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Leaders Gather in Dubai to Consider Future of Government; Spanish PM on How EU is Handling New Global Market Realities; Russia Resumes Strikes on Ukraine After Brief Pause; Iran's Top Diplomat Hopeful for Negotiations with U.S.; Petro in Washington to Meet Trump After Months of Tensions. Aired 9-9:45a ET
Aired February 03, 2026 - 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)
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST, CONNECT THE WORLD: I'm Becky Anderson, live in Dubai, where it is 06:00 in the evening, from a region already on edge, a
stark warning from one of its most senior voices. UAE Presidential Advisor Anwar Gargash says the Middle East simply cannot afford a U.S.-Iran war.
Gargash speaking here at the annual World Governments Summit. In the coming hours in Washington, Colombia's President is visiting the White House. It
is an apparent attempt to bury the hatchet after tempers flared last year over mass U.S. deportations and America's drug crisis.
And as Europe feels the effects of America First policies, the leaders we've spoken to are calling for their continent to step up its game. And
with that, I'm joined by Richard Quest this evening here at World Governments Summit. It's a bit of a mouthful that isn't WGS, we call it --
RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Yeah --
ANDERSON: It does feel like we're somewhat of a sort of pivot point as far as sort of geopolitics and world affairs are concerned. And this follows
Davos, of course, where you are, were just a few weeks ago when Donald Trump, you know, outwardly fought with the Europeans.
It does feel as if world leaders, and certainly those who are gathered here, and there are many of them are beginning to, or certainly trying to
learn to adjust to what is a seeming sort of Trump led world order.
QUEST: It is. The rules of the game have changed. Carney made that clear. Macron accepted it, talking about imperial. And everybody is now working
out where they stand, including the Gulf, of course, in this new environment, because the Gulf not only has to visa vis the United States,
but visa vis Europe.
And so, you get Europe now saying, well, we need to ramp up our defense. Pedro Sanchez, the Spanish Prime Minister, was here. And we were talking
about exactly that question, the clarion call that more needs to be done, and particularly when it comes to European defense spending.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PEDRO SANCHEZ, SPANISH PRIME MINISTER: I think that Europe needs to change from being a consumer of security to a security provider. And what does it
mean? That means that we need to invest in our own security and defense industry. And that means that what we need to do is to spend this 2 percent
of our GDP in European Union defense.
That is why I was telling you before that that the most challenging goal for the European Union is to strengthen the European Union pillar of
nature.
QUEST: Finally, on that point, President Lagarde said this is the biggest wakeup call that Europe's had.
SANCHEZ: Yes. I --
QUEST: Everybody signs on to that. Everybody agrees with that, but typical Europe, sir, typical Europe getting from the call to the action to the
execution, that's the problem.
SANCHEZ: -- delivering -- but we are delivering. Let me say that what we need to do in European Union is first of all to deepen our single market,
and at the same time, what we need to do is to open ourselves to other markets. And what we did was to finalize a very positive trade agreement
with Mercosur.
We are close to finalize a very positive trade agreement with India, and afterwards will come other free trade agreements with Malaysia and other
regions of South Asia. So, I think that we are doing our homework. Perhaps we need to do it faster, but I think that this is the correct path to
follow for the European Union in the coming years.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: This is fascinating. A little earlier, I talked to Estonia's President about Ukraine's President Zelenskyy's complaints at Davos that
Europe talks a lot about standing up to Russian aggression without actually doing anything. And I asked him if Europe is stuck in a proverbial doom
loop as the war drags on. Richard, here is here's what he told me.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALAR KARIS, ESTONIAN PRESIDENT: Europe has done a lot, but you have to realize that to have been a bit naive all these 30 or more years and Berlin
Wall fell down.
[09:05:00]
So -- everything, all the wars are over and peace is present forever in Europe. That means we were not ready to this kind of war again. So, we had
to build up our defense. We put 5 percent on defense these days, and encourage also other European countries to do the same.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: I mean, it's fascinating, isn't it? And you rightly point out we're here in Dubai.
