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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson

Trump Kicks Off Seven-Day Campaign Blitz in Kansas; Trump Open to Trilateral Meeting with Putin, Xi; Former City Employee Injured During California ICE Incident; Kenyan Cult Leader Found Guilty of Murdering 190 Children; French Government Works to Restore Order After Widespread Rioting; Migrants Sent from U.S. to Equatorial Guinea Complain of Abuse; Economy Driving Gen Z U.S. Army Enlistment Surge. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired October 20, 2026 - 00:00   ET

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

[00:00:31]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to THE STORY IS. I'm Erica Hill in for Elex Michaelson tonight.

Coming up, THE STORY IS a dark vision. President Trump warning voters that radical Democrats would destroy the golden age of America if his party doesn't win the upcoming midterms. And he's using the rise in France to stoke those fears.

THE STORY IS diplomacy or war alliances. President Trump says he's open to meeting with the leaders of China and Russia to end the war in Ukraine. A former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine joins me to discuss what that trilateral meet-up could actually achieve.

And THE STORY IS far from home. CNN speaks with migrants deported from the U.S. to Equatorial Guinea. We'll take a look at the harsh conditions they say they're facing.

We are now just two weeks away from the midterm elections here in the U.S.. Democrats bullish on their chances of securing majorities in both the House and the Senate. Despite his record low approval ratings, President Trump is actually stepping up his campaign blitz this week with plans to visit seven states in the next seven days. Among those stops, both North and South Carolina, Iowa, Florida, Georgia, and Michigan.

No one thought the Senate seat from Kansas would be in play at this point. But with polls showing the incumbent, Roger Marshall, now locked in a tight race with Adam Hamilton, President Trump making a stop in Kansas on Monday urging Republicans to vote for Marshall while offering this take on Marshall's Democratic challenger.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He's not for us. He's not. He doesn't have our views. He doesn't have our values. And he happens to be, other than being a pastor, he's a pastor, I guess, but he doesn't act like a pastor because his views aren't of a pastor. Adam Hamilton wants to take away your guns. So with Roger Marshall in the Senate and me as your president, we will always protect your Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Early voting is now underway in eight additional states, including Alaska, Florida, and Colorado. In Texas, you see pictures here from McKinney, Texas, voters lining up to cast their ballots in the marquee race for Senate between Republican Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico. The state has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since Lloyd Bentsen in 1988.

Joining me now, Ron Brownstein, CNN senior political analyst and a Bloomberg opinion columnist.

Ron, always good to talk to you. Let's stick with Kansas for a moment, if we could. So we see the president there today. Adam Hamilton telling Jake Tapper earlier he is happy to have the president there stumping for Marshall. He thinks it will only help him. There are Republicans who are also concerned that that could, in fact, be the outcome.

Is this a smart move for the president?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: First of all, too bad I couldn't tell you about being at Lloyd Bentsen's ranch in 1988, the last year a Democrat was elected senator in Texas. But maybe we'll get back to that later.

Look, I mean, this is -- the president's trip to Kansas is a perfect encapsulation of the challenge facing every Republican Senate candidate or incumbent in one of these red states. I mean, you know, the Senate battlefield is almost entirely in states that voted for Donald Trump. Susan Collins is the only Republican Democrats are targeting in a state that voted for Kamala Harris. In fact, she's the only one left.

Republican Senator Roy Cooper and in North Carolina, a state Trump won narrowly, everything else, Erica, on the battlefield is a state that Trump won by double digits in 2024. So, you know, it is not irrational for Republicans in those states to hope that Trump can turn out some of the Republican voters who are dissatisfied with the way things are going in his second term and are now showing less enthusiasm about voting.

There is a pool of Republican voters available to them in that states. The problem they have is that in all, virtually all or probably all of those states that are in play, Trump's approval is now under 50 percent even though he won 55 percent of the vote or more. And that means Republicans face the risk that for every additional GOP voter now on the sidelines that the president might turn out with a visit like this, he alienates one of those independent or soft Republican voters who are now disenchanted with his second term.

[00:05:00] It's a tightrope they have to walk. But on balance, I think they have clearly concluded that it is a better bet than facing the potential of a significant turnout differential in these final weeks.

