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Venezuela Announces "Massive Mobilization" of Military; Israeli Settlers Launch Arson Attack in Occupied West Bank; Damage & Flooding in Taiwan as Typhoon Fung-Wong Approaches; Saudi Developer to Open New Luxury Tourist Destination. Aired 9-10a ET

Aired November 12, 2025 - 09:00   ET

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

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ELENI GIOKOS, CNN HOST, CONNECT THE WORLD: I'm Eleni Giokos in Abu Dhabi. You are watching "Connect the World". Venezuela is ordering a massive

mobilization of its military as the United States send more of its own firepower to the region.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PADRINO LOPEZ, VENEZUELAN DEFENSE MINISTER: We love peace. We deeply love peace. We don't want war here, nor in any other place around

the world. But if they dare to touch Venezuela. They're going to find us in every street.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIOKOS: The announcement came after America's largest warship arrived in U.S. Southern Command Area of Operations. That area includes most of Latin

America. We've got CNN's Senior National Security Reporter, Zach Cohen, in Washington for us. Zach, good to see you.

What more do we know about Venezuela's mobilization of not only its troops, but equipment as well as ammunition, and then also, how significant is it

that the USS Gerald R. Ford is now in Southern Commands region?

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yeah. Venezuelan officials making clear that this mobilization was ordered directly by

President Nicolas Maduro, and it comes as a response to the U.S. military buildup in the region, which, of course, has been used to conduct these

strikes against alleged drug boats, but increasing tensions with Venezuela in the process.

Venezuelan officials calling the U.S. build up a quote, imperialist threat, and saying that they plan to conduct land, air and naval exercises to

really as a show of force, to essentially ward off a potential U.S. invasion of sorts. Now the aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford is the U.S.'s

largest aircraft carrier.

It is the most advanced aircraft carrier in the U.S. fleet. At the same time, it brings significant air assets as well. It has nine air squadrons,

anti-surface capabilities, and it will join what is already a very large U.S. military presence in the region, including guided missile destroyers

that are all ballistic capable, raising questions about what this firepower is needed.

The Trump Administration insists that the Gerald Ford and the rest of the military assets there are intended to conduct the counter narcotics

mission, the targeting of alleged drug boats. But at the same time, I'm told U.S. officials were unable to tell Congress why they need so much

firepower to target small boats.

So, this uncertainty still increasing and contributing to the ongoing tensions with Venezuela?

GIOKOS: Yeah, absolutely. And look a lot of people looking on and wondering whether this means some kind of confrontation down the line, but we know

that the undercurrent of a lot of what we've been seeing is that Caracas does believe that Washington is seeking regime change, something we've even

heard from President Trump in sort of nuanced terms.

[09:20:00]

But what are your sources telling you?

COHEN: We reported back in September and since then that there are some within the Trump Administration who are pushing a strategy to effectively

conduct strikes inside Venezuela with the idea of pushing Nicolas Maduro, the President of Venezuela, out of power, that is still something some U.S.

officials hope can be accomplished as this as part of this military buildup.

At the same time, we also know that the Trump Administration told Congress just a few days ago that it doesn't currently have the legal justification

to target anything inside Venezuela or any other territory, even though they are potentially seeking an additional legal justification that would

allow them to do so.

So really some uncertainty, some ambiguity there. As you mentioned, Donald Trump has been non-committal on this since the beginning, both speaking in

very verbose terms, in terms of threatening Nicolas Maduro at the same time not going all the way to commit to U.S. forces conducting some sort of a

regime change strategy operation targeting him.

So, we're going to have to wait and see what ultimately happens. But again, there's really a lot of questions as to what all this U.S. firepower a

significant piece the U.S. Navy, what it is doing there and why it's needed, which again, is stoking the questions about a potential regime

change in Venezuela.

