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The Global Brief with Bianca Nobilo

Battle For Kherson Looms; North Korean Missile Test; Brazil's Presidential Runoff. Aired 5-5:30p ET

Aired October 31, 2022 - 17:00   ET

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


[17:00:22]

LYNDA KINKADE, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome. I'm Lynda Kinkade. This is THE GLOBAL BRIEF.

Ahead on the show, Russia targets military energy and water infrastructure across Ukraine with a new round of missile attacks.

Also ahead, mourners leaving flowers at memorial sites across South Korea to honor the 155 lives lost in a Halloween crowd surge.

And Lula da Silva reelected president of Brazil, winning the most votes in the country's history. But can the incoming president rebuild a nation

plagued by inequality?

Hundreds of thousands of people in Ukraine's capital right now have no power and no running water after Russia fired a wave of missiles across the

country. Moscow claims it's targeting Ukraine's military facilities, but according to Ukrainian officials, the attacks landed on civilian

infrastructure.

Ukraine's air force says it was able to destroy 90 percent of missiles Russia fired Monday, but the ones that hit caused even more damage to the

country's crippled power facilities. Ukraine's energy companies say it is now running out of equipment to repair them.

Well, in the meantime, Turkey, Germany, and other nations are urging Russia to re-join the U.N.-brokered green shipment deal. Moscow has suspended its

participation, meaning it will not guarantee safe passage for ships leading Ukraine to the Black Sea. Ukraine is buying to carry on sending 12 grain

bearing ships to see on Monday despite the risks.

Well, our Nic Robertson joins us now live from the capital.

Good to see you, Nic.

So, drinking water, power, foreign coverage networks, all damage right now in the capital. And dozens cut off. Just give a sense of how people there

are dealing with this?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATICE EDITOR: Yeah, the situation is precarious in a way that it hasn't been since the very beginning of the

war. Back then, of course, the Russians were on the outskirts of the city. The place was in turmoil. Now it's completely different. Three weeks ago,

life year was almost normal. But, three weeks in the intervening period, Russian strikes on the energy facilities across the country have meant that

the system is incredibly weak.

So, even the smallest strike has a major impact. I would hear, talking to people on the streets, they are really ready for this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Life just got harder in Kyiv. Monday morning, 80 percent of the capital's water off following a new barrage of Russian

airstrikes, spigots not use since the war began a lifeline again, but not unexpected.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody in Kyiv right now and they choose to stay here. They are like ready for this.

ROBERTSON: Will it make you leave the city?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, I will stay here. I didn't leave it since the war begins. So, why have to do it now?

ROBERTSON: Despite the lines in some parts of the city, patience aplenty.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm standing with my friends in one hour, maybe two- hour, maybe three, maybe no water after 20 minutes. But I'll go back.

ROBERTSON: Scenes like this are becoming increasingly normal across Ukraine. Government officials say that there were ten different regions

targeted Monday, 18 different sites.

Among them, a hydroelectric power plant, Ukraine's biggest in Zaporizhzhia. Another power gen site in central Ukraine. Kharkiv subway in the east still

by strikes on vital infrastructure there.

And despite intercepts, 44 across the country, according to the government, groups of missiles getting through, at least three according to this

witness near Kyiv's hydroelectric power plant.

A missile flew over our house and went to the balcony, and saw the second missile and a drone, she says, both were flying in the direction of the

power plant. It's so scary when you see it.

Three weeks of targeting Ukraine's electricity network is pushing the power grid towards a tipping point, no doubt more of this to come.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[17:05:02]

KINKADE: Well, Nic is still with us.

And, Nic, I want to ask you about this grain deal. Russia has pulled out of it. In reality, what does that mean? Not only for the global wheat prices,

but also for this growing global hunger crisis?

ROBERTSON: It means a higher degree of uncertainty. It potentially means higher global food prices. It potentially means therefore shortages in some

of the developing nations which depend on the grain shipments from here.

The U.N. has decided with Turkey, along with the U.N. to create the deal and with Ukraine, to go ahead. There are 12 ships that were in the

humanitarian corridor in the Black Sea leaving today, one of those on its way to Ethiopia. We seem to be getting a slightly changing or modifying

picture from the Russian government.

On Sunday, the Russian government said they were suspending, indefinitely, their engagement in the Black Sea grain deal. We know that the U.N. had

told the Russians that they were going to go ahead and let some ships use that corridor through the Black Sea today.

