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Trump and Zelenskyy Set to Meet; Netanyahu Warns Hamas; Kenya Says Farewell to Raila Odinga; John Bolton Indicted; Ex-Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton Indicted; Gold Prices Keep Soaring As U.S. Dollar Weakens. Aired 2-2:45a ET

Aired October 17, 2025 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:00]

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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to all of you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is "CNN Newsroom."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives in the U.S. to meet with Donald Trump as Trump announces that he and the Russian president will meet again. Israel's prime minister has a warning for Hamas as aid begins to surge into Gaza. And the price of gold hits a record high. We'll look at what's driving the surge.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom with Kim Brunhuber."

BRUNHUBER: Less than two months after their last summit in Alaska, the U.S. president, Trump, has announced plans to meet again with Russian Leader Vladimir Putin. Donald Trump says the meeting will take place in Budapest, Hungary within two weeks or so and will focus on ending the war. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We're going to be meeting in Hungary. Viktor Orban is going to be hosting. And it's -- it's really something that's time. Last week, over 7,000 people were killed. That's ridiculous. And, you know, it doesn't affect our country. We don't -- we're not losing people, we're not losing Bobby, we're not losing Americans. But they're losing Russians, Ukrainians, mostly soldiers. For the most part, soldiers. And we think we're going to get it -- we hope we're going to get it stopped.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: President Trump will welcome Ukraine's president to the White House in the coming hours. Volodymyr Zelenskyy is hoping to secure a pledge for Tomahawk cruise missiles capable of striking targets deep inside Russian territory.

U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance says he doesn't think the time is right for a Russia-Ukraine peace deal. Here he is. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Eventually, you have to have the two parties who are willing to cut a deal. And right now, for all of our work, and we're going to keep on working at it, the Russians and the Ukrainians are just not at the point where they can make a deal. I do think that we will eventually get there, but it's going to take a lot more work because I think, as we learned, the party started so far apart.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: CNN's chief global affairs correspondent Matthew Chance has more now on the announcement of the Trump-Putin meeting.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: The call, they said it was -- they said it was constructive, they said it was positive, they said it was in an atmosphere of trust, I think, is the phrase that was used in one of the Kremlin readouts that I saw.

In terms of the Tomahawks, well, look, I mean, first of all, the timing of this, you can't ignore it. The fact that this call was initiated by the Russian side, by the Kremlin, they called the White House, in other words, on the eve of that meeting between President Trump and President Zelenskyy, where they were due to talk about -- still are due to talk about the merits of giving Ukraine these long- range, powerful Tomahawk missiles, that would have played in very strongly into the calculus of the Kremlin to make this call right now to try and get in Trump's ear before he sits in the Oval Office or wherever he's going to meet President Zelenskyy.

Putin told Trump what he has been saying publicly for some time, which is that these missiles, these Tomahawks, even though they've got a long range of more than 1,500 miles, even though they could potentially target Moscow and St. Petersburg, major Russian cities, they could help Ukraine target energy infrastructure locations around the country, at least in the European part of Russia.

Trump -- I'm sorry. Putin is saying he does not believe that these will have a significant impact on the battlefield. What he does say and what he stressed to Trump, according to the Kremlin readout, is that these would be considered escalatory and they would damage the relationship between the United States and Russia. That's something, obviously, that President Trump apparently cares very deeply about.

Budapest was suggested by President Trump initially, and President Putin immediately agreed. And there's a couple of reasons for that. One of them is that Viktor Orban, who is the leader of Hungary, is seen as a very right-wing figure. He's very close to the MAGA movement, close to President Trump. He's also seen as relatively sort of pro-Putin. So, he's not one of the big critics of Russia and its war in Ukraine. Inside the European Union, it is a European Union country.

[02:04:52]

But interestingly, Budapest or Hungary, rather, recently started the process of withdrawing from the International Criminal Court, which means it wouldn't be necessary for it to arrest Vladimir Putin if and when he arrives in Budapest for that summit. They started that withdrawal so they could host Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. The fact is that it's now open country, I suppose, for Vladimir Putin to go there, too.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: And joining me now with more is Ukrainian parliament member Oleksiy Goncharenko. Thank you so much for being here with us. Really appreciate it. So, as we heard there, President Zelenskyy hoping to get those Tomahawk missiles from the U.S., then President Trump spent two and a half hours on the phone with Vladimir Putin. How did that call change the mood in Ukraine overnight?

