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What We Know with Max Foster
Hurricane Melissa Heads Towards Jamaica As Category 5 Storm; U.S. Warships Move Closer To Venezuela; U.S. & China Agree On Trade Deal Framework Ahead Of Expected Trump-Xi Meeting Thursday; Trump Says He Received An MRI During Trip To Walter Reed; British Commentator Sami Hamdi Detained By ICE; Palestinians Returning To Find Their Homes & Lives Destroyed; Police Nab Two Suspects In Brazen Paris Louvre Heist. Aired 3-4p ET
Aired October 27, 2025 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:00:27]
MAX FOSTER, CNN HOST: The strongest storm of the year, just hours away from impact.
This is WHAT WE KNOW about it.
We begin with an urgent warning for Jamaica. The country's bracing for the biggest hurricane ever to hit the island. Here's a live look at Kingston.
The storm is about 145 miles, or 230 kilometers southwest of the city. At the moment, mandatory evacuation orders have been issued for vulnerable
coastline areas. Jamaica's transport minister says there will be a massive amount of flooding across the country.
This category five storm is the strongest storm on the planet this year. Could be the worst ever to hit Jamaica, as far as we know.
The storm is expected to make landfall in just a matter of hours. After that, it heads towards Cuba, where Patrick Oppmann is standing by with the
very latest -- Patrick.
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we're seeing people get ready all over the city of Santiago de Cuba. They are lining up to get cash out to
get bread. And then you see scenes like this. So, rooftops where there are people cleaning the rooftop, taking lumber off the rooftop, rooftop,
anything that could turn be turned by a powerful category five hurricane like Melissa into shrapnel.
So, we are seeing people take down steel roofs, take down lumber that were using for construction projects, take down water tanks because usually
those items are not dangerous. But when you have -- you're close to 200 mile an hour winds, powerful category five hurricane winds, they can become
deadly. Those are the things just go flying off roofs and hurt people. So, the government here in Cuba has warned people in the eastern side of the
island to finish up the preparations to evacuate from low lying areas to get any food they might need.
Already, we are in blackout here. That's why you hear the generator over my shoulder. We've been without power now for the last several hours, so it is
beginning to get real. And we've not felt much in the way of weather. But that will change over the next so many hours. And by this time tomorrow, we
should really be getting into the thick of it and then into the morning hours. It will probably be impossible to be standing where I am right now,
because this is the kind of storm, even in Cuba, where people are used to hurricanes, that few people here have ever experienced -- Max.
FOSTER: Yeah, thoughts with everyone there, Patrick. But as I understand it, this is particularly devastating, not just because of the high speed of
the winds, but it's also traveling incredibly slowly, isn't it? And then you're going to have this long period of days of torrential rain that
follow after its hit. Is that right?
OPPMANN: It's just a terrible combination. You know, I cover these things, and the last thing you want to see, Max, ever, is a powerful hurricane
that's moving slowly. It seems counterintuitive, but of course, that means that you have these incredibly powerful wind speeds essentially stalled out
two miles an hour. We can all walk faster than that.
And so, we stalled out over us. And that just gives it more time to do terrible, terrible damage. This is a mountainous area of Cuba, Max. And so
when you have those torrential rains pouring down, you know, historic rain levels in Jamaica, they're talking about months worth of rain in a single
afternoon.
And that means mudslides. It means roads get washed out. That means people who live in the mountains behind me, the hillsides could have their houses
get just taken out in a deluge of a, you know, essentially a flash flood on the side of a mountain. So, very dangerous situation. And it means that
help will take longer to get there when it can get there.
FOSTER: Okay, Patrick, thinking of you all there as the storm comes in. We'll have a live report from Jamaica as well later this hour. It's going
to hit there first.
Meanwhile, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro claims the U.S. is looking to fabricate an excuse to go to war there. On Sunday, the guided missile
destroyer, the USS Gravely, arrived in Trinidad and Tobago. Meanwhile, the largest aircraft carrier in the world, the USS Gerald R. Ford, is also on
its way to the seas off Venezuela. All of this as U.S. President Donald Trump accuses Maduro of leading a drug gang.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a prominent supporter of Trump, has this new warning for Venezuela.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): We're going to blow them up and kill the people that want to poison America, and we're now going to expand
operations, I think, to the land. So please be clear about what I'm saying today. President Donald Trump sees Venezuela and Colombia as direct threats
to our country because the house narco terrorist organizations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Kylie Atwood joins us from Washington.
