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Quest Means Business

Powerful Hurricane Melissa Makes Landfall In Jamaica; Hamas Delays Hostage Handover After Israeli P.M. Orders Strikes; Jamaica's P.M.: Melissa Will Bring Catastrophic Damage; At Least 60 Dead After Police Raid In Brazil; Business Leaders Gather In Riyadh For "Davos In The Desert"; Bill Gates Pulling Back From Climate Fight. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired October 28, 2025 - 16:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[16:00:19]

JIM SCIUTTO CNN HOST: Yet another record breaking day for the U.S. markets. A.I. deals lifting the mood once again on Wall Street. Those are the

markets and these are the main events.

Hurricane Melissa is just pounding Jamaica this hour. It is the second strongest Atlantic storm ever recorded.

Israel Prime Minister orders military strikes on Gaza, accusing Hamas of violating the ceasefire.

And business leaders are praising a trade breakthrough between the U.S. and China. We are going to be live with Richard Quest at the FII Summit in

Riyadh.

Live from Washington. It is Tuesday, October 28th. I am Jim Sciutto in for Richard Quest and this is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.

Good evening to you.

Right now, Jamaica facing just the worst of what has been called the storm of the century. Hurricane Melissa made landfall a few hours ago with winds

approaching 300 kilometers per hour. That makes it the strongest storm on record to hit Jamaica and one of the most powerful hurricanes ever recorded

in the Atlantic.

The eye of the hurricane is now fully over land, and Jamaica just being battered by destructive winds, heavy rain, flooding like you're seeing

there, landslides as well. Storm chaser, Jonathan Petramala is in Jamaica and this is what he saw there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN PETRAMALA, STORM CHASER: So you see, even in Hurricane Melissa, people are still trying to get around and get to their destinations whether

it is a move to a different shelter to see, check on friends or family, it is very difficult.

Even though we are well outside the strongest winds from Hurricane Melissa, there are trees and debris blocking many roads and highways, add on to

that, there is a lot of flash flooding as well. You can see the heavy rain that's coming down from Hurricane Melissa as it is basically parallel to us

here in Mandeville, which is in the center part of Jamaica.

You see, the winds caused damage, though not only the trees and power lines and power poles, roofs have been ripped away as well.

Incredibly powerful hurricane. This part of the islands escaped the most ferocious part of the storm, but still feeling the impacts from Melissa.

We continue to cover this storm for CNN in Mandeville, Jamaica, I am Jonathan Petramala.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: The storm expected to cause just catastrophic damage. Hundreds of thousands of people already without power even before landfall. Many

communities will likely be displaced, at least temporarily. The Jamaican government said it expected 50,000 people to move to safer ground. More

than 800 shelters like this one are now open.

Jess Sharman is a team leader with All Hands and Hearts, a nonprofit that helps provide global disaster relief and she joins me now from Kingston,

Jamaica.

Jess, it is good to have you there. Just as a pair of eye on the ground. I mean, you hear wind speeds up to 185 miles an hour, which is incredible.

What are you seeing there right now.

JESS SHARMAN, TEAM LEADER, ALL HANDS AND HEARTS: So, in Kingston, we don't have a huge amount of damage. We are lucky to be on the outskirts of this

hurricane. But the things that we've been hearing is pretty catastrophic damage to a lot of infrastructure, homes, a storm surge that is reaching

really, really high 13 feet or more and we've heard of damage to hospitals, submerged homes.

This is a really catastrophic event and one that is going to cause a huge amount of damage to communities more to the rest of the island, but in the

whole of Jamaica.

SCIUTTO: Yes, we are hearing reports of some people saying that the whole coastline is gone. I imagine you're getting reports from around the island

now about damage.

SHARMAN: Yes, absolutely. The news is slowly coming in and it is -- it really is quite obviously incredibly worrying, incredibly disastrous.

You know, it is not going to be very clear until tomorrow and the coming days and weeks, what the extent of that damage will be, with the added

concern and issue that, you know, infrastructure will be closed off, roads likely to be heavily flooded. There is a high risk of landslides in the

area. So I don't think we are going to really know the full impact of this very large, very powerful disaster until a few days or a few weeks' time

realistically.

SCIUTTO: I wonder how you've been coordinating with Jamaican authorities and other international aid groups there, because you knew the storm was

coming. I imagine you had some time to get some supplies into place.

[16:05:10]

How are those groups working together?

