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Connect the World
Epstein Mentioned Trump Multiple Times in Private Emails; Shutdown Ends, Leaving Health Care Subsidies in Limbo; James Comey, Letitia James Seek to Have Charges Dismissed; Aurora Borealis Makes Repeat Appearance Across U.S.; U.S. Promised Tariff Cuts for Coffee, Banana Imports. Aired 9- 10a ET
Aired November 13, 2025 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN HOST, CONNECT THE WORLD: President Donald Trump is facing new revelations in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. Can he dig himself out? It
is 09:00 a.m. in Washington, it is 06:00 p.m. in Dubai. I'm Eleni Giokos, and this is "Connect the World".
Also coming up, the U.S. shutdown ends, but the pain still isn't over for millions of Americans who must keep waiting for a paycheck. Plus, they made
an enemy of Donald Trump, and this president wants his enemies to suffer the charges against James Comey and Leticia James face a crucial test in
the next few hours.
And a dazzling light shows the aurora borealis keeps millions spellbound. Right, U.S. markets set to open in 30 minutes from now, and we're facing a
low start to the trading day. Here's the reality. Investors have been waiting for key economic data that was not released because of the
shutdown.
That's the October jobs report, as well as inflation and the lack of direction has contributed to market choppiness. You've got the DOW expected
to open two tenths of a percent lower, S&P, almost half a percent lower, as well as the NASDAQ. All right we'll check in on those numbers later.
But just as Washington turns the page on the longest government shutdown in American history, the dark cloud of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation
gathers once again over the U.S. capital. It comes after the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday released a trove of 20,000 pages of
documents relating to the Epstein case.
And it includes private emails from the convicted sex offender that mentioned Donald Trump by name. The president has denied any wrongdoing,
and the White House says the emails prove absolutely nothing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: It just shows how this is truly a manufactured hoax by the Democrat Party, for now, they're talking
about it all of a sudden because President Trump is in the Oval Office.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: Meanwhile, the Trump Administration is turning up the heat on Republicans to try and stop a U.S. House vote set for next week. Lawmakers
are weighing a contentious bill that would call for the release of all the Justice Department's files on Epstein. One Epstein survivor told CNN, she's
pushing for the documents to be made public.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LIZ STEIN, EPSTEIN SURVIVOR: We need the government to release everything that's in these files, of course, with the appropriate redactions to
protect the privacy of the survivors, but we really need this information to be out there so these crimes can be investigated. I think it's really
upsetting to us that this is so politicized when it's not a political issue.
This was a crime, and it's a crime of sex trafficking, and we really just want to see justice for the crime that happened to us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: Well CNN Politics Senior Reporter Stephen Collinson is live in Washington for us. And Stephen, you've written a piece around just what
we've seen in the last few days. I want you to talk to me about the timing of the release of these documents, because initially it was three emails
and then thousands more documents that came through on the cusp of the opening of government.
STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah, the people that released these documents, first the Democrats and then the Republican led
Committee, said that they were recently sent to the committee by the estate of Jeffrey Epstein. Obviously, this took place on the very day that the
Congress came back into town after being out for about six or seven weeks during the government shutdown.
A lot of people argue that the Republican Speaker Mike Johnson deliberately kept the House out of Washington during the shutdown specifically because
he wanted to try and tamp down the Epstein saga. If that was the case, it certainly hasn't worked. All that's happened is that all of this was pent
up over the last few weeks, and it all came out at the first possible opportunity.
And of course, Democrats like to detract from the fact that they lost, really the government shutdown, they didn't get their key demand on health
care. So, it's obviously in their interest to make this as painful as possible for the president right now.
GIOKOS: Yeah. Stephen, I want you to listen to the Democrats argument here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MAXWELL FROST (D-FL): Now these emails come up where he's implicated once again, and it doesn't just say he knew what was going on.
[09:05:00]
It says he spent hours. Hours with one of the victims. And not just that, but Jeffrey Epstein was speaking about with Michael Wolff on how much
leverage they have over Trump as well.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is it fair for Democrats to use words like implicated?