It wasn't clear earlier in the day precisely how Russia was responding to that. But the very latest that Vladimir Putin has said is that it's

suspended -- Russia's involvement is suspended but not ended. It is not entirely clear what he means by that. And when the not ending happens and

when the suspension changes back to working with it again.

But it does seem at the moment if the U.N.'s decision to push ahead might be causing Russia to pull back from its suspension. But it is far from

clear, that is the uncertainty that is going to drive prices up.

KINKADE: Yeah, we will continue to follow that very closely. Nic Robinson, for us in Kyiv, thanks you very much.

Well, South Koreans are mourning the 155 people killed Saturday night in a crowd surge in Seoul. Authorities are accused of failing to have adequate

crowd control measures. An official memorial set up in South Korea, they prayed for the loss of so many lives. South Korean officials said Monday

that they are investigating what triggered the fatal crush.

We want to bring in CNN international correspondent Will Ripley. He joins us from Seoul.

And, Will, this situation is beyond heartbreaking. It is hard to get it around your head, how to get your head around the number -- the sheer

number of victims, many of whom are young people. The big question of course is, how did this happen? What are the first steps in this

investigation?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So, the first step, as you just mentioned, was getting your head around the fact that 155 now,

mostly young people, are dead. And the logistics of identifying them, which took well over 24 hours, which is actually lightning speed if you consider

how many people you're dealing with, some of them without IDs on them and Halloween costumes.

But also, the bigger challenge now is wrapping your head around why South Korea and Seoul did not have a contingency plan or manuals to tell police

how to handle a situation where you have a very large crowd without one specific organizer. They usually have more police at protests than they did

out here where there were 100,000 people tucking their way into this nightclub district. They were packing the way, particularly into that very

narrow alley where we now know that so many people have died.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RIPLEY (voice-over): Each new video from Saturday's crowd crush only adds to the horror. On Monday, the death toll rose to at least 155.

Han Lew shot this just before joining desperate attempts to perform CPR. He can't shake the trauma of watching so many young lives fade away on the

streets of Seoul.

Did any of the people that you tried to save make it?

HAN LEW, WITNESS: No, nobody.

RIPLEY: They all died?

LEW: Yeah, because when they were brought out there, their heart had stopped for, what, maybe, 10, 20, even 30 minutes.

RIPLEY: All of them buried under a horrific human pile, a pile of people pushed from all directions by the surging likely alcohol-fueled crowd in

the narrow alleys of Itaewon. Police say the popular nightclub district packed with around 100,000 people Saturday night.

I told you not to go, says this brother in between waves of grief. His sister died on the sidewalk, just steps away from this growing memorial. A

small mountain of flowers and emotional tributes to the mostly young lives lost.

Around two thirds of them, women from more than a dozen countries. By Monday evening, all of the victims had been identified. Two American

students, both college juniors lie among them.

Steven Blesi, a college student from Georgia, celebrating the end of midterm exams. He'd only been in South Korea two months. Anne Gieske, a

nursing student from Kentucky, her devastated and heartbroken father called her a bright light, loved by all.

This is a weeklong period of national mourning. The streets of Itaewon, usually bustling, deserted.

As this memorial grows, obviously the anger and the public anger grows as well. Yes, there's grief, and you can feel it, you can cut through the

grief with a knife out here. But, there's so many questions about how this could've possibly happen.

Incomprehension turning to outrage, why did the city fail to have any guidelines or manuals for events like this, events without a clear

organizer.

A city, a nation, heartbroken and demanding answers.

(END VIDEOTAPE

RIPLEY (on camera): And this memorial itself has become a gathering place where people are expressing their grief, but also their anger against the

lack of preparation. It is remarkable though how this has gone from just a handful of flowers on Saturday and Sunday into now this memorial, which

actually stretches all the way around here. There is other flowers down the street. There are police as well, police that many people are wondering,

saying rather should have been dispatched to keep those young people safe before they ever got packed into that narrow alley were so many lost their

lives.

KINKADE: Yeah, exactly. Will Ripley for us in Seoul, thank you.

Well, nine people have been arrested in India following the weekend's deadly bridge collapse. Police say all those detained are associated with

the company that carried out maintenance on the bridge. The official number of people killed and the tragedy now stands at 134, including 30 children.

CNN's Kristie Lu Stout reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The death toll continues to climb in India after a recently renovated suspension bridge collapsed in the western

India state on Sunday, killing scores of people, including children. Authorities say 200 people were on the bridge at the time of the collapse.

It took place 6:00 p.m. local time in the town. The video which is circulating widely on social media is disturbing to watch.