GIOKOS: Yeah, all right, Zach Cohen, great to have you on the story. Thank you so much. Now as attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank

surge, dozens of Israeli settlers launched an arson attack on an agricultural area Tuesday evening, according to Palestinian activists in

the area, footage obtained by CNN shows smoke engulfing the area.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond is live from Beit Lid in the occupied West Bank. Jeremy, what do we know about this incident? So far, we're seeing the

images. You're on the ground there. What have you learned?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're on the ground in a Bedouin community. That was one of the sites that was attacked by these

Israeli settlers just yesterday, I'm told that more than 100 massed settlers, some of them armed with clubs, others prepared to carry out arson

attacks, which they did, indeed, descended on this Bedouin community as well as a Palestinian dairy factory that is right in front of me up this

hill.

But I want to show you some of the damage that was caused by these settlers. You can see right here. This is one of the sites that they set

fire to. This is actually where feed for livestock as well as some of the food that these Palestinians here stored for themselves. Used to be held it

is completely burned through.

When we were at the dairy factory, we saw at least four trucks that were completely torched, burned to their very core, and they certainly will not

be able to be used in the future by that company. The owner of that dairy factory told me that he believes that was the intention that these settlers

were trying to scare away Palestinians from this area, to scare them away from expanding their business operations, as that dairy company was indeed

doing in this area of the Northern West Bank.

Here as well you can see that the some of the scorch marks on this tank, this plastic tank here, this hay as well, was also set on fire. I'm told

that this was a much larger pile than it is today. Several sheep were also stolen from this Bedouin farm, and those settlers then went back up this

hill I'm told.

Some of the Palestinian men tried to go and follow them up there to get those sheep back. And that is when we are told that at least four

Palestinians were beaten by these settlers and went to hospital, with some of them having quite serious injuries. The Israeli military actually

detained four settlers yesterday, as part as these attacks were unfolding.

But we now understand that the Israeli police have already released three of those individuals who had been detained. But really, Eleni, this is part

of a broader trend that we are witnessing across the West Bank, particularly over this all of harvest season, we have been witnessing a

steep rise in Israeli settler attacks.

The United Nations says that it has tracked 264 settler attacks in the month of October alone, that is the highest number since they began

tracking these settler attacks back in 2006. So, the question now is, what are Israeli officials going to do about all of this? We have been

witnessing some officials who typically are silent about this settler violence, beginning to speak out about this rising trend.

And Israeli military officials also beginning to express frustration that they don't have enough tools to actually confront this settler violence in

the West Bank. There are certainly cases where the military is either idle or complicit in settler actions in the West Bank.

[09:25:00]

But in this case, they say that they wish they had these administrative detention tools to detain some of these settlers when they are preparing to

carry out attacks. Instead, those tools were stripped away from them, from the current Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz when he came into office

last year.

So, a rising problem here in the West Bank. And speaking with people here, they have no guarantees, no assurances that these settlers won't come back

again with no one to defend them, Eleni.

GIOKOS: Jeremy, thank you so much for that reporting and to have you on the ground there to show us firsthand of the aftermath of that settler violence

in the West Bank. Thank you so much. All right, let's get you up to speed on some other stories that are on our radar right now.

A faction of the Pakistani Taliban is claiming responsibility for a suicide attack that has killed at least 12 people. Pakistan's President is strongly

condemning Tuesday's bombing near Islamabad's High Court. Authorities say it's the worst suicide attack to rock Pakistan's capital in nearly two

decades.

Taiwan evacuated more than 8000 people ahead of Wednesday's arrival of typhoon Fung-Wong, which brought record downpours to the mountainous east.

It is forecast to graze the far southern tip of Taiwan before heading into the Pacific Ocean. The typhoon is much weakened after hitting the

Philippines.

You're watching "Connect the World". There's more news right after this. Stay with us.

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GIOKOS: Welcome back. I'm Eleni Giokos in Abu Dhabi, and you're watching "Connect the World". Right, these are your headlines. The U.S. House will

convene today for the first time since September to start voting on a Senate approved funding bill to end the government shutdown.

The bill advanced along party lines in the House Rules Committee overnight. The shutdown is now in its 43rd day, the longest in U.S. history. Right,

Venezuela says it is launching a massive mobilization of its military forces in response to the U.S. buildup of warships and troops in the

Caribbean Sea.