HILL: And we know how the president feels. He wants people to pretend he is on the ballot. He believes, right? He is the one who can, in fact, turn out the vote enough to make sure that those states don't flip. When we look at Kansas, though, Kansas was recently added to CNN's map, right, when we look at seats likely to flip, making it a grand total of 10 here, it's fascinating as we see all of this play out, and especially as you hear from people on the ground and hearing from the voters their reaction to, right, to the incumbent Senator Marshall, and then what they see in Adam Hamilton, who is a more recent Democrat.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Well, you know, look, I think, you know, most -- consultants in both parties believe that the voters who are left to move in these final weeks either to switch between candidates or to vote or not, which in some ways is more important now in determining who is a swing voter, the voters that are left tend to be red state voters who are right of center, who normally vote Republican, but who now disapprove of Trump's second term on a whole variety of fronts.

The tariffs, the war, the health care cuts, the self-enrichment, the focus on his personal obsessions, but who are also receptive to the kind of arguments that he made tonight that, you know, you don't want what a Democratic majority Senate is going to give you. So how do those voters sort out in these final days? Do they -- do some of them hold their nose and vote for Democrats? Do some of them hold their nose and vote for Republicans, or do a lot of them in the end simply not vote?

I mean, the answer to that question will decide whether this is a good night or a very good night in November for Democrats.

HILL: Yes, absolutely. It's who sits it out. And it's also a question of, and Kansas may be a good example of this, is this even when it comes to the candidates, right, is it anti-Trump or is it pro- Hamilton? In this case we're talking specifically about the Senate. There's been so much made of early voting. I am very leery of anybody who says that they can tell exactly what's going to happen from early voting because we all should be.

That being said, the turnout numbers, is there anything that we can look to in those numbers?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Well, it turned out the early turnout seems to be high, right, I mean, relative to this point in 2022. You know, most political strategists do not believe this will be a massive turnout election because the image of each party is so weak. You know, in 2018, Democrats benefited from a huge surge of new voters into the electorate. I think people would be surprised to see that repeated this year.

And really, the question is, whose vote falls off more from 2024? I mean, the evidence is that the extent there are new voters, they will be voting majority Democrat. I mean, Trump's approval among people who did not vote in '24 is pretty miserable. But, I mean, the -- you know, midterm turnout is much lower than in the presidential. And right now, the risk, as I said before, is that Republicans face a differential, what they what they call a differential turnout or a turnout gap, and that their voters fall off more than Democratic voters.

Part of the reason for that is that Democrats now do better, especially in the Trump era, among college educated voters. And it's not talked about much, but college educated voters consistently are about three to five points more of the total electorate in a midterm than they are in the preceding presidential. And that is going to be a thumb on the scale for Democrats in a place like Kansas or Texas or Ohio or Iowa, really, all these places where you see a very sharp divide between Trump's absolute cratering among college educated voters and decline, but still retaining significant support among those non-college white voters.

HILL: Ron Brownstein, always great to talk to you. Thank you.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.

HILL: President Trump says he is open to having a trilateral meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. He says they would talk about denuclearization. A U.S. official says President Trump also believes this meeting could advance efforts to end the war in Ukraine. That official says the talks were proposed by Putin earlier this month. And notably, these talks would not include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Here's what Mr. Trump had to say about a possible meeting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I would do it. Not so much for Ukraine because Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine. They haven't been doing much. And the same thing with China. If we would have it, we'd talk about nuclear weapons.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Would you meet with President Xi and Putin to discuss the end of the war without Zelenskyy there?

TRUMP: Well, I would meet in order -- anything I can do to end the war, whether somebody is there or not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[00:10:01]

HILL: Despite Donald Trump's comments and recent actions, a bipartisan group of lawmakers hosted a video call with Zelenskyy on Monday, and they made clear Congress is committed to standing with Ukraine. President Trump has sparked bipartisan backlash after reaching a deal with Russia to allow diesel exports and also waiving Russia related sanctions.

Joining me now is Steven Pifer, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. He's also an affiliate of the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University.