QUEST: Yeah.
ANDERSON: This region needs to work out how to sort of choreograph its own moves around all of this, you know.
QUEST: Totally. So, what they're doing instead is, we've all reverting to business. They're reverting to doing deals absolutely transactional.
ANDERSON: -- right.
QUEST: But actually, if they -- because they do have strategic direction, they don't know where to put it, they love Europe to show greater
leadership. Everybody you talk to in senior positions here, of course, the Gulf says, yeah, we wish Europe will get its act together.
But as you know, Europe's best answer to all of this is some Euro fudge, some muddle along and hope it'll all come together, which is why the IMF
Managing Director is going to tell Europe in no uncertain terms, come on, get your --
ANDERSON: I mean, I'm no defender of Donald Trump. It's not my job to be a defender of Donald Trump by any stretch of the imagination, nor am I. We're
not doing this job. However, in his defense, he would say he also wants Europe to be more together and a stronger entity.
QUEST: They exactly. He would like to spend more, and they're prepared to do it. He'd like them to have more responsibility for their own defense,
and they're prepared to do it up to a point, but they have no mechanisms for really dealing with crisis quickly. Oh, they'll tell you, they do, and
they'll trot out some nonsense of this procedure or that procedure.
But the reality is, the commission, the council, the parliament, the 27 countries, the inability to move rapidly, which they see as a strength, has
now been shown to be its biggest week.
ANDERSON: And it's funny, because when you talk to people anywhere else in the world, including here, this, why has Europe been asleep at the wheel?
For exactly that reason, they don't feel that they've been asleep. It is. Well, certainly has been no strategy. All right. It's good to have you.
QUEST: Lovely weather coming from New York.
ANDERSON: It's always good to have you in the UAE.
QUEST: Thank you.
ANDERSON: Richard, thank you. Russia has resumed its nightly strikes on Ukraine in what Ukrainian officials are calling the biggest missile and
drone attack so far this year. Russia had briefly paused attacks after what the Kremlin called a personal request from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Ukrainian officials say the latest strikes left tens of thousands of people without power and heat in the midst of a bitter cold snap. They come just
before Russia, Ukraine and the U.S. hold another round of trilateral talks, starting tomorrow, here in the UAE, in Abu Dhabi.
Well, Iran is set to be on the agenda as U.S. Envoy Steve Witkoff meets Israel's Prime Minister later. That's according to two Israeli officials.
The meeting will also include the Head of Mossad and the IDF Chief of Staff. On Friday, Witkoff is expected to meet Iran's Foreign Minister in
Istanbul, along with Jared Kushner for talks on a potential nuclear deal.
And here's some news, regional allies have, it seems, certainly reportedly been invited. They are scrambling to find a diplomatic solution to avert
U.S. military action against Iran. Nic Robertson is following developments from Jerusalem. You wouldn't want to be Steve Witkoff this week dealing
with the Gaza file, the Ukraine, Russia file, here in the UAE, and then, of course, on two talks on U.S.-Iran on Friday in Istanbul.
What a week he is having? I just wonder what Israel's message to Witkoff today is as this region gears up for these very rare and very significant
U.S.-Iran talks in Turkey on Friday.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yeah, it's going to be a very serious message, because Israel believes that Iran still poses a
threat, that Iran is weak at the moment, and that if the United States was to have a military intervention in Iran, then that could get the results
that Israel wants regionally, what the Israeli Prime Minister and the Head of Mossad, David Barnea and Eyal Zamir, the Chief of Staff of the IDF, who,
incidentally, was in the United States meeting with Pentagon officials over the weekend.
What they're likely to say to Steve Witkoff will be. There are four things that we want. We want Iran to stop its nuclear enrichment. We want its
enrichment stockpiles to be taken out of Iran.
[09:10:00]
We want it to desist making long range ballistic missiles, missiles that can and have hit Israel in the past. And we want it to cut off its support
for regional proxies like Hezbollah, like Hamas, like the Houthis in Yemen. So that will be on their list. And they will go into this meeting having
listened to the sort of diplomatic messaging that's coming out of Iran at the moment.
