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Republicans Brace For Mass Defections On EPSTEIN Files; Georgia's RICO Case Against Trump And Allies Gets New Prosecutor; BBC Apologizes to Trump, Rejects Defamation Claim; Illinois Community Confronts Border Patrol Agents; Russia, Ukraine Exchange Aerial Attacks Overnight; Ukraine Rattled By Largest Graft Scandal Since War Began; Attorneys General To Create A.I. Safety Task Force; Billion Grand Egyptian Museum Opens In Cairo; YouTube Star MrBeast Opens Theme Park in Saudi Arabia. Aired 10-11a ET
Aired November 14, 2025 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:00:14]
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking news.
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Welcome to the second hour of the show from our Middle East programing headquarters. I'm Eleni Giokos in Abu
Dhabi, where the time is just after 7:00 p.m. in the evening.
And we begin this hour with breaking news out of the United States. Now, this is the state of Georgia. The state's election interference case
against President Donald Trump and his allies will carry on with a new prosecutor. Peter Skandalakis announced today he's been appointed to the
case. He's the director of a bipartisan State Council of District Attorneys and Solicitors General.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis had launched the case but was removed after a legal fight over her authority. It's unlikely Mr. Trump as
a sitting president would face prosecution, but 14 others still face charges and will have more on the story in just a few minutes from now. So
stay tuned.
But it is certainly not the only story impacting the Trump administration. With the stroke of a pen, the president reopened the U.S. government
Wednesday and also set in motion something he hoped to avoid, a looming vote in the U.S. House to force the release of all the Justice Department's
Jeffrey Epstein files. The reopening of the government meant the recall of House members to Washington by Speaker Mike Johnson and the swearing in of
a recently elected Democratic representative.
Her presence in the House allowed the bipartisan sponsors of the Epstein measure to overcome a procedural hurdle and force a full House vote. Once
that happened, sources tell CNN, Speaker Johnson concluded it was best to schedule the vote quickly and get it over with. This all follows the
release of thousands of Epstein e-mails about this week by the House committee, where President Trump's name is mentioned several times.
Arlette Saenz is back with us this hour to give us a breakdown of what we can expect.
Look, there's no doubt that pressure is mounting. And the question now becomes, how many more Republicans are willing to vote in favor of the
release of these documents. Give me a sense of what you're hearing.
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Eleni, there is an expectation among Republican leaders that there will be a wave of GOP
lawmakers voting in favor of releasing the Epstein files, going against President Donald Trump. This has really marked a significant shift in
strategy from House Speaker Mike Johnson. He and the White House had really worked for several months to delay or prevent such a vote on the release of
the full files from even occurring. But now that they got the necessary signatures for that discharge petition, Johnson has said he is fast
tracking that vote to next week.
The leaders, the bipartisan leaders of this push had long believed that they were going to have to wait out the entire seven days of the
legislative calendar before this could be brought to a vote. But Johnson has increasingly come to the belief that they should just go ahead and
schedule this vote because it is inevitable. Now, the question is, how many Republicans will get on board? There were only four Republicans who signed
that discharge petition, but sources tell CNN that there is a broad cross- section of the Republican conference that is expected to vote in favor for this.
And for Epstein survivors they are really hoping that lawmakers in both the House and the Senate will get on board with this initiative. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNIE FARMER, JEFFREY EPSTEIN ACCUSER: Courage is contagious, and I would encourage, you know, there were Republicans in the House that were willing
to stand up with us because they believed what was happening was wrong, and we need answers as American people to have trust in this government. And I
would hope that senators would do some research, talk to their constituents. They are with us and people want transparency.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAENZ: Now, the Republican leader of this push, Thomas Massie, he has told CNN that he is hoping they will have a veto proof majority, meaning they
would need two-thirds of the House to vote in favor of this initiative. But even if it passes the House, it still needs to go over to the Senate, where
it will meet a very uncertain fate. Senate majority leader John Thune has previously said he doesn't think that there needs to be a vote on this
legislation. And if all Democrats in the Senate were to vote in favor, they would still need 13 Republicans to get on board.
So people -- lawmakers in the House, supporters of this initiative, are really hoping that they could have a resounding vote in support of
releasing the Epstein files, hoping that that will add additional pressure on the Senate to act. And then there's the big question of what President
Donald Trump would do if this hits his desk. He would have the ability to veto this if he wants. But supporters of this initiative are really trying
to shore up as much support as they can, so they could override any veto that could occur.
[10:05:07]
GIOKOS: Yes. As you say, you need a veto proof majority for this to go through.
Arlette Saenz, thank you so much.
Time for our panel. We've got Julie Roginsky, who is a Democratic strategist and co-founder of Lift Our Voices, and she's in New York, as
well as Maura Gillespie joining us from Ireland today. She was press for former -- press adviser for House Speaker John Boehner and the founder of
Bluestack Strategies. Sorry. I got through that.
Welcome to both of you. Thank you so very much.
