Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Vice President Vance Downplays Concerns Over Ceasefire During Israel Visit; No Trump-Putin Summit planned Anytime Soon; Hopes to Work and Study in the U.S. Dwindle Amid Visa Changes; Trump Blames Homebuilders for U.S. Housing Shortage; Trump Blames Homebuilders for Housing Shortage; Exhibition Looks at Life & Legacy of Andre Leon Talley. Aired 12-12:45a ET
Aired October 22, 2025 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[00:00:58]
LYNDA KINKADE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome. I'm Lynda Kinkade.
Ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM, ceasefire on the brink. The U.S. vice president in Israel racing to shore up the fragile truce that may already be unraveling. His mission to stop Prime Minister Netanyahu from walking away from the deal.
Ukraine under heavy bombardment and Trump and Putin their summit no longer. Is Putin playing him?
And from North Carolina to Paris Fashion Week, a new exhibit showcases the life of Andre Leon Talley, the first black creative director of "Vogue."
ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Lynda Kinkade.
KINKADE: A U.S. delegation is in Israel trying to shore up the ceasefire deal in Gaza following Sunday's deadly violence. Hamas has now handed over the remains of another two hostages. The Israeli military has identified them as Arye Zalmanovich and Tamir Adar. They were both in the Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel. 85-year-old Zalmanovich was the oldest hostage taken according to the Missing Families Forum.
U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met several recently freed hostages in Tel Aviv on Tuesday. Kushner says discussions are underway for reconstruction of parts of Gaza currently under Israeli control. U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, also in Israel, has downplayed concerns about the fragility of the ceasefire while speaking in Israel on Tuesday. Vance's presence in the region is meant, at least in part, to ensure Israel's prime minister remains committed to the ceasefire.
CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Vice President J.D. Vance's visit to Israel in many ways has been an exercise in shoring up the ceasefire by simply projecting confidence in it and optimism in its durability going forward. The vice president arrived in Israel just two days after the ceasefire faced its biggest test yet, after two Israeli soldiers were killed in what Israel said was a Hamas attack.
Israel then unleashed a wave of airstrikes across Gaza that killed at least 45 people. And so then enter into the picture the vice president of the United States, the second highest ranking U.S. official, coming here to say that the United States is committed to this ceasefire and doesn't want to see violations by one side or the other break down the ceasefire altogether.
The vice president stressing that he is optimistic about the future of this ceasefire but made no illusions about the fact that it's going to require a lot of work and a lot of time in order for this ceasefire to actually endure. And one of those ways in which he said that was to say that it's going to require constant effort by the United States to mediate disputes between the parties. And that's part of why the vice president spoke to the media at this new U.S. Military coordination center about a dozen miles away from the Gaza border.
Really huge facility where we saw U.S. Military personnel and Israeli military personnel, as well as those from other countries, you know, milling about in this center where they're doing everything from coordinating the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza, monitoring the ceasefire, and again, mediating some of those disputes that may arise. And the vice president made clear that he believes it's going to take a long time for the next phases of this peace deal to be implemented.
He did not offer a timeline for Hamas's disarmament or when this international stabilization force will actually come into being. The vice president also tried to kind of set expectations about the release of the remains of deceased Israeli hostages. As the vice president is in Israel on Tuesday, we are seeing that Hamas has handed over the remains of two additional deceased hostages. These would be the 14th and 15th of 28 deceased hostage remains that have been returned to Israel so far.
But the vice president made clear that getting all of the rest of those remains of deceased hostages back to Israel is going to take some time.
[00:05:04]
Some of these bodies, he said, are buried under thousands of pounds of rubble, and others he made very clear nobody knows the location of. And so it seemed like he was trying to convey this message of patience to a very frustrated Israeli public, and also to an Israeli government that could be resistant to moving forward with the rest of the ceasefire until the rest of these remains of hostages return.
But no question that the vice president's visit underscoring the U.S.'s commitment to all of this, and also making clear just how much work lies ahead in order for the ceasefire to actually result in the kind of enduring end of the war in Gaza altogether.
Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE: Well, for more on this story, I want to welcome Alon Pinkas, former Israeli consul general in New York. He joins us now live from Tel Aviv.