SHARMAN: Yes, so at the moment, there's a lot of different organizations coming together via different forums and networks, kind of broken down into

various clusters. So that is kind of different areas of support, whether that's food support, shelter support, water, and hygiene. We kind of split

up into different areas of expertise and then we've been coordinating with various partners.

So the last couple of days, it has been, you know, preparing ourselves for any, any kind of weather events that we that we might be affected by. You

know, it wasn't very clear at the beginning where the route of the hurricane was going to go. So a lot of it has been preparation for

ourselves, but also reaching out to contacts across the country and contacts that we've made across many different disasters in the past.

We've been doing this for 20 years, so we have a lot of partner organizations that we work with that we've been reaching out to in

preparation for the response efforts in the following days.

SCIUTTO: Our understanding that nearly a quarter million people already without power, and given the strength of the winds and the amount of

flooding, I imagine infrastructure, you're expecting damage to infrastructure. So how do you deliver aid under those circumstances?

SHARMAN: Yes, small things to do. There really is -- it is about coordinating with each other, also making sure that our own teams are safe

with additional threats of landslides and flooding. But for us personally, we have satellite communications. We have Starlink and other kind of

satellite means that we can utilize so that we can stay in touch with communities.

It is really a case of driving around at this point and seeing and speaking to communities directly and then trying to coordinate across all

organizations and all clusters to make sure that we are doing a really efficient response, but it is definitely a major, major concern with

infrastructure. Very, very concerning in terms of how we are going to gain access to those communities both physically and via telecommunications and

other means.

SCIUTTO: Yes, well, Jess Sharman, I am sure the people of Jamaica appreciate the work that you're doing. Please keep yourself and your team

safe.

SHARMAN: Of course. Thank you.

And our thoughts are very much with the affected communities. And, yes, we alongside many organizations, will do our best to support those in need.

SCIUTTO: Yes, our thoughts as well.

Our Derek Van Dam is in Kingston, Jamaica as well, and he joins us now live.

Derek, I've been watching you over the last 24 hours as the winds have increased there. Tell us, what you've witnessed as this storm has made

landfall.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Jim, we were located about a kilometer-and-a-half inland from the coastline of Kingston and since the

storm has now moved north and west of us, we decided to come and see how downtown Kingston fared. We made the trip through Downtown Kingston to the

coastline, a very angry Caribbean Sea directly behind me.

The winds here, obviously significantly more intense than where we were located in kind of a sheltered rural of Kingston. What we saw was largely a

city that was spared the worst destruction, and I am happy to report that there was and still continues to be some flooding in the local streets. We

saw some billboard signs that have been toppled over. A couple of electrical poles tilted to the side. The power flashes are pretty common

theme across the city at the moment.

But by and by, this city, definitely spared the worst of Hurricane Melissas fury, but look, now we are experiencing, the wind. Every time the wind

comes up and over the seawall, which is about ten meters over my left hand shoulder, I get a taste of the Caribbean Sea because the salt water spray

just gets mixed in with rainwater. And the stiff breeze that we are feeling right now. And yes, it is an uncomfortable place to be. But far worse over

the western parts of this country, no doubt.

SCIUTTO: Yes, tell us about and again, I don't want to keep you or your team out there any more than necessary. But just before we go, have you

seen the storm surge that you and others were describing yesterday as being a big part of the storm?

[16:10:02]

VAN DAM: Jim, I think the storm surge and we always knew that this is how storm surge unfolds with a landfalling hurricane. It is very situational,

very specific to the base. It is very specific to the direction, the incoming direction of the hurricane and the inner core of the most powerful

part of the storm. So because Kingston is 150 kilometers east of where the core of Category 5 Hurricane Melissa came onshore, we didn't get the storm

surge that we had feared. Good news.

But the ocean is angry. There is no doubt about it. And we've seen water that is overtop the seawall here. But nothing, what I would anticipate to

see closer to the Western parish or the Saint Elizabeth Parish, where the landfalling hurricane took place. That is an area very susceptible, very

low lying to storm surge. So I still am awaiting, to see video, to see any kind of indication of how they fared. It is hard to communicate out here.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Well, Derek Van Dam, our thanks to you and your team there. Please stay safe and thanks for joining us.