Ambassador Pifer, nice to talk to you again tonight. When we look at where things stand, the president, you heard him there. He would do anything he could, I'm paraphrasing, to end the war in Ukraine. In terms of a potential meeting with Trump, Putin and Xi, no Zelenskyy, that could include a discussion of how to end the war in Ukraine, what do you actually see coming out of that trilateral?

STEVEN PIFER, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE: Nothing very useful, Erica. I mean, look at the three players. You know, Trump -- I'm sorry. Putin is one of the warring parties. He continues to pursue the fight on the battlefield and the Kremlin spokesperson has said that the Russian position in negotiations has not changed since 2024.

Then you have President Xi of China. China has been very much helping the Russians with industrial supplies and components for weapons. And Xi has more influence with Putin than anybody else on the planet. And there's nothing to suggest that in the last four and a half years that Xi has used that that influence to try to persuade Putin to end the war.

And then you have Mr. Trump, who's been cutting back to -- assistance to Ukraine and now seems to be siding with Russia. So who's going to be at that table who will speak for Ukraine? It's unlikely to produce anything that's going to move the ball forward.

HILL: When we look at where things stand, as I noted, there was a bipartisan call earlier today with President Zelenskyy. Senator Thom Tillis spoke with my colleague Erin Burnett earlier tonight, talked about that call, and also had these stark words when it comes to President Trump and his interactions with President Putin. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): Putin is lying. Putin is playing President Trump like a fiddle. And history is not going to look good on an America that failed to rise up and defend the Western world if Putin actually gets his way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Putin is playing President Trump like a fiddle. It's interesting to hear the senator say that, especially in light of President Trump saying maybe it's time for Zelenskyy to get somebody else to negotiate here.

If you had to assess the relationship and the chances of ending this war right now, today versus even 18 months ago, which was that blow up in the Oval Office, is it worse today you think this relationship?

PIFER: I think the tragedy of the last 19 months, Erica, is that Mr. Trump had significant leverage he could use to put pressure on Russia to negotiate seriously. He could close sanctions loopholes. He could invoke the sanctions that were voted through in the Lindsey Graham Sanctions Bill, which he on Friday waived. He could work with the Europeans to move to seize Russian frozen central bank assets.

If he wanted to send Putin a message, he could asked Congress for $10 billion in assistance for Ukraine. He could do all these things to try to pressure Putin to change because you've had a situation where the Ukrainians have indicated now for about a year, they're prepared to make serious compromises to end the war. They're not prepared to give away the store. But there's been no change on the Russian side, and Mr. Trump's failure to put pressure on Putin is basically undermining his entire effort to mediate a solution. And that's why it's failing.

HILL: One of the things on the Russian side that hasn't changed, of course, is that Russia does not want to see Ukraine join NATO. Not that Russia has a say in that. Vice President Vance disagreed today with that, saying that he doesn't want to see Ukraine join NATO. He was also asked whether Ukraine is an ally of the United States, and he declined to answer that question, to say or declined to say whether Ukraine was an ally.

Is there at this point a way for this war to end without support from the United States?

PIFER: I think you have seen Europe step up in a very major way to fill in the gaps. I mean, remember, during the Biden administration, the United States was providing $30 billion to $40 billion a year in assistance to Ukraine. Europe is now providing all of that assistance for Ukraine.

And I think the Ukrainians, while they would like to keep the United States onside, they're hopeful that the United States will still be a partner and be supportive, I believe that in Kyiv, they're now beginning to think, well, what if Mr. Trump keeps going on this course, which is going to mean very little assistance, very little intelligence sharing from the United States, that's going to make the Ukrainian effort on the battlefield much more difficult.

[00:15:07]

But the Ukrainians have shown the world now, for 19 months, they're resilient. I believe they'll continue to fight on because they see this war as existential. They believe that if they lose, the Ukraine that they want to have is gone.

HILL: Steven Pifer, really good to have your insight tonight. Thank you so much.

PIFER: Thank you.

HILL: Elon Musk says he is going to give a SpaceX share to every child in America. However, it's important to note there's no clarity here on how those shares will be distributed, nor whether all American children would even be eligible. Data shows there are roughly 73 million people under the age of 18 right now in the United States. That would make Musk's potential giveaway worth nearly $11 billion at SpaceX's current share price.