And they will have, of course, had an opportunity to hear our Fred Pleitgen's interview with the foreign minister. And it's the foreign
minister who Witkoff will be meeting with the Iranian Foreign Minister in Turkey over the week on Friday. And in that meeting, he said that he
believed that a fair and equitable agreement could be reached on Iran's, you know, the claim about Iran wanting to make nuclear weapons.
But when our Fred Pleitgen asked him about those ballistic missiles and about support for proxies, he said, let's not try to do something that's
impossible and miss the opportunity of a fair and equitable deal on the nuclear file. So, there will obviously be that concern for the Israelis
that Trump's representatives in that meeting might be, might not get deliverables on all the things that Israel wants, and might be distracted
by the Iranians only going down the nuclear avenue.
And by the way, at the moment, they don't appear to be enriching because obviously the strikes last summer prevented that, and in the 2015 deal with
Iran. Iran offshored all its enriched uranium. That could be a possibility again. So, there could be a deliverable on that track, but not on what
Israel wants as well, Becky.
ANDERSON: I just want our viewers to hear from Anwar Gargash, a senior diplomatic figure in this region. He is the advisor to the president here
in the UAE, and this is what he had to say earlier.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANWAR GARGASH, DIPLOMATIC ADVISER TO UAE PRESIDENT: I think that the region has gone through various, various calamitous confrontations. I don't think
we need another one, but I would like to see direct, Iranian, American negotiations leading to understandings that we don't have these issues
every other day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: If you read between the lines what Dr. Gargash was saying there was, you know, there needs to be some sort of sort of final deal hashed
out. And around this region that would include ballistic missiles, proxies. One assumes, the deal, back in the day, the 2015 deal, which wasn't
discussed with the Gulf didn't include those elements, of course.
And wasn't sufficient as far as this region is concerned. I am interested that these regional allies of the United States are being invited to these
talks on Friday. Again, 2015 it was all about P5+1, but there looks like there's different framework to this, more of an Arab, Islamic sort of
gathering here, sort of somewhat reflective of the board of peace, perhaps, that Donald Trump has put together.
I wonder how you read what is going on here, because Iran, for a very long time, has been seen as an existential threat for this region.
ROBERTSON: Yeah, and I think the very fact that the talks are being held in Turkey, if we think back to the nuclear talks, the JCPOA nuclear talks with
Iran, the U.S. was holding that culminated in that deal in 2015 they were held in Austria, Vienna, which was the home of the International Atomic
Energy Agency, of course, and held in Switzerland.
Here they're being held in Turkey. And as you say, the UAE, the Saudis, the Qataris, the Pakistanis and others from this region will be represented at
the talks. And I think it sets the table at those talks, for the talks to not only have a regional component, but be in a bigger framework that would
be harder to abrogate and step out of those talks and get into military action.
But as you say, all these countries in the region worry about Iran's threats from its ballistic missiles. And Iran has made very clear, if it
was to be struck militarily, then it would shoot back at the United States allies in the region. And what this region wants most of all at the moment
is to turn a corner to an economic prosperity that doesn't have the threat of war hanging over its head.
You know, you look at the Abraham Accords that Israel and the UAE have at the moment. It's all about the economy. You look about, you look at what
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is trying to do in Saudi Arabia and the region, and his diplomatic rapprochement over the past few years with Iran,
it's about economic stability. And that's the engine of growth for this region.
[09:15:00]
And all of that is threatened, and Iran is seeing as the seat of that threat, because when it comes under pressure, it threatens back. It uses
its proxies. It has a history of that, or it threatens, as it has done this time, missile strikes. So, to get it all done, the Iranians are signaling
that's not going to happen in one easy go.
They are do seem to be indicating that something can be achieved in a short term on the nuclear file. So where is everyone going to stand? And
particularly, how is President Trump going to take this when the Iranians are potentially dangling the offer here of look, you can get this nuclear
file done.