[15:05:01]
I mean, moving the operation to the land sounds like a war, doesn't it, Kylie?
KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN U.S. SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Or at least some version of war will have to see, you know, how they get from here to
there. But the senator, in an interview over the weekend, said it's a real possibility in his perspective. When asked about land strikes inside of
Venezuela. He is someone who speaks with President Trump regularly.
He also said in that CBS interview that he expects to be that Congress is going to be brief when President Trump is back from Asia on the possibility
of what he called future military operations against both Venezuela and Colombia. So, linking potential operations that could be carried out not
just against Venezuela. And we have some reporting that the Trump administration has considered targets inside of Venezuela, specifically on
drug trafficking targets inside the country. But the senator also saying Colombia is a possibility as well.
Of course, this builds on what we have been watching in the region with the U.S. military bolstering its presence there. As you said, we had over the
weekend, that new warship docking in Trinidad and Tobago, U.S. and officials from the country are both saying that it's going to be there
through at least Thursday in order to carry out training exercises. And this comes on the heels of the news late last week that the U.S. military
is going to be moving one of its largest aircraft carriers from the region of Europe down to the Caribbean region.
So, obviously, all eyes on what this operation -- what all this planning is really for. We do know, however, that the U.S. has been consistently
carrying out these strikes against what they call alleged drug boats in the region, and these have only continued over the last few weeks since they
started in mid-September.
FOSTER: Kylie, thank you for the update.
The White House is striking an optimistic tone. Meanwhile, ahead of this week's expected meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese
leader Xi Jinping, U.S. officials say they've reached the framework of a trade agreement between the two economic superpowers and China's state
media reports that negotiators have come to a preliminary consensus ahead of that meeting.
There are new concerns tonight about President Trump's health, though, after he says he received an MRI scan recently at Walter Reed National
Military Medical Center.
Here's what he told reporters aboard Air Force One during his trip to Asia.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I did, I got an MRI. It was perfect. Yeah, I mean, I gave you -- I gave you the full results. We had an
MRI, MRI and in the machine, you know, the whole thing. And it was perfect.
REPORTER: Did you say one in particular?
TRUMP: You could ask the doctors. In fact, we have doctors traveling with us. But I think they gave you a very conclusive. Nobody has ever given you
reports like I gave you. And if I didn't think it was going to be good either, I would let you know negatively. I wouldn't run, I'd do something.
But, the doctor said some of the best reports for the age. Some of the best reports they've ever seen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: CNN's Kevin Liptak joins us live from Washington.
It's just worrying hearing a president, isn't it, talking about having an MRI scan. I'm just wondering how normal they are.
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: I mean, they're not normal in any sort of routine physical checkup, which is what the president's
visit to Walter Reed Medical Center earlier this month was described as. And so just hearing the president say that he had an MRI as part of this, I
think, sort of sends up some red flags.
You know, it was kind of an unusual moment to hear the president just describing it very bluntly on Air Force One, he was asked whether he had an
MRI because at the time, his physician, when he put out a report from that physical, said that the president had received, quote, advanced imaging,
but he did not describe what exactly that consisted of.
So, when the president says that he's put out all of these comprehensive reports and that we know exactly what he underwent, that's not exactly
true. That was not described in this report. What the doctor said was that this evaluation was intended to, quote, ensure optimal cardiovascular
health and continued wellness. So, really, no indication beyond that about what this MRI was actually intended for.
And, you know, this visit to Walter Reed, it was about two and a half weeks ago was itself rather unusual. The president only had his physical back in
April, and ordinarily a president only does this once a year. So just the fact that the president was going out there in suburban Washington, in the
state of Maryland, was itself something of a strange occurrence.
You know, the White House on the grounds has its own medical office. You can do quite a number of medical procedures there, absent these sort of
large, significant evaluations, of which an MRI would certainly be one of them.
[15:10:00]
And so when you listen to doctors, they do list a whole number of areas where an MRI might be useful. Anything ranging from neurological exams to
back pain to potentially looking at the president's prostate. So there's this whole range of issues that they could potentially be investigating. We
have no idea what they're looking for.
And the White House and the doctor himself, who I reached out to have not responded to clarify, despite the president saying that they would be happy
to do so.