Well CNN spoke with Jamaica's Prime Minister shortly before Melissa made landfall. Andrew Holness said the island was preparing for the worst.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW HOLNESS, JAMAICAN PRIME MINISTER: There is no infrastructure in this region or maybe anywhere in the world that could withstand a Category 5

hurricane without some level of damage. And for Jamaica, a Category 5 hurricane, particularly where the impact is direct and in the area of the

impact will be catastrophic damage.

We informed our citizens of this days before. We have put in place a compulsory mandatory evacuation order, but in a liberal democracy like

Jamaica, we tend to want to respect the rights of citizens to protect their property, but to give them the information so that they can protect their

lives.

We have mobilized over 881 shelters. Most of them are activated now. We provided buses to move persons. The take up was initially slow, picked up

afterwards. So for those residents who have decided to stay, I am encouraging them to batten down, take all the necessary precautions to keep

themselves safe. Don't worry about property at this time, because there is nothing that you will be able to do in a Category 5 storm to protect your

property.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Well, we will of course, continue to follow developments there. And coming up, we are going to follow Melissa as it travels further through

the Caribbean. We will track it from the CNN Weather Center.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:15:45]

SCIUTTO: Now to Gaza where the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is under immense pressure, in danger of breaking. Hamas says it will delay the

handover of recently recovered hostage after Israel's Prime Minister ordered further military strikes in Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered "immediate powerful strikes" after accusing Hamas of violating the U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal. Israel

says the remains most recently returned to Israel did not belong to any of the 13 hostages still unaccounted for.

Jeremy Diamond joins me now and Jeremy, listen, I wonder what a ceasefire is if there is still fire being exchanged here, right? Is Israel saying

these are limited strikes? Do we have any sense?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Israel isn't saying that officially, Jim, but certainly that is likely the messaging behind-the-

scenes between U.S. and Israeli officials. We know that the United States, you know, was notified ahead of these strikes and that there was likely a

conversation in the same way that there was before the last Israeli strikes that took place about nine days into the ceasefire, about the scope of

those strikes and what other steps Israel might take.

Remember last time when Israel carried out those strikes about a week-and- a-half ago, they also tried to stop the flow of aid into Gaza and that decision was quickly reversed following conversations that U.S. officials

had with their Israeli counterparts.

Now, in terms of the rationale for carrying out these strikes, Israel hasn't officially provided one, but we do know that they've pointed to a

series of violations over the last day or so that they've accused Hamas of, the main one being yesterday, when Hamas returned the remains of an Israeli

hostage, Israel said that those remains were not of those 13 as yet unaccounted for Israeli hostages in Gaza, but rather additional remains of

another hostage whose body had mostly, it seems, previously been recovered inside of Gaza by Israeli Forces.

And then today we also saw an exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Hamas militants with an Israeli military official telling me that those

troops were attacked using RPG and sniper fire, very similar to the incident that we saw lead to that series of Israeli strikes about a week-

and-a-half ago in Gaza as well.

SCIUTTO: I wonder, given you have covered as well, Jeremy, the ceasefire that takes place in Lebanon, if folks in Israel are talking about a similar

pattern here, right, that there is a ceasefire, that Israel strikes at times when it finds targets or believes it has found targets, is that the -

- is that the rhythm that this ceasefire appears to be settling into?

DIAMOND: You know, that's an interesting question because we have seen indications over the course of this ceasefire that Israel is looking to

kind of have a similar model. I think, in particular to a couple of days ago when Israel carried out a targeted strike inside of Gaza that they said

was aimed at a Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant who they claimed was preparing to attack Israeli Forces. That certainly speaks to that kind of

freedom of action that Israel wants to maintain inside of Gaza.

I think these strikes that we are seeing tonight, and similar to those that we saw a week and a half ago, are certainly part of that pattern. But more

than anything, it is about Israel kind of communicating a message using these strikes, communicating a message to Hamas that it must return more

bodies of hostages, and also communicating a message that, you know, it is not going to allow -- you know, that it is going to respond quite

disproportionately frankly, to any perceived violations of the ceasefire. That is very much part of the kind of Israeli military ethos and we are

certainly seeing that play out now.

SCIUTTO: It is a good point, Jeremy, thanks so much.

Well, back to Hurricane Melissa. It is now tracking over Jamaica, expected to impact Cuba in the next several hours before then reaching the Central

Bahamas on Wednesday.