You see dozens of people clinging to and climbing up the twisted remains of the bridge to escape the water below. Some are clamoring up to try to make

it to safety. Others managed to swim to shore. Tragically, a number of children are among the victims.

SUKRAM, EYEWITNESS (through translator): Many children were enjoying the holidays and came here as tourists. Many of them fell on top of one

another. The bridge collapsed due to overloading.

STOUT: On Monday, search and recovery teams combed the river to find the missing. The bridge was a popular tourist destination built during British

rule in the 19th century, in a close renovations and was only recently reopened to the public.

Gujarat has launched a criminal complaint against the agency that maintains the bridge, and a special investigation team is looking into why the bridge

collapsed.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is in his home state of Gujarat for a three-day visit, said he was deeply saddened by the tragedy. He also

announced compensation for the injured as well as for the families of the victims.

Kristie Lu Stout, CNN, Hong Kong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: Prosecutors in Iran indicted 1,000 people on Monday for their role in protests that have consumed the nation. The move is now cooling the

anger on the streets. The protesters including thousands of university students are upset about the death of a young woman in the custody of the

country's morality police. Iranian security have vowed in recent days to shut down the protests, leading to violent clashes.

Can you imagine being trapped inside Disneyland? Chinese authorities shut down Shanghai Disneyland Monday after several COVID cases were detected in

Shanghai. No one will be allowed to leave the park until they present a negative COVID test. One upside, though, many of the rides and attractions

in the park will remain open to entertainers trapped inside. Disney has repeatedly shut -- has been shut down due to China's zero COVID policy.

Well, still to come, celebrations on the streets of Sao Paulo after a former Brazilian president defeats Jair Bolsonaro.

[17:15:00]

Plus, as Israel prepares for its fifth election in less than four years, a familiar face is attempting a comeback.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KINKADE: Welcome back.

Brazil's new president elect is getting down to business, a day after winning a run-up election by a razor-thin margin. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva

hosted Argentina's president in the capital today. He also spoke with other leaders by phone, receiving warm congratulations from U.S. President Joe

Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron among others.

But all we have heard from the man Lula defeated is silence. Outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro has not conceded defeat yet, raising fears he

could try to contest the results.

CNN's Paula Newton reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRSPONDENT (voice-over): Supporters partied like it was 2003. The last time Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was swept into power and

promised to transform Brazil for a new century. He is now pledging to do it again.

These women just babies win Lula was first elected, hail him now as their political savior.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): So, so, so happy. We can take any more of Bolsonaro we can dream again.

NEWTON: Lula cemented an improbable political comeback destined now for the history books. He walked out of prison less than three years ago,

appealing corruption convictions. After they were thrown out, he mounted a campaign to defeat the conservative populist Jair Bolsonaro.

LUIZ INACIO LULA DA SILVA, BRAZILIAN PRESIDENT-ELECT (through translator): I consider myself a person who has been reelected in Brazilian politics

because they try to bury me alive and I'm here.

NEWTON: A gratified Lula pledge that Brazil is back for its citizens and the world.

[17:20:01]

DA SILVA (through translator): From January first 2023, I will govern for 215 million Brazilians, and not just those who voted for me, they are not

two Brazils. We are all one country, one people, one great nation.

NEWTON: Lula supporters flooded the streets of Sao Paulo, relishing a fresh start.

(CHANTING)

NEWTON: Despite this victory is uniting this country now, it is quite a challenge for Lula as he also considers a very determined opposition.

Bolsonaro did not formally concede on election night, the last time Brazilians saw their president was when he voted. Even ahead of Brazil's

Congress, a Bolsonaro ally, allowed Lula supporters their victory, saying Congress accepted the outcome.

This Lula supporter says the war in her words, the culture war that Bolsonaro leaned into is not over.

AYLA RAMALHO, SUPPORTER OF LUIZ INACIO LULA DA SILVA (through translator): Look at the amount of votes this man head, even after everything he has

done, almost half of the votes, the difference was really small.

NEWTON: This is Lula's victory, but no longer Lula's Brazil. Years of division and political acrimony have taken their toll, blindsiding this

democracy and it could yet challenge this president, like never before.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: Well, our Paula Newton joins us now from Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Good to have you there for us, Paula.

So, Bolsonaro still hasn't officially conceded defeat. What can we expect from him going forward? Will this be a smooth transition?

NEWTON: We wish we knew, there are few telltale signs here, but listen. The bottom line is that Brazilians haven't seen their president in a day

and a half and they have yet, as you said, do you hear him speak on the election.

We have inclinations. Certain signs from his allies that he is prepared to accept the results. What form that will take, we still don't know.