One of the reasons I think that people are so sort of concerned about this is the president's age. You know, he's 79 years old. When he was
inaugurated earlier this year, he was the oldest president to be sworn in in the United States. He has sort of a mixed record about his forthcoming
in what he's saying about his health. On the one hand, his physical sort of memos from the doctor are pretty descriptive. They have all kinds of facts
and figures.
But on the other hand, he is known to not want to portray any sort of sensibility that he's ill or that he's sick. And you think back to when he
was suffering from COVID during his first term in office. Later, it was only later on that we learned, for example, that his blood oxygen level had
dipped to quite some worrying levels. They didn't reveal that at the time.
And so, I think a lot of unanswered questions about what exactly the president was doing up there at Walter Reed that hopefully will get some
answers on soon.
FOSTER: Yeah. Okay. Kevin, thank you so much.
Hamas is due to hand over the body of another deceased hostage to the Red Cross this hour. The group hasn't identified the hostage. It will be the
16th deceased hostage. Hamas has handed over as part of the ceasefire deal with Israel. The bodies of another 12 remain in Gaza.
U.S. immigration authorities have detained a British commentator, Sami Hamdi. Hamdi was in the middle of a speaking tour in California when his
visa was revoked. He's now expected to be deported from the U.S. An ICE official accused him of supporting terrorism. The Council on American
Islamic Relations says he was detained for criticizing the Israeli government's war in Gaza.
Nic Robertson joins us.
A lot of people wouldn't know much about Hamdi. Just tell us what his thing is.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: He was detained at San Francisco airport. He was in the middle of a speaking tour, as you say. He
was going to be an internal flight to Florida. He has been outspoken on a number of issues. He's critical of Israel, accusing them of their war in
Gaza as being at times on his X account, being rabid genocide, pro- Palestinian views.
And what we've heard from the spokesperson at the Department of Homeland Security is the United States under President Trump, will not tolerate
anyone who supports terrorism or undermines the national security of the United States. And then they go on to say that he's been detained. His visa
will be revoked.
It's not quite clear when he'll be released. He, his wife, who I reached out to today, told me that he hasn't been given consular access or access
to consular officials. She says for the past 24 hours, he has, in effect, been held incommunicado without that consular access, without access to
legal representation.
I've checked with the British foreign office, FCDO, they say that they have been in touch with the family of a man detained in the United States, in
reference to this particular question. And they go on to say that they are in touch with the local authorities. But it does seem from what we're
hearing from the British, Foreign and Commonwealth and Development Office that they have not had direct access to Sami Hamdi yet.
You know, his commentary has been, you know, he's been supportive of President Erdogan and Turkey for ousting Bashar al-Assad in Syria. His
supportive of the former prime minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, who's in jail in Pakistan at the moment. He's been critical of the Gulf leaders, in
the Emirates and in Saudi Arabia. So he's been relatively outspoken.
FOSTER: And so Trump is effectively saying or his administration is saying, we just don't want those views here. Presumably, he's not going to
end up in court. Probably, he's just going to get sent out of the country. And this is a big message.
ROBERTSON: It looks like that's what's going to happen. There are those who will -- who will perhaps be looking on from the sidelines in the Muslim
community in the U.K. and saying, look, the comments that you've been making, this perhaps doesn't come as a surprise when you go to the United
States knowing that this particular administration is in the White House. Nevertheless, there will be plenty of people in the U.K. who look at this
and say, you know, where's the freedom of speech?
FOSTER: Yeah.
ROBERTSON: And, and what -- and the message to him and, and others who might want to follow in his footsteps is very clearly, even for someone who
doesn't have a big profile in the U.K., even going to the United States.
[15:15:05]
It was the Council of American and Islamic Relations, you know, well-known body where he was -- where he was making these speeches. The, you know, the
message appears to be don't come to the United States with those kind of messages.
FOSTER: Yeah. Nic, thank you so much.
Coming up, tensions rising in the Caribbean, why the United States has sent a warship to Trinidad and Tobago. And what might come next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FOSTER: With a ceasefire in place, displaced Palestinians have been returning to their homes in Gaza. Many are coming back to find their
communities unrecognizable in their homes, destroyed after two years of war.
And as CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports, some are left searching for closure with loved ones still lost beneath the rubble.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This rubble stands as a testament to so much loss. For Rafiq Dib (ph), it is also where he feels
closest to his family.
One by one, he greets his wife and four children, recalling how on this day a Friday, they would be sitting down together for lunch.