ANKUSH KHARDORI, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: No, it is not. Look as someone who spent a fair amount of his time in his life as a lawyer, a former
prosecutor, reading emails that have been pulled from various tranches. It is really not good practice to pluck them out and to assume that you can
understand their meeting wholly out of context, without talking to people who are on the communications, identifying other communications, talking to
witnesses around it. The idea that it's a smoking gun is inaccurate.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.
KHARDORI: I just have to say, I mean, this is not good practice to just pluck emails out and just assume that you've figured it all out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: Well, Stephen, do you believe that Democrats are getting ahead of themselves from a legal standpoint by releasing these documents?
COLLINSON: Certainly are, but they don't really care that much, because they're acting on political motivations. Nothing in these emails that were
released in the last few days offer any proof that there was any wrongdoing by the president. In many ways, I think that a lot of the coverage has done
exactly what the guest there was talking about which is taking snippets of emails and proving things which people want them to prove without
necessarily the right context text.
I think the safest way to talk about this is to say, yes, these new emails do raise some new questions about whether Donald Trump has been completely
forthcoming publicly in his knowledge of what was going along with Jeffrey Epstein. But I think that's honestly, as far as it's possible to go this
stage.
Ironically, in fact, all of this does show why the Justice Department habitually doesn't release investigative files when people aren't charged
with criminal offenses, because it does tend to lead to this kind of innuendo, the potential to besmirch the reputations of people involved.
What the issue is here is that the Justice Department and Trump, the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, said they would release these files to appease
a lot of the interest in Trump's base over the Epstein issue. Now, when they're not releasing it, and it seems as though the president might know
more about Epstein than he let on.
The obvious question in Washington becomes, why aren't they releasing it? What is he trying to hide? And the White House's own attempts to put this
to rest, have been spectacularly unsuccessful and only created more intrigue about what's going on here.
GIOKOS: Yeah.
COLLINSON: So, it's certainly right to say that the White House made a political mess of this.
GIOKOS: Well, the vote goes to the floor next week in terms of what we're anticipating. Stephen, you're joining us next hour for a deeper dive into
this. Thank you so much. We'll see you soon. Well, after 43 days, the longest government shutdown in United States history is officially over.
The breakthrough game at the beginning of this week, when eight senators who caucus with the Democrats sided with Republicans on a bill to fund the
government without extending health care subsidies. Now, these subsidies with the key demand by the Democrats and at the center of the stalemate.
Now, health insurance premiums for millions of Americans already struggling with the rising cost of living are expected to skyrocket. Upon signing the
bill to reopen the government U.S. President Trump made clear he saw the pain of the shutdown as front and center for the next year's midterm
elections, and he tried to put the blame on Democrats.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I just want to tell the American people, you should not forget this when we come up to
midterms and other things, don't forget what they've done to our country. I'm calling today for insurance companies not to be paid, but for the
money, this massive amount of money to be paid directly to the people of our country, so that they can buy their own health care, which will be far
better and far less expensive than the disaster known as Obamacare.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: Well, progressive House members, however, say the lapse in food assistance known as SNAP is proof that Republicans don't care about
affordability.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): You have the refusal and the outright cruelty among House Republicans and the White House who went to court to
try to sue for their ability to deny people's access to food. This is the reality that we're in right now, and we need to act like it, and we cannot
enable this kind of cruelty with our cowardice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: CNN's Kevin Liptak is at the White House for us.
[09:10:00]
Kevin and you heard President Trump there talking about Obamacare, as he has been for days. But what is the actual plan on health care? Do we have
any clarity on that?
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah, what the president said there is about the extent of it. He wants to do away with these
subsidies and instead send the money directly to the American people. But beyond that, you know, we haven't seen, you know, text of a bill that would
perhaps be considered in Congress and turn this into a law.
We haven't really heard any of the finer details of what the president's objective is here. And if that sounds familiar, it's because Republicans
have spent the better part of the past 15 years trying to get rid of Obamacare. They've held dozens of votes on it, but to date, they haven't
really produced a solid plan that they would use to replace it.