Look, we've got some breaking news that has just come out of Georgia. What are your thoughts on the fact that a new prosecutor has been assigned to
the election interference case against Donald Trump and his allies?
Let's start off with you, Maura.
MAURA GILLESPIE, FORMER PRESS ADVISER FROM FORMER U.S. HOUSE SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER: Sure. I think one of the most interesting things was, you know, it
was said that several folks were contacted about this but all turned it down. And I think that's pretty telling about the state of things when it
comes to Donald Trump and his current record as far as winning a lot of these cases and, you know, being pretty vindictive about how he goes after
people who go after him.
And so I thought that was a pretty interesting take there that they, you know, with so many people who turned it down. But I do think that Fani
Willis created a lot of problems for this case. Her own personal and political aspirations certainly created issues for it. So I'd be curious to
see how this goes forward. But I think the Trump team is probably feeling pretty confident right now.
GIOKOS: All right. Maura and Julie, just pause there for a second. We've got Katelyn Polantz standing by for us to give us more information on this
breaking news out of the state of Georgia. It's the election interference case against Donald Trump and others for their efforts to overturn the 2020
presidential election.
So, Katelyn, tell me what you've heard.
KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we know this morning is that the criminal case against Donald Trump in the
state of Georgia, a state case, so not a federal case that he as president would have some ability to step into and do anything about, it is alive. It
was a case that had been in legal limbo, a zombie case really, one that did not have a prosecutor for some amount of time after the previous prosecutor
that brought the case against Trump and many others.
A woman named Fani Willis, she had been removed from that prosecutorial position by the courts. But the news this morning is that not only this
case is alive, it is because it has a prosecutor, someone who is looking through the evidence and is appointing himself. It is the person that was
searching for a prosecutor. This person, his name is Peter Skandalakis. He said in a lengthy statement this morning that he was trying to find someone
and a lot of people turned him down.
One of the things he said in his statement is that he did not believe that allowing this case to be dismissed because it didn't have a prosecutor was
the right course of action. He said, quote, "The public has a legitimate interest in the outcome of this case." He made the decision to appoint
himself to be the prosecutor over "U.S. v. Donald J. Trump" in the state of Georgia, and now he will make a decision about what to do with the evidence
in that case, whether this will move forward.
We did, though, get a statement from President Trump's lawyer, his defense counsel in Georgia, Stephen Sadow. He says, "This politically charged
prosecution has to come to an end. We remain confident that a fair and impartial review will lead to a dismissal of the case against President
Trump." And just a quick reminder of what this case is, it is about the 2020 election and what happened in the state of Georgia, an alleged
intimidation campaign against people who were counting votes and alleged attempt to send fake votes to Congress from the state of Georgia, saying
Trump won the state when he had not.
And then, on top of that, an allegation that Donald Trump acted criminally when he called state officials and told them to find votes for him after
the 2020 election.
GIOKOS: So, Katelyn, let me ask you this, because it's unlikely that President Trump is going to face prosecution as a sitting president, is
that correct? But all the other people that are implicated in this case could.
POLANTZ: That's very possible. We really don't know exactly what this prosecutor is going to do. There are a lot of legal questions, one of them
being, can someone who is holding the highest position of a public office in the United States face any prosecution at the state level or the federal
level while he is still in office? It doesn't necessarily mean, though, that if Trump can't, while he's the president, it doesn't mean that this
case goes away entirely.
It could just be put back on ice for several years until Trump is no longer the president. But there is a question, too, of whether the entire case
continues on.
[10:10:01]
Is there enough evidence there that Peter Skandalakis will review now and see from witness statements, from boxes of documents, from data that he
has, an eight terabyte hard drive, he says, to go through? Is there enough there where he will want to try and push this case forward in court,
whether it's against Trump or whether it's against Trump and all of the others as well, who have been charged?
GIOKOS: Katelyn Polantz, thank you so much for breaking that down for us. Good to see you.
I want to get back to our panel.
And, Julie, I want your reaction to this latest news, new prosecutor appointed to this case, Peter Skandalakis.
JULIE ROGINSKY, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, Maura touched on it. And I think this is actually the most salient part of this whole discussion,
which is that we are now living in a country where prosecutors and law enforcement officials are afraid to actually prosecute cases because
they're worried about the president of the United States using his office and his power to go after them. That is a banana republic, that is not a
democracy.
It's certainly not the world's oldest and greatest democracy. And so I would just go on to say that the saddest part of everything that we just
heard now is that Peter Skandalakis felt the need to take this case on himself because nobody else would do it, despite the fact that these people
are sworn law enforcement officers who have sworn to pursue justice irrespective of who it might compromise.
And so I think from that perspective, this is something for us to all think about. We now not only have a Justice Department at the federal level that
is using its power to go after the president's enemies and to shield his friends, we also now have prosecutors at the state level who are so
terrified of the president that despite the terabytes that they apparently have in evidence, despite the fact that we have recordings of the president
demanding that the secretary of state find votes for him that did not exist.