Great to have you with us.
ALON PINKAS, FORMER ISRAEL CONSUL GENERAL IN NEW YORK: Thank you, Lynda. Good morning. Good to be with you.
KINKADE: So you've described the ceasefire as tied to U.S. leverage. We just saw the Vice President J.D. Vance in Israel right now. He has expressed optimism that the deal would hold and wouldn't give any timeline for Hamas disarming. In your view, what are the most likely triggers that could lead to the collapse of this fragile truce?
PINKAS: Well, the, you know, the likeliest one would stem from the fact that Hamas has not disarmed yet, which means that once there are Hamas gangs roaming around the rubble in Gaza still armed, and on the other hand, there's the Israel Defense Forces, the IDF, which has not fully withdrew from Gaza, then the likelihood of skirmishes flaring up, and, you know, breaking and already brittle and tenuous ceasefire are big.
So the biggest hurdle, biggest obstacle will be to avoid this kind of friction. Somehow I fail to see how it can be avoided given, you know, the proximity of Hamas to Israel and the fact that we're talking about a dense but a relatively small area.
KINKADE: And, Alon, you say Prime Minister Netanyahu signed the ceasefire agreement under duress and is now trying to reshape it.
What maneuvers or political signals do you anticipate from his office either to renegotiate the terms or distance Israel from the U.S.- backed framework entirely?
PINKAS: Well, OK. So from a broad perspective, Lynda, I think that not only did he sign this under duress and against his better judgment and will, he's actually banking on, depending on Hamas to violate the ceasefire. And in order to do this he's going to exercise restraint as he has been asked by the U.S. and in that respect Vice President J.D. Vance's trip here emphasized and hammered in the American commitment at least to the ceasefire.
So Mr. Netanyahu will be relatively restrained here. But here's the -- here's the counterintuitive, so to speak, or heretical view that I'm proposing to you or to the viewers via you here. I think that Mr. Netanyahu is trying to convince Mr. Trump, I don't know how he's doing this, via J.D. Vance, via Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, who reportedly is also expected to visit here in the next few days.
He's trying to relay the following point, to convey the following point that even if the ceasefire breaks and Israel is required to launch one big, swift, decisive operation, as he likes to call it, which we know nothing about, even if that happens, it actually increases the likelihood of the next phases of the plan being implemented. Basically, what he's saying -- he's trying to manipulate the agreement and saying, OK, we need one more offensive, one more military campaign, and then we could start afresh.
I doubt this will happen. He had two years. There's no -- nothing that indicates that such an operation would be swift and decisive and that the next phases will be implemented shortly thereafter. But the most important thing, Lynda, is that Mr. Netanyahu cannot allow for the next phases to actually be implemented because they involve things that he has pledged not to do. The Arab interim force, the so-called international stabilization force supported by or with the participation of the Palestinian Authority and the link to the West Bank.
These are all things that he can't have. And so I think what he's trying to do now is to stabilize the ceasefire for a few days, wait for Hamas to violate it, exercise restraint until he's going to say enough is enough. He's going to rely on what, say, President Trump said yesterday, that if Hamas violate the ceasefire, their end will be fast and furious or something to that extent.
[00:10:09]
So I think the next few days in terms of the ceasefire are critical, but I don't at this point, Lynda, I'm very skeptical. I don't at this point see how the next phases can and will be implemented.
KINKADE: You've also argued in terms of the military restraint that there are sources or signals that suggest internal friction between the political leadership and the military command. What are you hearing about that?
PINKAS: Right. Well, look, about a month and a half ago, we all had this conversation. I think you and I had this conversation on this, on your show, that the military expressed dire reservations, warning against the consequences of a big, comprehensive military campaign to encircle and then occupy Gaza City. The military said to Netanyahu, A, we're not equipped to do that for a long period of time. And B, it would result inevitably in a long-term occupation.
And there was this whole confrontation that that spilled out into the public domain with the chief of staff saying that the government is not aware of what it is doing, and they're not weighing the ramifications and implications properly. And the government saying that the military should just do what it is being told, et cetera. In the meantime this entire agreement came to fruition and came to live in fruition.