And so, the president clearly thinks that this is a road that Republicans should go down again. It's not clear that, that's going to be in favor of a
lot of Republicans who have seen this before and seen the political fallout, and may not necessarily be willing to sort of endeavor this again.
But clearly the president thinks that this is a winner. You know, I think as this shutdown comes to an end and as all of the politics shake out, it's
evident that the president is aware that this idea of health care and rising health care costs is going to be an issue for him going forward,
about a year out from next year's midterm elections.
Clearly, the issue of affordability, whether it's health care or groceries or energy, is now sort of an all-consuming focus inside the White House,
after those off year elections earlier this month, which were essentially a wipe out for Republicans. You know, President Trump seems to believe that
this shutdown will end up affecting Democrats negatively.
You know, polls right now do show that most Americans blame the president and Republicans for the shutdown. I think it's an open question of whether
any voter is going to remember this shutdown come November. Oftentimes these shutdowns kind of come and go without any major political
repercussions.
GIOKOS: All right. Kevin Liptak, thank you so much. And moving on as a fragile ceasefire and Gaza holds Palestinians say the fear of death still
awaits them, their patients and doctors now tell CNN that Israel plans to deport sick Palestinians back to Gaza as soon as next week.
Even those who are currently undergoing treatment. Medical teams in East Jerusalem say at least 89 patients and their companions are due for
deportation. One mother tells CNN the move would be a death sentence for her son. We got CNN's Jeremy Diamond in Jerusalem for us.
Jeremy, good to see you. Give me a sense of who these patients are, what's their age as well as what they've been treated for?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, well, these patients are as young as two years old, as old as 85 years old, and they really range
from babies who were born in Jerusalem because their mothers had preexisting conditions and were brought to Jerusalem to give birth before
the war in Gaza began following the October 7th attacks.
And they also include individuals with kidney failure, with heart conditions, a whole range of conditions, really. And just this week, they
received notice that Israeli authorities are seeking to deport these 89 patients and their families back to Gaza as early as next week. Now, we've
seen previous efforts by the Israeli authorities to deport some of these patients who are being treated in East Jerusalem hospitals back to Gaza.
Those have been met with challenges, including by an organization known as Physicians for Human Rights, Israel, a story that CNN covered back in March
of 2024 for example, resulted in the Israeli Supreme Court issuing an order to temporarily halt those deportations. But the situation now is different
of course.
The war is over, at least for now. Inside of Gaza, a ceasefire remains in place, but what hasn't changed is the condition of Gaza's hospitals, and
that is why so many of these families are concerned about what will await them or their loved ones who are sick if they return to Gaza, concerns that
they won't be able to get the proper medical care necessary.
One of those is the family of a boy named Yamen Al-Najjar. He is a teenager. He was brought to Jerusalem for treatment just two days before
the October 7th attack, being treated for a bleeding disorder. And his mother has actually been trying to get him abroad to a third country,
because even in Jerusalem, the treatment that he is receiving isn't sufficient to actually address all of his symptoms.
But there is a major backlog, whether it is patients in Jerusalem or patients in Gaza who are trying to get to third party countries, even when
they have approval from the World Health Organization.
[09:15:00]
Oftentimes, there simply are not enough third-party countries willing to accept patients who originate from the Gaza Strip. And that is a big part
of the backlog here, we have reached out to the Israeli authority known as COGAT, which is responsible for issuing this deportation order and
coordinating any humanitarian activity between the Gaza Strip and the outside world.
They have not responded to our request for comment. It is important to note that most of these patients and their families are willing to return back
to the Gaza Strip despite the conditions there, but for some of them, they fear that this could be a death sentence for them or for their loved ones,
a very concerning time and an issue that we will be tracking very closely over the coming week, Eleni.
GIOKOS: Yeah, Jeremy, thanks so much for staying on top of the story. Jeremy Diamond, for us. And coming up, James Comey and Leticia James are
both facing federal charges after President Trump demanded they be prosecuted. Could today's hearing make the case disappear?