That despite all of that evidence, that any one of us would have been indicted on long ago, this president has been able to scare people out of
prosecuting him and his allies.
GIOKOS: OK, you know, the other big story that's playing out and something that's been really dominating over the last few days is, of course, the
release of the Epstein e-mails and the plethora of the tens of thousands of documents as well. And of course, now Speaker Mike Johnson getting that
dates closer to vote hopefully next week. There's a lot of Republicans that have signed up to the petition to see those released, and pressure is
mounting.
But as our previous reporter was saying that you need a veto proof majority so that President Trump doesn't veto this. So I just -- and Maura, I want
you to jump in here and tell me how you think this is going to play out once it hits the floor.
GILLESPIE: You know, I just, I think it will go through the House. It has the support there. I don't know that it has the majority proof support in
the Senate to overturn what would be an inevitable, you know, Trump veto. I don't know that it would even get through the Senate, to be honest. It
depends on what the public does. And if constituents call their senators on the Republican side, I would say, you know, and urge them, you know, speak
out about the need for transparency and the promises that were made to them during the campaign from the Trump administration themselves.
I mean, they were the ones pushing this so heavily. And I think from a voter perspective, I don't know that it's going to necessarily impact the
2026 election this issue alone. But I do think that this is the president's, you know, own making. This situation that he finds himself in
is because of the fact that it's been a trickle out of information and his own deflection tactics haven't worked because he was so reticent to even
provide information and to release documents and to release the full story.
I mean, he has -- let's just be honest here. Donald Trump has gotten away with far worse things over the course of his political career here in
America and he could have gotten through if he had been honest with his constituents. I think that their loyalty to him really has really shown us
that they will stand by him no matter what happens. And so I think this is his own making because he refused to be honest and transparent with the
people who got him in this position in the first place.
GIOKOS: Yes. So, so, Julie, you know, President Trump hasn't been accused of any wrongdoing. And of course, people are now saying that the details or
the evidence entailed in these documents could exonerate President Trump. If there's nothing to hide, why do you believe there's been so much
pushback from the White House to get these documents released?
ROGINSKY: You know, that's the -- that's the big question. And you're absolutely right. If President Trump has nothing to hide and if he believes
in holding people accountable who were responsible for trafficking young girls, if that person is not Donald Trump, then what is the harm in
releasing these files and creating justice? But the president has gone further than that. He has called the entire thing a hoax.
He's effectively saying that the women who he saw stand up on Capitol Hill just a few weeks ago and talk about how they were trafficked by Jeffrey
Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell and unnamed others are liars.
[10:15:01]
He has said consistently that the entire not just his involvement in this, but this is the Epstein hoax. Much like Russia, Russia, Russia, in his
mind, was a hoax. That, of course, was not a hoax either. And so what he's effectively saying is that all of the Republicans who promised for years
that when they got back into power, including his FBI director and deputy director, that those files would be released were part of some massive hoax
that he, Donald Trump, alone knows is a hoax.
I mean, that does not compute whatsoever. It's actually kind of laughable. And so I think what the president has to say, not to the American people,
because he clearly doesn't care so much about what they have to say, but to his own base is what information does he have that after all these years of
promising to release these files that are going to hold unnamed men and potentially women accountable for trafficking young girls, suddenly what
evidence does he have that constitutes this being a hoax?
Of course, he hasn't provided that. He simply is trying to kill this. He's doing everything possible. He's calling members of Congress to the
situation room to ask them not to release these files. None of this adds up, which I think is actually kind of very problematic for him and for the
rest of us.
GIOKOS: Yes. And important to note that the victims --
(CROSSTALK)
GILLESPIE: Anyone who questions it, he's calling them stupid people. So he's telling Republicans and his supporters that if they question him into
calling it a hoax, and they want -- if they are eager to pursue truth, that they are then stupid people. That's so damaging to the people that support
him, but also to Republicans in Congress, because then they're drawn into a situation where, do they decide to call their own constituents stupid or do
they stand by what they campaigned on, which is transparency?
GIOKOS: Look, we know that the victims are also calling for these files and these documents to be released in the public and time will tell. I think in
the next few days we'll have some kind of answer.
Julie and Maura, great to have you with us. Thank you so much.
ROGINSKY: Thank you.
GIOKOS: Right. The BBC has apologized to President Trump over an editing blunder in a documentary that aired in 2024. Mr. Trump's attorneys have
called the piece false and defamatory and threatened to sue for $1 billion. In the documentary sections of the speech the president made on January
6th, 2021, were misleading, stitched together. The BBC says it has no plans to rebroadcast the documentary, but is rejecting the claim that it was
defamatory.
CNN's Anna Cooban is following it all from London for us.
Anna, give me a sense of an update here because I think the story has really brought to light various things in terms of from the journalistic
perspective, but also how damaging it can be. Give me a sense of what's going on.