CNN meteorologist Chris Warren joins me now. And, Chris, you're the expert. But when I look at these numbers, minimum pressure of 901 millibars lower

than Hurricane Katrina during its peak low pressure back 20 some odd years ago. And these winds 185 miles per hour. I mean, that is a pretty

incredible combination.

CHRIS WARREN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It is. Now, every storm is different. So some of these storms can be intense, but not very large. So really packing

a huge punch like a bowling ball, but not large like a beach ball, which might not be as intense and as powerful.

But in this case, yes, both of those storms extremely strong at their peaks. And this one now is down to a Category 4 Hurricane, which still Jim,

has the potential for catastrophic damage. Now, another thing, these winds, the gusts that are still possible up to 220 miles an hour, are reserved for

a very small location right there, right next to the eye. Hurricane force winds, you're looking at 75 miles an hour or stronger outside of that,

certainly still a possibility and these frequent gusts still, what is within the realm of possibilities here.

In fact, the winds have gone up a bit here in Kingston, gusting to almost 50 miles an hour. But this right here, where it made landfall right near

New Hope, has now moved across the western part of the island near Montego Bay, where surge is still a possibility and the flooding is still there.

Still a chance for flash flooding, mudslides and landslides. The storm did come onshore right here. And also another aspect with hurricanes, the winds

over water push that water. The sea water toward land. Now there is that counterclockwise swirl. So you're going to get that water going up like

this, the salt water, while the fresh water from the rain is trying to get out. So that's another concern that we are watching as Hurricane Melissa

moves offshore on the north side of Jamaica.

The winds are turning direction now. So the surge coming in this way in Montego Bay is also something that is of concern. Now, the rainfall is

decreasing, so we've already seen a lot of rain in Jamaica, but the storm is now getting into -- for Jamaica and as far as the weather is concerned,

essentially into like the fourth quarter or the last chapter, if this was a book, if the story for Jamaica was a book in terms of the weather, now

there is going to be a whole another book written on the recovery in Jamaica. So a whole different deal here.

Montego Bay winds still, hurricane force, a potential. And then it is going to be tonight into tomorrow for Cuba with very strong winds there. And then

Jim, also going to see the potential for a Category 2 hurricane impacting the Bahamas.

SCIUTTO: Chris Warren, thanks so much for tracking it for us.

Joining us now, Michael Fischer, assistant professor at the Rosenstiel Hurricane Hub at the University of Miami and he joins me now.

Michael, I wonder if I could ask you a similar question I asked our meteorologist there, but that combination of low pressure on a scale of

Katrina and just crazy high winds, as I understand it, the second strongest storm ever tracked in the Atlantic. How do we get here for a storm this

size and this intensity?

MICHAEL FISCHER, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, ROSENSTIEL HURRICANE HUB AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI: It is a great question. I am sure it is going to be a

subject of many studies going forward. You know, to get a storm this intense, we need some ingredients in place and we had all of those, namely,

we need very warm sea surface temperatures and also that warm water needs to extend to a deep layer beneath the surface of the ocean we have in

place.

And we also had favorable environmental winds and a moist enough atmosphere. So we had all the ingredients in place to create a monstrous

storm.

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you this, because when we get into hurricane season, I will often ask our meteorologists or they will make the point that as the

hurricanes approach the shore, they get into shallower waters. Those waters are particularly warm. And we should note that the temperatures in the

Caribbean are breaking records this season. That leads to for a lot of these storms, this kind of last minute intensification that makes them even

more damaging than they might have been otherwise. Do I have that right?

FISCHER: You're correct that the warm water is extended all the way up into the coast, and so a unique aspect about Melissa's intensification is that

it continued to intensify all the way to the coastline. Normally, we sometimes see these storms when they get to Category 4, Category 5

strength, kind of oscillate in strength. They go through some internal processes that can result in temporary weakening of the winds.

But in Melissa's case, it had a very resilient inner core that continued to intensify all the way up until landfall, which is, of course, incredibly

unfortunate for those in the path of the storm.

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you this, because it is a big picture question, given climate change and increasing temperatures, including water temperatures

around the globe, is there an element, I know no particular storm can be tied to climate change, but the broader conditions can, I imagine, increase

the intensity of storms, et cetera, you know, across the board, is that a possible component to a storm of this size and this intensity?

[16:25:05]

FISCHER: Yes, that's a great question. I think any time you increase the sea surface temperatures, you're effectively raising the ceiling of how

strong these storms can get and how quickly they can intensify. And so to that respect, we essentially have a storm in a warmer than water -- warmer

than average waters, up to 30 to 31 degrees Celsius and so that has a very high ceiling.