And federal judge orders the release of more than 600 people arrested in Chicago. Why it is seen as a blow to the Trump Administration's crackdown
on immigration? We'll be back right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GIOKOS: Next hour, a major legal showdown. Former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James are asking a federal judge to
toss out their criminal cases, arguing that the prosecutor that President Trump appointed to pursue them was never legally in her job, if the judge
agrees both cases could collapse from a courthouse. CNN's Katelyn Polantz spoke earlier to Sara Sidner.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: This stands to be some lengthy arguments today in court before a judge, and a major test for
both the Justice Department's cases against the Former FBI Director James Comey and the New York Attorney General Letitia James.
The big questions here, Sara, can Donald Trump do this? Can the Attorney General do this? In this case, it's a question of whether they are able to
send in this hand-picked prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, to the Eastern District of Virginia to get these cases charged and shepherd them through
the court system to a trial.
On that, it's also a question of, can Lindsay Halligan be the person who is the prosecutor overseeing these cases. What we know about her is that she
is serving as an interim U.S. Attorney, not Senate confirmed, and she is sent in to this district in Alexandria, Virginia, to bring these cases
after a former prosecutor here was ousted by Donald Trump, after there was resistance to these two cases being brought through a grand jury.
That's very crucial, because the person before her, that person wasn't senate for confirmed either, also picked by Trump, said to this district.
And so, what these arguments are largely going to be about today is the length of time the president can be sending people in to a district without
getting congressional blessing for the person to be running the show as the top prosecutor.
[09:20:00]
They're saying on the defense side that Lindsey Halligan, she should not be allowed to be here. She should also not be allowed to be the person whose
name is on these indictments. And their argument looks very closely as what the indictments actually says, what was said to the grand jury, because as
far as we know, Lindsey Halligan is the only person to have signed these charges, to have, take these cases through the grand jury.
That means that if James Comey is successful, if Letitia James is successful in arguing this today, they could make the case to the judge
that Lindsey Halligan should be removed and the whole cases should be tossed not to be brought again.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GIOKOS: All right, thanks to Katelyn Polantz for that analysis there. Now CNN Affiliate WLS says a federal judge has ordered the release of more than
600 people arrested in by ICE agents in Chicago. The ruling is a blow to the Trump Administration's crackdown on undocumented people.
Attorneys with the National Immigrant Justice Center and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit alleging the arrests were unlawful. A
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson claims the decision to release them puts the lives of Americans directly at risk.
CNN Law Enforcement Correspondent Whitney Wild joins us now from Chicago with more. Whitney, good to see you. What was the law that the plaintiffs
in this lawsuit argued federal agents violated with these arrests?
WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's a two-tiered process here. So, the first is they, most broadly think this is just a
clear Fourth Amendment violation. But more specifically, here in Chicago, they believe that DHS actions are a clear violation of a consent decree
that was agreed upon in 2022.
This case originally goes back to 2018 after four years of making its way through the courts, there was a 2022 consent decree that basically said DHS
was not to take into custody, people who did not have deportation orders and people who didn't have a criminal warrant.
They were not to take into custody people with an administrative warrant because of their status, because of their status as undocumented. So that
was the law that the plaintiffs argued here, and a judge clearly agreed, Eleni.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK FLEMING, ATTORNEY OF NATIONAL IMMIGRANT JUSTICE CENTER: They are held all over the country, and that's where we the logistics of when we at the
end, my colleague was asking like, how is this bond? How are they going to be notified? The logistics of where these people are is going to be a piece
we really need to work through with the government, because we want this to be realized.
At this point, they are being held across the country, correct.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILD: So now the real work begins, Eleni, they are trying to find 615 people who are supposed to be released on bond by next Friday. 13 people
are supposed to be released by tomorrow, Eleni.
GIOKOS: Yeah, so give me a sense of whether we are expecting an appeal on the judge's order.
WILD: We have not seen it yet, but that is the expectation. When I spoke with the attorney you just heard from Mark Fleming, he was saying that in
court, DOJ was saying that they needed to consult with the Solicitor General. That's usually a pretty clear sign that an appeal is coming.
GIOKOS: All right. Whitney Wild, thank you so much. Now, dazzling light show painted the skies above parts of the U.S. for the second night in a
row. The red, green and purple hues are a result of a powerful burst of energy from the sun streaming past Earth. CNN Meteorologist Allison
Chinchar has more for us.
ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Take a look at these stunning photos behind me from Minnesota, again, lots of different colors last night too.
You saw a bit greener, even some blues and purples in addition to the pinks and the reds that we saw the night before. Again, just stunning images.
Most of these more into the northern tier of the U.S., rather than the southern states. Now some southern states did still get a chance to see a
few colors, but not quite as far south as we had the night before. And this one talk about really far south. This is actually from Australia, so
they're getting to see some of the southern lights.
But again, all from the same cause, all from that same CME that hit over near Earth. So, here's the two waves we talked about. This is the first one
there. You can see all those dark, bright colors right through there. That's the first wave that hit late into the day on Tuesday.
Then there's the second wave that came through. That's the one from yesterday, late yesterday and through the overnight. Again, notice the
density wasn't quite as high, and that's why we just didn't see it as far south in some of the U.S. states that we did the day before. Now the big
story in Earth is actually going to be all of the rain that is headed for the West Coast.
We're talking Washington, Oregon, but also California. Now the focus is going to be Northern California for the early part of the day, but once we
get to the evening hours tonight, we start to see a really big push of moisture into portions of Southern California, which could impact your
evening commute.
GIOKOS: All right, let's get you up to speed on some other stories that are on our radar right now.
[09:25:00]
In Paris, memorial ceremonies are being held at the various sites, where ISIS militants carried out attacks 10 years ago today. Nine gunmen and
suicide bombers targeted several locations across the city, including the Stade de France stadium and Bataclan theater. 130 people were killed with
two others who took their lives after the attack, also recognized as victims.
U.S. Civil Rights Leader Jesse Jackson is in Chicago hospital. A statement from his Rainbow PUSH Coalition says the 84-year-old is under observation
for a condition called progressive supranuclear palsy. He was originally diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, but received the new diagnosis back in
April.
British Journalist Sami Hamdi is heading home to London after more than two weeks in U.S. Immigration Detention. Hamdi insists he broke no laws and
says he was held after speaking out about Israel's war in Gaza. The Trump Administration claims he overstayed his visa and called him a quote,
terrorist sympathizer.
Coming up next on "Connect the World", grounds for concern how the humble coffee bean is at the center of raging price war. And destination UAE, we
speak to the CEO of Expedia about a new plan to bring more tourism to the country, and the very real impact artificial intelligence is having on the
tourism sector.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GIOKOS: Welcome back. I'm Eleni Giokos in Dubai, and you're watching "Connect the World". These are your headlines. The longest government
shutdown in U.S. history has come to an end after 43 days. President Donald Trump signed the funding bill late Wednesday night, enhanced health care
subsidies, which the Democrats had said were their central demand, were not included.
The U.S. House is expected to vote next week on a bill that calls on the U.S. Justice Department to release all of its Jeffrey Epstein files. On
Wednesday, Democrats have made public several emails from the late sex offender in which he mentions Donald Trump.
The president has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, and the White House says the emails prove nothing. Former FBI Director, James Comey, and New
York Attorney General Letitia James are asking a federal judge to toss out the criminal cases against them, arguing that the Trump appointed
prosecutor who charged them was never legally in her job.
If the judge agrees, both cases could collapse. Right, a few seconds away from the start of trade in New York. We've got live pictures from the New
York Stock Exchange. There's nothing like the sound, the start of trade in New York always a jubilation.
[09:30:00]
And don't forget, we've seen a lot of choppiness in the market of late, because there have been key economic reports that have not been released.
All right, a good day or a bad day for the markets, there's always jubilation when that bell rings. And of course, one of the big things
that's very different today is that the government has officially opened up, and that's after record close for of about 43 days.
So, we're back to normal, at least for now. And don't forget, there's two key economic reports that have not been released, and that's the October
jobs report, as well as inflation, that a lot of investors are waiting for. Let's see if those are released. Now to global trade and the price of
ordinary Americans are paying for their cup of Morning Joe.