The Venezuelan Defense Minister described the deployment as a response to the U.S. imperialist threat. U.S. President Donald Trump says he has quoted

an obligation to sue the BBC for a misleading edit of a speech that he gave before the January 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol.

BBC Chair apologize for how the speech was edited in a documentary that aired last year. A source tells CNN its board held an unscheduled meeting

today to weigh the president's legal threat. All right, we're a few seconds away the start of trade in New York, and there you have it.

[09:30:00]

Delta ringing the bell today on its 100th birthday. And kicking off the trading day, today is Delta Airlines. It is celebrating its 100th year

anniversary. So quite a pivotal moment there for Delta. But let's take a look at how we're doing on the numbers front, you've got the DOW JONES up

three tenths of a percent.

And of course, it's been a bit of a TikTok week, because we've been anticipating the reopening of government in the United States, which, of

course, has been affecting sentiment for the last 43 days frankly. You've got the DOW up three tenths of percent. NASDAQ up four tenths of a percent,

and S&P 500 also in the positive.

And so, it seems it's going to be positive day all round. Now moving on, and imagine creating revolutionary new drugs in a matter of hours instead

of months, or perhaps years. Step forward quantum computing, experts say it could potentially mean a jump of more than a trillion dollars in value

across certain industries in just the next 10 years.

And it could lead to breakthroughs in science, finance and transportation. But there's a long road ahead. Cracking quantum computing isn't a matter of

upgrading existing computers. CNN's Lisa Eadicicco has been looking at its many applications. Take a look at what she discovered.

LISA EADICICCO, CNN BUSINESS TECH EDITOR: There are a lot of applications for it. And the big thing to remember about quantum computing is that the

reason why this is so monumental is because it represents a completely different approach to computing. So, while regular computers today process

and store information through bits made up of zeros and ones.

Quantum computers use quantum bits that can kind of be in a state between zero and one or zero and one at the same time. So, what that allows these

computers to do is to process really complex computations that would take regular computers potentially years or longer than that.

So, what we're seeing here is the idea is that with quantum computers, these computers operate on the principles of quantum physics, the idea

being that they can kind of simulate things happening in the real world. So, let's say you're discovering a new drug, or testing materials for a new

battery, things like that.

The idea is that you can use quantum computing to kind of simulate what those chemical reactions might look like, but on a computer, instead of

having to do it in a lab. So, there's certainly a lot of interest and a lot of research being done in this area now, in particular.

IBM made a bunch of announcements around this, this morning, and one of the most critical ones is this new experimental processor called loom that it

introduced. And the big advancement here is that this experimental processor represents a step towards building a quantum computer that can

actually operate at scale, even with errors.

And that last part, the error's part, is really critical, because the qubits that quantum computers run on are very, very temperamental, so

they're very prone to error. It's going to be really, really hard to get that error rate down. So, what these computers need to do in order to

advance a lot of those use cases that we talked about is be able to operate at scale.

So that is the big news coming out of IBM today, with quantum computing.

GIOKOS: Fascinating. All right, still to come, luxury meets sustainability on the shores of the Red Sea. We'll show you the exclusive destination

opening its doors in the new year.

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GIOKOS: So, if you're looking for a sustainable luxury getaway in the new year, look right here in this region. Real Estate Developer Red Sea Global

has just announced the opening of its latest destination, AMAALA, at the tourism it's held this week in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Our Becky Anderson is there speaking with the CEO, who told her that AMAALA's doors will open in January, and that's just one part of a huge

project on the horizon. Right, to give you context, phase one of this giga project will feature nine luxury resorts, and it's the result of an

investment of more than 13.5 billion dollars.

Red Sea Global is a Saudi public investment fund company. So, Becky Anderson started by asking CEO John Pagano if the kingdom was getting value

for the money.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN PAGANO, CEO OF RED SEA GLOBAL: It's value for money on so many different levels. Level number one is it's creating when we fully build out

the entire destination, 50,000 jobs at AMAALA and another 70,000 at Red Sea, 120,000 jobs. It's about putting Saudi Arabia on the global tourism

map.