"I came to unburden myself to you," Rafiq says. But he hasn't just come here because this is where they were killed. Nearly two years after Israel
bombed their home, this is where their bodies are still buried.
"I want to take you out and bury you in graves and come visit you," Rafiq says. "Instead of visiting you while you are under the rubble."
Rafiq's wife and children are among more than 10,000 people whose bodies are still trapped beneath mounds of concrete and twisted metal, according
to Gaza's civil defense.
[15:20:05]
Thousands whose deaths have yet to be recorded in the health ministry's toll of more than 68,000 killed in Gaza. The ceasefire gave families like
Rafiq hope that they could soon give their loved ones a dignified burial. But two weeks in Gaza's civil defense, armed only with crude equipment, has
recovered fewer than 500 bodies, mostly in open or easy to reach locations.
"We are talking about bodies under the rubble of tall buildings, concrete masses exceeding 50 million tons of debris are on people's bodies. Leftover
debris amounting to about 70,000 tons, located in various areas of the strip," says Mahmoud Basal, Gaza's civil defense spokesman. "To deal with
them, we need capabilities and tools and teams able to handle these events."
Some of that heavy machinery entered Gaza during the previous ceasefire, but Israel targeted much of it when it returned to war. New machinery is
now entering Gaza once again, but at least for now, these excavators are intended to retrieve the bodies of deceased Israeli hostages, not
Palestinians.
Rafiq is now pleading with the world to supply Gaza with the tools to dig out his children so that he may bury them. "Your son grows up before you,
you rejoice in him and you tell yourself he will support me when I grow old. And suddenly everything disappears from your life."
One father among so many, waiting for rubble to be cleared and the closure it could bring.
Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Still to come, bracing for impact. The biggest hurricane Jamaica's ever seen in living memory, at least, is set to hit the island in the
coming hours. We're live in the weather center in Jamaica's capital.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:25:29]
FOSTER: A rare and historic storm closing in on Jamaica. Hurricane Melissa, a massive category five with winds up to 175 miles per hour,
expected to make a direct hit on the southern coast early Tuesday local time. The island has issued mandatory evacuation orders for several coastal
communities, and the government is urging people to go to designated shelters ahead of what could be the strongest storm ever to hit Jamaica.
Forecasters warn there could be life threatening floods.
CNN Chris -- CNN's Chris Warren is tracking developments from our weather center.
Chris, when's it going to hit them?
CHRIS WARREN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's going to be overnight tonight and into the morning for the worst of the weather. But conditions are already
going downhill. This is Hurricane Melissa, category five, 175 mile-per-hour hurricane, the strongest storm on earth this year, and it's heading toward
Jamaica.
The strongest of the winds are going to be right here. So, wherever this part makes landfall is where the catastrophic winds can be expected.
However, the whole island will see so much rain that catastrophic flooding is a possibility. So, with that, by tomorrow morning, a category five
hurricane or a category four, both catastrophic impacts in terms of the wind.
So, 4 or 5, it doesn't really change what's going to happen. And that is the destruction closest to the eye is where the destruction will be
greatest. And the whole island again will have rain. Then eventually it is going to move over eastern Cuba as a dangerous category two or three
hurricane.
So, another way to look at this. These are the tropical storm force winds in yellow around 60 mile an hour. Winds in orange which could see hurricane
force gusts. And then the more dangerous hurricane force winds in red.
This is 5:00 this evening rain, strong winds already ongoing here at 5:00 for Jamaica. Put it in motion. Now things really start to go downhill. And
this is 2:00 in the morning. So, think about the time here. Two, three, four, five.
Now, we're into the afternoon before that gets out of here. This is going to last so long, some of that worst of the weather. Just that orange part
there that you could fly from New York City to Australia in about the time it's going to take for that to move all the way across Jamaica.
So, this is a long, long duration. And because of that, the amount of rain that's going to fall, you turn on the faucet and you walk away and you come
back several hours later, you're going to have a problem. So that's kind of what we're talking about here, too much rain over a long period of time.
And these hurricanes have a lot of juice, a lot of moisture.
And then the mountains themselves can get that much more rain out of these systems. So flooding, landslides, even well away from the center is going
to be a possibility. The mountains play a role. They give a little extra lift. That rain is coming out of the mountains in the form of flooding,
while, Max, at the same time, the hurricane itself is pushing the seawater, saltwater going in.