And by the way, the agreement was done by virtue of President Trump becoming engaged following the attack, Israel launched a failed attack, Israel launched in Qatar on September 9th, which angered Mr. Trump. That -- I'm mentioning that, Lynda, only because the military opposed that attack as well reportedly. Again, I wasn't in the room, of course. The chief of staff expressed his reservations and doubts on the efficacy of such and the wisdom of such an attack.
Anyway, since then, there's an agreement so the Gaza operation is no longer on the table. The question is, if the ceasefire is broken, per what we just discussed a moment ago, will the military then be instructed to complete this encirclement and occupation of Gaza City? There is one added advantage, and that the military's previous claim was that this would endanger the lives of hostages. But now, thankfully, the hostages are back home, live ones at least. And so this argument is off the table.
It remains to be seen if the military is happy with these kind of plans, and it remains to be seen indeed if the ceasefire is broken.
KINKADE: Alon Pinkas in Tel Aviv, always great to get your analysis. No doubt we will talk again soon. Thanks so much.
PINKAS: Thank you, Lynda.
KINKADE: Well, Russia has launched an air attack with explosions jolting the Ukrainian capital early Wednesday morning, according to the city's mayor. City officials say at least two people were killed and several residential areas took damage. Russia has been ramping up its air strikes on Kyiv and Ukraine's northern regions in recent weeks.
On Tuesday, Russian drones struck the city of Sumy, where emergency officials say nine people were injured. Moscow is once again targeting power facilities to wipe out heat and water for Ukrainians as they head into winter.
Well, Ukraine's president says Russia has become less interested in diplomacy now that the U.S. has refused to provide Ukraine with long- range Tomahawk missiles. Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine's ability to strike deep inside Russian territory might be the key to forcing Vladimir Putin to consider a peace deal. But President Trump insists that the war should end right now with the battle lines as they are. He has said that he would meet with Russia's president within a few weeks, but that's not going to happen anymore.
CNN's Kylie Atwood explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN U.S. SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: The Trump administration appears to be reversing course when it comes to the possibility of a near-term meeting between President Trump and President Putin after Trump said last week that he expected that they would meet after they had a phone call within the next two weeks. An administration official telling CNN that there are no plans for an immediate meeting between the two leaders.
We're also told by administration sources that there are no plans this week for the Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov to meet as President Trump said they would be meeting to effectively set the stage for that leader level meeting to take place. That was expected this week. That is no longer scheduled this week. We'll watch and see where this goes.
[00:15:01]
But of course, this comes after President Trump met with President Zelenskyy at the White House late last week. The Ukrainians not walking away with any new definitive commitments from the Trump administration. The Europeans said that their readout was that that meeting did not go particularly well.
And in Washington on Wednesday, President Trump is expected to have a meeting with the NATO secretary-general, Mark Rutte. This comes as Europeans continue to push the United States to put more pressure on Russia to try and end the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Kylie Atwood, CNN, the State Department.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE: Well, still to come, why the Trump administration's new restrictions on work visas now has many Indian students avoiding the U.S.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:20:12]
KINKADE: Anti-immigrant protests have broken out in Dublin, Ireland, following an attack on a young girl. Protesters set fire to a police van on Tuesday and clashed with officers. All of this happening near a building where asylum seekers had been staying. Police say a man has been arrested and charged with the girl's assault. The head of Ireland's largest opposition party says the suspect had been issued a deportation order back in March.
Well, Walmart is America's largest private sector employer and now says it's pausing job offers to foreign candidates who need an H-1B visa to work in the U.S. The Trump administration has started enforcing a $100,000 fee on that visa designed for high-skilled positions.
CNN's Ivan Watson looks at how these changes are affecting foreigners who had planned to work in the U.S.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SATYA NADELLA, MICROSOFT CEO: Good morning.
SUNDAR PICHAY, GOOGLE CEO: Good morning.
SHANTANU NARAYEN, ADOBE CEO: Good morning everyone.
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They run America's biggest tech companies. Google, Microsoft, Adobe, IBM, all four Indian nationals who started out on student visas and then H- 1B work visas.