And unfortunately, that ceiling was essentially realized by Melissa. And so, if we continue to see sea surface temperatures increase, it is quite

possible that we can continue to see storms reach this intensity, potentially more often and or maybe even stronger storms potentially. So

that's definitely something we have to monitor going forward.

SCIUTTO: Does the early warning system for storms match that new dynamic? Right? Is it able to measure in the time necessary so that folks like you

and well, governments in Jamaica, relief organizations et cetera know in time about the intensity of storms?

FISCHER: Yes. So this is a very significant forecasting challenge. So when hurricanes strengthen very rapidly, these periods tend to be associated

with unusually large forecast errors. And so if we have conditions in place that make these rapid intensification events more common, or storms

intensify at greater rates, this is likely going to make the forecast more challenging as well.

In the case of Melissa, thankfully, our computer model guidance at the National Hurricane Center, had a really good handle that this rapid

intensification event was going to take place. And so, Jamaica was under a hurricane watch for multiple days before the landfall today.

And so in this case, we had pretty good warning, but it is possible that we might have some storms that sneak up on us more quickly in the future. So

it is going to be a very significant forecasting challenge. Hopefully we can make some progress on going forward.

SCIUTTO: Michael Fischer, thanks so much for helping us understand.

FISCHER: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Well, Melissa has already shut down Jamaica's two main airports. Tourists there cannot leave until later this week. We are going to hear

from Jamaica's Tourism Minister, Edmund Bartlett just after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:30:18]

SCIUTTO: Hello, I'm Jim Sciutto. There's more QUEST MEANS BUSINESS in a moment when some of the biggest business leaders in the world are at the

FII Summit in Saudi Arabia. Richard Quest is there and will tell us what they're talking about. And Bill Gates says that he is shifting his focus

away from climate change. Before that, the headlines this hour.

Jamaican officials say Hurricane Melissa has already had a catastrophic effect on the island. The powerful storm made landfall Tuesday as a

category five, lashing Jamaica with dangerous winds and torrential rain. Roads and bridges flooded. Widespread power and internet outages.

The Israel-Gaza ceasefire in danger of unraveling. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered, quote, "immediate powerful strikes in

Gaza." This after accusing Hamas of violating the ceasefire. Israel says the group returned remains that did not belong to any of the 13 Israeli

hostages still unaccounted for.

The U.S. Military says it carried out more strikes on four alleged drug smuggling boats in the Pacific Ocean. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says

14 people were killed. There was one survivor. Hegseth says Mexican authorities are coordinating search and rescue operations. This marks the

first time multiple strikes were conducted on the same day, and expansion of U.S. activities in the Pacific.

Brazilian officials say at least 64 people were killed during a massive police raid in Rio de Janeiro aimed at drug trafficking. Video from the

scene shows a heavy police presence, as well as damaged buildings, burned out vehicles. The raid took place just days before the city hosts events

related to the COP 30 climate summit.

Julia Vargas Jones joins me now, and is there any explanation from law enforcement as to why the death toll was so high here?

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not yet, Jim. But we have heard from Brazil's minister of security. He's saying that he didn't get any kind of

requests for help from the federal government at all for this operation, which was a very ambitious operation. Rio state police has said that this

is the largest one in 15 years. So there will be surely a lot of questions. That's what we're seeing coming out of Brazilian media and authorities

right now is what exactly went wrong, and why weren't other people involved in this?

You know, Brazil has passed some legislation years back, Jim, that protects these kinds of actions from taking place in areas that are densely

populated. But Rio state police and the civil police of Rio de Janeiro has said that they have also, for months now been trying to push criminals of

the Red Command who they were targeting with this operation into a specific area of the city and away from some of the streets where, you know, over

the years we have seen shootouts happening in major avenues in Rio.

So that's what they say they have been aiming to avoid is that death toll and people getting caught in the middle of this. But so far, what we do

know is that four of those 64 people were police officers, and the rest kind of remains to be seen. Those identities have not been released. They

have said that they have arrested a number of people. They said that they've also taken -- apprehended 72 different rifles, but -- and they have

apprehended also some of the important leadership of this Red Command.