ANNA COOBAN, CNN BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, the BBC has apologized for this already. It refers to this as an error of judgment,
the splicing of the speech in the documentary. But yesterday, the BBC released a statement where it made it clear that the chairman of the BBC,
Samir Shah, issued a personal apology letter to the White House.
Now the BBC, interesting in its statement, made it very clear that it just simply does not agree, it strongly disagrees in fact, that the bar for
defamation has been reached. And Trump, as we know, has threatened this billion dollar lawsuit against the BBC. The BBC's legal team have laid out
the reasons as to why they just don't think this really cuts the mustard as a -- as a claim, as a legal claim. They say that firstly the documentary
was not broadcast in the United States.
They say that there was no intent, there was no intent to mislead. That it was simply an attempt to shorten a very long speech. And we know it's
notoriously difficult to prove intent in cases like this. And they also said that, contrary to Trump's assertion that his, you know, financial
reputational life was damaged, actually he was reelected as president of the United States just a matter of days after this was broadcast. So it's
difficult to say that he was materially impacted by this.
GIOKOS: All right. Anna Cooban, thank you so very much.
Still to come on CNN, thousands of parents and guardians of migrant kids are the new targets of ICE. And they're being arrested as part of the U.S.
immigration crackdown. A live report on this straight ahead. Stick with CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:21:17]
GIOKOS: CNN has learned the Trump administration is going after thousands of parents and guardians of migrant children. They are being arrested
suspected of paying for their kids to cross the border into the United States. And in some cases, agents have brought smuggling charges against
the adults, leaving their kids in limbo. And you can find more details of that CNN reporting online.
Now, some residents of the Chicago suburb are confronting Border Patrol agents who are in that city trying to round up undocumented immigrants.
Involved citizens are turning on cell phone cameras, blowing whistles and approaching agents in tense situations.
CNN's Shimon Prokupecz has the story for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): David Brooks captured this Border Patrol arrest on Halloween. Then came the real
horror.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sir, she is a citizen of the United States of America.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get back or I'm going to shoot you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're going to what? You're going to (EXPLETIVE DELETED) shoot me? Hey, hey! (EXPLETIVE DELETED) Damn! You're going to
(EXPLETIVE DELETED) shoot me? All right, tough guy.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Look again from another angle.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED) you, you piece of (EXPLETIVE DELETED). You piece of (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Border Patrol had just been involved in a crash. Cell phone video shows them taking a woman out of a red car and pinning her
to the ground.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey. Hey!
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): As a crowd gathered, Brooks filmed as people were detained, then stared down the barrel of an agent's gun.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get back!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shoot me?
PROKUPECZ: What was that like for you?
DAVID BROOKS, EVANSTON, ILLINOIS RESIDENT: Frightening, surprising, shocking. Nobody was threatening violence. There was a lot of yelling, a
lot of screaming. It was a charged situation, but I don't think it was anything that would warrant trying to control a crowd using a gun.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, don't put your hands on people.
PROKUPECZ: Here's how the Department of Homeland Security says things unfolded. That their Border Patrol agents were in an SUV and that they were
coming up this street, they were trying to make a U-turn here, and that's when the red car slammed into the back of the SUV. However, witnesses here
say that's not how things unfolded.
(Voice-over): They say the SUV driven by those Border Patrol agents purposely slammed on its brakes causing the crash. DHS says its vehicle was
being aggressively followed by the red car and called those who rushed to the scene agitated.
Their argument is, well, go mind your business.
BROOKS: The crowd was annoying. And you don't beat people up because they're annoying you. It's a protest.
AMANDA BROOKS, DAVID BROOKS' WIFE: Because we have a legal right to protest.
D. BROOKS: Yes.
A. BROOKS: We do not have a right to break the law, but we have a legal right to protest.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): From Border Patrol caravans through the streets, to spot checks of landscapers. Here, top Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino
(PH) walks the streets wearing a long gun. It's perceived intimidation these families say they're fighting.
The Brooks family is one of many families that is using their phone to keep an eye on where ICE could be here. And one of the things they tell us as
their concern is, is the presence of ICE outside schools like this.
MAYOR DANIEL BISS, EVANSTON, ILLINOIS: So on Halloween, I was communicating with the superintendent. They decided rightly to have indoor recess, to not
let kids out because it wasn't safe because of armed federal agents attacking people on the streets.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): When they spot immigration officers like here outside a Home Depot, they blow whistles to warn others.
SAVANNA ESSIG-FOX, CO-FOUNDER, PINK POSTER CLUB: We do three short whistles if we think we see ICE, and that helps to alert your neighbors.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Savanna Essig-Fox and Emily Miller started Pink Poster Club. They hang flyers with information on civil rights, and run a
grassroots network of residents keeping tabs on ICE.
[10:25:01]
Most are moms. We first met some of them in front of their local school.
A. BROOKS: My son, anytime one of his friends is not at school, he comes home and he says, I'm so afraid they took him away.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): When sirens go off, they check their text messages.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They say there might be a suspicious car.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Amanda Brooks runs to protect kids on the playground.