The Trump Administration is promising to lower tariffs on the import of coffee beans. Official figures show prices are up 15 percent compared to
before Trump returned to office, and that's partly due to steep tariffs on imports from the world's top coffee exporters, Brazil, Colombia, as well as
Vietnam.
The U.S. also says it will take action to lower the price of fruits, like bananas, which are largely grown outside of the U.S., the average price is
up around 8 percent. We've got Matt Egan in New York for us. Matt, good to see you. And this is interesting, because it appears to be recognition from
the Trump Administration that tariffs are, in fact, putting a financial burden on ordinary Americans.
And if it's evidence of the price of bananas and coffee, well, it's fed through in terms of who's actually paying for it, and it's the consumer.
MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah, Eleni, that's exactly right. And look, last week's election really delivered a wakeup call on this
affordability crisis in the United States. And now Trump officials are signaling a willingness to take action, including lowering tariffs.
Yes, the same tariffs that they themselves raised on imports like coffee. Take a listen to the treasury secretary talking about what actions they may
take here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT BESSENT, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: You're going to see some substantial announcement over the next couple of days in terms of things we
don't grow here in the United States, coffee being one of them, bananas, other fruits, things like that. So that will bring the prices down very
quickly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
EGAN: Now this does represent a retreat of some sort when it comes to the trade war, and also an admission from Trump officials that the president's
favorite weapon, sky high tariffs are contributing to higher prices. It also raises a question, why did they tariff things that were not grown in
the United States in the first place?
How did that logic make sense then, and why doesn't it now? Now, coffee is a really good example here, because you look at roasted coffee prices up by
19 percent between last September and this September, the most recent month that we have inflation data on, and a 22 percent year over year increase
for instant coffee.
That is the biggest annual increase since June of 1995. Now this, of course, comes exactly the opposite of what the president has promised,
which is to lower prices at the grocery store. Now this isn't all about tariffs, because there's also extreme weather that has limited harvest, but
there's the fact that the United States, it imports about 99 percent of all of the coffee that's consumed.
And look at this, the president has double digit tariffs on all three leading sources of coffee, right? 10 percent on Colombia, 20 percent on
Vietnam, and 50 percent on Brazil, the leading source of imported coffee into the United States. Now, even though the treasury secretary suggested
this is going to dramatically lower coffee prices, there's no guarantee that that's the case, especially because demand has held up.
And companies, when they take price increases, they often don't give it back unless they need to. But it's not just about coffee, because let's
look at banana prices. Banana prices up by 7 percent year over year. That's the most since 2022, the year that the United States faced that four
decades high in inflation.
And bananas again, the vast, vast majority, about 98 percent of the bananas that are consumed in the United States, they're also imported, meaning that
they're facing tariffs as well. Look bottom line, selectively lowering some tariffs on some items, it could help remove some of the price pressure
here, but this is obviously about more than just bananas and coffee.
And you do have to wonder what kind of questions this is going to raise about the wisdom of going all out on tariffs in the first place, at a time
when prices here in the United States were already really high, Eleni.
[09:35:00]
GIOKOS: OK, so I actually I knew we are doing the story today, I got myself a coffee here in Dubai. It cost me $6. If you order a cappuccino, are you
paying more? How much you pay for a cappuccino, medium size, Matt?
EGAN: Yeah, I'm not a coffee drinker. So, I don't know. I don't know.
GIOKOS: What?
EGAN: No, I'm not. I'm not. Yeah, I'll have to check with my wife on that one. But look, I mean, there's no doubt that Americans love their coffee,
and the prices have just been so painfully high.
GIOKOS: Yeah.
EGAN: I mean, you look at these increases just in the past year, it's really been stunning to see. And some of these predated tariffs, some of
this predated the president.
GIOKOS: Yeah.
EGAN: But tariffs are clearly not helping when you see numbers like this, Eleni.
GIOKOS: Yeah, OK, we've run out of time. Matt, thank you so much. Learn something new every day you don't drink coffee.
EGAN: I don't.
GIOKOS: Matt Egan for us in New York.
EGAN: Thanks.