In some cases, a couple of meters above high ground. So, this is a very dangerous situation when that water is trying to drain out but can't
because the sea level is getting up higher. Very dangerous situation, Max.
FOSTER: Yeah, really worrying. Chris, thanks for explaining it to us.
Well, an official speaking to CNN has been urging fellow Jamaicans to heed the evacuation orders.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DESMOND MCKENZIE, JAMAICAN MINISTER OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT: We have been doing some intense work over the last couple of weeks to educate and to
engage our communities. We have seen some steady response in terms of evacuation taking place. We are expecting in excess of 50,000 or more
Jamaicans in these, are areas that we have targeted to be evacuated to safe grounds.
We know the challenges that we face as a country, and we are prepared within the best of our ability to try to deal with this massive fallout
that is expected from Michelle.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Meteorologist Derek Van Dam joins us now from Kingston, Jamaica.
I mean, they're putting these warnings out because they're, frankly, they're worried that people will just stay at home. But this isn't the
storm to do that with, right?
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: No, absolutely not. They are mandatory evacuations here in Jamaica.
[15:30:01]
I'm located in Kingston, the nation's capital, home to about a million people. But there's 3 million people who called Jamaica home. And
government officials who we have spoken to said that they have activated over 800 evacuation centers. There are busses that are taking people from
vulnerable locations to try and get them to these evacuation centers, but it's just simply too large of a task.
There are so many people, so many vulnerable communities, and there are a lot of people, quite frankly, who don't -- aren't even aware of the
magnitude of this storm that is headed this way.
So again, we are in Kingston right now, and I'm going to try and take you over here. Speaking of Kingston, I've got my buddy Kingston, the dog. He
has been a feature of our live shots through the course of the day. Today, he's been, I mean, basically befriended us all, through the course of the
morning.
But this is a common sight within Jamaica. A lot of stray animals that that just want to be looked after. Okay? And that's part of the story here as we
try to tell you what's happening on the ground. And the animals are also part of it as well.
So, that's Kingston. We met him. He's been fed, and he's looking for a friend, so -- but I want to show you what we're dealing with out here, and
it has to do with the rain. This is kind of the first rain drops that we're really getting. Some of the gusts here have been over, around tropical
storm force.
We haven't had the brunt of the storm because we know its still sitting offshore. We know that this is a slow motion disaster that will, really
unfold here in the next 48 hours, as Chris was mentioning just a few minutes ago, it's the slow nature of the storm. The forward progress is so
slow, basically the same speed as the average human can walk that will prolong this disaster, preventing people here in Jamaica from actually
recovering during the storm.
There is -- it's difficult to see, but there's unfinished buildings with concrete, rebar, metal siding that will most certainly become projectiles
as some of these catastrophic winds come in overnight and peak on Tuesday morning local time, as the brunt of this monster category five hurricane.
By the way, Max, which is in very, very rare company, some of the strongest storms to ever form in the Atlantic basin, certainly the strongest storm
that Jamaica has ever experienced. We are bracing for impact, hoping for the best, but expecting some of the worst conditions here soon.
FOSTER: OK.
VAN DAM: I always end with this. This is so important. And I'm telling people as they're listening internationally that, you can hide from the
wind, but you need to run from the water. With the storm surge and flash flooding, it is a real concern.
FOSTER: Yeah, it could go on for days, couldn't it?
Derek, our thoughts with you. Stay safe. Thank you for bringing us that.
Now, the Argentine President Javier Milei is vowing to push ahead with what he calls necessary reforms. That's after his party claimed a significant
victory in midterm elections on Sunday.
CNN's Ivan Sarmenti has this report from Buenos Aires on the election and what it means for President Milei.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
IVAN SARMENTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This Sunday, Argentines went to the polls to renew Congress and President Javier Milei's party came out on top
with more than 40 percent of the vote, including key districts like Buenos Aires province, which is home to nearly 40 percent of Argentina's
population. Milei's party had lost in this province during last September's local elections by a margin of 13 percent.
These elections were seen as a kind of plebiscite on his administration. Even Donald Trump had endorsed him, offering a $20 billion bailout to
stabilize the peso exchange rate. However, Trump also warned that his support might be withdrawn if Milei lost.
But Milei's goal was to secure at least one seat of Congress, enough to preserve the presidential veto over bills that the government opposes. In
the end, he surpassed that goal.
