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Hurricane Melissa Lashes Cuba With Damaging Winds, Heavy Rain; Trump Says, U.S Trade Deal With South Korea Pretty Much Finalized; Federal Reserve Expected to Cut Rates Today. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired October 29, 2025 - 10:00   ET

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

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PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, Hurricane Melissa wreaks havoc in Cuba after devastating Jamaica. The storm causing colossal destruction on the island, damaging homes, hospitals, and schools. Why Jamaicans are still on alert hours after the storm passed.

Were warning signs ignored? A trial begins for a former assistant principal accused of missing several opportunities to take a gun from a six-year-old boy, but then later used it to shoot his first grade teacher.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, a pivotal meeting. President Trump will face Chinese Leader Xi Jinping to discuss a potential trade deal that could have a major impact on the global economy.

And defending Roblox, the chief safety officer of the online gaming company will join me this hour to respond to a mother who says her son died by suicide after meeting a predator on the gaming platform.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in The Situation Room.

And we begin with breaking news. Right now, Hurricane Melissa is unleashing its fury on Cuba, packing heavy rains and damaging winds at over 100 miles an hour. It's now a powerful Category 2 storm. Hundreds of thousands have already been evacuated as severe flooding turned city streets into rivers of rushing water.

BROWN: And behind Melissa, a trail of destruction. Jamaicans are just beginning to take in the scale of the damage caused by one of the strongest Atlantic storms ever recorded. Video coming out of the island chose countless roofs blown away by Melissa's 185-mile-an-hour winds. Down trees and flooded roads have made much of Western Jamaica inaccessible, hundreds of thousands are still without power and water right now. And major airports there remain closed. At least three people are dead. Jamaica's prime minister says the entire country is just a disaster area right now.

BLITZER: CNN's Patrick Oppmann is in Santiago de Cuba for us where the storm made landfall just a second time early this morning. Patrick, what are the conditions like there now? PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, the rain and winds have finally stopped down, Wolf, after a long night and morning, we were just getting slammed. People are starting to go out on the roofs out in the street a little bit to assess the damage. It is not as bad as it was certainly in Jamaica, where, of course, the storm hit was so much more power, but we in a total blackout in this part of Cuba, we're live right now because we have a generator. Other people, though, have been in the dark now for more than 12 hours. The roofs have been badly damaged, so they're trying to repair that so more water doesn't get into their homes.

People in low-lying areas had terrible flooding last night. We saw images of people, you know, waste-high water in their own homes. So, no word on any casualties or vitalities at this point. As you said, hundreds of thousands of people did evacuate in Cuba ahead of the storm. That kept a lot of people safe. But with power lines, trees, down, roofs damaged, it's just going to take days, if not weeks, to really assess how much damage took place.

You know, the storm is the size of Texas. It has completely blank at the eastern end of this island. And it's probably done millions, if not billions of dollars in damage for our country that simply cannot afford that kind of devastation.

BLITZER: And, Patrick, what about food and water and medical supplies? Are they getting in?

OPPMANN: No. You know, that has really been the issue is the government was distributing some food at a time, but very, very little. You know, resources here are already so tight. So, we were seeing people going out trying to stock up as much as they can. You know, remember, supermarkets here are usually pretty bare in the best of times. Cubans always find a way people are relying on family. But, you know, if this storm hit people hard, certainly in the mountain communities where help may not arrive for days, they're going to have a very difficult time.

So, where I am, we are okay. Houses are pretty well-built here, but that doesn't mean that in other parts of this island people have not experienced catastrophic damage. We just won't know until authorities can get there, we can get there to see how bad it actually was. For a lot of people though who live in homes that are just not built to withstand this kind of storm, it must have been pretty bad and they probably lost everything.

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BLITZER: All right. Well, good luck, Patrick Oppmann, stay safe over there in Cuba. We'll stay in close touch with you. Thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: And, Wolf, this morning, we are just beginning to get an idea of the amount of damage in Jamaica after Melissa slammed into the island.

BLITZER: CNN's Derek Van Dam is in the western part of Jamaica surveying the destruction that's been described as extensive and catastrophic.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: We're now traveling to the western side of Jamaica. That's where obviously Hurricane Melissa made landfall. And this is the first time we've been safely been able to get out of the capital city of Kingston. And you can see just some of the over wash here on the roadways. We've encountered a lot of rock slides and mudslides and down trees, some power lines over the roads. And it's difficult to navigate this area. I mean, here's an electrical wire dangling right in front of us as well. This is obviously very typical of hurricane damage.

But as we get further and further into the disaster area where the core of the hurricane struck, we anticipate the destruction to be more widespread. And, obviously, the weather's been a challenge as well. We've been covered a lot of fog. So, these narrow roads that wind through these regions as we head towards the St. Elizabeth Parish, the western portions of Jamaica, we're getting closer and closer to New Hope where the official land point landfall point was. This is going to be quite a challenge, but we're going to try and report from this area that was so heavily impacted by the hurricane. Look at this gully here that was washed out from the heavy rain, just really, really incredible.