Anthropic made a similar announcement on Sunday. Both offers come as A.I. companies are facing increasing backlash, of course, over the safety of their products.

Still ahead this hour, a congressman demanding answers after a witness says ICE agents nearly ran over and tased a Southern California man. Plus, a Kenyan cult leader is convicted of murdering 190 children by using forced fasting and promises of meeting Jesus. More of those disturbing details ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:20:54]

HILL: A California congressman is now calling for an investigation after a former Long Beach City employee was injured during an encounter with federal immigration agents. A witness telling CNN he saw agents use a taser on the man and break the man's arm.

Here's CNN's Leigh Waldman with the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LEIGH WALDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A lot of questions remain about what led up to a former Long Beach City employee being detained and his arm broken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents over the weekend in California. We have surveillance video from the moments leading up to a video. I'm sure you've seen at this point online, you can see a man on an e-bike turning down a street as an unmarked SUV is driving the wrong way down the street.

You see agents getting out of that vehicle very quickly, going over to the side where the man's e-bike was and where he was. Now, we don't know, based on this video, if the bike and the SUV collided. But witnesses, including Gonzalez's own daughter, said that the two did in fact collide and that he was injured in that.

We have another new video. This video shows the moment a masked ICE agent points what appears to be a yellow taser at Gonzalez. The camera turns away before we're able to see if Gonzalez was in fact tasered. But we heard from witnesses who say that he was in fact tasered. You can see that altercation where Gonzalez ends up on the ground and those agents are on top of him.

In another video, he says his arm is broken and he asks for some help. We know Long Beach Police, they showed up here after being called not only by Gonzalez but also by those ICE agents as well. The ICE agents asking for medical assistance and reporting that a vehicle was vandalized. We know Long Beach Police took Gonzalez to a nearby fire station to have those handcuffs removed. He was then taken to a hospital for treatment.

ICE agents followed them to that fire station. They were asked to leave and we're told they can file a vandalism report by calling the department there. A lot of questions remain, though, about what exactly led up to this interaction between Gonzalez and those ICE agents. We've heard from the former Long Beach mayor and current representative, Robert Garcia, who said he believes that Gonzalez is a citizen and that is something his family is stating as well. Leigh Waldman, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: Officials in Bend, Oregon, are investigating the motive behind the deadly school shooting carried out by a 16-year-old former student. A senior law enforcement official telling CNN the teenager, who was fatally shot by a parent at the school, used a Maverick 88 pump action, 12-gauge shotgun that had been purchased by his mother.

Oregon law prohibits minors from buying shotguns, but it does allow them to possess the weapons for hunting, target practice or shooting sports. It is unclear whether the mother will be facing charges here. Parents of school shooters in Georgia and Michigan have faced prosecution in similar cases.

Students at Silver Rail Elementary are not yet back in school. The community, of course, mourning the four victims in that tragic shooting. The shooter opened fire in a special needs classroom on Thursday, killing three students and a teacher. Authorities say the teenager had previously attended special needs classes at that same school, but they could not confirm whether he had been a student in that particular classroom.

The leader of a Christian cult in Kenya found guilty of the murder of 190 children and one adult. Paul Mackenzie was convicted, along with about 30 other suspects, on Monday. Authorities started digging up bodies in a forest in eastern Kenya in April of 2023. So far, they have recovered 429 bodies. So it is possible that there could be further charges. McKenzie and his co-accused will be handed their sentence November 6th.

CNN's Larry Madowo has more now from Nairobi.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This case is horrific one.

[00:25:02]

A former taxi driver who declared himself a preacher and launched a TV station that reached people across the country and on social media and YouTube as well, convincing hundreds of parents to starve their children to death. And the Kenyan court now deciding that it was in fact a cult and that he had a hierarchy of death, children first and then teens, and then women, and then finally men.

And he is charged with the murder of 191 people, all but one children. But in the end, they found more than 400 bodies in this vast forest in Shakahola. That's near the Kenyan coast. This is the moment after eight hours where the verdict came down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DIANA KAVEDZA-MOCHACHE, KENYA HIGH COURT JUDGE: Paul Mackenzie convicted on all 191 counts of murder. (END VIDEO CLIP)

MADOWO: That is the leader of that starvation cult. But he, his other 29 co-accused, who are leaders of this cult, were also found guilty. Under Kenyan law they can be sentenced to life in prison. They could be sentenced to death, though Kenya has not carried out an execution since 1987, or they could serve long prison sentences.

