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Witkoff Meets Putin after Talking with Zelenskyy; Prince Harry Ready to Reconcile with Prince William and King Charles. Aired 3-3:45a ET
Aired October 21, 2026 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00]
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LYNDA KINKADE, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Hello and welcome. I'm Lynda Kinkade in Atlanta, ahead here on "CNN Newsroom."
President Trump's envoy arrives in Russia after meeting with Ukraine's President. Can he get a ceasefire?
Talks are moving once more. Italy has announced new measures to deal with the violent protests there, including hefty jail sentences and fines.
And Prince Harry says he is ready to reconcile with the royal family. Hear what he, told "G.Q.", is most important to him.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Lynda Kinkade.
KINKADE: President Trump's foreign envoy, Steve Witkoff, is now in Russia, touching down a short time ago in St. Petersburg. He is expected to meet with President Vladimir Putin after holding talks with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Norway on Tuesday.
A U.S. official says the meeting between Witkoff and Zelenskyy produced meaningful progress and that the two sides are now in strong alignment at the working level on the next steps. The official says the goal is now to build on the progress made with Ukraine and Europe and discuss the proposals with Russia. Zelenskyy had this to say about a possible path to peace.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRA.I.NIAN PRESIDENT: We have some clear ideas on how to get to peace. And we are united with our European partners in this effort.
And we want the Americans to take these ideas to the Russians. And one of the important ideas is to move to a trilateral, potential trilateral meeting of the leaders to address the issues that only the leaders can do.
Steve is going to Russia tomorrow. And let's see what Putin has to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: On Tuesday, Zelenskyy also held a call with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and discussed a number of issues, including intelligence sharing, which he says is now working again. The Ukrainian president recorded a good conversation and said he was hoping to speak with Rubio again in the next 48 hours.
All this taking place as Russia's attacks on Ukraine are ongoing. The latest coming in the Kharkiv district. The head of the Kharkiv regional military administration says two elderly people were killed in an overnight attack. Nearly a dozen others suffered what he described as acute stress reactions, including a two-month-old baby, 13 homes as well as a car were damaged and a farm building was destroyed in a nearby fire.
The U.S. Secretary of State says President Trump had, quote, "nothing to do" with Starlink's internet service being severely disrupted in Ukraine last week. Echoing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's earlier comments, Marco Rubio appeared to place the blame for the outage on Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX owns Starlink.
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MARCO RUBIO, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE: Starlink is a private company. They have a contract.
They have contractual terms upon how that technology can be used. The important point is we cannot direct a private company as to the decisions they make or not make. What I can tell you with certainty is the president of the United States nor anyone in our system ever requested that any changes to that system be made.
And that's what we said repeatedly. I don't know what the story reflects, but that is the case.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that it was Musk who ordered the slowdown. Alex Ward, one of the journalists who broke the story, spoke to CNN earlier. Take a listen.
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ALEXANDER WARD, NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": There's a bit of a SpaceX said White House said. So what you basically have is once this was revealed by Ukraine, SpaceX calls the White House and goes, hey, guys, our messaging is a bit off here.
There was coordination right between the White House and SpaceX on this. We need to come out and say that.
And that was a bit of a revelation for folks at the White House who were surprised by the slowdown of the speeds of Starlink. And we're looking for some kind of explanation of what it was. And it sounded like to a bunch of White House officials that Musk did it on his own.
But again, we can't exclude the possibility of a Musk Trump conversation. And in fact, we do quote a person familiar with the situation, saying that Musk and Trump had multiple calls, including before the slowdown order.
So but we don't have details of that exact conversation. But we do know that Trump and Musk spoke shortly after the issue became revealed publicly, and they discussed the Starlink issue.
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[03:05:00]
KINKADE: Well joining me now is Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst in defense strategy with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in Canberra. Good to have you with us.
MALCOLM DAVIS, SENIOR ANALYST IN DEFENSE STRATEGY, AUSTRALIAN STRATEGIC POLICY INSTITUTE: Thank you for having me.
KINKADE: I want to get to the Starlink issue in just a moment. But I first want to start on the other major issue, President Zelenskyy complaining that the U.S. is delaying the delivery of the interceptor missiles that European countries have already paid for. Washington, of course, disputes that.
What can you tell us about these delays? And how critical are the Patriot missiles to Ukraine's ability to defend itself?
DAVIS: Well, I think all the evidence suggests that the Trump administration, or individuals within the Trump administration are delaying the supply of Patriot missiles through the Pearl program, essentially that are critical for Ukraine's defense.