But a little bit of the context here, you know, both in Rio and other major Brazilian cities, these organizations have been growing exponentially over

the past decade, and crossing borders now, so much so that the governor of Rio de Janeiro called these a narco terrorist organization to justify this

kind of action, the amount of force that they used here. And that is what has been growing, has been contributing to the growth of, I should say,

violence in some of these cities.

And now even smaller cities. You know, these are giant organizations that have now have started cells deep in the Amazon, for example. And now

they're not just dealing drugs, they're also using their expertise in trafficking to export gold out of Brazil. You know, that also means that

they're responsible for petty theft happening in different smaller cities across Brazil. And that is the main concern of the government.

Another arm of this organization that is very concerning is their interference in politics. This very command that they have been targeting

here, Jim, we know, has also been involved in getting their own candidates elected, and that is the concern and that is why these authorities are

taking this so seriously.

[16:35:12]

SCIUTTO: Yes. Goodness. National campaign it seems.

Julia Vargas Jones, thanks so much.

Coming up, we're going to be at the FII Summit in Saudi Arabia. Our Richard Quest is there -- Richard.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Jim, as you say, after the break, we'll be talking about what's happened at the FII Summit. The first day,

the first full day of the event. And also we'll be talking about what's happening in Jamaica. We'll be with the Jamaican tourism minister to find

out how bad the situation is.

It's QUEST MEANS BUSINESS TONIGHT from Washington and Riyadh.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: U.S. President Donald Trump praised Japan's new prime minister after their first meeting. Trump shared the stage with Sanae Takaichi at a

naval base in Japan. She discussed the, quote, "unprecedented security environment in the region, referring to threats from China. The next stop

on Trump's Asia tour might include a meeting with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The two nations reached the framework for a trade deal this

weekend.

Blackstone chairman Stephen Schwarzman, a strong Trump supporter, spoke about the talks during a panel at the Future Investment Initiative in Saudi

Arabia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN SCHWARZMAN, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, THE BLACKSTONE GROUP: I would say without much hesitation it's going to be a very positive outcome between

the two countries. They've gone a long way to develop a much more functional relationship, which is good for the world. And I've been

involved in some of those discussions.

[16:40:01]

Both presidents want to, you know, sort of lower the temperature significantly in that area. And I think they're going to find their way to

doing that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: The Blackstone CEO speaking there. Our Richard Quest, of course, is in Riyadh.

Richard, what are you hearing?

QUEST: The talk in Riyadh, everybody is obviously agog and watching very closely how the Middle East is coming together certainly as a result of the

Israel, Palestinian, Gaza, Hamas arrangements. And now, of course, having sold that to a certain extent, we're now looking at the bigger issues of

the economy of the region and the obsession here once again, as it is everywhere else, concerns A.I.

The growth of A.I., the building of data centers in the region not only to facilitate the phenomenal growth of places like Saudi Arabia, but also

adding a service for the rest of the world as well. Now, to put this into perspective, they've not only managed to put all the bankers together, but

here they've also got the tech leaders and the CEO of Oracle was very clear about when it comes to A.I., the deals that are being done have to make

sense.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE SICILIA, CEO, ORACLE: We're not involved in circular, in circular deals. I can only speak from my company on that. Look, I think there's -- I

think there's real value here. I've seen the technology work. I've seen the technology work firsthand at the edge in business applications. And I can

say at this point, and I don't see this changing anytime soon, the demand far outpaces the supply at this point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Now, as I speak to you here from Riyadh, one of the strongest hurricanes in the -- ever recorded is now hitting and hammering Jamaica as

we speak. It is, of course, Hurricane Melissa and it made landfall as a category five hurricane. For visitors in Jamaica the storm is turning beach

vacations into nightmares, one of great peril and dangers. Jamaica has been forced to shut its two main international airports, and so tourists who are

in Melissa's path are finding it impossible to get home.

Now, for those who are there, of course, there is no choice but to wait the hurricane out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTIN MORGAN, VISITING JAMAICA FROM U.S.: So right now we're scheduled to be -- to leave out on Wednesday hopefully. But it doesn't sound like that

flight is going to be, I don't know, just remain because the airport has been closed. My daughter's birthday is on Thursday. There are lots of

things going on and this is -- extending this trip has not been obviously convenient, but I think as long as we get there safe, I'm happy with it.

But it's looking like it's going to be Friday or Saturday.