The judge recounted gruesome details of how these children were made to starve, and some siblings were forced to celebrate the killings of their siblings. And the judge went into great detail about why this has the hallmarks of crimes against humanity, talking about the scale of the deaths, the duration, the targeting of the civilian population, the organization of this cult.

And some of these children who were not starved to death were suffocated. They were strangled. They were beaten with blunt objects. And some witnesses in this long trial said that the pastor told him, Paul Mackenzie, that they would be going to heaven with kicks and blows if necessary. But they had to do that, and they were buried in shallow graves, which sped up the pace of decomposition so that they could not be found.

And they had enforcers in the community, within that cult, who made sure that police, the media, that no one in the neighboring community knew what was happening. And that is why, in the end, more than 400 bodies found. There are families still missing loved ones, and one of the most heartbreaking, in one family they lost six children, all under the age of 17.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: Still ahead this hour, France is grappling with its worst rioting in years after widespread anti-government protests turned violent.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Torrential rains triggering dangerous flooding across Eastern Spain, killing at least three people and forcing thousands more to evacuate.

[00:32:18]

More than two feet of rain has fallen since Saturday, most of it in just 24 hours. The downpour has submerged roads and cut off several towns.

Spain's weather service calls it the region's most significant rainfall event in nearly four decades.

France is working to restore order after the country's worst rioting in years erupted over the weekend. Officials imposed curfews in several cities on Monday night, including parts of Paris. Those curfews were lifted earlier this hour. France's interior minister acknowledged police were unprepared and

lost control of the protests and offered to resign. President Emmanuel Macron, however, refused to accept his resignation -- that resignation.

At least two people were killed, thousands more arrested over the weekend.

The unrest, of course, began last month with students who were initially protesting poor school conditions and a shortage of teachers and staff. Those demonstrations, though, have spiraled in many areas into violent anti-government riots, fueled by anger over the cost of living.

President Donald Trump claimed at a campaign rally that the U.S. could actually face similar unrest if Democrats win November's midterm elections.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: If you want to see what is at stake in this election, just look at what's happening in France, a once great nation that is being conquered, looted, and burned to the ground by migrants, jihadists, and communists who hate Christianity.

And they hate, frankly, the Western civilization itself. They despise everything about France, and they're destroying that country. And we're not going to let that happen to this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Joining me now is CNN European affairs commentator Dominic Thomas.

Dominic, good to have you with us.

In addition to those comments that we just heard at this rally in Kansas from President Trump, he also claimed that these demonstrations had nothing to do with schools, that this was all solely about immigration.

Can you just level set for us how we got here in France?

DOMINIC THOMAS, CNN EUROPEAN AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Yes. I mean, first of all, I can't just ignore what President Trump said, because there are two reasons for that.

First of all, it's not accurate. This has absolutely nothing to do with migrants. It might have something to do with inequities in society, in the ways in which ethnic minorities and other underprivileged groups are treated, but it has nothing to do with that.

What's disturbing about what he also said is that essentially, Emmanuel Macron, in his address to the nation last night, used President Trump's playbook by targeting and singling out what he called as the ultra-left, which we know is a code name for the far- left political party run by Jean-Luc Melenchon and known as LFI, that is polling very well and represents a real threat to President Macron's party, making it through to the runoff stages.

[00:35:03]

Where we got here, essentially, we need to go all the way back to 2018, shortly after Emmanuel Macron was elected, when the Yellow Vests took to the streets, to talk about grievances around the question of cost of living.

And the fact is that under Emmanuel Macron's presidency, these situations have worsened, with attacks on cost of living through government budget cuts, cuts to social services, and essentially ignoring the education system.

So, we have a kind of coming together here of what we might call an intersectional range of issues that have brought people to the street, beginning in this case with school-age children and now burgeoning into a broader social movement that is shining a light on the failings of Emmanuel Macron's presidency as we head into general elections next April.