Patriot is an interceptor missile. They are vital for Ukraine to be able to intercept incoming Russian ballistic and cruise missiles. If the missiles are in fact being withheld, even though NATO has paid for these missiles under the Pearl program, then it leaves Ukraine wide open to Russian ballistic and cruise missile attack.
And we'll see the Russians accelerating and expanding their missile attacks on Ukrainian cities in the coming winter.
KINKADE: And alongside this dispute over the missiles, Zelenskyy has complained about the restrictions on military grade satellite communications, saying that U.S. intelligence sharing has now been restored, but that the recent interruptions certainly have raised some serious concerns. What was your reaction to the "Wall Street Journal" report that it was Elon Musk that was obviously the cause of this slowdown? And how important is the Starshield to Ukraine's joint operations and its ability to coordinate forces on the front line?
DAVIS: Look, Starshield and Starlink are two separate systems. Starshield is the higher grade military spec system that allows Ukrainian forces to coordinate across the battle space, including in terms of offensive and defensive operations. Starlink is the commercial system, it's lower grade, but nevertheless it provides vital connectivity for Ukrainian forces in undertaking military operations.
If indeed it is the case that either Elon Musk or someone within the administration decided to throttle Starshield and potentially Starlink, and that seems to be the case, then it certainly does send a worrying signal because without those systems, without those networks, Ukraine would be poorly placed, certainly not able to effectively defend against incoming attacks. So they're already missing the interceptor missiles, now they don't have the command and control systems that are needed to be able to defend against those attacks.
But worse, it prevents the Ukrainians from coordinating military operations along the front line, from undertaking advanced military operations in terms of retaliatory strikes against Russian targets. So it certainly would leave the Ukrainians much less able to respond to Russian threats. And the worrying thing is that if indeed it was either Elon Musk or an individual within the Trump administration, or a combination of the two, that made this choice, it sends a message about whether America is going to continue to support Ukraine or not.
KINKADE: Yes, Zelenskyy, of course, has been meeting with the U.S. Envoy Steve Witkoff and European leaders in Norway in an effort to repair the strained relations with Washington. Is there a realistic prospect of progress towards a peace agreement, or are the military and political positions of Russia and Ukraine just too far apart right now?
DAVIS: Look, I'm pretty pessimistic on the possibility of a peace deal simply because Putin does not want peace. He sees the advantages all going his way. To borrow a phrase from President Trump, he has all the cards now.
And I think that Putin will see the advantage in terms of continuing the war, expanding the war. He seems to be perceiving, I would imagine, that Trump is aligning with Putin in many respects.
Now the diesel deal in particular, but also now the discussion about possibly a three-way meeting with Putin and Xi Jinping at the APEC summit, all reinforces the signal in coming from Washington, D.C., that the Trump administration seems to be aligning with the Russians and against the Ukrainians.
So there'll be no incentive on the part of the Russians and Putin to seek a peace deal at this point. If there is to be a peace deal, it would be heavily weighted in Russia's favor. And I don't see how the Ukrainians could accept such a deal that effectively would require them to give up substantial amount of territory to the Russians and then have no guarantee that the Russians wouldn't continue or restart the war at a later date.
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KINKADE: Yes, you hit the mark. Some great analysis. Malcolm Davis, I appreciate your analysis, thanks so much. DAVIS: Thank you very much.
KINKADE: Well, the second night of curfews has now ended in some cities in France, including parts of Paris and Marseille. The Prime Minister says the measures have been helping to restore peace overnight following the nation's worst rioting in years.
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The Prime Minister acknowledged that the government failed to recognize just how severe the protest situation had become. Authorities are promising a massive police presence for the demonstrations that are planned Saturday.
And in Italy, 500 soldiers are now patrolling the streets of Milan as part of new security measures targeting rioters. The Italian government approved the decrees on Tuesday after cost-of-living protests devolved into chaos over the weekend.
CNN's Stefano Pozzebon reports from Rome.
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STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, has presented a new set of measures as part of a law and order decree published in response to the violent clashes that took place in the city of Milan on Saturday and Sunday. They were some of the most violent clashes that we have seen in Italy in the recent past.
Among these new measures is a new offense that is being called the violent participation in a demonstration. Offenders of this new criminal offence can face up to five years in prison and up to a 20,000 euro fine, according to Meloni.
The Prime Minister also said that protesters or the parents of the protesters, in case we're talking about minors, will now have to pay for any damages they are responsible for as part of this new decree. And the message from Meloni is that she intends to tolerate peaceful protests onto the street but will show zero tolerance for violence.