That you could call that a win, but it won't be a win for the region, because the problem will continue to exist, and history has shown that.
ANDERSON: Nic, it's good to have you. Thank you very much indeed. Nic is in Jerusalem, where the time is 04:15, 06:15 here in Abu Dhabi, it is 09:15
a.m. in Washington. And after a year of soaring tensions, Colombia's Leader Gustavo Petro and Donald Trump are making what seems to be an attempt to
put a bit bitter feud behind them.
The two are set to meet in Washington today, following months of insults, accusations and threats. On Monday, Trump said he was looking forward to
meeting his opposite number.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: He's been very nice over the last month or two. He was certainly critical before that, but
somehow, after the Venezuelan raid, he became very nice. He changed his attitude very much. So no, I look forward to seeing him.
He's coming in. We're going to be talking about drugs, because tremendous amounts of drugs come out of his country. And I look forward to see we're
going to have a good meeting.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: CNN Contributor Stefano Pozzebon is live for us from Colombia's capital. And just get us up to speed on the tensions of last year and why
Petro and Trump do appear to be turning a new leaf?
STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, Becky, well, it's turning the page. And frankly, it's talking about the soaring tensions across the last year.
Is really tuning it down. Think, for example, Becky, that the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, is traveling to Washington -- was travel to
Washington the day before yesterday on a temporary visa because the United States canceled his visa and accused Petro of being personally involved
with narco-trafficking.
That happened in October when Petro was added to the OFAC Clinton lease, that is a lease that was created in the 1990s to list out the leaders who
are not doing enough to stem the flows of drug trafficking, which seems to be the number one topic on the agenda from both Petro and President Trump,
the two countries have tried to mend the bumpy relationship between the two leaders.
And especially in the last month, just like the president said publicly in the last month, since that dramatic strike in Caracas to take out Nicolas
Maduro. There's been a lot of behind the scene work from people both in Colombia and up there in Washington, that gives reasons for hope.
And Petro was also looking forward to this meeting the last time he spoke to journalists a couple of days ago. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GUSTAVO PETRO, COLUMBIAN PRESIDENT: We have many reasons to reach a deal for life across the Americas, hopefully all over the world and hopefully in
Colombia, which is the most important thing. Well, hopefully good news.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
POZZEBON: So, on the background that is the strong relationship that unites Washington, or the United States, and Colombia, traditionally the strongest
ally that the North American superpower has here in the region. Think, for example, Becky, that according to the American Colombia Chamber of
Commerce, more than 30 percent of everything that Colombia exports go up towards the United States.
That is oil, for example, coffee, chocolate, raw materials, timber from the Amazon. So, a lot of trade is going on between these two countries. And of
course, that is also the other big topic that the two leaders want to talk about, especially from Petro's point of view, is protecting Colombian
exports from the tariffs that Trump has threatened all around the world in the last 12 months.
The big elephant in the room, however, Becky, is the fact that Petro is actually at the end of his mandate. He will give up the presidency in
August. Colombia will elect a new leader between May and June. We have a two rounds election here in this country, and Petro cannot compete himself,
but will also try to preserve his legacy as the first left wing leader in the history of this country.
[09:20:00]
Whether is able to do that with the conservative leader that is Donald Trump, remains a question to be asked, but at least hours before the
meeting, the mood is of cautious optimism here in Bogota. Thank you.
ANDERSON: Good to have you there -- from Bogota in Colombia. I'm Becky Anderson, live for you with "Connect the World" from Dubai this evening.
Still to come, President Donald Trump is pushing the Republican Party to overhaul the election system in the United States. We are following
reaction for you, after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We want to take over. We should take over the voting in at least many, 15 places the Republicans ought to nationalize the voting -- We have
states that are so crooked and they're counting votes. We have states that I won, that Joe I didn't win.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, that is U.S. President Donald Trump in a podcast interview calling on Republicans to nationalize voting in the United States as mid-
term elections, of course, draw closer this year. Right now, elections are run by state and local officials, with the federal government playing only
a limited role, but Mr. Trump wants the Republican Party to overhaul the system.