HILL: And part of what has people concerned, when we talk about cost of living, is this massive deficit, as well, that we're seeing in France and questions about what needs to change, what can change moving forward.

We are seeing candidates. Emmanuel Macron has about six months left in office. We're seeing candidates really seize on this.

From the far right, we're certainly seeing the National Rally Party, which of course is the party of Marine Le Pen.

In all of this, are there ideas, solutions that are being presented that will actually deal with the issues in France, cost of living and, as you point out, the inequities?

I mean, in some of these schools, they didn't have enough chairs. There weren't enough teachers. there were real, real issues.

THOMAS: Yes. The problem is ultimately that this latest round of demonstrations -- because let's face it, with pension reform, we saw them -- brings together a whole range of issues that really ultimately have to do with very different visions for France: one of them with a robust education system, social services system and so on that thrives also at the same time in the global economy. And it is true that they have failed to reconcile those two.

Having said that, Emmanuel Macron was elected in 2017 and 2022 after having only 20-plus percentage points in the first round, as a way to block, essentially, the far right. And that happened again in 2022.

What we see now, Erica, is actually, the right is 100 percent certain to make it through to the runoff stages. The question will be who will be there alongside them. And interestingly enough, President Macron has turned this situation

around, which is ultimately of his making, by now targeting the far left that he sees as the pathway to perhaps having one of his candidates there.

This, of course, has upset people, because this debate, the question of law and order, the police response and so on and so forth, have actually further boosted support for Marine Le Pen's far right.

Now, this situation is also why Emmanuel Macron is being blamed for this. It's of his own making. When he came to power, he ran a movement that essentially absorbed the center-right and the center-left, and this created this three-way system, which is reflected in Parliament, that did not give him a legislative majority in 2022 and has made it very difficult for him to then govern, which has exacerbated these particular problems.

He's created this center and, at the same time, a far right and a far left. And they've been more concerned with attacking each other than anybody legitimately coming up with real solutions that are anything beyond the simple rhetoric of fear, which is the sort of language of President Trump around immigration, around identity, around nationalism, and so on and so forth.

And in the meantime, questions that have to do with the future of youth, of A.I., of the job market, of climate change, have been relegated to the background. And that's what we see these young people, who are living in this present with climate change, global warming, lack of job opportunity, trying to talk about a future which will be theirs -- Erica.

HILL: Yes. And it is not likely that we're going to see an end to these protests and these demonstrations. Labor unions set to join them, as well, next, next month. There will certainly be much for us to continue the discussion.

Dominic, appreciate it. Thank you.

CNN's chief international anchor, Christiane Amanpour, is leaving this network after 43 years. Christiane making that announcement today, saying she plans to scale back her program to once a week beginning in January. She'll sign off for the final time in June.

Christiane has established a reputation as a fearless international correspondent, covering the first Gulf War, the Bosnian War, refugee crises around the globe. She has been an inspiration to so many of us here at CNN. She is a tireless advocate for the truth.

You've often heard her say, wisely, be truthful, not neutral.

CNN Chairman Mark Thompson praised Amanpour as one of the most trusted and beloved journalists anywhere.

Jon Stewart announcing plans to stay with "The Daily Show" through the next presidential election. He plans to continue hosting the show on Comedy Central once a week. [00:40:03]

That announcement coming as late-night television, of course, has been facing cutbacks, including the cancellation of Stephen Colbert's show. He signed off in May.

This is also one of the first major programing decisions from Skydance since its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, which is, of course, the parent company of CNN and Comedy Central.

Still ahead here, migrants removed from the U.S., sent to nations where they have no ties whatsoever. And now, we're hearing their stories.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:45:13]

HILL: Welcome back to THE STORY IS. I'm Erica Hill. Let's take a look at today's top stories.

President Trump offering his condolences to the community of Wichita, Kansas. Two people were killed in Wichita on Saturday, including a six-year-old boy, when a pickup truck sped onto a youth soccer field.

The driver, a 34-year-old woman, has been released pending toxicology tests and an examination of the vehicle.

U.S. President [SIC] J.D. Vance won't say whether Ukraine is an ally of the U.S., only that the two countries are, quote, "certainly a partner in some ways."