GIORGIA MELONI, ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Hundreds of very young people, many of them minors, arrived in small groups summoned by a video on social media. They came to the public square to smash things, steal and film themselves doing it. We must address this seriously, not least to prevent these images from becoming a model for others to imitate.
POZZEBON: The government has also said that they are opening negotiating tables with trade unions, in particular the union of truck drivers, that in recent days and weeks had set up blockades in some of the highways in the south of Italy as a way to protest the cost of living, but in particular the high cost of gasoline as a consequence of the shutdown of the Straits of Hormuz and the war in Iran.
The students instead have told us that they don't fill their demands that have to do with the cost of housing and better funding for education that are being heard by the government and have already called for new protests by October 24.
For CNN, this is Stefano Pozzebon, Rome.
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KINKADE: Well, there is still much more to come here on "CNN Newsroom," including a look at the secession vogue in one Canadian province, we'll see what was driving the movement and why it was overwhelmingly rejected.
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KINKADE: Super Typhoon Champi is now the strongest storm of the year after it hit maximum sustained winds of 295 kilometers per hour. The storm is currently moving through the open western Pacific between Guam and northern Philippines.
It will likely remain a powerful typhoon until later this week when it begins to turn north. It could still pack the strength of a Category 3 or Category 4 hurricane as it approaches Taiwan and Japan.
Well voters in the Canadian province of Alberta have rejected a plan to secede from the country. The grassroots movement stemmed from frustration with the federal government and was amplified by U.S. President Trump's tariffs and annexation threats, CNN's Paula Newton reports.
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PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The turnout for this vote was actually quite high by provincial standards and yes it was a decisive vote.
In a margin of 3-1, Albertans said they do not want to be in a process to secede from Canada. Having said that, there were other questions on this ballot and a lot of it had to do with trying to take some power back from the central government when it came to key things that Albertans want and I will say they have a lot in common with a lot of other voters in other provinces as well.
Now I want to read for you one of the questions. Do you support the government of Alberta taking increased control over immigration for the purposes of decreasing immigration to more sustainable levels?
Now Albertans voted 55 percent to 45 percent in favor of that. What does it mean? It means that this vote was about sending a message to the Mark Carney government saying look we don't like you making all the decisions all the time and we want more consultation on things like immigration that concern our province. I want you to listen now to the former chief of staff for Mark Carney
describing why this is still a victory for the Carney government but what he intends to do next. Listen.
MARCO MENDICINO, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF TO THE CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: Most of all he showed up. He visited Alberta some 11 times in the last year and a bit and what I think it demonstrated was a real intent to repair the relationship but also to show a path forward and I think that yesterday's referendum result shows that Albertans overwhelmingly supported the path that has been offered to them.
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NEWTON: After the vote Mark Carney did say that look this was a clear victory for Canada staying united but he also did say that he will now have a pragmatic approach to listening to some of the issues like immigration and giving more power to the provinces. He's preferring to not do it in any constitutional way. He wants to be more pragmatic, perhaps get it done much more quickly but it must be said foremost in the minds of Canadians right now is a trade deal with the United States.
There are still no talks scheduled right now with any substance and that will be the next task of the Carney government.
Paula Newton, CNN, New York.
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KINKADE: Colombian authorities have seized more than 7.6 metric tons of cocaine in what's being called the country's biggest hole in a decade. Packages of powdered sugar containing cocaine were discovered during an inspection in the Caribbean port of Cartagena. Colombia's President says the government has seized more than 132 tons of cocaine during his first 75 days in office as he vows to crack down on drug trafficking.
Actress Christina Applegate who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis five years ago has been an outspoken advocate for living with the disease has found out she doesn't have M.S. at all. The Emmy winner revealed Tuesday that she has been misdiagnosed.
She shared the surprising news on the podcast she hosts with fellow actress Jamie-Lynn Sigler who is an M.S. patient herself. As it turns out the misdiagnosis of M.S. is not uncommon.
In 2019, a study led by the Cedars-Sinai found that nearly one in five patients diagnosed with M.S. likely had a different condition. Applegate says after learning the news of her own misdiagnosis she now feels like she's back at square one.
Well still to come here on "CNN Newsroom," the U.S. and Israel are weighing their options in the war with Iran as both countries face crucial elections. The details on what could happen just ahead.
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KINKADE: Welcome back, I'm Lynda Kinkade. Let's take a look at today's top stories.
President Trump's foreign envoy Steve Witkoff arrived just a short time ago in St. Petersburg, Russia. He's expected to meet with President Vladimir Putin during his visit. Witkoff's arrival comes just one day after he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders in Norway, a U.S. official tells CNN Witkoff is traveling to Russia to court test whether a new peace plan can form the basis for peace talks.
