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Early Start with Rahel Solomon
Bomb Cyclone To Bring Snow, Strong Winds To Eastern U.S.; Chinese Video Game Mimics Dangerous World Of Scam Centers; Kremlin: Russia Agreed To Stop Striking Kyiv Until February 1. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired January 30, 2026 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:30:00]
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CHRIS WARREN, AMS METEOROLOGIST: And the winds are going to be strong. So we're going to see this produce some very strong winds, especially offshore. Possibly some coastal flooding and beach erosion.
But the snowfall here -- again, it's just on the edge here so the track is going to make a huge difference here. That's the European. The GFS also shows snow for the Carolinas, bringing some snow to maybe the Cape.
Again, we still do have some time here to work out exactly who gets what. Possibly this could trend even farther away from shore. But we'll look at a couple of forecast models in terms of how much snow is at least a possibility.
And again, for North Carolina, South Carolina, and the mountains of Tennessee could see more than eight inches -- maybe about a foot or so.
This model, the European, does show more snow for the Cape and the islands here in eastern Massachusetts where the GFS shows some but not a ton. But a lot more snow for parts of North Carolina, especially including the Outer Banks -- could see about a foot of snow if it pans out working that way.
And think -- that much snow falling over hours with winds this strong -- 50 to 55 mile an hour gusts -- 50 to 55 miles an hour gusts, up to 65 mile an hour gusts at times, even up to 70 miles an hour. So with that much snow and that much wind, beach erosion certainly a strong possibility if not a likelihood. And then whiteout conditions also possible.
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RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Chris Warren, thank you.
President Trump and two of his sons are suing the IRS for $10 billion. What's behind the lawsuit still ahead on EARLY START.
Plus, a new video game lets players experience how a criminal underworld operates scam centers. We'll explain the rules of the game in a report from Beijing.
We'll be right back.
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[05:36:30]
SOLOMON: Welcome back to EARLY START. The time now is 5:36 and this is your business breakout.
Let's start with where U.S. futures stand ahead of the opening bell on Wall Street, and it is lower across the board between the Dow, S&P, and Nasdaq -- all off. At this point futures are off about one percent.
A big story this morning -- today, likely, from President Trump. Who he will choose to be the next Federal Reserve chairman. Our reporting is that, at least according to two sources, it will likely be Kevin Warsh who has served as a Fed governor before between 2006 and 2011. So markets watching that space and that pick very closely.
All right, let's check on some other headlines today.
President Trump has declared a national emergency against what he calls Cuba's maligned influence. He's threatening to impose tariffs on goods from countries that provide oil to the island. The move follows the U.S. ouster of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, which supplied Havana with a third of its oil needs. Cubans are struggling with blackouts and lineups at gas stations. The government seems to feel it's under siege as TV broadcasts show the military training people to repel an invasion.
Venezuelan lawmakers have approved a new law that will make it easier for foreign companies to access their country's oil industry. The recent reform was backed by acting President Delcy Rodriguez as she attempts to meet the demands of President Trump. He rolled back some key sanctions on Venezuela's energy industry following the announcement of the new law.
And President Trump and two of his sons are suing the IRS and Treasury Department for $10 billion. They claim that the government failed to protect their personal and corporate tax information when a former contractor leaked the records to the press. That contractor has been sentenced to five years in prison.
A Chinese video game is apparently not just for playing. It's actually about a largescale criminal operation that allegedly traffics people and forces them to commit scams and fraud using phone calls, emails, and texts.
CNN's Mike Valerio has more on the game and the story behind it.
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MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I started playing this video game and it is wild. In the trailer for the Chinese full-motion video game "Blood Money:
Lethal Eden" you're a victim of a scam center. You have a cloth put on your face. You wake up in a cage, hands tied. There's a gang kingpin in a white suit and somebody's about to be executed. And that is just in the first few minutes. The goal is to survive and every decision that you make sends the game in a new direction.
But this isn't just fiction. This is an intense reflection of a huge problem here in Asia. There are giant criminal scam centers sometimes looking like fortresses found across Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and a growing number of countries around the world. People are often duped or tricked by gangs and under the threat of torture they're forced to call, email, text, and scam people out of their money.
Why choose this topic?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).
TEXT: No one in this industry had done a theme like this before, so there was a scarcity. And we also felt that doing this theme could raise people's awareness of fraud prevention.
VALERIO: It's an issue increasingly showing up in successful entertainment offerings. The Chinese blockbuster "No More Bets," which follows characters trying to navigate their way out of a scam center made more than half a billion dollars at the global box office, a potential gauge of how powerfully the crisis is resonating.
