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The Global Brief with Bianca Nobilo
Liz Truss To Be UK's New Prime Minister; Zelenskyy Says Southern Counteroffensive Making Progress; Israel Releases Findings On Abu Akleh Killing. Aired 5-5:30p ET
Aired September 05, 2022 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[17:00:41]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Britain now knows who it will be. It's no surprise that it's illustrates.
LIZ TRUSS, INCOMING BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I campaigned as a conservative, and I will govern as a conservative.
BIANCA NOBILO, CNN HOST: It's a real poison chalice that Liz Truss is going to inherit.
ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: People want to see a quick solution to what is a crisis in terms of the cost of living.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO: Hello and welcome to a special edition of THE GLOBAL BRIEF. I'm Bianca Nobilo live from the UK Houses of Parliament, where the sun is
setting on Boris Johnson's leadership.
Liz Truss is now expected to be sworn in as prime minister tomorrow. The British Conservative Party have made their choice, electing Liz Truss to
lead the party and the nation as it faces economic and social hardship. Her tenure as prime minister starts tomorrow, on Tuesday.
Boris Johnson will resign and the Queen will invite Truss to form a new government. Trust is promising to start in a strong footing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUSS: I will deliver a bold plan to cut taxes, and grow our economy. I will deliver on the energy crisis, dealing with people's energy bills, but
also dealing with the long term issues we have on energy supply.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO: But her victory over rival Rishi Sunak, was narrower than many conservatives on Liz Truss' side had hoped for, meaning that she may not
have a much latitude to see some of the policies she vowed to in her campaign.
Now, Liz Truss has a huge job on her hands. First let's look at our politics have changed over the years, and what the UK can expect from her
now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NOBILO (voice-over): Britain's new prime minister is an ambitious political chameleon.
TRUSS: I know that we will deliver. We will deliver. We will deliver.
NOBILO: Liz Truss' unlikely ascendance complete. Her leadership campaign got off to a shaky start, she couldn't even find the door. Notoriously
gaffe-prone.
TRUSS: We import two thirds of our cheese -- that is a disgrace.
NOBILO: Tactless about British's closest allies.
MODERATOR: President Macron, friend or foe?
TRUSS: The jury is out.
NOBILO: And mocked by Russia's foreign minister
SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): It seems like we listen but don't hear.
NOBILO: The former foreign secretary was widely considered to be less informed and less willing to be scrutinized then her rivals, Rishi Sunak,
but that did not stop her because she was not appealing to the wider British public. One of two candidates selected by Tory lawmakers, Truss was
ultimately choices by less than 1 percent of the British electorate, a slither of the conservative base, older, whiter, and more right-wing than
the average voter.
She played a blinder.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Enough already.
NOBILO: Promising a hard line on immigration and tax cuts to a party drifting further to the right. Channeling their hero, Margaret Thatcher,
even dressing like her.
Like half of Britain's the prime minister's, she studied here at Oxford University, but back then she was a liberal Democrat activists in favor of
legalizing cannabis and abolishing the monarchy.
TRUSS: Abolish them, we've had enough!
NOBILO: Now, she is the darling of the right-wing of Britain's conservatives, the pro-monarchy party of law and order, quite the 180. And
when it comes to Britain's biggest political question of the last decade, she supported remaining in the E.U., only to emerge as a born again
Brexiteer, and the U-turns continued.
Before graduating 1996 with a degree in politics, philosophy, and economics, Liz Truss campaigned alongside Neil Fawcett for two years.
NEIL FAWCETT, LIBERAL DEMOCRAT COUNCILOR & FORMER TRUSS COLLEAGUE: She always seemed to be very ambitious, and sometimes you thought her main name
was to impress people. She wasn't playing to the gallery. She would say what needed to be said to win the popularity among some people she was in
front of at the time.
NOBILO: Do you feel like she does have substance?
FAWCETT: I couldn't tell you what she actually believes.
NOBILO: Her supporters say flexibility, and independence of mind, and boldness.