GIOKOS: Now here in the UAE, it's being held as a transformative moment for tourism to the country. Expedia unveiling a strategic partnership with Abu
Dhabi's Department of Culture and Tourism aimed at bringing more visitors to the Emirates. Becky Anderson spoke to Expedia, CEO Ariane Gorin about
that and how new technology can make for a better travel experience?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARIANE GORIN, CEO OF EXPEDIA: -- for us, AI is a real accelerator the business, and we think of it really in three buckets. The first is, how do
we use AI to make our products more proactive, personalized and predictive for our travelers. And I think you know the personalization is really key,
because with AI, you can help people find exactly their perfect trip in a faster way than they could have.
And in addition, for our partners, how do we use AI to allow them to get better targeting and to get more out of our marketplace? So that's really
the first is AI to make products better. The second is, how do you use AI to drive more traffic to our brands? So, people are searching in new ways,
whether it's on ChatGPT or Gemini and the like, with these new AI search experiences.
And how do we make sure they're discovering our brands and then coming into our apps to really plan their trip? And then the last thing is, you know,
for a company like ours, it's how do our teams use AI to be more effective, to get more throughput, to spend more time on the things that really add
value, rather than low sort of like value add tasks.
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR, CONNECT THE WORLD: We hear an awful lot of talk at present about an AI bubble. What's your perception of what's going on --
GORIN: Well, I can tell you, for our business, AI is only potential and upside. So, you when you hear about the bubble, often it's the investments
in the infrastructure, the data center, the models. We're not building our own LLMs, we're working with all these tech companies in order to use their
models and then inject them into our business with our first party data to create these more personalized experiences. So, for us, it's really
opportunity.
ANDERSON: There's an interesting tension between the role of technology in shaping what you would describe as seamless, predictive travel experiences
and the value of human engagement. What's your view?
GORIN: So, the beauty of our industry and travel is that we're all about human engagement. We're all about experiencing things in the real world.
We're about connecting to local cultures, connecting to people, connecting to relatives who you may not have seen.
So fundamentally, everything we do in the travel industry is about the human connection. And then for us at Expedia Group, it's also really
important that we have the technology with the human touch. So, if something doesn't go as planned, we have a lot of automation in our app so
that people can make the changes they need, but if they need to, they can call us and we'll pick up the phone within a minute.
We pick it up very quickly, and they know that there's a human on the other end who can help.
ANDERSON: When we're in Saudi in the GCC, what does this region mean to the travel market today and going --
GORIN: So, it is breathtaking. The investment that's going into this region, in tourism, if you look over the last few years, and the ambition
in the years to come, it's just it's incredibly huge that the investment in opening new hotels and new properties, the investment in having more air
lift into and out of the quality of the services, it's enormous.
And so, the role that we can play as Expedia Group is to help travelers from outside of the region understand what is on offer. What can they do if
they come visit and experience it? And then also helping travelers in region, travel within and outbound.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GIOKOS: The World Cup qualifying is heating up. We'll look at who can secure their place later today, that's coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:40:00]
GIOKOS: We are just seven months away from next year's World Cup, and a few more teams will hope to book their place today as European qualifying heats
up. We've got Patrick Snell joining us. Patrick, who you keeping a close watch on today.
PATRICK SNELL, CNN WORLD SPORT: Hi, Eleni, yeah, there's so many good story lines as we get ever closer to next year's North American Men's World Cup.
But keep an eye on Norway, Eleni, led by their superstar, the Manchester City Superstar, Erling Haaland.
They're trying to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1998 when it was played in France. They play Estonia in a match that kicks off
in just over two hours from right now, the fans will be packing into that stadium, I'm quite sure, in their thousands massive, fervent expectation
ahead of that one, because there's so much history on the line in Oslo tonight.
Now they will advance if they win, and Italy, four-time World Champions failed to meet Moldova. So, there's a lot in play, and we'll have it all
looking ahead in "World Sport" in just a few moments from right now. Other side of the break back to you, Eleni.
GIOKOS: All right, we'll see after this. And I'll be back at the top of the hour with the second hour. "Connect the World". Stick with CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:45:00]
(WORLD SPORT)
[10:00:00]
END
