find that as very odd behavior and it does worry them. It worries allies that depend on the United States to help defend them, as NATO does, against Russia and other challenges.
SOLOMON: Yeah.
And speaking of Russia, I want to get your opinion and perspective on these talks today -- the first known meeting between the U.S., Russia, Ukraine since Moscow's invasion in 2022.
How significant is that to you, and might this now be the beginning of a turning point? ERLANGER: Well, I think it is very significant. As you said, it's the first trilateral meeting. Obviously, it's not at leader level. That would only happen at the very end. But Ukraine has been trying to get America and Russia in the same room, so I think it's important.
I see no real indication that Russia is willing to move on its territorial demand that Ukraine give up all of the Donbas. And Zelenskyy said in Davos that, you know, territory remains the single troubling issue. He seems fairly satisfied with security assurances coming from the United States.
But, you know, all this is in preparation for an offer to Russia, which has sounded very, very negative and which has been saying that it really wants the rest of the Donbas, even the part that it hasn't conquered, and it wants a change in strategic architecture in Europe generally. So, you know, if the -- if the Russians move, that would be big news.
SOLOMON: Um-hum.
ERLANGER: But if, as we heard after the Witkoff meeting in Moscow last night that talks were constructive but very frank, my guess is that the Russian position hasn't moved very much.
SOLOMON: Yeah, OK. We'll wait -- we'll wait to see for sure.
Steven Erlanger in Berlin. We appreciate your perspective.
ERLANGER: We'll wait to see.
SOLOMON: As we always do. Thank you.
ERLANGER: Thanks. Thank you.
SOLOMON: Um-hum.
All right. Well, still ahead, the Academy Awards make history as a blockbuster movie breaks the record for the most nominations ever. We'll tell you which one it is. That story straight ahead.
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[05:57:40]
SOLOMON: The blockbuster genre-defining film "Sinners" has broken records at the Academy Awards, earning 16 Oscar nominations.
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Clip from Warner Bros. "Sinner."
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SOLOMON: Ryan Coogler's vampire horror period drama surpassed the previous recordholders for most Oscar nominations for a single film. "Sinners" not the only movie racking up nominations. Paul Thomas Anderson's "One Battle After Another" scoring 13, setting up a very competitive race for best picture. The winners will be revealed when the Academy Awards airs on March 15 with returning host Conan O'Brien.
"KPOP DEMON HUNTERS" is the smash hit Netflix movie taking the world by storm and now it's been nominated for two Academy Awards -- best animated film. And also "Golden" made history as the first K-pop song ever nominated for best original song. The movie has already won trophies at the Critics Choice and Golden Globe Awards this year.
The film's director spoke with my colleague Elex Michaelson ahead of awards season about what this movie means to her.
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MAGGIE KANG, FILM DIRECTOR: It's wild. I made a movie because I wanted to see all the things in this movie. And I didn't really realize that so many other people wanted to see this, too, and so many other Asian people wanted to see Asian characters on screen. I think, you know, we've all wanted that and we've all wanted to see our culture represented correctly and in the modern world because a lot of times in animation we do -- we do see Asian cultures but it's like a fantasy version or, you know, more of a hodgepodge. And so we really wanted to show Korean culture, like, on its own.
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SOLOMON: BTS is going back on tour and fans racing to snap up seats. The K-pop boy band scheduled to kick off a global concert tour in April. It starts in South Korea, and the group will make stops across Asia, North America, and Europe. On Thursday, tickets dropped for the tour.
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BTS took a break in 2022 so band members could complete South Korea's mandatory military service. BTS will also release their first new album in over three years.
And if you want to see Harry Styles' upcoming tour in the U.S. -- well, you need to come to New York because the much anticipated "Together, Together Tour" includes 50 shows but only in seven cities. All 30 U.S. states will be at New York's Madison Square Garden. The other stops will be in places like Amsterdam, Mexico City, Melbourne, and Sydney. The tour kicks off in May. Ticket sales start later this month.
And that'll do it for us here this week on EARLY START. I'm Rahel Solomon. "CNN THIS MORNING" starts right now.