[05:40:00]
JASON TOWER, SENIOR EXPERT GLOBAL INITIATIVE AGAINST TRANSNATIONAL ORGANIZED CRIME: At present, you have over 300,000 people that are effectively trapped inside of largescale compounds.
VALERIO: China has made strides in prosecuting gang kingpins and country's globally have gotten involved in combatting the problem. But it may be too late as experts say scam compounds have spread from Southeast Asia to countries in Africa, the Middle East, and into the Pacific.
TOWER: And you hear senior African diplomats based in countries like Thailand talking about this as crimes against humanity because the level of torture and the extreme conditions in which a lot of these victims are being subject to. I mean, it really is that.
VALERIO: This game was developed by a small Chinese startup, and its developer says this is a careful balancing act between real suffering and fictional elements of entertainment with huge commercial appeal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).
TEXT: The message we want to convey is that you must not do evil. If you do, you will inevitably be punished by the law.
VALERIO: Mike Valerio, CNN, Beijing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SOLOMON: We have some breaking news just into CNN. U.S. skiing great Lindsey Vonn has crashed during a downhill race in Switzerland just a week before the start of the Winter Olympics. Vonn lost control when landing a jump and ended up tangled in the safety nets on the upper portion of the course. She did eventually get up after receiving medical attention and walked away, taking weight off her left knee and using her poles to steady herself.
The 41-year-old Vonn had partial knee replacement surgery in 2024. She was hoping for an Olympic comeback after a six-year retirement, planning to compete in the women's downhill and Super-G events in Italy next month. Vonn has three Olympic medals, including a gold in the 2010 downhill event. No word yet on whether this will keep her out of the upcoming Olympic Games.
Still ahead for us, simmering tensions between Iran and the West have residents of Tehran speaking out. Our Fred Pleitgen is in the capital and visits the Grand Bazaar to get reaction.
Plus, a big claim from President Trump that Russia has agreed to pause some of its strikes on Ukraine, but Moscow not exactly indicating it's on board with that. We'll bring you those details after this break.
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[05:46:40]
SOLOMON: Welcome back. I'm Rahel Solomon. And here are some of the stories we are watching for you today.
We are now just hours away from what could be the second U.S. government shutdown in just a few months. The deadline for a spending deal is midnight Eastern time. The top Senate Democrat says that negotiators have reached a compromise, but the bill hasn't passed yet. And whatever senators agree upon -- well, it still has to go through the House and that's unlikely to happen before next week.
White House border czar Tom Homan says that he has ordered authorities to work on a drawdown plan for the federal immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota. Officials are also considering new guidelines for federal agents. But Homan says the key to that drawdown would be increased cooperation between local jail systems and federal immigration authorities.
Iran is warning that it could strike U.S. bases, warships, and other targets if President Trump decides to take military action against Tehran. Iran's military says that it has added 1,000 strategic drones to its stockpile and plans live fire naval exercises in the Strait of Hormuz next week.
CNN's Fred Pleitgen is in Iran this week reporting today from Tehran's Grand Bazaar where protests started in late December. Thousands were killed and at least 40,000 arrested in the subsequent crackdown. That's according to the U.S.-based human rights activist news agency. Faces are blurred for protection and CNN operates in Tehran only with the permission of the Iranian government.
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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We're in the area around Tehran's Grand Bazaar. This is where the protests started several weeks ago that then, of course, spread throughout the entire country. Then ultimately leading to the crackdown where even the government acknowledges that thousands of people were killed.
We spoke to some folks around here and at least some of them said the despair continues, and they said they have very little trust that the government will be able to resolve the issues.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): In general, the situation is volatile in a way that the prices are crazy high. And for instance, just yesterday there was a 20 to 30 percent hike in prices.
PLEITGEN: Are you confident that the government can solve the economic issues?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Definitely not. We're certainly sure the government cannot solve it. This is something that I can say for sure. Maybe it is dangerous. I feel this is the end of everything.
PLEITGEN: How deep is the trauma after the crackdown on the protests?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): In this situation no one is able to do anything because you either have to go to the streets and be killed by weapons or stay at home and die of hunger.
PLEITGEN: When the protests first started here at the Bazaar in late December it was especially the carpet sellers and jewelers who first walked out. Now, we did speak to some people here who claim that the situation is now under control.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Of course, the Islamic Republic can solve the problem. Actually, it has done so. Ninety-nine percent of it is resolved.
PLEITGEN: All of this comes as President Trump continues to weigh his military options here in this region. Iran's leadership has said that any attack on Iran will be met with very strong resistance. They've also said they're willing to negotiate, however not under duress.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Tehran.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SOLOMON: Our thanks to Fred there.
