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The Global Brief with Bianca Nobilo

Iran's Crackdown On Protests; Ukraine Makes Advances; Liz Truss' Economic U-Turn. Aired 5-5:30p ET

Aired October 03, 2022 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:30]

LYNDA KINKADE, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Lynda Kinkade, in for Bianca Nobilo. Welcome to THE GLOBAL BRIEF.

Coming up, Iran's supreme leader's blames the U.S. and Israel for the anti- government protests sweeping the nation. CNN speaks with a young student who survived the violent police crackdown.

Also ahead, Ukrainian forces are taking back cities and regions where Russia has illegally proclaimed annexation. We'll go inside the newly-

liberated town of Lyman.

Then, a turn for the British government. Prime Minister Liz Truss walks back a plan to scrap the highest rate of income tax.

Just like a war zone, that's how one eyewitness described this weekend's protest at a prestigious university in Iran's capital. Security forces

cracked down on student protesters. Police swarmed the university campus to shut down a huge anti-government demonstration. Witnesses say they use

pellet and paint ball guns and batons to disperse the crowds and arrested an unknown number of students.

Nationwide protests erupted after 22-year-old woman died in the custody of the morality police and have escalated to cause for the government to

resign.

But Iran supreme leader is blaming Iran's usual list of foes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AYATOLLAH ALI KHAMENEI, IRANIAN SUPREME LEADER (through translator): I say, clearly, that these riots and the insecurity were engineered by the

U.S. and the occupying false Zionist regime, as well as their paid agents, with the help of some traitorous Iranians abroad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: I want to bring in CNN correspondent Jomana Karadsheh from Istanbul.

And, Jomana, after weeks of deadly protests, Iran's supreme leader has finally spoken, not to call for calm or reassess its policies, but rather

to blame the U.S. and other outside forces claiming Iran's enemies engineered these riots.

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Lynda, for nearly three weeks, everyone has been wondering, where is the supreme leader? He hasn't

really weighed and publicly on what is going on in the country.

And, finally, today, he came out and he spoke and he addressed these protests. We heard the same sort of rhetoric that we had been hearing from

regime officials, that this is all basically a foreign conspiracy, a plot by Israel, the United States, and others to weaken and destabilized the

great Islamic republic.

Clearly, again, this is the clerical establishment, not willing to listen to the thousands of people who have taken to the streets, not willing to

address their grievances, not willing to find any sort of middle ground. But that, Lynda, and this intensifying crackdown hasn't stopped the protest

over the past three days. We've seen thousands of university students taking to the streets, protesting on campuses in different parts of the

country.

And on Sunday evening, a very disturbing incident unfolded at Sharif University and Tehran. Someone would describe it as the MIT of Iran.

And getting statements from the university, some of the video that has emerged, speaking to one eyewitness, we were able to piece together what

unfolded at Sharif University. And we have to warn our viewers that some of the scenes in this report, they may find disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A snap shot of a night of horror at one of Iran's most prestigious universities.

Chaos, panic and fear, as students, some of Iran's best and brightest, ran through the Sharif University car park in Tehran, chased by security forces

on foot and on motorbikes.

Those who couldn't escape the violent crackdown, hooded and taken away. We don't know what happened after the shot was fired, bird shot and paint

balls were used to crush the protest and to stop those who are trying to film. As news spread, crowds gathered outside chanting, "Free the

Students".

Fears of a repeat of the bloody 1999 crackdown on student protests, students were attacked in their dormitories at Tehran University.

CNN tracked down one of those who rushed to save students trapped inside. For his safety, we're concealing his identity.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw SOS call from Sharif coming. And one of my friends called, and he just told me that please come save us. They are

shooting at us.

I took one of my friends with me, so he could help me a little bit. So, we got on our bikes and we went there, and we practically had to Captain

America our way into the university because they had guns.

[17:05:07]

They had paint ball guns. They had batons.

It was a war zone. And there was blood everywhere.

KARADSHEH: No one really knows how many were hurt, how many were dragged away. The little video and harrowing accounts still trickling out paint a

picture of the ruthless force used after students refused to attend classes and some chanted insult against the supreme leader.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Many students were let out by the security forces of the university. They have been stopped. They told that if you go near the

station, we will start shooting. Go back into the university.

One of the teachers, one of the professors was trying to get a few of the students out. They told him to get the children out, and you can go. And he

said, no. After that, he came out of the car himself, lock the doors. They beat him up. A lot of the protesters actually tried to save the students.