So, when you take a look at it, and on a holistic level, it's driving so many positive things for the country, for its people, but also opening up

the country to the world, opening up, you know, the destination, to people from all over. And we're already seeing at the Red Sea, which is already

open, half of our visitors are coming from international destinations.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR: Your challenge, as I see, is threefold, attracting high value tourists, managing costs and ensuring a return on

investment, all the while standing out in a luxury market which is highly competitive. What's the secret sauce?

PAGANO: We're offering visitors a luxury experience, which you have to deliver right, service is no longer an optional extra. You need to provide

great service. But we provide a pristine environment, one that we've respected, that we've actually sought to enhance. You're opening up to

tourists a new destination. People want something new.

They want to go and experience something different. And I think Saudi Arabia has so much to offer. It's got rich history, it's got amazing

culture, and then you got the warm hospitality of the Saudi people, which comes second nature.

ANDERSON: How have you managed the impact of this massive construction to avoid long term ecological damage?

PAGANO: We invest a lot of money in monitoring what we're doing, especially in the marine environment, because that's the most fragile environment that

we deal with. And we operate data and technology that is giving us real time feedback, and if we sense that we're exceeding certain limits, and

say, turbidity in the water we stop construction immediately and wait for things to settle before we continue.

So, it's taking extraordinary care as we build, and then it's looking at carbon emissions. We are the biggest tourism destinations, both of them now

in the world, powered by renewable energy, 24 hours a day. We did it because we can we have the backing of his royal highness and the leadership

of the country, but we wanted to show the world that there's a better way to develop.

People want to travel more sustainably. I think booking.com did a survey. 70 plus percent of travelers want to travel sustainably. Where do you

travel sustainably today? You can come to the Red Sea in AMAALA and know that your carbon footprint is going to be as small as it possibly can be.

ANDERSON: You talk about how data, and one assumes AI has driven or helped drive, how you manage this project.

[09:40:00]

What's your view on the wider story of AI and data in the travel and tourism industry today?

PAGANO: Look, I think AI and data are going to be, you know, create efficiencies, but they're never going to replace people. Hospitality is

about the interactions of humans, and as much as I and we embrace it and we use it to make ourselves more efficient, to monitor our precious

environment to make the guest journey, the booking experiences and making sure that there's nothing falls through the cracks.

Fantastic, and we were going to leverage it to the absolute maximum. However, when the guest arrives, you want that human interaction. We have a

data. We have a platform where guests can actually book their experiences. Now you can go entirely tech, if you want, and do everything online.

And you know, book your different resorts and the transfers and the experiences and the -- you know, your dining reservations, all of that. Or

you can speak to a human because today, people still want to speak to somebody. They don't want to be dealing with a robot. And so, tourism is

never, I don't believe ever going to move away fully from that human interaction, because that's what tourism and travel is all about.

ANDERSON: The Red Sea and AMAALA, very much embedded into Vision 2030 is one of the keys giga projects, and the idea is that they will all, in the

end, drive national impact. We're talking about long term strategic growth for this country. Can you just explain in practical terms how that works?

PAGANO: The vision is driving a transformation in the country. It's driving a diversification of the economy. Tourism, obviously, is a natural place to

be focusing on, because it's a great economic sector. Globally, it represents over 10 percent of GDP. So, I think for all of those reasons, it

makes a lot of sense, now because we have built an ecosystem.

We are a group of different destinations, but working together. So, for example, and the obvious one is between Red Sea and AMAALA, there will be

traffic in between those destinations, because people get bored quickly. And so, the more opportunities you give them to have different experiences

in an integrated destination, the more and the longer they're going to stay.

Our goal as Vision 2030 companies, is to bring visitors to the kingdom, first and foremost, and we're achieving great success already, and that's

going to continue to grow. But more importantly, if I can persuade somebody to stay longer, that drives more value creation for the country.

It increases spend in kingdom, improves our GDP, supports jobs, and it works on a practical level because of the cooperation and coordination that

takes place between the various giga projects and the various destinations.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GIOKOS: Right, "World Sports" is coming up next after the break. And I'll be back just after the top of the hour for the second hour of "Connect the

World". Stay with CNN.

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