BLITZER: And our special thanks to Derek Van Dam for that report. Pamela?

BROWN: Glad he is safe after all of that, I want to bring in David Watkins. He and his family are stranded in Jamaica after traveling from the U.S. for a vacation. David, I hope that we are connected to you. Thank you so much for being here.

First of all, how are you and your family doing this morning?

DAVID WATKINS, STRANDED WITH FAMILY IN JAMAICA: Good, thankful to make it through it. You know, got through the worst part of the storm where we are located in Montego Bay (INAUDIBLE) came out a little better than some other places.

BROWN: Yes. But still, Montego Bay had a direct hit here. I mean, you're from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. You're probably familiar with hurricanes. Just tell us what it was like going through a storm of this magnitude, I mean, leading up to it and then when the storm finally hit.

WATKINS: Nerve-wracking, just wind speeds. I've never been through anything like that in Myrtle Beach. We just did the best we could to secure, get into the center room. We fortified our room, our glass. At the hotel we're staying at, there's at least 16, 17 rooms that the slide ended up blowing out right as the eye was getting close, blew the slider out all the way back to the other door, out into the main hallway.

BROWN: Was there ever a time where you worried about your safety, your life, and your family's life?

WATKINS: I am sure subconsciously, but when it's going on, I was just in pure survival mode to make sure my kids are -- and my wife, and my parents and my aunt just have step one, step two, step three of if this happens, we're doing this, if this happens, we're doing this. I had plans in place. And I just thank God it didn't come to that. Other places aren't so fortunate.

BROWN: Yes, you were in full action mode. The adrenaline was probably going. And I'm sure you're thinking, oh my gosh, we came here for family vacation. Now, we're dealing with this historic hurricane. Do you have any idea when you'll be able to leave the island?

WATKINS: As of right now, from what we're getting preliminary is Kingston Airport will be open Thursday. Montego Bay has some level of impact to where they don't know -- when that will be open. So, we're looking at any and all options.

BROWN: All right. Well, listen, we are wishing you the very best, David Watkins, to you and your family and glad that you are safe. Thank you so much for talking with us.

WATKINS: Thank you.

BLITZER: Good luck to all those people who are there. It's really heartbreaking to hear those stories.

Still ahead, possible synagogue attacks stopped. Police in Alabama arresting a man with a full arsenal after making threats to the Jewish community.

And later, the fate of a former Illinois deputy now in the hands of a jury, deliberations are set to resume any moment in the case of a black woman shot and killed in her home after calling a 911 -- calling 911.

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Stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

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BROWN: Well, new this morning, President Trump says he's pretty much finalized a trade deal with South Korea. The president made that announcement as he wrapped up a dinner at the APEC Summit just a short time ago.

So, let's go live now to CNN Senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes traveling with the president. Kristen, what more can you tell us about the details of this trade deal with South Korea?

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KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Pamela. We're still getting all these details. We only have what we've been told by South Korean officials. But one thing to note here, South Korea's economy has been really impacted by the fact that President Trump had spiked up the tariffs on that country and they were really looking to try and figure something out. The two countries had agreed to a framework back in July, but this is the first time we're actually seeing something moving forward here in terms of an actual deal.

So, here's what we know. This would lower the automotive tax or the tariffs by 15 percent. There would be a $350 billion U.S. investment. Now, $200 billion of that would be in cash and about $150 billion of that would be through ship building cooperations.

Now, of course, we know this is something President Trump has done as he tries to get various countries to invest in manufacturing throughout the United States. Now, on top of that, this would lower the semiconductor tariff rate as well.

So, these are all the things that we know are in there, at least have heard that are in there from South Korean officials. We're still waiting to see some kind of readout from the White House on this.

BROWN: And also on very busy schedule, President Trump is just hours away from one of the most consequential meetings since his return to office, a sit-down with China's leader, Xi Jinping. What are you hearing about that?

HOLMES: Both sides are anticipating this meeting. We know that both sides have been prepped, that there have been ongoing negotiations for days, weeks, and months between Chinese officials and U.S. officials. They do believe that they have a trade framework when it comes to actually coming out of this with a deal.

One thing to note, both sides do want one thing that is the same, which is they do want everything to deescalate. They understand how this tension has caused problems for the markets worldwide, and they don't want either of their leaders to come out of this situation embarrassed. So, that's why you're seeing so much behind the work -- behind-the-scenes work being put into this before these two men sit down.

So, here's what we know just based on what we've heard from these various officials could happen today, could be signed, this could be part of the framework. One of the things would be that further cooperation to stem the flow of fentanyl into the United States. This turn would lead Donald Trump the president to lower the tariffs that they put on China because of that flow of fentanyl.

Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, who has been working on this, announced that China would make substantial purchase of U.S. soybeans. Again, that would be critical to American farmers who have suffered deeply because of the fact that China has stopped buying soybeans from American farmers.