EMILY MILLER, CO-FOUNDER, PINK POSTER CLUB: People all over Chicago and Evanston hear a whistle, and they run to them with their phones ready to
film and to witness.
PROKUPECZ: Why is this an issue for you guys right now?
ESSIG-FOX: We have white skin. You know, we were born here. Like, we -- there's a level of privilege we have. We have comfortable lives here in
Evanston. Like, there is a safety that we have and that privilege we can use to do some good.
MILLER: In order for me to be able to enjoy my kids, and enjoy my other hobbies that I never do anymore, like reading or knitting or whatever. I
can't just pretend something's not happening and go about my life.
D. BROOKS: This is wrong. How can you live with yourself?
PROKUPECZ: Can we show your arm? Is that OK? Do you mind?
(Voice-over): Jennifer Moriarty shows us the bruises on her arm. Those she says she got while being detained during that confrontation on Halloween.
What was the point of you being at this scene?
JENNIFER MORIARTY, EVANSTON, ILLINOIS RESIDENT: It just happened in front of me. It just -- I was walking with my phone out like this, about ready to
hit record on the video, and then I was dropped on my back.
PROKUPECZ: Did you ever hit anyone?
MORIARTY: No.
PROKUPECZ: Did you ever threaten to hit anyone?
MORIARTY: No. No.
What is wrong with you? Why would you do this?
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): She shot this video from inside the car. Her hands coughed in the front. She was able to still keep her cell phone. She was
one of the three people detained that day. That's her leaning out of the vehicle as agents pinned down another person.
MORIARTY: They put us in the vehicle. They didn't frisk anybody. They didn't arrest us. They didn't Mirandize us. I had access to my phone in the
car.
Help us!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Help us, please!
MORIARTY: Open the door!
I'm surprised that they hurt the young man like they did, quite frankly.
PROKUPECZ: Was it hard to see, to sit there and see him like that?
MORIARTY: It was very hard to see. His left eye, it was super black, and it was getting very large. He was very distressed.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): DHS said that man grabbed the groin of one of the agents while being arrested, though that's not evident in the videos. The
man who was detained with Moriarty didn't want to talk to CNN. But in that video from inside the car, he said he didn't know what he did wrong.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was just trying to help. I didn't even do anything.
MORIARTY: Neither did I.
PROKUPECZ: How long did they hold you guys?
MORIARTY: Five hours. And most of that was driving around.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stupid mother (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
MORIARTY: Shut up, dude. You are shameful.
We were kidnapped. Absolutely. Absolutely. There was no arrest. It was as if to make an example, like no one is safe.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): The local mayor says all three were released without charges.
MORIARTY: I wasn't afraid. There was no fear for me that day. It was anger. But I'm also super enlightened and motivated by the people, the community.
I mean, that was a crowd of probably 70 percent women. And these men were out there pulling their guns and trying to mace people. They're afraid of
communities who are on alert.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PROKUPECZ (on-camera): And CNN reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and Border Patrol about the agent who pointed the gun twice at
protesters, and all of my e-mails were ignored. We also asked them about the allegations from Jennifer that she was kidnaped, and they also chose
not to answer any of those questions.
Back to you.
GIOKOS: Right. And still to come, deadly Russian strikes pound Kyiv, causing what the city's mayor describes as huge damage. A look at how the
people of Kyiv are recovering from the worst bombardment in weeks.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:31:14]
GIOKOS: Welcome back to CONNECT THE WORLD with me, Eleni Giokos. Here are your headlines.
The United States has announced a new military mission in Latin America dubbed Operation Southern Spear. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says it's
aimed at taking out drug traffickers, but it is raising fears the U.S. may be preparing for further military action against Venezuela.
Displaced families woke up to water rushing into their tents in Gaza City Friday after heavy rain overnight. Officials told journalists they have
received hundreds of pleas for help, but resources are nonexistent. Palestinians told CNN tents were collapsing under the weight of the rain.
Kyiv is reeling from what Ukraine described as a mass attack by Russia. Ukrainian officials say at least six people are dead and dozens injured
after a wave of drone and missile attacks. And they say residential apartments and a medical facility were damaged.
CNN senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman has more on the latest Russian assault on Ukraine's capital.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Flashes in the sky over Kyiv. It's another night of Russian bombardment. Ukrainian
air defenses managed to intercept most of the drones and missiles, but not all.
This strike, hitting the heart of the Ukrainian capital. Ukrainian officials say the strikes killed at least six people, wounding dozens.
"Peaceful residents live here," says Kyiv resident Anastasia Shevchenko. "There are no critical infrastructure facilities here. These are
residential neighborhoods, ordinary people, peaceful residents are suffering."
Officials say Russia fired almost 450 drones and missiles overnight, plunging parts of Kyiv and other areas into darkness.
"My front door was blown off," recalls Maria Kolchenko. "Flames were bursting out of there. I grabbed my dog and searched for the cats, but I
couldn't find them. I made my way out to the street through a hole."