Interesting though that one of his sons is in fact a sitting senator tweeted a few hours ago saying, thank you to everyone who helped us rescue

patriotism, who prayed, prayed, took to the streets, gave their sweat for the country that is working and gave Bolsonaro the biggest vote of his

life. Let's raise our heads and let's not give up on Brazil. God is in charge.

I mean, I leave it to you to really surmise what that means. He left the whole issue of whether or not his father will accept the results

deliberately. There are some sporadic protests throughout this country right now, and that includes blocking major highways. Bolsonaro we'll need

to speak to his supporters, and we'll see then what he tells them about whether or not they too should accept the results of this election.

KINKADE: Yeah. We will see if we hear from him in the coming hours. Paula Newton for us in the capital Brazil, good to have you there for us. Thanks

very much.

Well, Israel is preparing once again for a general election Tuesday. This will be the fifth time in less than four years that voters will go to the

polls.

Among the issues concerning Israeli voters, the rising cost of living and security. Probably the biggest factor playing into this general election is

a possible comeback by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. His center right Likud Party is expected to win 30 seats.

CNN's Hadas Gold reports from Jerusalem.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Bibi show is back, complete with the Bibi mobile encased in bulletproof glass, aiming to once

again become the main attraction.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to the next Prime Minister of Israel, Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu.

GOLD: Polls show Benjamin Netanyahu does not yet have a clear path towards the majority, so the former prime minister is trying to pull every possible

vote out of his base.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, FORMER ISRAEL PRIME MINISTER (translated): Don't be despondent. Be turbo-charged.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bibi's king of this Israel, Bibi's king of Israel.

GOLD: And just like the previous four elections in just over three years, for most Israeli voters, the question at the ballot box will be whether

they want Netanyahu or not.

ANSHELL PFEFFER, AUTHOR: We are not talking about any other policy issue really beyond Netanyahu and what he will do on the day after the election.

GOLD: Netanyahu's ongoing corruption trial where he faces charges including bribery, fraud, and breach of trust, charges Netanyahu denies,

will be his first priority analysts say.

YOHANAN PLESNER, PRESIDENT, ISRAEL DEMOCRACY INSITUTE: Perhaps firing the attorney general, those kinds of maneuvers that will allow him to free

himself from the legal process that he is facing, and to deliver the goods to his political allies.

GOLD: Those political allies will likely include the far-right wing of Israeli politics, people like Itamar Ben-Gvir, an extremist who has been

convicted for supporting terrorism and inciting racism, now expected to help garner at least 12 seats for Netanyahu's block.

[17:25:06]

He was once an outcast of Israeli politics. Known for his ardent support of settlers and blaming Israeli Palestinian tensions, just last year,

Netanyahu said Ben-Gvir wasn't fit to serve in the cabinet. But now, desperate for his votes, Ben-Gvir certainly could get in a ministerial

position, Netanyahu said this month.

PFEFFER: And the question is, what is the price of the far-right is going to extricate from him? Will it be perhaps canceling the disengagement from

2015? Meaning that perhaps some settlements in the West Bank, which were abandoned by Israel, will be rebuilt, preoccupied, and perhaps for the

steps towards some kind of annexation in the West Bank.

GOLD: But at least one former advisor says he won't make any extreme moves because the alliance with Ben-Gvir won't last.

MOSHE KLUGHAFT, FORMER NETANYAHU STRATEGIST: Netanyahu's strategy is working for the short term, and then another short term, and another short

term. Not for the long term.

GOLD: Sixty-one seats are needed to form the government, and if he wins, Netanyahu has denied that he will try to quash his trial or that the

extremists will have power.

NETANYAHU: I won't do anything that affects me. I think my trial is unraveling as it is. I've had such partners in the past, they didn't change

an iota of my policies.

GOLD: And before he can decline the spot to the ideas, hoping to claw his way back to power one parliamentary seat at a time.

Hadas Gold, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: Well, please tune into CNN tomorrow as we bring you for coverage of Israel's election and it is also the first day for a brand-new lineup of

shows. We will begin your day with "CNN NEWSROOM WITH MAX FOSTER AND BIANCA NOBILO" at 4:00 a.m. Eastern. There's also new breakfast show from the U.S.

with Don Lemon, Poppy Harlow, and Kaitlan Collins. And then Max will be back for round two with the new "CNN NEWSROOM WITH MAX FOSTER" at 8:00.

Well, that was THE GLOBLA BRIEF. I'm Lynda Kinkade. Thanks so much for watching.

Stay with CNN. "WORLD SPORT" is up next.

END