OLEKSIY GONCHARENKO, MEMBER, UKRAINE PARLIAMENT: High and really like the new hope is born, I could say, because we see that President Trump actively involved, and he is actively working on establishing peace in Ukraine, and that is great. Now, his hands are free after the success in the Middle East. And I hope that this success will lead him to next success, stopping the war in Ukraine.

Also, we see that Trump understood what language work with Putin. Now, he speaks much more tough about Russia. And when he speaks about possible delivery to Ukraine of Tomahawks missiles, when he speaks about India stopping by Russian oil, and India is more than one-third of Russian oil expert, so it's super important for Russia, all of these really works. And I think all of these made Putin to call to Trump, and all of these made Putin to agree for the new meeting.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah.

GONCHARENKO: And definitely, this new meeting will be super important. And I think that if Trump will go out from this meeting without an agreement and without Putin agreeing to stop the war, that will be humiliation for Trump. So, now, we have a really new hope.

BRUNHUBER: Hmm. I'm interested that you say hope because certainly -- I mean, there were some fears expressed that Putin always seems to be able to talk President Trump down from acting. It seems like every time Trump gets tough on Putin, they have a phone call and, suddenly, he seems to soften. So, are you not worried at all that that pattern will mean that Ukraine won't get the weapons you need to turn this war around?

GONCHARENKO: You know, we need to stop the war. We need to end this war as soon as possible. Yeah, the best thing would be just to completely defeat Russia. Unfortunately, for the moment, we are not on the edge of this. But we need to stop this war, and it can't be made without speaking with Putin. So, it's clear that Ukraine can't speak with Putin. Putin will not listen to us. Putin just wants to take Ukraine, not to speak with us. So, it's only Trump and Chinese leader. So, it's only American leader and Chinese leader who can really make Putin to stop the war. I think that China is not interested in this. So, United States of America is our main hope. And that's why, yes, we have concerns, and yes, this meeting can go different ways, but still, it gives us a chance, it gives us a hope.

And, once again, I think Trump also understands that if he will meet Putin for the second time in several months without any result of stopping the war, it will be already humiliation of him, Trump, and United States. So, I think Trump realizes this and that gives us hope.

BRUNHUBER: Interesting. You say, you know, you cannot achieve peace without the U.S. talking to Russia. Are you at all worried that this meeting will happen without Ukraine in the room, that these big decisions might be made without Ukrainian input?

GONCHARENKO: I know that today, Zelenskyy is meeting with Trump. So, he has an excellent opportunity to explain to President Trump what is acceptable for Ukraine and what is not. Definitely, I would like to see Ukrainian president also to be in this room. But probably it's not possible for the moment.

And, once again, it is more -- when I heard after Alaska summit about possible meeting, Putin with Zelenskyy, I didn't believe in this. First, I didn't believe that this meeting will happen. And, as you see, it didn't happen.

But also, even to imagine that this meeting would happen, I don't believe this meeting can be fruitful because without United States, Russia should not be believed. Without United States, without guarantees of the United States, even if somebody will -- if some agreement will be achieved, it will not be respected by Russia.

[02:10:04]

So, United States is absolutely essential. So, I welcome the efforts of President Trump, and I hope he will continue.

BRUNHUBER: Interesting. We'll see what may come out of that Zelenskyy- Trump meeting later today. Oleksiy Goncharenko, thank you so much for your time. Really appreciate it.

GONCHARENKO: Thank you very much.

BRUNHUBER: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is warning Hamas that there will be a price to pay if it doesn't return the remains of deceased hostages in Gaza. On Thursday, he marked the anniversary of the October 7th attack on Israel under Hebrew calendar. Sources say that in a separate meeting with top security officials, he said he knows how many remains Hamas currently holds, and he said Israel will -- quote -- "act accordingly if they're not returned."

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump is also putting Hamas on notice. He says Hamas members may be killed if they, in his words, continue killing people in Gaza areas. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We have a commitment from them. And I assume they're going to honor that commitment. I hope they do. And I know -- I understand they brought back some additional bodies today. It's a rough deal when you think of it, right? Very rough. We have our hostages back completely. We were very lucky with that.