KARADSHEH: Students in their thousands are staging protests on campuses and on the streets across the country. What started with demands for

justice and accountability for the death of Mahsa Amini has quickly morphed into more daring widespread calls for regime change for bringing down the

repressive Islamic republic, anger that has been building for years, captured on video like this one. Protesters in Tehran tearing down and

destroying the Islamic republic street sign.

The regime that has a bloody history of suppressing dissent is only just beginning to unleash on its own people. But defiant protesters say, this

time, there will be no turning back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no, no. This is far from over. We are not scared. We are outraged. We are furious.

You know, these people think that we are the previous generation that if they do this, we're just going to stop. We are not going to stop. This is a

one-way road for us. Because if we stop, they are going to kill even more people. Take even more people into custody. Torture them, rape them.

These people can do anything. So we won't stop. This is not the end. I promise you that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KARADSHEH: And, Lynda, this defiance, this determination, these are not just the words of this one young man. This is exactly what we have been

seeing happening on the streets of so many cities across Iran.

You've got this young generation of Iranians more emboldened than ever. They're rising up risking everything for freedoms, rights, liberties

they've never known. And, you know, they are continuing to do this despite this ongoing crackdown.

KINKADE: Really incredible to see that this is continuing week after week.

Jomana Karadsheh, our thanks to you.

The Ukrainian forces are advancing on Russian-held territory in the east and south, putting pressure on Moscow and areas it claims to be annexing.

Russian troops fled the eastern city of Lyman over the weekend and it was a big upset, and it's now allowing Ukraine to push further into Luhansk.

And Ukrainian fighters are retaking territory in the south towards the occupied city of Kherson. Ukraine says Russia is trying to turn more

civilians into cannon fodder, accusing Russian forces of going door to door and occupied territory, making lists of Ukrainian man to constrict.

Well, meanwhile, Russia's parliament has begun ratifying President Putin's annexation order which the U.N. and numerous nations say is illegal. The

lower house of Russian parliament agreed unanimously, we expect to same thing in the upper house on Tuesday.

And even as Moscow says these four Ukrainian toward areas now belong to Russia, it's struggling to say just how much territory they are claiming.

The Kremlin spokesperson saying that they will continue consulting with residents and occupied Kherson and Zaporizhzhia to define the exact

borders.

Well, our Nick Paton Walsh is in Kryvyi Rih and joins us now live.

Good to have you with us, Nick.

So, you and your team, the first TV crew to make it into Lyman shortly after Ukraine regained control.

What struck you most about being in the city, back on Ukrainian control, despite Russia's illegal annexation?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: I think, to be honest, how small and at times dominated by the railway that ran through it

Lyman actually was and how something of that nature had been such a strategically vital element of Russia's presence in Ukraine. They needed

railways to transport their supply chains. It has become part of the defensive positions.

And so, essentially, when they found, it seems at some point on Friday that the numbers began to try and to get out.

[17:10:08]

It had a knock on effects. We are hearing now from U.S. officials agreeing with what we heard from Ukrainian officials that essentially they're moving

back to a town called Kreminna. Inside the town of Lyman itself, destruction, a lot of, it is quite specific towards a certain official

buildings, perhaps that's more accurate rocket fire from the Ukrainians as they push in towards the town.

Very few Ukrainian troops left inside. We got the feeling that a lot of them have moved on to their next objective. Kreminna, as I said, further to

the east and not many locals frankly, either. Some are expressing their horror at how the from one side to the other. One woman saying it's like

taking one hat off and putting another hat off.

The woman next to her interior saying that her husband in fact had just been arrested after Ukrainian forces came into the town. But I think a

sense amongst locals, they were sort of glad to possibly see the artillery stop firing for a while.

But the fallout of losing Lyman has been military, as I just described, but also intensely political too. Open bickering amongst Russia's elite about

how badly that part of the campaign was handled.

The head of the internal Russian Republic of Chechnya is naming and shaming the military commander that he said was in charge of letting Lyman go. And

that's continued to reverberate today with the replacements, it seems, of Russia's western district commander and as you mentioned earlier, the

Kremlin spokesperson now radically adjusting just what Russia thinks it's annexed in these recent pieces of paper, it's passed through the

parliaments, now saying they don't quite know where they're occupied territory or places they call Russia in their mind begin and end.

And that's a remarkable change in policy because so many have thought their way of saying, these parts of Ukraine are Russia was a way of trying to

dissuade Ukraine from continuing on its military progress, that they were essentially, saying we might use more nasty weapons in our arsenal if we

continue with military maneuvers, and to essentially say, look, we don't really know where we began and where we end removes the sort of efficacy of

that particular threat.