NARAYEN: Well, I've always said, you know, as an immigrant to this country, it's given me everything that I have.
WATSON (voice-over): For decades the H-1B has been the golden ticket, turning students into CEOs and dreams into careers. So prized that in India, some temples are dedicated to praying for visa approval. But the Trump administration is cracking down.
HOWARD LUTNICK, U.S. COMMERCE SECRETARY: Train Americans, stop bringing in people to take our jobs. That's the policy here. $100,000 a year for H-1B visas and all of the big companies are on board.
WATSON (voice-over): H-1B work visas will now cost employers $100,000 apiece. Until recently, nearly 70 percent of those visas went to Indian nationals.
We're not going to reveal your identity.
(Voice-over): Many Indians in the U.S. now facing crushing debt with little chance of finding work in the U.S.
How much are we talking about in terms of U.S. dollars?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So it's more than $90,000 for me. And I took a pretty hefty loan. So for somebody like me who doesn't really have generational wealth back home, it was a big and heavy investment. It almost feels like you're not wanted here.
WATSON (voice-over): Online hostility is rising with some people calling foreign workers job thieves and outsiders. The message, go back home.
SUDHANSHU KAUSHIK, FOUNDER, NORTH AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF INDIAN STUDENTS: It's a climate of fear and uncertainty, and it goes against what we've been conditioned to for the past 20, 30 years, that you work hard, you study, you get the grades, you get admission, you know, you get the scholarships or you pay the tuition. Then there will be a reward, you know, and you will be able to prosper and you'll be able to contribute to the American growth story.
WATSON (voice-over): U.S. government statistics show a sharp drop in foreigners with student visas coming to the U.S. in 2025 versus 2024, with the arrivals of students from India plunging around 45 percent.
In India, the H-1B ripple effects are already visible. The dream of studying abroad reflected in entire neighborhoods of Indian cities. Tutors and students describe a recent shift away from studying in the U.S.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now, due to the Trump H-1B visa, I have decided to drop U.S. from my plans. I'm looking into European countries, maybe even India.
WATSON (voice-over): And this appears to be the White House's message. International students should no longer dream of starting their careers in the U.S.
Ivan Watson, CNN. (END VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE: Well, Donald Trump is taking aim at America's largest homebuilders amid the ongoing housing shortage. Coming up, why he claims they're responsible for the industry's affordability crisis.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:28:52]
KINKADE: Welcome back. President Trump is blaming America's largest home builders for the country's lingering housing shortage and affordability crisis. He accuses them of holding on to around two million empty lots, keeping home prices artificially high.
CNN's Matt Egan reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: The American dream of home ownership is out of reach for far too many people right now, and the president is right to be focused on supply because yes, there is this long running housing shortage. But the problem is that home building it never recovered from the Great Recession. We're looking at construction starts of private housing units. And 20 years ago, there was a building boom, right? 2.1 million never recovered, though, even though demand largely has.
In fact, you can see that construction starts are much lower today. Now, the problem is, according to economists and housing industry experts, it's not that home builders are purposefully inflating prices by sitting on empty lots. They say it's that financing costs are just too high right now, and that regulation is too burdensome, especially at the local level, where red tape slows, projects down and also adds to the cost.
[00:30:04]
Now, Goldman Sachs says that the U.S. needs between three and four million more homes to address this shortage. The good news is, Goldman Sachs says you could largely address this gap if land use regulations were rolled back.
The bad news, though: this would be really challenging, because a lot of these regulations are at the local level. So, this is not something that can be quickly solved through a Truth Social post or an executive order.
Now, there are concerns about some Trump policies adding to the cost of building homes: namely, tariffs, right? It's an odd time to put tariffs on building materials if you're trying to inspire a building boom. But that's exactly what has happened, where we have tariffs on steel, aluminum, copper and lumber.
UBS estimates that this is adding almost $9,000 to the cost of building a home in the United States. Now, home builders might not have to absorb all of that cost, but this is just another obstacle.