CNN's Alayna Treene following this story for us. Alayna, what does Trump actually mean here? You read between the lines for us, if you will, on why
Donald Trump is suggesting, quote, nationalizing voting.
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah. Look, I'm not sure that this is very much a serious proposal from the president. And you know from my
conversations with officials, they're saying don't read too much in to comments that he has made on a podcast.
But I think there's been a through line through a lot of what we've seen the president, particularly during his second term. You know what his
vision is when it comes to the integrity of elections in the United States? There's no question, of course, that he continues to rail both publicly and
privately, that he still believes that he won the 2020 election, despite, of course, that just not being true.
Joe Biden won the 2020 election, but we're seeing him in a series of moves that his administration has been making throughout his second term, kind of
try and seize on those grievances to exert some level of control on the election process in the United States.
One of the ways we've seen that is what we saw last week when the FBI seized ballots and other voting records from 2020 in Fulton County,
Georgia, at their election center. We saw the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, on the ground with them. They even placed a
call to President Trump himself.
We've seen that in other ways as well. The Justice Department has demanded that several states, including in Minnesota, turn over their full voter
rolls as the Trump Administration tries to build a national voter file. We also the president last year, signed an executive order trying to impose a
more stringent guidelines for who is able to vote in elections, though much of that has been rebuffed by the courts.
[09:25:00]
Look, I also think the motive here and the timing of these comments is, of course, very notable as well, just months now, until the November midterm
elections. Elections that will be very much crucial to the future of the president's, you know, the remainder, really, of his second term, if
Republicans lose power in either the House or the Senate, or potentially both, that would spell a lot of trouble for the president in trying to get
through the remainder of his goal.
But I do want to emphasize, once again, Becky, the importance of how, what he was suggesting in those comments on this podcast are illegal.
Essentially, it would require a changing of the Constitution in order to nationalize elections. That's something we heard the Senate Minority Leader
Chuck Schumer emphasize on the floor yesterday. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Does Donald Trump need a copy of the Constitution? What he's saying is outlandishly illegal. Once again, the
president is talking no differently than a dictator wants elections in America to be as legitimate as elections in countries like Venezuela.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TREENE: Now, Becky, look, I think at the end of the day, this is likely not to happen because of what Schumer just said, that it would change. It would
need a required change to the Constitution order to do this. I will also say Republicans on Capitol Hill, the ones who are actually going to be on
the ballot in couple months in November, they don't want to be talking about this.
They want to be focused on the issues that they believe and the rhetoric they believe that will help them in November, talking about pricing, what
they have done with legislation to help the affordability crisis in the United States, not necessarily continuing to cast doubt on the integrity of
the U.S. election process, Becky.
ANDERSON: Before I let you go, can you just briefly explain this Tulsi Gabbard push for votes in Georgia?
TREENE: Yeah. I mean, I think it raised a lot of eyebrows about what exactly they were doing. I should note that this was an FBI operation. The
FBI falls on the Justice Department. Tulsi Gabbard is the Director of National Intelligence. We actually heard the Deputy Attorney General Todd
Blanche, in recent days, said he didn't really know what she was doing in Georgia.
We later heard from Gabbard herself that she was asked to go on that operation by the president himself. But essentially what we saw happen was
FBI agents went to Fulton County, Georgia. I would note that as a place, of course, where the president, President Trump and other Republicans had
argued was a key place rife with fraud during the 2020 election, unproven claims, I should add.
But they see some of the voting records, and this is kind of another step of this administration, kind of relitigating what happened in the 2020
election, six years ago now.
ANDERSON: It's good to have you. Thank you. That's the story in Washington. We are going to take a very short break. Back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:30:00]
ANDERSON: Well, that is Oracle today. Members of the team there ringing the bell on Wall Street. It is 09:30 there. I'm Becky Anderson in Dubai, where
the time is 06:30 in the evening. You are watching "Connect the World" live from the World Governments Summit here in Dubai.