The choice of targets is not accidental, says Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
VITALI KLITSCHKO, KYIV MAYOR: Kyiv, a symbol of Kyiv, a symbol of Ukraine. It's the heart of the country, and that's why, from the beginning of the
war, always Kyiv was and still target of Russia army, and especially before the winter.
WEDEMAN: Since August, after Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin met in Alaska, Russia has focused much of its fire on Ukraine's energy sector,
depriving Ukrainians of heat and power as winter approaches.
The fire, however, is going both ways. Ukraine launched hundreds of drones at targets in Russia. At a time when diplomatic efforts to end or even
pause this war have come to naught, the people on both sides are facing the prospect of a cold, brutal and bloody winter.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GIOKOS: All right, thanks to Ben Wedeman for that report.
I want to discuss now with Jaroslava Barbieri. She's a research fellow at the Ukraine Forum at Chatham House.
And great to see you. You know, there's so much going on, and I really want to talk about the new corruption allegations that have come to the fore
that include tens of millions of dollars, and that really encroached very close to President Zelenskyy's inner circle. And this is a lot of the aid
that was meant for the maintenance and the protection of energy infrastructure.
[10:35:08]
Please give me a sense of what is going on on the corruption front, because a lot of the people that have been accused have now fled the country.
JAROSLAVA BARBIERI, RESEARCH FELLOW, UKRAINE FORUM, CHATHAM HOUSE: Yes. Good to be with you. I mean, this corruption scandal couldn't come at a
worse time for President Zelenskyy because, as you rightly pointed out, the corruption scandal involves high level officials and the energy system. And
so this is a time in which Ukraine's critical energy infrastructure is coming under relentless attacks from the Russian army.
And therefore, Ukrainians are incredibly angry at the government because they are being plunged into darkness and cold ahead of the winter season.
And there is a widespread perception that the government has not done enough to stop these corruption schemes from expanding to begin with.
There's another side of the story with voices saying that despite the widespread anger actually the anti-corruption agencies remain independent
and quite effective.
GIOKOS: Yes. So I want to talk about those agencies actually because a few months ago, President Zelenskyy tried to sign into legislation that would
hand over more power to the prosecutor general that would basically control and reassign a lot of these corruption investigations. There were mass
protests in the streets of Ukraine at the time. He then backtracked that.
And I want you to talk to me about the timing of what we've seen frankly over the last few months and how this quite potentially could erode
confidence in President Zelenskyy's, you know, commitment to rooting out corruption.
BARBIERI: Yes, some voices in Ukraine have been trying to connect the dots and in a way interpreting that initial summer attempt to encroach on
independence of these anti-corruption agencies as an indication that the government might have understood that these agencies were closed onto
discovering some of these corruption schemes involving associates of President Zelenskyy's, primarily a businessman that co-owns the Kvartal 95
entertainment business that made Zelenskyy fame in his career before he entered politics.
And what's important to stress is that amongst those people, particularly young people that took to the streets back in the summer, there were people
holding these signs, such as, my father, my brother did not join the army for this. And so there was a widespread sense of indignity with a
perception that the government was attempting to reverse democratic progress that the country had managed to achieve despite resisting a full
scale war. So that public outcry it's quite understandable.
GIOKOS: You know, in the meantime, you're still seeing relentless strikes on Ukraine, various parts of Ukraine, strike on critical infrastructure and
so forth. And, you know, Ukraine relies obviously on a lot of its allies and aides -- and aid from its allies. Do you believe that the perception
could be shifting towards President Zelenskyy and his government? And do you think that it will reach a point where allies are asking the question
whether President Zelenskyy is the right man to lead them through this wartime period?
BARBIERI: This is a very delicate political questions. On the one hand, we have heard statements from the E.U. that have praised the effectiveness of
anti-corruption agencies probing into these corruption schemes. But on the other hand as we all know, during martial law, elections are not possible
to be held both due to legitimacy and logistical challenges. And therefore, Ukraine's international partners are trying to navigate this difficult
balance.
On the one hand trying to pressurize the Ukrainian government into upholding principles of democracy and rule of law. And on the other hand,
understanding that it's a country that is fighting a full scale war that has implications for wider European security and therefore any internal
political destabilization could really negatively impact the country's war fighting capacity. And so I think that Ukraine's Western partners are very
aware of this delicate moment.
GIOKOS: All right, Jaroslava Barbieri, thank you so very much for your time and your insights. Good to have you on the show.
[10:40:01]
And ahead on CONNECT THE WORLD, as concerns grow over A.I. in daily life, two state attorneys general are aiming to make big changes in the world of
A.I. regulation. We'll explain right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GIOKOS: The U.S. is sending signals it could ramp up operations against Venezuela even further. Late Thursday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
announced Operation Southern Spear, which he says is aimed at dealing with what he called narco-terrorists and ending drug trafficking.