In contrast, Peronists, which was encouraged by its landslide victory in Buenos Aires province last September, was hoping for a better performance,
at least a draw. But they lost even there, where they traditionally win.
For Milei, this Sunday's result was a crucial moment for the future of his political and economic agenda, and in the end, the results were better than
many had expected.
Ivan Sarmenti, CNN, Buenos Aires.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: We'll talk about the market impact of that election result in a moment. Meanwhile, it is the final moments of trade on Wall Street. Stocks
are up. That's partly due to the U.S. and China announcing that they've agreed on a framework, at least for a trade deal.
This is our business breakout. Those elections are and the results that came from them, for Argentina's President Javier Milei's party has given
him a mandate to keep pushing through his radical overhaul of the country's economy. In response, Argentina's stock market has jumped in Monday
trading, and will also please U.S. President Donald Trump, who has recently provided Argentina with a hefty financial bailout.
[15:35:03]
The chair of Tesla is warning shareholders to approve a $1 trillion pay package for Elon Musk, or risk losing him as CEO. The appeal comes amid
pushback to the hefty pay hike ahead of Tesla's annual meeting on November the 6th. Tesla's board has been under scrutiny for years over its close
relationship with Musk.
And those of you traveling in America will likely face delays thanks to air traffic control issues, which spiked over the weekend. This is the U.S.
government shutdown drags on and that's causing flight delays across the country. Controllers are essential workers, so have to work without pay
during the shutdown, many have called in sick since early October now.
Now, the CEO of Delta Airlines weighed in on the worsening situation at U.S. airports.
CNN's Richard Quest spoke with Ed Bbastian earlier. He said the shutdown, in his words, has to end soon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ED BASTIAN, DELTA AIRLINES CEO: I hope so, I hope so. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks. It has to.
RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR AT LARGE: You are you being badly affected in all your hubs?
BASTIAN: We're not being affected in a meaningful way. But the longer this goes, I think it will start to have some impact.
QUEST: Are you seeing any reluctance inbound to the U.S. of people who do not want to travel to the U.S., either because they fear an unfriendly
arrival experience or they just simply, you know, based on geopolitics, they don't want to visit America.
BASTIAN: We've seen some avoidance this year.
QUEST: I mean, besides Canada, which is obviously --
BASTIAN: Right. No, we've seen some avoidance. We have backfilled it with more Americans heading out because the desire that the man for us to go
abroad is high, 80 percent of our point of sale is turning into be U.S. point of sale for international. But yeah, we've seen some of that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Donald Trump isn't happy with Vladimir Putin after Russia tested a new nuclear-powered missile. Up next, we'll look at the implications of
these tests.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:40:11]
FOSTER: There's been a breakthrough in the Paris Louvre heist investigation. The prosecutor in the case says two suspects were arrested
over the weekend, including one man detained at the airport in Paris on Saturday before a flight to Algeria.
BFM-TV says both suspects hail from a Paris suburb. The second suspect was arrested there. The two were tracked using DNA evidence found at the
museum. Thieves targeted the museum's Apollo gallery in a brazen daylight robbery last week, fleeing with jewelry worth about $102 million in just
minutes.
Let's bring in our senior international correspondent, Melissa Bell, who joins us from Paris.
Crucially, Melissa, I understand they haven't found the jewels, so there's going to be some serious questioning going on right now.
MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They don't even have the jewels, Max. And that is of course, crucial. And we are still expecting
the arrest of another couple of suspects.
Remember that as we understand it from sources close to the investigation and French press reports, all four of the suspects who were at the Louvre
last a week last Sunday morning, rather, at the time of this heist, were, its believed, spotted and identified by French police several days ago.
They had been hoping we understand it, to arrest them all at once. In fact, it was the attempted flight from the country of one of them trying to get
on a flight to Algeria on Saturday evening, and they believed the preparations being made by another man to go to Mali, that forced them to
act and arrest the two men on Saturday evening.
They hadn't intended, Max, to make these arrests public. Leaks to the French press meant that the Paris prosecutor had by Sunday morning to
announce that these arrests had been made, had been made. But you understand from the prosecutors' statement, their frustration at the fact
that they'd had to make this public, they'd hoped to act all at once because this is an ongoing investigation, because all of those jewels
remain at large, and because there are still more suspects to be arrested.