STEVE MCKINLEY, STUCK IN JAMAICA: It's really overwhelming. We've never been through anything like this and hearing the more and more updates and

more reports and how it's getting stronger and stronger, we really have no idea what to visualize at the other side of this. But we are in a very safe

place and just waiting and waiting. It's been a few days of waiting time and to see what happens.

DAWN MILLER, VISITING JAMAICA FROM U.S.: We're not worried at all. We've got some friends that are here with us that haven't been here before.

They're kind of a little iffy, but, you know, I'll start panicking when the resort workers start panicking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Now joining me now is the honorable Edmund Bartlett, the Jamaican minister of tourism.

Minister, I'm grateful for you and our thoughts and prayers go with everybody in Jamaica, tourists, residents, the whole lot. Tell me what you

understand tonight is the situation.

EDMUND BARTLETT, JAMAICAN TOURISM MINISTER: Well, firstly, Richard, I want to thank you and the global community for how they've reached out to

Jamaica as we first they approach this catastrophic event, the potentially catastrophic event, and certainly throughout the day as it made landfall.

And it's going through actually the western northwestern side of Jamaica.

At the moment, you know, the situation is being assessed. My own situation, Richard, is that my constituency is being ravaged as we speak. The eye of

Melissa is going straight through my constituency as we speak. The reports coming out of the areas that it has passed have been devastating.

[16:45:02]

And the good news, if any, is that we have managed to protect, you know, our people sufficiently where shelters have been established and they have

been taken to shelters. To date, we haven't heard any reports of any deaths directly involved since morning but we still --

QUEST: The difficulty is going to be, I mean, please, God, there is no fatalities, but for a country like Jamaica, that where tourism is so

singularly important, the ability to get infrastructure, to get airports open, to get cruise ships back, that's going to be vital. So I know you've

done a lot of preparation before Melissa arrived to prepare for after it passes.

BARTLETT: Well, you know, Richard one of the things that has characterized our own effort is driving resilience in tourism. And we've spent a lot of

time and effort on that. Already I have set up the recovery task force, and pretty much the same team that managed the COVID recovery. And you know how

successful that was. But this one is going to be much more challenging because it involves infrastructure, reconstruction and a number of other

physical development that will have to be put into place.

The good news in this regard is that we are well-prepared, and this is perhaps one of the most prepared moments for Jamaica in terms of any

disruption that we've had.

(CROSSTALK)

QUEST: If there was ever a minister that --

BARTLETT: I'm anticipating of course --

QUEST: You know, the minister -- sorry. Forgive me. I thought you'd finish. Forgive me. What I was saying is, because of your expertise on resilience,

indeed you've written the various reports for the UNWTO and others on resilience in times of crisis, you're well-equipped to know what to do.

What are you going to need from the international community, Minister?

BARTLETT: Now, the first thing that we would need, Richard, is for you to visit us. One of the best ways of assisting us to recover fast is to visit

us. That's what we do. And then, of course, there's going to be the need for physical facilities, equipment that will be needed for the hotels,

construction activities, rescue operations that may be required to enable us to restore the physical plants as quickly as possible.

The airports, well, we'll see what happens there with Montego Bay after it is over. But the interesting thing here, Richard, is that even before the

hurricane made landfall, we were bringing in technicians and reparatory arrangements were being put in place. So Jamaica is going to start

recovering faster and will indeed recover quicker than most other places because we are well prepared.

QUEST: Minister, our thoughts are with you and I'm grateful for you giving us time tonight when you have so many calls. And hopefully we will speak

again once the hurricane has passed.

The Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett joining me from Jamaica.

BARTLETT: Thank you. Thank you very much.

QUEST: Thank you, sir.

Now, coming up on QUEST MEANS BUSINESS, Jim is back in Washington and will tell us about Bill Gates pushing back against what he's calling doomsday

climate activism. And we'll tell you what he thinks is more important. QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.

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[16:51:43]

SCIUTTO: Hurricane Melissa made landfall a few hours ago as the strongest storm to ever hit Jamaica. It is now tied as the second strongest hurricane

in the recorded history of Atlantic storms. One U.N. expert calls it the storm of the century. It will dump several months' worth of rain in just a

few hours.

In other news, Bill Gates is calling on world leaders and philanthropists to focus less on climate change and more on fighting disease and poverty.

The multibillionaire says climate change remains a serious problem, but that the world should first look to prevent suffering, immediate suffering,

especially in the poorest countries. He argues President Donald Trump's cuts to USAID pose a more pressing and immediate challenge than rising

temperatures.