The U.S. Secretary of State says that President Trump has nothing to do with the disruption to the Ukrainian military's access to Starlink. Marco Rubio suggested the issue lay with Elon Musk whose company SpaceX owns Starlink. Elon Musk had earlier stated that Starshield, a military version of Starlink that Ukraine relies on, was owned and controlled by the U.S. government.
The United Nations is condemning drone strikes in Sudan and the disputed Abai region that have left at least 153 people dead. A local official says the strikes hit a fuel depot sparking fires. Doctors Without Borders says it's treating more than 20 wounded people, a regional official blames Sudan's military which has not commented.
The United Kingdom says it will deploy fighter jets to defend Saudi Arabia against attacks by the Iranian-allied Houthi rebels in Yemen. The British Defense Ministry announced it will fly defensive counter- air missions using Royal Air Force Typhoon fighter jets to protect Saudi cities as well as key infrastructure. Iran's foreign minister claims Yemen's Houthis are acting independent of Tehran.
Abbas Aragchi says Iran is offering to mediate between Saudi Arabia and the rebel group to help end the conflict but has received no response from either side. He says the offer was made Tuesday as the fighting intensified in Yemen after the launch of a Saudi-backed military campaign.
The United Nations is sounding the alarm on the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian and economic situation in Yemen's third largest city. The agency is also urging the Houthis to allow aid access, warning that road closures and insecurity are putting millions of people at risk as it's preventing vital goods including fuel and medicine to reach the area.
The U.S. Defense Secretary confirms that he was in Israel just one day after reports of his unannounced travel to the country. The trip comes as Israelis prepare to head to the polls next week. It will be the first general election since the October 7th Hamas attacks in 2023 and the wars in Lebanon and Iran. CNN's Zachary Cohen has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ZACHARY COHEN, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's unannounced trip to Israel and meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu comes just days before the Israeli elections where Netanyahu has placed a lot of stake in his involvement in the U.S.-Israel's war against Iran.
Now, the U.S. has been considering additional military action targeting Iran in recent weeks as the conflict has reached a point of somewhat of a stalemate. The Iranians continue to target commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and a diplomatic agreement does not appear to be imminently within reach, leading to discussions between President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu about potentially resuming combat operations against the Iranian regime.
[03:30:07]
Now, Israeli sources say that the two leaders have discussed that potential additional military action recently and Hegseth's trip only reinforces speculation that additional military strikes could be in the offing either before the U.S. midterm elections or after.
Now, Netanyahu, some of this hinges on Netanyahu and whether he is ultimately re-elected as Israel's Prime Minister. He had initially thought that President Donald Trump would be a centerpiece of his re- election campaign, but the relationship between the two men has ebbed and flowed over the course of this months-long conflict, Trump at times voicing frustration with Netanyahu, some within the White House even at times thinking that he has attempted to prolong the war with Iran for his own political benefit.
Now, Netanyahu meanwhile has indicated that he is not willing and not considering escalating this conflict before the Israeli elections. Hegseth meanwhile has been one of the loudest cheerleaders for resuming combat operations against Iran and his presence in Israel again only going to suggest further that the U.S. military could resume strikes if ordered to do so by President Donald Trump.
Now, meanwhile in the U.S., the midterm elections have really highlighted how unpopular the war with Iran really is, which has forced the Trump administration to walk a tightrope of sorts as its stated objectives have not yet been accomplished, yet Republican and Democrat voters making clear according to polling data that they want this conflict to end.
And we saw this in the endorsement of the key Trump administration figures of Benjamin Netanyahu while President Donald Trump did finally endorse the Israeli Prime Minister calling him a great warrior Prime Minister. Vice President J.D. Vance declined to also throw his backing behind the Israeli Prime Minister in this election saying that he does not comment and weigh in on Israeli elections.
Now, that conflicts a little bit with the fact that just earlier this year, Vance did travel to Budapest, Hungary to rally for then-Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a Trump-endorsed candidate, before Orban lost his election. So, all this really coming in the context of the potential for more combat operations against Iran as this conflict continues to drag on.
Zachary Cohen, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE: At least two people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City in an apartment building. According to hospital officials, the victims were a husband and wife. It happened Tuesday in the middle of the night when people were sleeping.
The Associated Press spoke with a relative of the victims who said they woke up to the sound of a massive explosion and scenes of horror that included scattered bodies and quote, "a torrent of blood that wouldn't stop."
There's still more to come on "CNN Newsroom," including Elon Musk floating the idea of a merger between two of his companies. We'll have all the details next.
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[03:35:00]
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KINKADE: Welcome back, I'm Lynda Kinkade. Here are your business headlines.