So, a startling disarray across Moscow and how badly this is going. And I'm standing in the south here, too. Russia is getting even more bad news as

well. In just the last hours, Lynda.

KINKADE: Yeah, just incredible, really great to have you and your team on the ground there for us.

Nick Paton Walsh, our thanks to you.

Well, Brazil's presidential election is heading to a runoff later this month. Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva came out ahead in the

first round with more than 48 percent of these votes. Not enough to win outright.

Incumbent Jair Bolsonaro got about 43 percent of the vote. The election so far has been polarizing to say the least.

CNN's Isa Soares reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was close but just not enough. Many had hopes for an outright win for Lula da Silva, that his

supporters were still infused by first place finish in the first round.

The former president received 48.3 percent of the votes cast. He is now seen as the big favorite going into the runoff vote, and he believes he

will win.

LUIZ INACIO LULA DA SILVA, BRAZILIAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (through translator): The Workers Party will win the elections in the second round

and we will win because Brazil needs us.

SOARES: Mood at the opposing camp was more muted, but there was still cause for celebration. Heading into the vote, Jair Bolsonaro had criticize

polls saying they had underestimated his support. With over 43 percent of the votes, finishing well above most predictions, the Brazilian president

felt vindicated.

JAIR BOLSONARO, BRAZILIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We overcame the polling line. We now go into a second round where the odds are the same for

both sides.

SOARES: And there is little respite for either candidate, both now vying for the extra support that can get them over the finish line. For

Bolsonaro, that means drawing on the support of an old ally.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: President Bolsonaro, he's done an absolutely incredible job with your economy, with your country.

SOARES: But the numbers tell a different story. Latin America's largest economy has struggled since a major recession in 2017. With poverty running

rampant, especially in Brazil's poorest neighborhoods.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Health is difficult. Security is a very bad. Inflation is very high.

SOARES: With Brazil having some of the world's highest COVID 19 cases and death tolls, Bolsonaro was criticized for his handling of the pandemic and

its economic fallout.

[17:15:02]

It's here that Bolsonaro's fighting an uphill battle.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We expect total change. The current government has been a total failure since the beginning.

SOARES: But Lula's past convictions on corruption charges, accusations he has denied, were later annulled could level the playing fields.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Brazil went through a time a very serious corruption. And Jair Bolsonaro has not shown the corruption Lula

has.

SOARES: And what is Brazil's most polarizing and bitterly divisive presidential election in decades, the battle between these two populist

will finally come to an end on October 30th, with pollster struggling to protect an outcome, it is anyone's guess as to who will come out on top.

Isa Soares, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: With a sharp U-turn, UK Prime Minister Liz Truss vows to overwhelming pressure and scraps an unpopular plan. What it means for her

political future and the current UK economy just ahead.

Plus, who wins the Nobel Prize in Medicine and the sensational discoveries that went along with it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KINKADE: Welcome back. I'm Kinkade. Good to have you with us.

The UK government is scrapping plans to move attacks on Britain's richest 1 percent. Just days after the plan was put forward, and hours after Prime

Minister Liz Truss insisted that it would go ahead. This is a humiliating U-turn for Truss' pledging premiership. And it comes as the UK conservative

party members are meeting for their annual conference.

Many had already voiced extreme opposition to the proposed cuts. Speaking earlier, the British finance minister tried to persuade them he heard their

concerns.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KWASI KWARTENG, BRITISH FINANCE MINISTTER: I can be frank. I know the plan foot put forward ten days ago has caused a little turbulence. I get it. I

get it. We are listening and have listened.

[17:20:01]

And now, I want to focus on delivering the major parts of our growth package.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: Well, Bianca Nobilo joins me now from the Tory Party conference in Birmingham, England.

Good to have you with us, Bianca.

So, a little turbulence, clearly an understatement. The party had no other option. The question is, how much damage has this already done not only to

the economy but also to the party less than a month into the Truss government?

BIANCA NOBILO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: An understatement and an oxymoron, Lynda, because the chancellor saying that he gets, and yet it he's calling

the economic chaos of the last week, a 65 billion pound intervention for the Bank of England a little turbulent. It's exactly that kind of remark

which is eroding trust in the chancellor and the prime minister.

The screeching U-turn itself did that, too. But it's the fact that this party feels like they are not entirely sure what that is going to do next.

And so far, what they have announced have gone further than the promises of the leadership campaign. It has sent the market into a spiral.

The economic damage has been severe, so far, but the political damage I think will be far more long-lasting. And that is because simultaneously,

these economic announcements and the U-turn have, first of all, undermined the conservatives' hard earned reputation that they try to propagate for

themselves that they are the party of economic responsibility and fiscal restraint.

