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Fiona Bears Down On Canadian Maritimes; Russia Forces Thousands To Join War; Decades-Long Political War On Immigration Heats Up; Ukrainian Civilians Endure Constant Shelling In Bakhmut; Iran State Media Cites 35 Deaths During Protests For Mahsa Amini; Sunday's Italian Elections Could Make History; NASA Spacecraft Set To Deliberately Crash Into Asteroid. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired September 24, 2022 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hello and welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and all around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM --
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will transport people who want to be -- not everybody wants to be -- and we will try to encourage people to take shelter.
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Parts of Canada are preparing for what could be their largest storm in almost 50 years. I'll speak to the mayor of a Canadian city bracing for Fiona's wrath just after the storm made landfall in Nova Scotia.
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Plus, a state of emergency has been declared in Florida as a tropical storm heads straight for the coast. We're live from the CNN Weather Center on the latest.
And a look at Russia's referenda across the Russia-occupied regions of Ukraine with the aim of annexing them to the federation, which President Biden is calling a sham.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Kim Brunhuber.
BRUNHUBER: And we begin in the North Atlantic, where a deadly storm that caused massive destruction across several Caribbean islands just made landfall in eastern Nova Scotia. Damaging winds and heavy rain are pounding the region as the storm races northward.
Residents from all across Atlantic Canada did what they could before the sun went down to prepare, including in Nova Scotia, where people waited in long lines to stock up on supplies like food, water and propane.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just getting basic stuff that doesn't really have to be cooked (INAUDIBLE) too bad. But we'll know for a week or two and then I'm fine, because I have a trailer that I'm staying in, too. So hopefully, it doesn't get blown away.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) do to us. We're used to winter blizzards and whatnot but not a hurricane.
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BRUNHUBER: Now I want to bring in Brian Button, the mayor of Port aux Basques, on Newfoundland's southwestern coast.
Thanks for being with us. Nova Scotia is being pummeled, they're calling for three story waves.
What's the indication on your coast right now?
MAYOR BRIAN BUTTON, PORT AUX BASQUES, NEWFOUNDLAND: Right now, the winds have picked up considerably since overnight. We've got pounding rain as well. Even here at my place -- I'm a little bit higher,, I guess, part of the community.
And the winds, before I came here to sit down to talk with you, the winds are just pounding at the windows here now.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, I used to live in Halifax. I know Atlantic Canada is used to storms, big storms.
How scary is it, when you hear that you're potentially being hit with something expected to be the worst in a generation?
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BUTTON: Well, I think you spoke to someone earlier and they said, you know, we're used to winds, we're used to storms and we're used to these type things coming our way.
But this particular storm has come with, I guess, the buildup and the looking at all of the patterns for it and all of the information that we're receiving.
This one has come with a little bit more anxiety for everyone because we're worried about the storm surges and the sea and the tidals because most of our community is living right on the coastline, living right near the Atlantic Ocean. And we're very concerned about this.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, absolutely. And the potential for being cut off as well is huge.
How have you been preparing as a community? BUTTON: Well, we first of all, as the community, you know, we did our regular things, which our crews have done to ensure some things around our way. Our biggest concern, this being still the end of the summer season, a lot of people having summer things out -- their patio furniture, trampolines, all of those things laid around.
We're trying to advise our residents to get in as much as you can, tie it down, put it inside, whatever you have to do at this point. We've had several meetings with all of the different groups that may be involved, from emergency groups to the province, so on and so forth.
Last evening, we received more information that we may see it even larger than what we thought. So we kind of, right up until about 11:30 pm last night, we were still making calls to residents just to try to give some heads-up that you need to be up. You need to be watching what's going on.
You need to be ready to move in a moment's notice if you don't already move right then.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, absolutely. Now making things worse, I understand you still haven't fully recovered from flooding last year. And you were hoping to make improvements to protect you from storms like this one. And that hasn't happened.
BUTTON: Yes. We suffered some, you know, damages in the last about 10 months ago. We were hit with a major rainstorm. And we -- and winds and some pounding at that time.
And we received some, you know, damage to our infrastructure around the coastline. As you know, this type of stuff we had hoped -- we've got applications in for the funding, emergency funds through the province, so on and so forth. We're been hoping to have that approved and have some work done to reinsure our infrastructure.
Some work is done so we've left ourselves a little bit vulnerable to what may happen here during the storm. In saying that, we have tried to do the best we can to secure things up.
But you know, it's one of these things; the type of storm that we have that's going to pound our coastline right now, you know, I'm more worried that it's not what we may have been able to get there. It's what it's going to do to the rest of it and others that we have in, didn't get touched last time.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, I know, as we might see more and more extreme weather, certainly coastal communities like yours are very vulnerable. And we certainly wish you the best in weathering this latest storm. Mayor Brian Button, thank you so much for talking to us. All the best to you and your community.
BUTTON: Thank you for having us.
BRUNHUBER: All right.
Well, a state of emergency has been declared in Florida, as tropical storm Ian forms. The storm is currently several hundred miles south of Jamaica and moving west. Ian is expected to strengthen as it makes its way to Cuba by Monday evening.