Federal airlines are doing a thriving business in Europe in stark contrast to the U.S. Carriers including Ryanair and EasyJet dominate the short-haul routes where passengers pay extra for baggage, seat reservations, even in-person check-in. And let's say American travellers have lower tolerance for bare-bones service and don't like paying for add-ons.
The second-hand online marketplace Vinted is cracking down on goods that were looted during the riots in France. The company says it has removed listings and stepped up checks on suspicious ads, accounts that break the rules will face permanent bans. Major retails including Louis Vuitton, Rolex and Sephora were caught up in the violence this past weekend.
U.S. President Trump is making an appeal to farmers ahead of the midterm elections. He has unveiled plans to spend $8 billion to help offset the cost of fertilizer and diesel fuel. The harvest fuel relief program is similar to the $12 billion aid package announced in December to help farmers hurt by President Trump's tariffs.
Elon Musk is raising the possibility of a merger between SpaceX and Tesla, but he says the decision is ultimately up to shareholders, he made the comments during an earnings call Tuesday. SpaceX shares rose nearly 5 percent in late trading, while Tesla gained just over 1 percent. The comments follow SpaceX's blockbuster IPO in July and a third-quarter earnings report that beat Wall Street's expectations.
For more on this, here's Clare Duffy. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARE DUFFFY, CNN TECH REPORTER: This is only SpaceX's second earnings report as a public company and it has blown Wall Street's expectations out of the water on both sales and profits, posting sales in the quarter of $14.6 billion. That is up 161 percent from the year ago quarter. Net income of $4.4 billion.
That is up from a net loss of $1.1 billion in the year ago quarter. And I think the headline from this earnings report, you know SpaceX is known as a rocket company, but this really is an A.I. company, or as SpaceX is now referring to it as superintelligence or SI. The A.I.-SI side of the business drove most of the company's revenue during this quarter, $7.6 billion in revenue.
[03:40:04]
That comes from things like other A.I. companies paying SpaceX for cloud computing capacity. The company also acquired the A.I. coding startup Cursor, which contributed $608 million in revenue during the quarter. The company also saw strong growth in its connectivity business, an uptick in Starlink subscribers, growing 88 percent year on year.
So really across the board, seeing strong results. Now, I do think the question going forward for SpaceX is the fact that this is a really capital intensive business. Building rockets is very expensive, building A.I. data centers is very expensive.
The company reported spending nearly $19.6 billion in CapEx in the September quarter. That is almost three times what it spent a year ago. Most of that money is going towards A.I. data center infrastructure.
And so I think there will be questions for executives about whether this business growth can keep pace with the amount that they're having to spend on infrastructure, but certainly a strong second ever earnings report for SpaceX as a public company. Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE: Clare Duffy there.
We're going to turn now to the NBA and the start of a new season to get basketball fans excited for the months ahead. Perhaps the biggest story is the Philadelphia 76ers winning their opening game with legendary LeBron James defeating the defending champs, the New York Knicks.
James started his record 24th season by netting 14 points, nine rebounds and six assists at Madison Square Garden. After a rough start, Philly rallied in the second half to win 106-100.
Well the Beatles Story Museum is set to get a massive expansion and a new home in the heart of Liverpool. Interactive experience is moving down the street in the band's hometown, and the new site is massive at roughly 100,000 square feet, that is quadruple the size of the current location.
It will feature immersive reconstructed sets and props from upcoming biopic movies about the fab four. Fans with a ticket to ride can expect to visit the new location starting in 2028.
Well Prince Harry has declared he's ready to reconcile with the royal family in his first major interview since returning to the U.K. Harry tells "G.Q." magazine he's ready to patch things up.
Harry and his wife Meghan stepped back from royal duties and moved to California in 2020, straining relationships with the family. Harry has had little contact with his brother Prince William and only recently reunited with his father King Charles.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRINCE HARRY, DUKE OF SUSSEX: People look at us and go, how are you going to work it out? And then maybe how I see you're going to work it out.
Maybe that helped me work my stuff out. And some people don't.
ZACH BARON, JOURNALIST: How are you going to work it out?
PRINCE HARRY: Well, some people don't want it to work out. I want it to work out.
BARON: You do?
PRINCE HARRY: Of course I do.
BARON: Yes.
PRINCE HARRY: There's no, again, with everything else that's going on in the world, the most important thing is to, is, you know, is to reconcile.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: Thanks so much for watching, I'm Lynda Kinkade. Good to have your company.
"World Sport" is next. I'll be back at the top of the hour with much more "CNN Newsroom."
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