I didn't say who would go in, but somebody will go in. It's not going to be us. We won't have to. There are people very close, very nearby that will go in. They'll do the trick very easily, but under our auspices.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: In Israel, Prime Minister Netanyahu is under pressure to use humanitarian aid as leverage to get the hostage remains back. An ultra-orthodox lawmaker called on him Thursday to halt the peace deal with Hamas, including the flow of aid, until all deceased hostages returned. Now, when comes to aid deliveries, Israel says it's now living up to its side of the bargain. Jeremy Diamond reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, U.S. and Israeli officials now tell me that Israel is allowing the quantities of aid into Gaza that are required under this ceasefire agreement despite this dispute over the number of remains of deceased hostages that Hamas is releasing.

We had been told on Wednesday that Israel was only allowing half the number of aid trucks required into Gaza, just 300 of the 600 required, as a retaliation for Hamas releasing too few bodies of these deceased hostages.

But it turns out that Israel on Wednesday actually allowed some 700 trucks of aid into Gaza, according to internal numbers from COGAT obtained by CNN. COGAT is this Israeli authority that coordinates the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip.

And so, what we're seeing is that there's a difference between some of the public rhetoric that is coming out about this ceasefire agreement and the disputes that are happening and the reality that is actually happening on the ground.

That doesn't mean that this ceasefire agreement doesn't remain fragile and quite tenuous. There's no question that there are some real disagreements here over the number of bodies that Hamas has released from the Gaza Strip. In fact, Israeli officials have submitted information to the United States about the remains of other deceased hostages that they believe Hamas knows about, despite the fact that Hamas has said that they have released all of the remains of deceased hostages that they know about or that they can access

It seems that it's clear that one of the issues here is Hamas's ability to actually access those remains of deceased hostages in Gaza, and that's why senior U.S. advisors have told us that they actually believe that Hamas is complying with the ceasefire agreement right now and that conditions on the ground are making it harder for them to release additional bodies.

There are Turkish and Egyptian teams that are going to be working in Gaza to try and retrieve some of those additional bodies, which appear to be under the rubble of buildings struck by the Israeli military over the course of this war.

And this is not just an issue for the remains of those deceased hostages, it's also an issue about the bodies of Palestinian civilians, thousands of which are estimated to also be under the rubble in Gaza, and it underscores the very, very long road ahead for Gaza's recovery and for us to really get a sense of the true death toll of this two-year long war.

Now, as it relates to those aid quantities, even as Israel is stepping up the amount of aid getting into Gaza, there's no question that the needs are enormous, everything from food to shelter to medicine, and it will take weeks, very likely, for the situation in Gaza to stabilize and many hundreds, thousands even, of aid trucks to enter before that happens.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Sources tell CNN that U.S. Military has carried out another strike on the boat in the Caribbean. There are believed to be crew members who survived, but their status isn't clear. At least six separate strikes have been conducted on boats in the Caribbean, but this is the first time there are reports of survivors.

[02:15:00]

The White House has said the strikes are part of an effort to combat drug trafficking. Now, all this comes as the admiral responsible for U.S. forces in the Caribbean says he's retiring. Admiral Alvin Holsey has been on the job less than a year. Sources say tensions have been growing between Holsey and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over strikes in the Caribbean.

Kenya remembers beloved leader. Still ahead, crowds flock to say farewell to Raila Odinga as the country hosts a state funeral for the former prime minister. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Kenyans are saying farewell to former Prime Minister Raila Odinga. The longtime opposition leader died on Wednesday at the age of 80. His state funeral is taking place at a stadium in Nairobi. Local media say at least four people died at the venue on Thursday when police fired tear gas at a group of mourners amid a crowd rush. I want to go there live to Nairobi, and CNN's Larry Madowo who's covering the funeral. Larry, I can see the passion of the mourners behind you there. So, take me through the atmosphere there, especially in the wake of those deadly events yesterday.

LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kim, the stadium is filling up here ahead of the state funeral of Raila Odinga. Kenyan's former prime minister, he's not been in public office for more than 12 years, and yet he still had such a passionate fan base that the last four Kenyan presidents who ran against him and beat him had to turn around and get into coalitions or partnerships with him to govern.