CHRIS SKIDMORE, BRITISH CONSERVATIVE MP: She doesn't take no for an answer, she said, and I've seen that as a minister myself. In private, you
know, she can be direct, but she is also very warm and I think that is indeed her to many MPs.
[17:05:06]
NOBILO: Truss inherits a nightmare, war in Europe, abiding cost of living crisis, the country brace for a winter of potential blackouts and fuel
poverty. Britain's desperately hoping that she will leverage that ambition and adaptability to rise to the challenge.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NOBILO: CNN's Nina dos Santos is with me. She spent most of the day in Downing Street. And Zoe Williams, columnist for "The Guardian" joins us as
well.
Nina, let's talk start with you can you walk us through the scale of the economic challenge that Liz Truss faces?
NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's unprecedented. We'll have to go to it straight away. There's no room for any honeymoon period -- not just
between the conservative party members, of course, who supported her more, has to be said, than her members of parliament inside that institution. And
that could be a potential roadblock when it comes to future legislation.
But really among the broader electorate here, the conservative party members have been in power for 12 years. They're going to have to come up
with something big if they're going to sway to the British public and win an election that's coming up in the next two years time.
It doesn't look like the economic headwinds are favorable for the next couple of years. Indeed, if you look at the immediate future, it looks
pretty perilous. People are contending with the biggest cost of living crisis in four decades, and the highest tax burden since the 1940s. That's
about 70 years ago.
So, we're back to the time of wartime economics, people are increasingly concerned about how they're going to pay their bills. Just to give you an
idea, Bianca, a cost of energy is going to rise within the next month by 80 percent. Mortgage costs are doubling. It is this based effect of all these
different things including inflation, energy costs doubling, tripling. No government can plan for, let alone the people who elect them.
NOBILO: So, given those economic hardships that are coming. They already exist that Nina is outlining. As well as the war in Europe, Britain's
influential role in that, the moment really calls for a great political figure of history. What do we know about Liz Truss as a person, as a
leader, and her political beliefs?
ZOE WILLIAMS, COLUMNIST, THE GUARDIAN: Well, in terms of political beliefs, she in the French newspapers today, because she's constantly
parroting Margaret Thatcher, because Tory members love Margaret Thatcher. So, she's constantly cosplaying her, just enough of her, and the French
started coming out of the iron weathercock rather than the Iron Lady, because she doesn't actually have a very fixed point.
Because she's extreme, you assume she's very stubborn. And you know, rigid. But she actually isn't. She's all over the place. And that's certainly been
through in our origin story, all the way through the leadership election and she was painting one picture of her childhood, and it was completely
off.
She was saying that she went to the comprehensive, she became a conservative because she went to this terrible school and the prospects
were low. In fact, the school she went to was a very affluent and high achieving school, she has many contemporary. She's one of 13 people that
went to oxford from that school.
I mean, it's really extraordinary how good it was as a state school in a factoid area. She resumed really heavily leverage in that as a sense of her
as a kind of working class politicians make good with completely untrue. She's from a professional family, her brothers are professors.
So, people don't really buy it. And that's I think maybe why members of our party, or certainly the MPs of the party have been very cheery about giving
their support.
NOBILO: And what about the fact that she has a history of being quite gaffe prone, and not being particularly tactful or diplomatic? Now is not
for the time for a leader like that, surely.
WILLIAMS: She's gaffe-prone, but not gaffe prone in a way that Prince Philip was gaff-prone -- she take on a big bold thing, and they would cut
the wrong way. She's gaffe prone in the sense that she doesn't read the room, and she doesn't respond to people very naturally.
So, you find that she's often seems as a kind of panic in the moment, and start free associating with her speech. So, you have a kind of famous
cheese speech, where --
NOBILO: She's sort of (INAUDIBLE).
WILLIAMS: Exactly. So, she starts listing cheeses, because she so tense about where she is on that. She just doesn't seem to get on very easily,
and a social situation and that's why it's so extraordinary to have a painted as the Boris Johnson continuity candidate, because, of course,
that's the basis on which the members voted for her, but people are less like Boris Johnson than Liz Truss.