Let's see how stocks are getting on at the open. We'll let those tech and S&P market just settle a little bit. But the DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL average
pretty much sort of unmoved. Not clear whether that's volumes or that's investors. There we go. Investors, steering clear for the time being, we'll
watch those markets and see where they are headed.
Well, a raid has been carried out at the France offices of Elon Musk's social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, of course. It's part of
an investigation opened in January last year by Paris prosecutors and their cyber-crimes unit. Both Musk and Former X Chief Executive Linda Yaccarino
have been summoned to appear at hearings in April.
X employees are also expected to be questioned as witnesses. Now, this investigation initially focused on suspected abuse of algorithms and has
been broadened to include Grok's sexualized deepfake. CNN's Melissa Bell has more for you from Paris.
MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That probe was then expanded last summer to look into these allegations of sexualized images
that have been at the center of such scrutiny of X over the course of the last few months. Allegations that sexualized images deepfakes were being
circulated holocaust denial as a result of the use of the Grok chatbot on the platform.
Now, at the time of the expansion of that probe, we'd heard from X saying that this was an expansion that was politically motivated in denying any of
these allegations. This is also, by the way, already the subject of a number of other probes from the European Commission, the Ofcom regulator in
the United Kingdom, as for the French one, we've been hearing from the Paris prosecutors that the raids were as a result of this investigation.
They're also calling on Elon Musk to appear voluntarily before their inquiry later this spring. And for the time being, Paris prosecutors say
will be communicating with us via LinkedIn, Instagram, no longer through X.
ANDERSON: Melissa Bell in Paris. Let's get you up to speed on some of the other stories that we are following for you right now. And the U.S.
Congress appears to be close to ending what is a partial government shutdown after lobbying by President Trump and Republican leaders.
Hold outs in the House look to be ready to support the bipartisan spending bill that has already passed the Senate. GOP leaders can only afford to
lose a single Republican vote if Democrats in the House all oppose the bill. All Homeland Security officers on the ground in Minneapolis will now
wear body cameras after Secretary Kristi Noem announced an immediate rollout.
The move follows fatal shootings involving DHS offices and mounting pressure from critics of the administration's immigration operations. Well
police say they believe the mother of "Today" show anchor, Savannah Guthrie was abducted from her home in Tucson, Arizona.
Nancy Guthrie was last seen on Saturday night. Authorities have her phone and describe the circumstances of her disappearance as suspicious. The
sheriff says evidence indicates that she was taken against her will. Well last week's release of more than 3 million pages of material from the
Epstein files is raising more questions about people connected to the late sex offender.
It's also raising new criticism of the Justice Department for errors in their release. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche acknowledges that
mistakes were made in the latest release. The DOJ failed to properly redact some victim's information which was then posted online.
The department says they have now removed all documents identified by survivors or their lawyers. President Trump initially resisted bipartisan
pressure to release those files. Now he says that the Justice Department needs to move on.
[09:35:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I have nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein and in fact, if you look at the DOJ, they announced, you know, they released 3 million pages. It's
like, this is all they're supposed to be doing. And frankly, the DOJ, I think, should just say we have other things to do, because that whole thing
has turned out.
I mean, other than Bill Clinton, you know, Bill Gates and lots of people that have, there are a lot of questions about it, but nothing on me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, CNN's Tom Foreman has more on Mr. Trump's claims and other prominent people who appear in this latest batch of files. Have a look at
this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TRUMP: I didn't see it myself, but I was told by some very important people that not only does it absolve me, it's the opposite of what people were
hoping.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The newly released documents do contain a list compiled last year by the FBI of unproven allegations
that President Donald Trump committed sexual assault, including one woman saying he raped her when she was just 13.
That same woman sued Trump in 2016 over the claims, but dropped the lawsuit shortly after bringing them. In another section, one of Jeffrey Epstein's
victims says Ghislaine Maxwell presented her to Trump at a party. When asked about this, the White House points to a Justice Department statement
that the files may include quote, fake or false submitted images, documents or videos. And Trump has always denied such allegations.