His comments coming during an interview in which Vance also said he doesn't support Ukraine's entry into NATO, a long-held goal of Vladimir Zelenskyy.

The Trump administration has recently distanced itself from Ukraine, allowing Russia to export diesel and waiving Russia-related sanctions before they were set to go into effect.

Sources tell CNN the U.S. secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, traveled to Israel in an unannounced trip just days before the country's elections.

Hegseth met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz on Monday evening. Representatives from the United Arab Emirates were also at one of those meetings.

The Pentagon has declined to comment on the trip.

Tens of thousands of migrants deported from the U.S. to African countries, nations where they have no ties, and some of those migrants, we're learning, have been subjected -- who've been subjected to the so-called third-country deportations, are reporting abuse, threats, and harsh detention conditions. CNN's Rafael Romo spoke with migrants who were sent to Malabo, an

island that's part of Equatorial Guinea, where they remain now under house arrest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everyone is in fear for their life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's like this never-ending roller coaster of disaster.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yesterday I had a panic attack.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is like the hotel from Hell.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These are the voices of people who say they're living in agony.

ROMO: And what happens if they find out that you're talking to me?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, I will be put in prison.

ROMO (voice-over): They are migrants deported from the United States to Equatorial Guinea, a Spanish-speaking country on the west coast of Africa, plagued by corruption, poverty, and repression, according to Human Rights Watch.

More than 20 migrants are under house arrest at a hotel in the city of Malabo, the country's former capital and oldest city.

ROMO: What can you tell me about your detention conditions there?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The officers have the keys to your door. And as a woman, my fear every night is that an officer is going to come in and do the worst. The worst could be done to me.

ROMO (voice-over): The Trump administration launched third-country deportations last year as part of its crackdown on immigration.

According to Third-Country Deportation Watch, a monitoring and advocacy project, the U.S. has signed third-country deportation agreements with at least 35 countries, sending more than 25,000 migrants to those nations at a cost of over $49 million to American taxpayers.

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Part of securing our border is dealing with the people that are in this country unlawfully, many of whom do not want to go back to the country that they originally came from for a variety of reasons; meaning these are safe countries where individuals who refuse to go back to their country of origin can be sent to that country instead.

ROMO: Several of those countries, including South Sudan, Rwanda, and Equatorial Guinea, are either at war or have checkered human rights records that worry migrant rights advocates. ALEXANDRA SMOLYAR, IMMIGRATION ATTORNEY: Many of the people who are in

Equatorial Guinea have refugee protections, which means that they can't be deported back to their country of origin.

ROMO (voice-over): Alexandra Smolyar is an immigration attorney with Asian Americans Advancing Justice, an Atlanta-based nonprofit legal and advocacy organization that has been in touch with the migrants in Equatorial Guinea and legally represents some of them.

She says more than 20 migrants under house arrest in Malabo have been subjected to all kinds of abuse, including beatings and imprisonment.

SMOLYAR: They are constantly patrolled by armed guards under threat. Oftentimes, they have violence leveraged against them in the form of threats, beatings. It's a very dangerous and dire situation.

ROMO: It seems like police in Equatorial Guinea are trying to send a message.

SMOLYAR: It seems that way. It seems that they really are trying to stop anyone from speaking out about what's happening to them.

ROMO (voice-over): CNN managed to speak to two of the migrants, who asked us to protect their identities for fear of retaliation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I literally witnessed one of the guards grab (NAME DELETED) by the neck, and lift him up against the wall, and shove them down on the ground.

ROMO (voice-over): One of the migrants says he witnessed how guards suddenly stormed into a room one night, handcuffed several of them, and beat up one man.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That really was almost like the welcome-to-Hotel- Barry moment for me, because I realized in that moment that any one of us, at any given moment, can be harmed.

[00:50:08]

ROMO (voice-over): CNN reached the government of Equatorial Guinea about the allegations, but so far there has been no reply.

SMOLYAR: I think that I would underscore how truly inhumane these third-country deportation agreements are.

This is all part of a broader detention and deportation agenda that's being pushed throughout the country right now that is subjecting people to a lot of fear and a very real risk of arrest and detention and possible deportation to a country that they may have no ties to.