DOS SANTOS: And she also -- I was going to say, Boris Johnson's gaffe prone but he turned it too into a winning scrape, didn't he, because of his
charisma, that help to carry things. She's economically, though, trying to disassociate herself with a lot of his policies over the last few years, in
particular when it comes to taxation.
[17:10:01]
The big question mark is whether the country can actually afford to pay for the types of taxes -- tax cuts that she's talking about, when, of course,
inflation is spiraling out of control, there's going to be clamoring among the electorate, irrespective of whether technically people might be
considered affluent and the deceptive party might think that they're the natural electors, or that they move forward down the economic scale. That
will change the dial enormously when it comes to the economics and the politics.
NOBILO: And, Nina, when navigating challenges like that, the communication of a leader is essential -- clear communication, constant communication,
rhetorical skills. We saw her speech today, what was your assessment of it?
DOS SANTOS: I don't know how snowy feels about this, it didn't deliver -- you can definitely see from the audience that she might be expecting it.
There was that famous moment where she acknowledged Boris Johnson's contribution, his legacy, and waited.
They were quite light on details I will say. She said I will deliver, deliver, deliver, and then anybody listening for some detail, would've been
disappointed with that.
WILLIAMS: It's such a strange rhetorical trope to repeat the word deliver three times. It's like you either deliver, in which case you only need it
wants, or you're talking nonsense. So, she's very worded and she's not known for communicating well, never has been to be fair to her. It's not
like she's had a southern nose dive, she's never been thought of as a communicator.
DOS SANTOS: But if you look back at the times of Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, we'll see that was a long stretch of labor government. Then David Cameron,
George Osborn, you did have combinations, it has to be said.
WILLIAMS: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
DOS SANTOS: You have winning combinations of chancellors and prime ministers. And she appears, it seems to be muted, that you may nominate
Kwasi Kwarteng, who is the secretary as her chancellor. That could be an interesting combination because they work together, they appear to be in
sync.
The question is, will they be able to deliver on the economic mandate and budget. It's such a short period of time. The challenges continue to
multiply by the day. Just to give you an idea, when it comes to living standards in this country, real incomes, recent data projects that incomes
could be back to 2003 levels. That's two years worth of lost wages, inflation continues without pay raises.
NOBILO: I wish we had more time, so much to get into. You mentioned the point of a mandate, which is another challenge she faces, the fact that I
think 0.2 percent of the eligible electorate in this country are those who ushered her into her role, which she would tomorrow.
Thank you both, Zoe Williams, "Guardian" columnist, and Nina Dos Santos.
Now, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that he looks forward to working with Truss as Britain's prime minister, saying that together, they
can thwart Russia's destructive efforts. Mr. Zelenskyy says that a counteroffensive in southern Ukraine is making good progress. He confirmed
that two settlements in the region have been liberated, as well as one in Donetsk in the east.
He also says that Ukraine's destroyed an important Russian ammunition that housed missiles used to fire on Kharkiv.
Let's bring in CNN's Sam Kiley now. He's reporting tonight from Odesa.
Sam, we're learning about the developments in the battlefield, Zelenskyy claiming some successes, but this counter up to really go Ukraine's way?
SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think for the time being it's going Ukraine's way, if all of the evidence points in that
direction indeed. Yesterday, even the Russian officials were acknowledging a few losses. In fact, a greater number of losses than they pointed out
that they may have suffered as Zelenskyy claimed credit for.
I think the reason for that, Bianca, and what one has to be very careful for this is a micro movement on the battlefield should not be over
interpreted. But the Ukrainians do have the initiative, they've changed their tactics. They're no longer doing full frontal assaults. They're using
Special Forces, drawings, more sophisticated targeted weapons, Excalibur artillery ammunition that has a GPS guidance system.
One soldier we spoke to just yesterday talked about how the Russians are throwing huge volumes of artillery where the Ukrainians are hitting back
because they don't have the volumes, they're much more precise.
So, they do have the initiative, they're also drawing a lot of energy away from that eastern front, which had been the main Russian push for the last
few months on to this Kherson focused. Now, Kherson was the first regional capital, only regional capital to fall to the Russians. It was captured
early on in the campaign, in the Russian invasion.