And then China could delay export controls on rare earth minerals. Remember, that's what really set off the latest trade war, trade escalation, was the fact that China had said they were going to put these export controls on rare earth minerals, causing the prices to go up for the United States. President Trump said he was going to retaliate with a hundred percent tariff that would start in November. We are now hearing that there's likely to be a deference of that rare earth export controls by China, which, again, would mean that those 100 percent tariffs disappear. So, all of this is part of what we are hearing. We expect though that nothing is permanent until both these leaders sign off on it.

BROWN: We will be watching closely. Kristen Holmes, thanks so much.

And new this morning, more details about the White House firing all six members of a key independent agency that would typically review President Trump's construction projects. The Commission of Fine Arts would usually have a say over projects like President Trump's new, potentially $300 million ballroom, and the style of his plan arch opposite the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The six Biden appointees were fired by email from an adviser in the Presidential Personnel Office. Wolf?

BLITZER: Also happening now, the Federal Reserve is back at it today for its second day of policy meetings. The central bank is expected to announce a rate cut, but the government shutdown is effectively cut off access to key economic data that the Fed uses to make decisions about its rate policy.

CNN's Matt Egan is here in The Situation Room following all of this for us. Matt, so how is this data gap expected to affect the Fed's decision-making?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Wolf, it looks like an interest rate cut from the Fed is imminent. Wall Street thinks it's basically a slam dunk. The market is pricing in a nearly 100 percent chance of a quarter point cut today. And yet, the government shutdown is complicating matters for the Fed because for the first time since the Fed's rate cutting committee was established back in the 1930s, they're making a decision on interest rates without having the monthly jobs report in hand.

That is a big deal. This is a Fed that likes to say that it's data dependent. But because of the government shutdown, we still have not seen the September jobs report. And keep in mind, it's almost November. And it's not just the jobs report. There's weekly jobless claims, there's inflation numbers, retail sales, durable goods. All of these reports have been delayed.

And so in many ways, the Fed is kind of operating mostly in the dark when it comes to economic data. I say mostly because there are some private numbers that get put out, but that's no substitute for the official number.

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So, this would be like trying to navigate through your living room in the middle of a power outage without the benefit of a flashlight. It'll probably okay, but you might bump into some things along the way.

And yet everyone does think that the Fed is going to cut interest rates, not because they think inflation has been solved. It hasn't been. It's actually gone back up to 3 percent in part because of the president's tariffs. They're likely to cut because they're worried about the job market. And those worries have only been amplified by those mass layoffs from Amazon that we spoke about yesterday.

No matter the reason though, rates are finally coming down. This cut would lower rates to about a three-year low. So, that's good news for consumers, right? It's going to be helpful in terms of interest payments for everyone who has credit card debt, home equity lines of credit, mortgage rates have also come down. The big deal, Wolf, for Wall Street is what does Fed Chair Jerome Powell say about interest rate cuts going forward and what does he say about how officials are navigating in this information blackout.

BLITZER: Excellent explanation. Matt Egan, thank you. We'll see what the Fed decides to do later today. Thanks very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: All right, Wolf. Coming up, it wasn't the World Series start one Dodgers star was hoping for. How the Toronto Blue Jays tied things up in Los Angeles.

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BLITZER: Happening now, the Israeli military says it will resume the ceasefire in Gaza after carrying out a wave of strikes overnight. Gaza's health authorities say at least 104 people were killed, including dozens of children. The strikes came after Israel accused Hamas of killing an Israeli soldier and staging the discovery of a deceased hostage.

Joining us not from Tel Aviv, CNN's Jeremy Diamond. So, what else is going on? What's the latest Jeremy?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well Wolf, the Israeli military says the ceasefire is now back in effect. Hamas says it is also committed to this agreement once again. But this will all be a very little solace to the families of the more than 100 Palestinians who were killed in Gaza last night, as the Israeli military unleashed a punishing series of strikes. At least 104 people were killed, of which 46 were children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.

And we have seen in the videos from the aftermath of these strikes, child after child being brought into hospital emergency rooms, the bodies of lifeless children lying on the floors of morgues as their relatives said goodbye to them, painful goodbyes that were made all the more painful by the cold reality that a ceasefire was supposed to be in effect.

But Israel launched these strikes after accusing Hamas of multiple violations of this ceasefire. The Israeli government said that Hamas had killed an Israeli soldier yesterday in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. Hamas denied any connection to the militants who carried out that attack. And then Israel also released this drone video that shows Hamas militants appearing to stage the retrieval of a body from the rubble in Gaza.

It was really quite remarkable because it speaks to what Israel has accused Hamas of doing for weeks of pretending like it needs to search for these bodies, when in fact it has several of these remains of deceased hostages in its possession.

Now, Hamas has retrieved additional remains of deceased hostages and it appears prepared to hand those over once again to the Red Cross, indicating that the ceasefire is going to get back on track. We also heard from President Trump, who did not seem to have an issue with Israel carrying out these strikes, saying that Hamas had killed an Israeli soldier and that Israel had the right to strike back. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Jeremy Diamond and Tel Aviv for us, Jeremy, thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: All right. And just ahead, Wolf, people across Jamaica are getting a first look at all the damage from Hurricane Melissa this morning, but the storm's impact is still being felt. We're going to have an update from Kensington next.

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