TODD BLANCHE, DEPUTY U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: In July, the Department of Justice said that we had reviewed the files, quote, Epstein files, and
there was nothing in there that allowed us to prosecute anybody.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Still, the files have put a number of high-profile people in an unwanted spotlight. A series of photos appears to show Former
British Prince Andrew kneeling by a woman or girl on the floor. There is no context, and CNN's requests for comment were not immediately answered.
Billionaire Elon Musk has previously said he refused an invitation to Epstein's Island. The documents suggest he wanted to be there for the
wildest party. After the release, Musk posted, I have never been to any Epstein parties ever, and have many times called for the prosecution of
those who have committed crimes with Epstein.
Howard Lutnick Trump's Secretary of Commerce, said he and his wife decided to cut ties with Epstein two decades ago.
HOWARD LUTNICK, U.S. COMMERCE SECRETARY: My wife and I decided that I will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Yet, the documents point to at least a couple of attempts to socialize with Epstein after that. The Commerce Department says
Secretary Lutnick had limited interactions with Mr. Epstein in the presence of his wife, and has never been accused of wrongdoing.
Another one-time, Top Trump Adviser Steve Bannon appears in the files at times, mocking the president. And the famous names go on, though, notably,
many show no links to any potential illegality. Dinner invitations for Woody Allen, Martha Stewart and Katie Couric, who said here, I know you're
not a foodie, but the lasagna was rocking.
Billionaire Richard Branson, New York Giants Owner Steve Tisch were mentioned. And so is Brett Ratner, seen in a photo on a sofa with Epstein
and some young women. He's the director of that new Melania Trump film. The new release brought at least one fresh controversy too.
"The New York Times" raised the possibility that the Justice Department had released nearly 40 unredacted images showing both nude bodies and the faces
of the people portrayed, noting the people in the photos appeared to be young.
FOREMAN: Soon after informing the Justice Department of this, "The Times" said officials have largely removed or redacted the images, and the DOJ
says it's working around the clock to address any victim concerns and additional redactions, which raises a subject many skeptics still want
better explained.
What exactly were the Department of Justice rules for all of these redactions, specifically, and could there be other information the public
ought to know hiding behind those redactions or in the documents we haven't yet been able to sift through. Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Right, we will take a very quick break. You're watching "Connect the World" with me Becky Anderson, tonight from Dubai. Back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:40:00]
ANDERSON: Right. I want to get you some "World Sport", of course, back end of this week will be the start of the Winter Olympics. The opening ceremony
will be on Friday. But the pressing question for many, at least certainly those watching from the States, is whether or not American ski star Lindsey
Vonn will be competing after her crash last week. Patrick Snell joins me and he has more, Pat.
PATRICK SNELL, CNN WORLD SPORT: Hi there. Becky. Yeah, we're waiting to find out, and we should know a whole lot more from Lindsey Vonn herself, a
2010 Olympic gold medalist, in around just under 20 minutes from right now, she's expected to face reporters and give us an update following those
really concerning scenes that we witnessed on Friday, Becky.
In Switzerland, when she crashed and suffered a knee injury, she had to be air lifted to hospital to be checked out, she would go on social media
later on Friday, posting an update that offered some hope, at least to her fans, declaring her Olympics were not over. So that was what she was saying
on Friday.
We're expecting to learn a whole lot more, all being well, but she's a remarkable story, having come back to the sport and now at 41 years of age
following her retirement in 2019, but this is a really big storyline, especially over here in the United States.
ANDERSON: Yeah.
SNELL: I will stay across it all for you. Back to you, Becky.
ANDERSON: Yeah, it's amazing. I've just been sort of nodding sagely as you've been going through just how remarkable a comeback this has been, and
if she makes it for the Olympics. I mean, that will really be, you know, the icing on the cake for her. Pat, thank you for that.
Patrick Snell, with your "World Sport" coming up after this. I will be back in about 15 minutes time in the second hour of "Connect the World" from the
World Governments Summit tonight here in Dubai. Stay with us.
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