Russia is now providing more details about what claims and those claims that it has agreed to pause some of its strikes on Ukraine. That's after President Trump said that he asked Russian leader Vladimir Putin to stop attacking Ukrainian cities for a week because of the cold. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later thanked the U.S. president for that effort.
[05:50:05]
Now initially when a Kremlin spokesperson was asked to confirm the pause he said he could comment yet. Meanwhile, another Kremlin aide is pouring cold water on U.S. optimism about the ongoing peace talks. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week that the negotiations are down to one issue -- the territory in the Donetsk region. But the Kremlin aide told a Russian news agency that many issues are still being debated.
For more on this let's bring in Salma Abdelaziz who joins us this morning from London. So, Salma, Trump says he's secured a pause. Moscow is now weighing in with a little bit more detail. What are they saying at this point?
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So we had that surprise announcement yesterday from the White House from President Trump himself.
We've now heard directly from the Kremlin spokesperson in this regularly scheduled briefing for journalists, Mr. Dmitry Peskov. And he was, of course, asked about this personal request that he says was indeed made by President Trump to President Putin to pause attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure for a week because of these extreme weather conditions. So he did confirm that there was a request made.
He went on -- or reporters went on to ask him, did the Kremlin agree to this proposal? And he said, "Yes, of course. It was a personal request by President Trump."
Now, did he provide any details? No. Did he provide any timing? No. Did he give any indication of the locations that would be covered under this deal? No.
So we do have this confirmation from the Kremlin that a personal request was made and that it has agreed to that personal request, but it's unclear when it's going to go into effect. Now, local media in Russia has been saying that it will be in place until February 1. Now again, that is not agreed by the Russian government.
But I also want you to hear directly from President Trump who first announced this.
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DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I personally asked President Putin not to fire into Kyiv and the various towns for a week, and he agreed to do that. And I have to tell you it was very nice. A lot of people said don't waste the call -- you're not going to get that. And he did it and we're very happy that they did it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ABDELAZIZ: Now, regional authorities across Ukraine say that there were airstrikes overnight but that those do not appear to have hit energy infrastructure. So far, there is no reports of strikes on energy infrastructure.
This is an extremely critical announcement. Ukraine is set to plummet in terms of temperature over the course of the next week, as low as negative-11 Fahrenheit or negative-26 Celsius -- so absolutely freezing. And what makes it worse, of course, is these strikes on energy infrastructure that have plummeted cities like Kyiv into the cold and into the darkness.
It is also a positive sign, of course, for negotiation efforts. But it's wait and see now on the ground as to when this will take effect and if it will indeed be successful in just reducing de-escalating those hostilities ahead of negotiations.
SOLOMON: OK, Salma Abdelaziz for us there. Salma, thank you.
Still ahead, Donald and Melania Trump attend the premiere of the first lady's new film. Details on the event and the new theatrical release when we come back.
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[05:57:45]
SOLOMON: The president and first lady hit the red carpet at the newly rebranded Kennedy Center Thursday for the premiere of "Melania." The film details a period of about three weeks around the couple's return to the White House. The notoriously private first lady is an executive producer and had editorial control.
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Clip from Amazon MGM Studios "Melania."
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SOLOMON: Sources say that Amazon MGM Studios paid $40 million for the deal, plus a $35 million marketing budget. The first lady has been making the rounds to promote the film, which releases in theaters today. Amazon has not yet announced a streaming date. Prime Video has committed to releasing a docuseries which also contains additional footage along with the film.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Clip from MGM "Finding Harmony: A King's Foundation."
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SOLOMON: Britain's King Charles has unveiled a new documentary showcasing he deep connection to nature and also detailing his passion for tackling climate change. It features archival footage of the monarch, who recounts times in the past when he was ridiculed for this green stance.
Wednesday's premiere was attended by several members of British entertainment royalty, including Judi Dench and Kate Winslett, who narrates the film.
"Finding Harmony: A King's Vision" is expected to hit Amazon Prime next Friday.
The first half of "BRIDGERTON's" fourth season now on Netflix.
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Clip from Netflix "BRIDGERTON."
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SOLOMON: So this season focuses on the romantic life of second son Benedict Bridgerton played by Luke Thompson. He meets his love interest at a masquerade ball. I think that's what we were just looking at there. But little does he know that the woman behind the mask -- well, she's actually a maid.
[06:00:05]
Yerin Ha plays the female lead in Cinderella story. Several other "BRIDGERTON" siblings have also returned for the season. Part two of season four drops on Netflix February 26.
OK, that's going to do it for us this morning and this week. Thanks for joining us here on EARLY START. I'm Rahel Solomon live in New York. "CNN THIS MORNING" starts right now.