But certainly, the arrest of this two does to us, looking in from the outside, this investigation suggests that progress is being made. And
remember that when we spoke about this, when it first happened on that Sunday, the question was how this heist could have been so successful, how
so quickly they could have gotten into the most visited museum in the world in daylight hours and gotten away with so much extraordinary jewelry from
the collection of France's crown jewels.
In fact, what we've learned since is that they did leave behind a lot of clues, not just the stuff that they used, the equipment they used to get
into the room, but also a lot of the things that they left behind a glove, a helmet, a scooter. So, also the truck that they used, that elevator lift
to get up to that top floor on, they didn't manage to burn even though they tried as they left. So, things were not as smooth or as professional as
we'd imagined at first. And all of these many clues that have been left behind, including 150 different traces of DNA left either at the scene of
the crime, Max, or on those elements that I mentioned a moment ago have allowed the investigators to make progress.
Now, what we know of the two who are currently in custody, they're both men in their 30s, and they were known to police before this, which, of course
will have held the investigators to match the DNA they found at the scene with the DNA of these two suspects that were already on their databases.
What we understand, though, from French press reports, is that we're not talking about terribly sophisticated, thieves. These were men who were
known for low level petty thievery already on police databases, but nothing terribly sophisticated. So, the big question at this stage, who? The
mastermind behind this operation might have been, Max.
FOSTER: Yeah. Okay. Melissa, back with you for any updates. Of course. Thank you.
Donald Trump has some harsh words for Vladimir Putin. Meanwhile, after the Russian president claimed to have tested out a nuclear-powered cruise
missile. On Sunday, Mr. Putin said Russia would work towards deploying the weapon. According to Russia's military, the missile stayed airborne for 15
hours, covering a distance of around 14,000 kilometers.
When asked about the test on Air Force One, the U.S. president was unimpressed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I don't think it's an appropriate thing to Putin -- for Putin to be saying, by the way. You ought to get the war ended, a war that should have
taken one week is now in its soon fourth year. That's what he ought to do, instead of testing missiles.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: If fears of cruise missiles and nuclear attacks feel familiar right now, it may be because of Netflix. In fact, the company's new
thriller about a nuclear strike, "A House of Dynamite", premiered on the service this weekend, directed by Kathryn Bigelow. It tells the story of a
missile aimed at the United States. The film sits at number one on the Netflix chart here in the U.K. at least.
So, what we want to know is how worried should we be over Russia's new missile?
Joining me now is retired Colonel Cedric Leighton, CNN's military analyst.
I don't know if you've seen the movie, Colonel, but it is quite scary because one of the possibilities is that it came from Russia. And this
missile that Putin has been talking about does have an incredibly long range.
COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yeah, it sure does, Max. And you know, as shown in the movie, there are so many different
aspects to the warning systems that the United States actually has.
So we would have ample warning of a missile like the Burevestnik or Skyfall, as it's called in NATO talk. But it is a -- certainly a dangerous
missile for a variety of reasons. First of all, it can be equipped with a nuclear warhead so that, you know, does classify it as a potential nuclear
missile.
The other thing is that it has an engine that is powered by a nuclear reactor. So, it is dangerous in the sense that as it goes across the earth,
it could potentially emit radioactive radiation. So that's one factor that could be dangerous. And the other factor is, besides the actual explosive
on it, would be that if when it does impact on a target, that there would be radiation emanating from the -- the propellant, in essence, the nuclear
reactor that's attached to it.
So, this is not a missile to be trifled with, but it is a missile that is detectable. And it is also probably about as vulnerable as other Russian
cruise missiles. So, it can be shot down, but that also obviously presents some risks, given its propellant.
FOSTER: Okay. I don't want to go on about the movie too much, but they do fail to bring down the missile, don't they? And what Putin was saying in
this, obviously before he'd seen the movie, I'm sure before it was out. He's saying that it can get through all defenses that other countries might
have. So that is -- that's one of the parts of it that makes it so powerful.
LEIGHTON: Well, if that were true, yes. And the problem with that, Max, is that the Russians have said this kind of thing before, that they can evade
the missile defenses that that exist right now. And the truth of the matter is that that is probably not true.
And the reason I say that is that, first of all, there are capabilities that exist to detect radiation. So, if the missile does emit radiation
because of its nuclear reactor, then it can be detected. The other thing is any launch is detectable from Russia. In fact, this last launch, the one
that you talked about, the 14,000-kilometer flight that it just took that was detected by Norwegian intelligence.