You see some of the mourners here at the stadium. We're expecting this celebration of his life to begin shortly. He was known simply as Baba, meaning dad in Swahili. And many saw him as a father of democracy in the country, having been imprisoned several times in the 80s and early 90s in the fight for multi-party democracy, again helping bring together a coalition -- having bring together the Kenyan Constitution in 2010, which has been praised as one of the most progressive in the world.

President William Ruto is leading the state funeral here. They're expecting other heads of state. And it's surprising, this level of a state funeral and celebration for a man who was not in public office, the fact that today is a public holiday in Kenya, seven days of national mourning with flags flying at half-mast.

But that's because of the influence of who Raila Odinga was. He became one of the most recognizable African politicians of his generation all across the continent. And that speaks to this kind of outpouring of grief you've seen in this country since his death was announced two days ago. His family say he wanted to be buried within 72 hours. It's an abbreviated program from the state funeral today, another viewing in the western city of Kisumu tomorrow, and his burial on Sunday.

But this is just some of the crowd that's already here. It's a smaller crowd than we had expected, partly because of the crash you mentioned at the stadium yesterday. Police firing tear gas and accused of using some live rounds where four people were killed in that confusion. It was the largest stadium in the country.

But that only happened at the last minute because the original line instead of parliament buildings have to be scrapped after crowds overwhelmed the airport during the arrival of his body. There was a huge celebration and a procession through the streets of Nairobi to get him to that stadium.

It's a much more controlled program today. You see a lot of security around here. I want to show you some of this real quick. Kim, we'll go back to you. (INAUDIBLE) any kind of crowd trouble in advance, Kim.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: All right. Well, let's hope things stay safe there. Larry Madowo, thank you so much. Another one of President Trump's political enemies has been indicted. When we come back, what happened to John Bolton's relationship with the president and why he is now facing charges. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is "CNN Newsroom."

President Donald Trump's former national security adviser, John Bolton, is facing criminal charges over his handling of classified information. A federal grand jury in Maryland indicted Bolton on 18 counts of transmitting and retaining national defense information.

Sources tell CNN the investigation is centered around detailed notes Bolton took of his daily activities when he was working for President Trump. Bolton is accused of sharing that information with his wife and daughter and keeping printouts in his home. He's now the third high- profile Trump critic to be indicted in less than a month. But as CNN's Tom Foreman reports, the two men weren't always adversaries.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: John is somebody that I actually got along with very well.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In his first term, President Donald Trump and John Bolton were buddies, close enough for Bolton to defer to Trump's power --

JOHN BOLTON, FORMER UNITED STATES NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: He'll make the decision. It's his call.

FOREMAN (voice-over): -- to defend him against some accusations of improper conduct --

BOLTON: I mean, really, the conspiracies are about as obscure as you can imagine and just subjects of people's imagination.

FOREMAN (voice-over): -- and for Trump to listen when Bolton spoke.

TRUMP: I like John. I get very good advice from John.

FOREMAN (voice-over): And why not? Bolton had worked for every Republican president since Ronald Reagan. He'd cheered the new commander- in-chief for building up the military and would become Trump's national security adviser.

But soon, the two were clashing over foreign relations, intelligence assessments, and the chaos of Trump's orbit, which Bolton compared to the inside of a pinball machine.

[02:30:00] Trump dumped him. Bolton wrote a blistering book describing Trump as stunningly uninformed, obsessed with his image, and bumbling through relations with North Korea, China, Russia and more.

JOHN BOLTON, FORMER TRUMP NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: He doesn't operate the basis of grand strategy or even policy. He operates on the basis of what's good for Donald Trump.

FOREMAN (voice-over): He even spoke to the various serious accusations of Trump trying to meddle in federal investigations.

BOLTON: I don't think I know enough about all the circumstances, but I'll tell you, it did feel like obstruction of justice to me.

FOREMAN (voice-over): With the 2020 election looming, Trump attacked, suggesting Bolton, through his book, had raised a security risk.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He released massive amounts of classified and confidential but classified information. That's illegal. And you go to jail for that.

FOREMAN (voice-over): Trump's Justice Department launched an investigation, and after Trump lost the race, the Biden administration dropped it.

But after Trump retook the White House in 2024, the Justice Department made surprise searches of Bolton's home and office, and Trump resumed the drumbeat. Bolton was an unhinged war hawk whose good times with Trump are over.