Another concern is the president's immigration crackdown. One home builder in Texas told us that they're worried that this crackdown is going to backfire by not only making it more expensive to build homes but by shrinking the already small pool of construction workers.
I spoke to Shaun Donovan, former housing secretary under President Obama, and he told me that this is not something that's going to get fixed instantly. Take a listen.
SHAUN DONOVAN, FORMER U.S. HOUSING SECRETARY UNDER PRESIDENT OBAMA: I will tell you, I've been working in housing for 30 years. I have never seen the affordability crisis this bad. Record-high home prices, record-high rents.
You don't solve a housing crisis overnight. It took us years to get into this. It's going to take us years to get out.
EGAN: Now, meanwhile, many home buyers are struggling right now. We spoke to a woman in Rochester, New York, who tried and failed for five months to buy a home. And finally, this month, she landed a home, but only after paying $100,000 above asking price to beat out 36 other bidders.
Which shows that, in this housing market, even the lucky ones who are able to buy, they're being forced to stretch their budgets.
Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LYNDA KINKADE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Our thanks to Matt Egan.
Well, still ahead, style is forever. A new exhibition showcasing the work of a groundbreaking stylist, best known as the creative director of "Vogue."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:37:02]
KINKADE: Welcome back.
A new exhibition focuses on the style and legacy of black cultural icon Andre Leon Talley, who passed away in 2022.
Talley's groundbreaking career took him to the highest echelons of fashion around the globe. He's perhaps best known for his longtime role as the creative director at "Vogue."
The exhibition, called "Style is Forever," is presented by the Savannah College Of Art and Design and features dozens of looks from Talley's personal collection.
CNN spoke with SCAD's creative director and curator about the program.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RAFAEL GOMEZ, CREATIVE DIRECTOR, SCAD ATLANTA: My name is Rafael Gomez. I'm the creative director at SCAD FASH Atlanta and Lacoste.
GOMEZ (voice-over): The title of the exhibition is "Andre Leon Talley: Style is Forever." We have 75 looks: 75 here in Atlanta, 24 in Savannah, and then we have many pieces --
GOMEZ: -- like hats, bags, scarves.
GOMEZ (voice-over): If you include photography, letters. And so, we are around almost 300 pieces in the exhibition.
The exhibition came together before COVID.
GOMEZ: I told Andre, "We need to do an exhibition of your looks."
And Andre: No, no one wants to see it.
I was like, everybody wants to see it. You have so many amazing, stunning pieces from all the designers.
GOMEZ (voice-over): And he, no, maybe one day.
I was like, no, we need to do it the next.
GOMEZ: And then he was very happy about the idea.
GOMEZ (voice-over): But with COVID, we couldn't travel. Everything stopped and, unfortunately, Andre passed.
And, later on, for I was surprised he left, in his will, so much to SCAD.
He was the first man of color that penetrate into this fashion world that was so elitist, and it was so difficult for him.
ANDREW LEON TALLEY, FORMER CREATIVE DIRECTOR, "VOGUE": There was probably a little bit of the fantasy of me. Maybe I was like a blackamoor, a black page, like in the Russian court.
But I had something to say, and I think the people who mattered realized that.
GOMEZ: In the time before Google, because now we can ask everything to our phone.
GOMEZ (voice-over): Before this, they needed to ask everything to Andre. Andre's superpower was his knowledge.
Andre was so knowledgeable.
GOMEZ: Andre was armed with fashion.
GOMEZ (voice-over): I could hear Andre all the time talking. Don't put my hands like that. And Rafael, how can you do this? GOMEZ: There are some looks that the tunics, the caftans, they are
floor length. Or they have a train. You don't see what's underneath.
[00:40:06]
Every single look has trousers underneath, has shoes underneath. I could hear Andre: How dare you put me out there in public without pants and without shoes?
His sense of humor on top of it. It was like such an intelligent humor --
GOMEZ (voice-over): -- that was educating. It was entertaining. It was captivating.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE: Looks like a great exhibition.
Well, thanks so much for watching this edition of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Lynda Kinkade. I will be back at the top of the hour with much more news. Stay with us. WORLD SPORT is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:45:30]
(WORLD SPORT)