ROMO (voice-over): After a federal court in Boston temporarily halted third-country deportations, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to resume them in late September, without giving migrants an opportunity to raise human rights concerns.

The court said it would hear arguments in the case in December. Rafael Romo, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: Gen Z is boosting military recruitment numbers in the U.S. Ahead, a closer look at why they're so eager to enlist.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:55:51]

HILL: The Tampa Bay Rays headed to the World Series, beating the Cleveland Guardians 7 to 3 in game six of the American League championship series.

This will be the Rays' third trip to the World Series. They lost to the Dodgers in 2020 and to the Phillies back in 2008.

The National League champion Brewers, of course, is who they will be facing, set for Friday in Milwaukee.

The U.S. Army meeting its recruiting goal for the third year in a row with a little help from Gen Z. CNN's Julia Vargas Jones met with a group of young recruits and sends us this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No college debt in the military.

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's all over military corners of TikTok and Instagram: video after video making the case for the armed forces as the ultimate financial life hack.

The pitch seems to be working.

At an air show in Huntington Beach, California, Army recruiters make their case to Gen Z.

SGT. MATTHEW PAYNE, U.S. ARMY RECRUITER: They're eager to join. They want to know the opportunities and the benefits that the Army has to offer. I speak from personal experience and how I benefited through education benefits, financial benefits, and stuff like bonuses and all that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ready?

Go!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Aye, sir. Sorry, sir.

JONES: These are aspiring Marines. They are very young, squarely Gen Z, 18 to 27 years old. And this is the last time they're able to do a fitness test before they're shipped out to boot camp.

LUCY CAZARES, MARINE RECRUIT: I'm 19. I'm in the DEP program, Delayed Entry Program. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go. Let's go.

JONES (voice-over): Lucy Cazares was about to ship off to basic training. She says she still wants an education. What she doesn't want is to end up in debt.

CAZARES: I didn't want to waste my time just waiting around or just doing school, ending up in debt or anything. So, with everything that's going on globally, economic -- like, gas is expensive, and I love driving my car.

So, it does have a big role to play, because I do not like the idea of being hungry for money.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Time!

JONES (voice-over): Salvador Vargas grew up in Oxnard, California, and graduated high school in the spring.

SALVADOR VARGAS, MARINE RECRUIT: My first option was definitely college. There was talks about veterinary, maybe law enforcement. And I just saw that a lot of our people are going to be taking up debt from a lot of their careers. And whether that's college. And I saw that the military pays for that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go.

JONES (voice-over): Vargas and Cazares are part of a larger trend. With college tuition on the rise and U.S. job growth slowing sharply over the last year, it's much harder for recent graduates to land a job.

Across all branches, Gen Z is helping boost military recruitment numbers to levels not seen in 15 years, according to the Department of Defense.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, Sergeant!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, Sergeant!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, Sergeant!

JONES (voice-over): But money is only part of the appeal. For some recruits, the draw is harder to put a price on: for Gen Z, to have real-life interactions with others. Purpose and meaning offline.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not really the benefits of why I'm joining. It's just to be with, like, a brotherhood.

JONES (voice-over): Julia Vargas Jones, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: The new documentary about disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes is sparking Oscar buzz following its impressive box office debut. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've never been suspicious that she's ever lied to you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. Never.

GRAPHIC: If you think you know everything, think again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You still have this weird feeling that there's some things that I'm not seeing.

ELIZABETH HOLMES, FOUNDER, THERANOS: Because I don't have anything to hide.

GRAPHIC: "Shape-shifting."

"An out-and-out masterpiece."

"One hell of a ride."

"Nothing can prepare you."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know what you're feeling.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, you don't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: "You Can See Everything" made more than $15 million in its opening weekend in a very limited release. That's the biggest box office debut for a non-music documentary since "Fahrenheit 9/11" back in 2004.

The project was worked on in secret for years, following Holmes and her partner in the weeks before she went to prison in 2023 for defrauding investors.

Some critics believe this could be the first documentary to be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars.

Turning now to a night of fashion and luxury at the Victoria's Secret fashion show, bringing out all the glitz and glam in Los Angeles on Sunday.

Kylie Jenner flying a bit higher than the rest of the angels, modeling the.