The second being that they have fought for years now to try and change their party reputation from the party of the wealthy, the bankers, and the

rich to the party of the ordinary working person. Now, the events of last week to and we'll see what the prime minister says on Wednesday, are all

getting them in deep trouble on both the issues.

KINKADE: And speaking of Wednesday, Bianca, the prime minister will address the party. What can we expect from her? What else can she do to dig

herself out of this hole?

NOBILO: It is -- it is the question. No one is really sure. The stakes are enormous because a prime minister, to my mind, in modern history has not

had a worse start in this. She's now, according to the UK's preeminent pollster, about as unpopular as Boris Johnson was in his dying, days there

are discussions about how she could be ousted here.

Now, I think it's very unlikely that she will be pushed out or an attempt will be made anytime soon because the conservatives will be concerned about

what that looks like as far as the party organization is concerned. But there's definitely people talking about how they could get rid of her. So,

this is a very important almost make-or-break moment for the prime minister.

Now, she is not an adept communicator, she said that many times. She is not particularly charismatic. Her interviews so far have not gone well. She's

had a very bad week of them, too.

One of the main concerns people have is that she lacks empathy. To go ahead with this tax cut for the wealthy, they've now you turned on, when the rest

of the country is suffering for a cost of living crisis does not demonstrate an ability to read the country, to understand political

objects. I think what she will need to do on Wednesday, Lynda, is to get across that she really understands the hardships that people are pacing.

She will need to make a far more compelling case for her economic principles. And also crucially cause the chancellor did not do this today,

take more conciliatory approach, extend an olive branch to her deeply divided party because they need to come together if the conservatives have

any hope of moving forward and passing legislation and standing a shred of a chance at the next election, Lynda.

KINKADE: Yeah. We will be watching closely come Wednesday. I look forward to speaking with you in the coming days.

Bianca Nobilo, thanks very much.

I want to take a look at some of the other key stories making international headlines today.

At least 125 people, 33 of them children died in East Java, Indonesia, after violence broke out at a football stadium. Videos from the stands show

police firing tear gas on fans who had stormed the pitch was in panic and crashes as people try to flee the over-packed arena. Authorities say

they're investigating why the gases fired on the crowd.

In Florida, the search for violence continues after Hurricane Ian. The storm made landfall near Fort Myers, Wednesday, and the death toll now

stands at 104 in Florida alone.

U.S. President Joe Biden is in Puerto Rico to see the damage there two weeks after Hurricane Fiona hit the islands. He announced $60 million and

funding that will help create a new flood warning systems to help Puerto Rico become better prepared for future storms.

In Mexico, another hurricane. Orlene made landfall in mainland Mexico as a category one storm. It hit the area near the tourist town of Mazatlan along

the Pacific Coast. Orlene is expected to bring strong winds, heavy rain, dangerous storm surges to southwestern Mexico, until Monday night or

Tuesday morning.

[17:25:08]

Burkina Faso's military says the country is returning to normal after officers staged a coup late last week, its second military takeover this

year. The country's new leader Ibrahim Traore, an army captain who's been appointed president, of the ruling junta. The country's former military

leader has agreed to step down and is reportedly fled. We met with cabinet ministers and urged them to move quickly to solve the nation's problem.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IBRAHIM TRAORE, INTERIM LEADER OF BURKINA FASO (through translator): We really need to change the pace. We need to change the pace, we need to go

fast. The whole country is in a state of emergency. So, everyone at this level must move faster and avoid any unnecessary red tape.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: As you just heard, the interim leader wants to move faster in restoring security after years of violence by Islamic militants.

Swedish scientists Svante Paabo is the winner of this year's Nobel Prize in medicine for his work on human evolution. He pioneered the use of ancient

DNA to unlock secrets about our extinct relatives including the Neanderthals. He also discovered a previously unknown ancestor called the

Denisova in Asia.

Well, a glimpse into yesterday's delighting Beatles fans. Some never seen before seen footage of the fab four has been released in Japan, showing the

group getting off in Tokyo back in 1966. The video is recorded by a police and was tied up in legal proceedings for years until its recent release

which pixelated the faces of everyone except the Beatles for privacy reasons.

The Beatles only to Japan once. But their fans here, there, and everywhere will no doubt enjoy the trip down memory lane.

Well, thanks so much for watching. I'm Lynda Kinkade. That was THE GLOBAL BRIEF.

Stick around. You're watching CNN. "WORLD SPORT" is next.

END