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BRUNHUBER: If you want to help, go to cnn.com/impact, there's a list of verified organizations ready to help you make a difference.
U.S. is warning to Vladimir Putin, telling him to tread carefully with the referenda now underway in occupied areas of Ukraine. President Biden said the voting is just a pretext for Moscow to try to annex those territories. He said that Russia will pay a swift and severe economic price if the annexation happens.
Many Western leaders are dismissing the referenda as a sham vote. And the G7 echoed that, saying it wouldn't recognize the results.
Ukraine said many people are staying away from voting but some are being forced to cast ballots. It also says some underage people are being allowed to vote to increase the turnout. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said few are buying Russia's spin on the referenda.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The world will react absolutely fairly to the pseudo referenda. They will be unequivocally condemned, as well as to the criminal mobilization that the occupiers are trying to carry out in Crimea and other parts of Ukraine that they still control.
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BRUNHUBER: For more, we're joined by Ivan Watson in Hong Kong.
Ivan, take us through the reaction to these so-called referenda, both in Ukraine and the international community.
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, first of all, a Kremlin spokesperson says that the Russian government could move quickly to formally annex these Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine where the referenda are currently being carried out.
Russian-installed officials in these areas, they're saying things like this is a dream come true. And they're going to embrace returning, as they put it, to the Russian motherland. The Ukrainian government is calling this a sham and accusing the Russian forces of basically forcing people to vote at gunpoint.
Look at this video, this security cam video. We heard from the Russian occupation administration that in the Luhansk and the Zaporizhzhya region, they're actually bringing ballot boxes to the people to try to get them to vote. In this case, this is a video we believe from the Enerhodar city,
where they are coming with the ballots and a Chechen fighter and many other handout videos show men in uniform at the places where people are supposed to vote.
That suggests intimidation at the very least. Meanwhile, in Russia, in Moscow and in St. Petersburg, we saw these big pro-government rallies supporting this referendum policy in an effort to kind of show that there's some enthusiasm for this in Russian society.
What we're not seeing as much enthusiasm for is Vladimir Putin's announcement on Wednesday that he is going to conduct what he calls partial mobilization of hundreds of thousands of Russian men to go fight in Ukraine.
The plane tickets on flights out of Russia are almost all sold out. The prices have skyrocketed.
And then we've seen this phenomenon of long lines. You're looking at footage from the Georgia-Russia border, where we had people travel today. They saw almost exclusively Russian men crossing that border terminal, waiting, as some of those men said, 10, 12 hours to get in.
Almost all of the men we spoke with said they're trying to evade this draft. They do not want to go fight and potentially die in Ukraine.
And we've seen similar lines reported on the borders of Kazakhstan and in Finland as well. In criticism, the jailed opposition dissident, Alexey Navalny, is calling the referenda a sham or fake and the mobilization order a crime. That's echoed by a former president of Russia's neighbor, Mongolia, who had this unusual video message for Vladimir Putin.
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TSAKHIAGIIN ELBEGDORJ, FORMER MONGOLIAN PRESIDENT AND PRIME MINISTER: Your mobilization brings oceans of suffering. Mr. President, stop your senseless killings and destruction. I have a message to those who are fleeing Russia. The world will meet you with open arms and hearts.
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WATSON: The wave of men fleeing Russia right now suggests at least part of Russian society, Kim, does not want to risk its life on Ukrainian battlefields. Kim.
BRUNHUBER: Thanks, Ivan Watson, appreciate it.
The U.N. Commission said war crimes have been committed during Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It's found several cases in which children have been raped and tortured and killed in indiscriminate attacks. Almost all of the atrocities were conducted by Russians and only two by Ukrainians. Listen to this.
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ERIK MOSE, CHAIRMAN, U.N. INDEPENDENT COMMISSION OF INQUIRY ON UKRAINE: These acts amounted to different types of violations of rights, including sexual violence, torture and cruel and inhumane treatment. There are examples of cases where relatives were forced to witness the crimes.
In the cases we have investigated, the age of victims of sexual and gender-based violence range from 4 to 82 years.
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BRUNHUBER: Ukraine says one person is dead after a Russian drone strike on the city of Odessa on Friday. Russia reportedly used drones made in Iran. In response, Ukraine revoked the accreditation of Iran's top diplomat in Kyiv.
And in the east, 30 bodies found in Izyum show signs of torture. Experts have finished the exhumation of more than 430 human remains found after a recent Russian retreat. Ukraine also claims there are at least three more mass burial sites in newly liberated areas.
Still ahead, Donald Trump tries to stop a grand jury from learning more about his efforts to stay in power. Details on his battle to keep that information under wraps.
Plus, the long political battle over immigration is heating up a the U.S. heads into the final stretch of the midterm elections. Find out what's at stake in a few moments. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Former U.S. President Donald Trump is trying to stop a grand jury from gathering information from his inner circle about his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
People briefed on the matter tell CNN that Trump's attorneys have been fighting a secret court battle to prevent witnesses from sharing those details. It's his most aggressive step so far to assert executive and attorney-client privilege. CNN's Jessica Schneider has the exclusive report.