And local citizens there have been exalted by the government the second time to take cover, stop power, food, water and battery charges to get on
the ground, because the expectation it's going to be a bit of fighting over that city. But it's not going to be quick, it's going to be a slow and
grinding campaign I think, Bianca.
NOBILO: Sam Kiley for us in Odessa, thank you very much.
[17:15:00]
A suicide bombing has killed six people including two Russian embassy employees on Afghanistan's capital city. Russian officials say that the
bomb exploded near the section of the embassy in Kabul. Police say that the security forces shot the bomber, it was too late. The explosives detonated
in the crowd of people. ISIS's Afghan affiliate is claiming responsibility for the attack.
In Russia, a Moscow court sentenced a former military and space journalist to 22 years in prison on treason charges. Ivan Safronov of was also nearby
to the head of the Russian space agency. Prosecutors say that he passed military and technical secrets to NATO. The critics say he's being punished
for independent reporting, with amnesty international calling his sentence, absurd.
Still to come on the program tonight, the family of a Palestinian American journalist says that Israel's refusing to take responsibility, after the
IDF released the results of its long awaited investigation.
And in Canada, the manhunt for two fugitives intensifies as prosecutors filed charges in a stabbing rampage that shocked the nation.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NOBILO: A warm welcome back. I'm coming to you live from outside the UK Houses of Parliament. The Conservative party has elected a new prime
minister, with Liz Truss set to be sworn in tomorrow. More on that ahead.
But, first, let's get you up to speed on the other global headlines today.
For the first time, Israel acknowledges that there is a high possibility that one of its soldiers shot and killed al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu
Akleh back in May. But it says it will not pursue criminal charges calling her death an accident.
The Palestinian-American journalist was wearing a vest clearly marked press when she was shot in the head while covering an Israeli raid in the West
Bank. CNN's own investigation shows that there were no Palestinian militants near Abu Akleh when she was killed.
CNN's Hadas Gold has been covering this story, and joins us now live from Jerusalem.
Hadas, how has the Palestinian authorities reacted, and what possible consequences could we see to this in the future?
I think we're having technical issues with Hadas. We'll get her back in a moment.
Moving on to our next story, in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, two fugitives are suspected of fatally stabbing ten people and wounding at
least 18 others, they're now facing murder charges. But despite a widespread amount and, they remain at large.
CNN's Nick Watt has the latest for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At least ten people are dead, 18 others injured, at least 13 crime scenes across a remote indigenous
reserve and beyond.
Two suspects, now on the run.
EVAN BRAY, CHIEF, REGINA POLICE SERVICE: The two males are still at large, despite ongoing relentless efforts.
WATT: This woman says her elderly neighbor was among those murdered.
RUBY WORKS, WELDON, SASKATCHEWAN RESIDENT: Now I'm terrified to sleep at night. Terrified to open my door.
RHONDA BLACKMORE, ASST. COMMISSIONER, ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE: We are undertaking every effort to locate them as quickly as possible, to
insure the safety of the public.
WATT: Five-forty a.m. Sunday, the first call came in. A stabbing on the James Smith Cree nation, within minutes, more calls, more stabbings.
Seven-fifty-seven a.m., authorities released photographs of those suspects. Damien Sanderson and Myles Sanderson, both early 30s same last name but the
relationship remains unclear.
At 8:20 am, a dangerous persons alert is extended across all of Saskatchewan. The suspects believed to be on the move, in a black Nissan
Rogue.
BLACKMORE: We're asking residents across Saskatchewan, and our neighboring provinces to be vigilant.
WATT: 9:45 am, a victims found off the reservation at a nearby town of Weldon. 11:45 am, that black Nissan reportedly spotted nearly 200 miles to
the south, in Regina, Saskatchewan's capital city.
All this death and damage done apparently by blades, not bullets.
JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: In cases where it's not easy, in countries where it's not easy to get guns, we've seen stabbings
before them in Europe, and other areas. So, that maybe one explanation.