It comes as the Trump administration has moved huge amounts of firepower into the region. And sources tell CNN that top U.S. Military officials
briefed President Trump on a range of options for military action inside Venezuela.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, appealing directly to the American people.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR (through translator): What is your message to the people of the United States, President?
NICOLAS MADURO, VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT (through translator): To unite for the peace of the continent. No more endless wars, no more unjust wars, no more
Libya, no more Afghanistan.
POZZEBON (through translator): Do you have a message for President Trump?
MADURO (through translator): My message is yes, peace. Yes, peace.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: Mr. Maduro was speaking directly to CNN's Stefano Pozzebon during a rally in Caracas yesterday.
Now we're watching the rising tensions in this region very closely, and we'll bring you developments as they happen.
And still ahead on the show, after two decades of waiting, the Grand Egyptian Museum, GEM for short, is now open in Cairo. I take a peek inside
straight ahead. Stay with CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:45:14]
GIOKOS: Welcome back. As A.I. is playing a greater part in everyday life, two state attorneys general are teaming up to try to bring some order to
the rapidly developing new technology, and they are setting out to create an A.I. task force. Their aim is to develop basic safeguards to prevent
harm to users and identify potential new risks. OpenAI and Microsoft have signed up with more state regulators and A.I. companies expected to follow.
CNN's tech reporter Clare Duffy joins us now.
Clare, good to see you. So there are -- there's no proper regulation from the U.S. government side. What is this task force hoping to change legally?
What is it going to mean?
CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Eleni. Well, this is going to be a goal of developing sort of recommended safeguards for the A.I. companies
to implement into their technology. And the point here is to bring together the developers who are building A.I. technology within the company.
So far, as you said, Microsoft and OpenAI have signed on with state attorneys general who are the top law enforcers within states to try to
develop these recommendations and, as you said, to keep track of emerging new risks as A.I. technology continues to develop, and to do this in a
bipartisan manner.
This task force is being convened by North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson and Utah Attorney General Derrick Brown. And they're doing this, as
you said, in light of the fact that Congress has done very little to put guardrails around this emerging technology. North Carolina Attorney General
Jeff Jackson told me that he doesn't have a lot of faith that Congress is going to move quickly to regulate A.I. technology.
Here's what he told me. He said, "They did nothing with respect to social media, nothing with respect to internet privacy, not even for kids.
Congress has left a vacuum, and I think it makes sense for AGs to try to fill it."
And of course, whatever they come up with here, whatever best practices will be voluntary for these tech companies. But another benefit to this
group, Jeff Jackson tells me, is that it will bring together state attorneys general to monitor what these tech companies are doing and
potentially take joint legal action if they think that A.I. systems are harming consumers -- Eleni.
GIOKOS: Yes, it's a really good point. I mean, the regulatory environment is super important around everything that we use, including social media,
like you say.
Clare Duffy, thank you so much.
So it took more than 20 years to get here, but the Grand Egyptian Museum was worth the wait. It is next level for sure. $1 billion next level. And
it sits near the pyramids in Cairo and houses some of the world's richest collections of antiquities.
I recently sat down with Ahmed Ghoneim. He is the museum's Ceo. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GIOKOS: Ahmed, great to be here.
AHMED GHONEIM, CEO, GRAND EGYPTIAN MUSEUM: Pleasure having you.
GIOKOS: I mean, this is so exciting. It's beyond exciting.
GHONEIM: It is exciting.
GIOKOS: So Grand Egyptian Museum finally opened, 20 years in the making, $1 billion later. It's an incredible investment. Incredible piece of
architecture. I want you to give me a snapshot, the experience of coming to this moment of opening up the museum.
GHONEIM: It started by an idea in the 1990s, and then the idea developed. In 2002 they decided to allocate a land, and then the journey started. It
started in different regards. One aspect was the finance, which was a big deal. And here came the Japanese with a soft loan. The other aspect was the
design and here came a competition open to all the world, where more than 50 architects applied for it.
And then came the operational part where the construction started, and then came the aspect of how to manage such a big thing. The largest museum in
the world in terms of size. And here came a contract with a private sector. And then came the opening. The final inauguration, which happened last
week, the 1st of November. And as you see, we're fully open now to the public.
GIOKOS: And you're expecting five million to seven million tourists to walk through these halls and doors.
GHONEIM: Within the range of the estimation because we reach the six million, seven million. We're expecting 15,000 to 20,000 per day, which
happened the last two days.
GIOKOS: OK. So 100,000 artifacts. This is the largest archeological site in the world focused on one civilization. And it is absolutely phenomenal to
see this in person. So take me through what it took to get all the artifacts together and consolidate.
GHONEIM: It's a long journey because it's not the idea of bringing artifacts. Egypt is full of artifacts and we're still finding new ones, but
the idea is to have a story behind everything. And there is a science called how to put the things together. So the difficulty is not in having
the artifacts at all. The difficulty is putting them together and making different stories, having different themes, having a narrative to say.
[10:50:09]
GIOKOS (voice-over): Priceless artifacts moved with the utmost of care. But the Grand Egyptian Museum is also about the entire Egyptian ecosystem.