Bill Weir joins me now.

And, Bill, I am certain these comments are already being taken advantage of by the climate deniers, among them the president, as you heard him at the

U.N. General Assembly here. But explain to us the thrust of what Gates is saying. He is saying climate change is real. It's going to cause damage,

but not as immediately as other challenges? Is that the right way to interpret this?

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: That's one way to think about it. You got to keep in context that Bill Gates, before he really focused as

the climate investor, was on global health and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, you know, trying to keep babies alive, you know, in terms of

triaging emergencies focused on that.

Now, of course, babies in Jamaica are dealing with the ravages of an overheating climate. And he knows as well as everybody that economics,

poverty and disease get worse as the planet overheats and all of this uncertainty gets just heightened right now. But absolutely, the way

everybody is talking about climate has changed since Donald Trump's second coming. The billionaire class, of course, you see that, how they are trying

to placate in some ways. Gates's agenda if you want to speculate maybe more about the USAID cuts and trying to fill that gap as starving people starve.

But it will definitely be used by people who say that's a false choice, and every decade or year that is spent sort of dilly dallying. What happened

since I talked to Bill Gates as his last breakthrough energy ventures in London, this was in August of last year, a couple of years or a couple of

months before the election. I asked him about, you know, his hopes. He was hoping Trump would hold on to some of the incentives in the Inflation

Reduction Act and keep that momentum going. Largely didn't, none of those hopes came true.

And so he's focused on the ones that are left. And as you see everybody doing this dance right now, but you've got, you know, small NGOs heal the

bays, stripping climate language from Web sites because they don't want to, you know, raise the ire of the denier-in-chief, of course. And the

administration has declared such sort of all-out war on climate science and alternative, you know, sustainable energies.

Everybody, Democrats are not talking about, you know, the existential threat and starving polar bears. The narrative is really about abundance,

solutions and clean energy. Better, cleaner, faster life, things in our lives.

SCIUTTO: Right.

[16:55:06]

WEIR: So this is part of all of that, but it does complicate the conversation, to be sure, because he has so much respect in the space.

SCIUTTO: Is there another message from his comments? Because he specifically called out what he called a doomsday outlook when it comes to

climate change. Is he communicating that it's his view that, yes, it's still a real issue. We have to address it. There are these more immediate

problems, but that also some are accelerating the effects of climate change to some degree in saying that doomsday is not right around the corner?

I'm just trying to figure out what he's trying to get across here.

WEIR: Well, if you look at the, you know, the way that the planet, despite it all has bent the carbon curve slightly, thanks in large part to China

decarbonizing and so the trends are there, I think it's more the idea that we were in this phase during the first -- during the Biden administration,

the Inflation Reduction Act, these things and there was political will and after, of course, Greta Thunberg and the marches and Sunrise Movement got

some real movement in terms of the public awareness around this, there's always a backlash to that.

You saw the backlash to it and electricity prices. And so it's swinging there. But yes, it's -- there is no sort of satisfying season finale to the

climate story sadly. And it's a constant fight and incremental and all these places. I think he's saying the days that we throw money at a bunch

of promising ideas, carbon capture, using seaweed and all these stories we profiled, which had a lot of promise, but just like anything else it shakes

out to about a dozen really proven technologies, and he's saying we should go all in on them and help those scale up.

He dialed back his lobbying arm because of the governments, the populism around the world, and, you know, maybe not in a choose your battles

elsewhere. But it's a long 5,000 word memo. There's a lot of nuance in it. But any time you try to say, all right, guys, and even the worst scenarios

is not saying, you know, that humanity will blink out as a result of manmade global warming.

Everybody has said the technology will help us adapt. It's a matter of how many ecosystems and how many lives and how much treasure we lose in

between. So the idea of all or nothing is sort of a false framing around it. Every 10th of a degree counts in terms of lives and of human and

otherwise. And I don't think he's changed his mind on that, but he's saying, well, maybe you can get politically more momentum behind efforts

when it comes to folks' lives immediately, right now, pocketbook, human health, wealth and happiness.

SCIUTTO: Right. All right. Well, thanks for helping us interpret all this, Bill Weir. Good to have you on.

And that is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. I'm Jim Sciutto. "THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER" starts now. And I'll be back for "THE BRIEF" right after that.

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