WATT: Sympathy and solidarity from Canada's federation of sovereign indigenous nations and this is the destruction we face when harmful,
illegal drops invade our communities. No comment on a possible drug connection from the police.
BLACKMORE: It appears that some of the victims may have been targeted, some may be random. To speak to a motive would be extremely difficult at
this point in time.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NOBILO: That was CNN's Nick Watt reporting here.
And now I think we have Hadas Gold back.
Hadas, glad to have you back so we can get into this important story what you've been covering a course. I was asking you, how the Palestinian
authority has reacted with possible consequences we might see to this?
HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bianca, the Palestinian authorities said that Israel is trying to essentially shirk its responsibility for
Shireen Abu Akleh's killing with this in a statement that they put out about the investigation. So, they'll continue pursuing the case with the
International Criminal Court.
But in terms of what the reason they're saying that they're shrinking responsibility, because in their report, the IDF does acknowledge for the
first time that they do believe it was likely an Israeli soldier who fired the fatal shot that killed Shireen Abu Akleh. This is something that CNN's
own investigation, and civil other media investigations as well as the United States have all come to that determination. But already before, that
it was likely that an Israeli soldier.
Now, the IDF says that the soldier was likely in an armored military vehicle, south of where Shireen Abu Akleh and our colleagues were standing.
They say that the soldier did not recognize the group as journalists, thought that they were firing back at militants. This is despite the fact
that Shireen Abu Akleh and her colleagues were wearing protective vest that say press on both the front and back.
And CNN's own investigation said there were no militants in the area standing next to Shireen Abu Akleh. When I asked the IDF about this, about
CNN's investigation that there was no militants near there, they said that they were militants in the vicinity, said north of where she was standing.
They also said the fact that soldiers in these protective vehicles have a limited line of sight. Of course, there's some unanswered questions on
exactly how a soldier would not recognize a member of the media. What's important to also note, there will be no consequences for the soldiers
involved.
The Israeli military advocate generals office says after the review, they decided not to pursue criminal charges because they determined that the
soldier did not deliberately fired anyone identified as a civilian.
[17:25:04]
And in particular, anyone identified as a journalist -- Bianca.
NOBILO: Hadas Gold in Jerusalem, thank you very much.
Now let's take a look at the other stories making an impact today.
In China's Sichuan province, more than 40 people are dead, dozens injured following an earthquake. The U.S. Geological Survey reported a tremor of
6.6, with a death of ten kilometers. The quake hit Monday afternoon, southwest of the province's capital.
The World Health Organization is sounding the alarm over the scale of the deadly flooding in Pakistan. It says that the flooding is causing an
increase in typhoid and malaria, and 10 percent of the country's health care institutions are damaged, 10 percent. One third of the country is set
to be underwater. And more than 1000 people are dead.
Kenya Supreme Court says William Ruto is the rightful president of the African nation. The high court in Nairobi, upheld the presidential election
result on Monday. The ruling ends the hotly contested race between Ruto and Raila Odinga who had challenged Ruto's victory.
And to end, we'll return to our top story. The UK Conservative Party has elected Liz Truss as the country's next prime minister. She will be sworn
in on Tuesday.
Now when I think back to the conservative party leaders in the last six years, there have been four. There was David Cameron, who is in coalition
with liberal Democrats, a center right leader in some respects. Then there was Teresa May, was considered to be a principal leader but lacking in
charisma and lacking a rhetorical skills. Followed by Boris Johnson, the blond bombshell of bombast and rhetoric, highly unpredictable who scored a
historic election victory but then was a product of his own personality and that precipitated his decline.
And now, we have Liz Truss, who's more than a known quantity than any of those leaders. And she becomes prime minister at a time that's almost
unprecedented challenge. With war in Europe, a terrible cost of living crisis that needs urgent attention. And a party that's in a state of
disarray. It's far from united.
So, she'll need to muster all the political talent she hasn't drawn all the resources at our disposal to try and make the success of this. But it is
for sure, that she really doesn't have much time or cause to celebrate today.
Now that was THE GLOBAL BRIEF.
"WORLD SPORT" is up next.
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