GHONEIM: You're creating a new destination.
GIOKOS: Yes.
GHONEIM: It started by having a new airport, which is Sphinx Airport. It's very near here. And then the whole area is being planned to be a new
destination. So more hotels are being there, more recreational areas, more shopping areas, and the pyramids, which are two kilometers away. So the
idea is you have a GEM at the core and every -- the surrounding about it is very important.
And what we're providing here is an experience. It's not a visit. It's not a traditional visit to the museum. As you probably have seen, we're using a
lot of technology and that we believe that the Gen Z and alpha do not anymore read the normal labels that used to be, but they want more
interactive screens, virtual reality, mixed reality, which we're providing. We're having here a recreational area where you can shop and only things
related to Egyptian heritage.
GIOKOS (voice-over): Running around like a kid in a candy store and taking selfies, I ran into this beauty.
This is the Sphinx of King Marantha and Ramses the Second. Photo time.
So what's your favorite piece here?
GHONEIM: I'm always asked this, but besides, of course, King Tut collection, there are two pieces that are very close to me, to my heart.
The one is related to Queen Hatshepsut. There is the statue where she's more like a man, and the idea is that, is she a man or a woman? If you know
the story that at that time it was only men who can rule and then she came in and she wanted to show that she's powerful. So in order to be accepted
by the society, she made this statue as a man.
So that's one of the favorite pieces. The other one is related to one of the statues where you can see the eyes. He's a writer. At that time, the
writer was a very important job at that time, and the eyes are almost like real ones.
GIOKOS (voice-over): So I went to take a look and let's just say the eyes say it all.
Take a look at these eyes. These are the original eyeballs of the creator of this piece. I was told that if you take a selfie, then it would seem as
he's looking straight in the camera and I can verify that it's true.
(Voice-over): While Egypt treasures its remarkable past, the country is also moving boldly toward an inspiring future.
GHONEIM: This project showed one thing which is very important. All the people know that Egypt has a great civilization, and it has, I would say,
the best monuments and artifacts, but there was always this I would say fear, is Egypt ready to preserve those monuments? This is a testimony that
Egypt is able. We're not only capable in the past, but rather we're capable now and in the future.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GIOKOS: An incredible experience being in Cairo.
All right, so tonight's "Parting Shots" is all about MrBeast's big new venture, what he's calling the craziest thing he's ever done. You may know
the YouTube star from his outlandish videos of obstacle courses like challenges, where contestants compete for eye-watering cash prizes like
this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY DONALDSON, YOUTUBE STAR KNOWN AS MRBEAST: Behind me are 100 people, and they range from the age 1 all the way through age 100. And I've trapped
each of them in their very own glass cube. The last one to leave their cube is going to win half $1 million. The challenge has officially begun. Let's
see which age is the best.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: You have to go back to when he first started in 2015, he filed a time capsule message to his future self.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALDSON: Yes, as of right now, I'm enjoying YouTube. Hopefully I still, future me still enjoys it. And I don't know, I'd be crazy if I had some
ridiculous amount of subscribers.
At the time I'm recording this video, I have 8,000 subscribers and 1.8 million views, so whenever you see this, compare these numbers to whatever
I have when you watch this.
I really hope I have a million --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: And 10 years later he's racked up 450 million subscribers on his channel, more than anyone else in the world. And now he's bringing his
online antics to life in Saudi Arabia.
CNN's Bijan Hosseini has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BIJAN HOSSEINI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He's just opened a theme park. Check out this video he posted.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALDSON: This thing is the craziest thing I've ever done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOSSEINI: Visitors to Beast Land -- yes, that's what it's called -- can actually try real life challenges from MrBeast's YouTube videos. Some of
the games include launching balls from catapults, hidden trapdoors, and zipline drops, just to name a few.
DONALDSON: People ask me all the time, MrBeast, I want to compete in one of your videos. Well, now you can. This theme park is filled with some of the
craziest challenges and most insane prizes we have ever given away.
[10:55:01]
HOSSEINI: MrBeast, the most popular YouTuber on the planet, opened the theme park in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. When asked on X why he chose Saudi as a
location, he replied, "Middle of the world because a majority of my audience is outside America and we have a big Middle Eastern fan base.
Wanted to give them a chance to participate."
There are three different ticket tiers, starting at $7 and going all the way up to $66 for the top level called Beast Mode Plus. That includes
access to all of the games, rides, and challenges. Park is only open for a limited amount of time through December 27th, and it's part of Riyadh
season. It's the country's annual entertainment and tourism festival, which brings concerts, pop up attractions and massive celebrity events to the
capital.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GIOKOS: Fascinating story. Big thank you to Bijan Hosseini there for covering that for us.
And thank you to you for joining us for this edition of CONNECT THE WORLD. I'm Eleni Giokos. I hope you have a fantastic weekend, but stick with CNN,
"ONE WORLD" is up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