So there are capabilities to detect the launch that then gives us the early warning capability. So, in spite of the, you know, with what happened in
the movie and also what President Putin says in Russia, it is actually possible to detect these missiles and to at least theoretically intercept
them in the sense of knocking them out of the sky.
So, it is a dangerous weapon, but it is a weapon that where we do actually have capabilities to counter it.
FOSTER: Colonel Cedric, thank you so much for joining us. Cedric Leighton, I'm sorry. Thank you for joining us on that. I mean, it has got a lot of
people's attention, but thank you.
Now, Britain's King Charles has been heckled by protesters today over his brother Prince Andrew's ties to the late child sex offender Jeffrey
Epstein. Here's the video.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HECKLER: How long have you known about Andrew and Epstein? Have you asked the police to cover up for Andrew?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: The king were greeting people outside a cathedral in central England when the man started yelling towards him, just one of them.
Prince Andrew has agreed to give up most of his royal titles, including duke of York, due to ongoing scrutiny over his ties with Epstein. But the
royal family just can't seem to get away from the affair.
Now, ahead, we'll take you inside one of America's biggest haunted houses, turning Halloween into a serious business one scream at a time.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:51:52]
FOSTER: It is one of America's top rated haunted houses and a masterclass in the business of fear.
CNN's Isabel Rosales takes us behind the screams of Atlanta's netherworld to see how high-tech effects and a booming horror industry are turning
panic into profit.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This haunted house rests on 10 sprawling acres, and every single day they can expect over 1,000 patrons to
come through these doors. They also boast over 450 animatronics and special effects.
Let's go inside to see just what makes it so scary.
(SCREAMING)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my god!
BEN ARMSTRONG, CO-OWNER, NETHERWORLD HAUNTED HOUSE: The secret is pleasing the group.
ROSALES: How do you make sure that it's really scary?
ARMSTRONG: In the brain is a thing called the amygdala. It protects you by suddenly taking over the conscious mind. Everything is safe here. But if
the amygdala senses potential danger, bam! It kicks in. And that's when your body starts to react.
Your skin gets paler, all the blood flows to your muscles, and you get to that fight or flight response. It's crazy how people react.
ROSALES: It sounds like once you step into a haunted house, you're really -- you're being attacked from all angles.
ARMSTRONG: Absolutely.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my god, oh, my god.
ARMSTRONG: What we want to do is keep you off balance. It's not so much a horror movie as an action movie. It's constantly things are jumping out.
There's animatronics everywhere. Theres sound, there's lighting, there's huge monsters.
All this is setting you up for the actors. It's distraction. It's just over the top action. And also the suspense of not knowing what's going to
happen.
When people are going to come here, they start getting nervous. It's like the click, click, click, click, click of a roller coaster.
(SCREAMING)
ARMSTRONG: This is our wolf gorge area. We have an actor on a wire that flies over your head. And they walk right around this corner and hidden in
this hole is another werewolf actor. He reaches out and hits a button with a sound scare and a light. This is the mega mouth. This is a puppet, but
this thing has a bite that is massive in scale. And we can actually come up to a person --
ROSALES: Oh, it really moves. Oh my goodness.
ARMSTRONG: -- bite them and then we can pull them back into the darkness. And this plays into that fear.
This is a gory room. The stitcher is going to sew people together with different creatures. It's gross.
ROSALES: But to really understand fear, I got to join the monsters.
ARMSTRONG: And what you'll do is you'll take your hands and lunge out.
(SCREAMING)
ROSALES: I feel like there's a talent deep inside. The problem is, I can't stop laughing after I scare people.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Finally, tonight, a story more appropriate for Valentine's Day than Halloween. They're officially together. After months of murky
sightings and online rumor, it appears pop star Katy Perry and former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are actually dating. The pair were
photographed by British tabloid newspapers holding hands on Saturday at Katy Perry's birthday party in Paris.
It wasn't by mistake. If you've seen the pictures, it's been a strange year for both. Trudeau resigned as prime minister earlier this year, just as
U.S. President Donald Trump stepped up his trade war, while Katy Perry took a trip to space with Amazon's Jeff Bezos. Now it appears she's found new
love back here on Earth.
I'm Max Foster. That is WHAT WE KNOW.
Stay with CNN. We'll have more after the break.
END
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