TRUMP: I'd be with foreign leaders, and I didn't even have to act tough because they said, look, that moron John Bolton, he's crazy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN: Simply put, this feud has been growing for years, and it seems to have not lost any of its ferocity. And now, one way or another, it may have reached a turning point.

Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. and Brazil say they're pushing for a meeting between President Trump and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as soon as possible. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with his Brazilian counterpart Thursday to discuss trade and other issues. They put out a joint statement calling the talks very positive and agreed to establish a working path forward.

President Trump recently raised U.S. tariffs on most Brazilian imports, linking the move to what he called a witch hunt against former President Jair Bolsonaro, who was convicted on charges related to an attempted coup.

Well, if you have gold jewelry laying around, it may be worth more than you think, as prices of the precious metal hit record highs. So we'll visit a factory where old pieces are melted down into very expensive bars.

Stay with us.

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[02:36:58]

BRUNHUBER: Well, the price of gold is skyrocketing as the U.S. dollar weakens. The precious metal has now hit a record high for the fourth straight day. Investors looking for a safe haven drove prices past $4,300 an ounce. And ticking up slightly. As you can see, there.

Analysts blame the trade tensions between the U.S. and China, as well as the U.S. government shutdown for the gold spike. With more demand will come more people selling old gold.

CNN's Anna Cooban visited the smelting factory to find out how the metal gets melted into bars.

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ANNA COOBAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hidden away: a warehouse on the edge of London. CNN has Agreed not to reveal the exact location for security reasons. That's because it's the U.K.'s largest gold refinery, capitalizing on a new gold rush.

COOBAN: Don't be fooled. This is not a bucket of dirt. This is a bucket of pure gold, worth about 2 million US dollars, and it could be turned into one of these very heavy gold bars.

COOBAN (voice-over): In times of uncertainty, gold is seen as a safe bet by investors. That's giving gold prices their biggest rally since 1979, meaning that this jewelry is now worth more when thrown into the flames and melted down.

COOBAN: Here we go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right there.

COOBAN (voice-over): Baird and Co. buys old jewelry and turns it into pure gold that can be traded by investors.

At this stage, the gold is still only considered around 50 percent pure.

COOBAN: Whoa!

COOBAN (voice-over): It is taken into the refinery for further purifying.

COOBAN: So, what are these called?

LEE TULLOW, SENIOR REFINERY TECHNICIAN, BAIRD & CO.: So, these are called corn flakes.

COOBAN: Corn flakes? TULLOW: Yes.

COOBAN: But you can't eat them.

TULLOW: No.

COOBAN (voice-over): And each of these flakes is around 90 percent pure and will be worth around $1,000. But they're still not ready to be sold.

TULLOW: We do them s corn flakes; o they're all different shapes. So, then there's space in between for when the acid drops, it can get to the whole surface of the corn flake.

COOBAN (voice-over): The gold sand is taken back to the furnace and turned into these 99.99 percent pure gold grains. These are cast into molds, rolled out and weighed, ready to be stamped and sold.

Each of these tiny bars can then be bought direct by investors or even available in retailer Costco for around $7,000.

COOBAN: There we go. A gold bar with a stamp of approval.

COOBAN (voice-over): Twelve months ago, they were selling for less than $5,000, and it's returns like these that are making gold so popular with investors: from the trading floor to the supermarket aisle.

Anna Cooban, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Cleanup is underway after an intense hailstorm hit southern Bolivia on Thursday, which surprised the communities there since temperatures had surpassed 30 degrees Celsius or 86 degrees Fahrenheit earlier in the day.

The storm reportedly lasted more than 30 minutes and flooded the streets with water and ice pellets. Bolivia experienced two big hailstorms just last month, and residents reacted to Thursday's storm.

Have a look.

[02:40:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARINA ZARATE, TARIJA RESIDENT (through translator): This is the first time I have seen this. Never in my life have I seen this in Tarija. Honestly.

GUIDO FERNANDEZ, TARIJA RESIDENT (through translator): Never, never has it rained at this magnitude. Honestly, never.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: All right, that wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber.

"WORLD SPORT" is next, and I'll be back in about 20 minutes with more CNN NEWSROOM.

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(WORLD SPORT)