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JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Trump's legal team is looking to create a firewall here, a situation where a circle of former Trump aides and former White House aides, if called before a grand jury, they would have a broad opportunity to deflect questions under this premise of executive or attorney-client privilege. We already know that at least four former officials have been before
the grand jury regarding January 6 and they've all declined to answer at least some questions, citing executive privilege.
But the question here is how broad is executive privilege or attorney- client privilege. That's what the DOJ and Trump's lawyers are litigating right now in secret.
Now our team was tipped off about this when they saw several of Trump's lawyers leave the D.C. federal courthouse on Thursday. Our team has even uncovered email from Eric Herschmann, a lawyer who worked for Trump.
He's expressing frustration that he was told by Trump's team just to assert privilege over everything he could, resist answering any questions from the grand jury. So now, actually, his subpoena is on hold while this fight plays out about how broadly privilege can be asserted.
And if Trump's team loses here, that can mean that some of the White House officials who have already testified, including former White House counsel Pat Cipollone, they could be called back to the grand jury to give more detailed information.
But of course, this is all being played out under seal, in secret court proceedings. So it could be a while to see exactly how this case is decided -- Jessica Schneider, CNN, Washington.
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BRUNHUBER: Democrats and Republicans are ramping up their verbal attacks as the midterm elections get closer. On Friday, President Biden criticized Republicans for what he calls a thin series of policy goals that provide no details of what they will do if they gain control of Congress.
Meanwhile, Republican governors continue to send asylum-seeking migrants from border states to Democratic-controlled northern cities like Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts.
Republicans saying they're focusing on the economy and education and especially border security and the immigration crisis. CNN's Phil Mattingly has more on the long, drawn-out political battle over immigration.
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PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Days after taking office, President Biden signaled a sharp turn from his predecessor on immigration.
BIDEN: This is about how America is safer, stronger, more prosperous when we have a fair orderly and humane legal immigration system.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Nineteen months later, an explosive mix of legal, policy and political disputes left Biden last week to tacitly acknowledged a work still in progress.
BIDEN: We have a process in place to manage migrants at the border. We're working to make sure it's safe and orderly and humane.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Annual border arrests surpassed 2 million this month, already a record in a single year, the record set during Biden's first year in office. Republican governors eager to draw attention to the scale of the tumult.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a crisis now getting a little bit more attention.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Have transported 1000s of migrants to liberal U.S. enclaves drawing a sharp rebuke from Democrats and Biden.
BIDEN: Republicans are playing politics with human babies using them as props. What they're doing is simply wrong.
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MATTINGLY (voice-over): But also elevating a critical political vulnerability for Democrats less than 50 days from the midterm election, with Republicans now holding a 17-point edge on immigration and a 36-point edge on border security according to an NBC survey last week.
It's a, quote, "political issue" at the center of GOP campaign ads.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is Joe Biden's America. An invasion at our southern border.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): One that has claimed victim more than 2 decades of major bipartisan attempts to clinch immigration reform.
GEORGE W. BUSH, 43RD PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've asked for a few minutes of your time to discuss a matter of national importance, the reform of America's immigration system.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): A multi-year push by Republican President George W. Bush, eviscerated by his own party as talk radio drove conservative outcry. In 2013, a bipartisan breakthrough moment in the Senate.
BIDEN: The bill as amended is passed.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Destroyed by a single House Republican primary defeat where the issue loomed large.
Even Donald Trump, who built an entire campaign on anti-immigrant positions.
And, of course, this was on the cusp of a major breakthrough, only to kill the proposal with a single tweet. Biden's own comprehensive immigration reform bill remains on the shelf in the Democrat controlled House and Senate. Internal administration battles have led to departures and disillusionment for some aides. And according to multiple sources, acute frustration from Biden himself all as the makeup of migrant flows continues its own rapid shifts, posing entirely new challenges.
BIDEN: What's on my watch now is Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua. And the ability to send them back to those states is not rational.
Officials now scrambling to deal with 175 percent increase from the year prior and migrants from three countries with little or no U.S. relations and a strong claim to asylum.
JAKE SULLIVAN, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Citizens in those three countries are struggling under the weight and yoke of the repressive governments of those three countries. And they are trying to get out.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): A reality that complicates the role of Vice President Kamala Harris, whose immigration mandate has been to focus on the root causes of Central American migration.
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If you come to our border, you will be turned back.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Leaving Harris open to attacks for messages like this.
HARRIS: The border is secure. But we also have a broken immigration system in particular over the last four years before we came in and it needs to be fixed.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): With the Vice President's own home becoming a drop off point for migrants bused from Texas.
GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): If they will not go to the border, we're taking the border to them.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Just the latest accelerate in the decades long, heated political war, ripping the parties further apart and away from the only area of actual agreement about the U.S. immigration system.
ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: It is not built to manage the current levels and types of migratory flows. Only Congress can fix this.
MATTINGLY: As the surge at the border continues, U.S. officials are now in the midst of what's being called intensive diplomacy to try to address the new surge in migrants coming from countries like Cuba and Nicaragua. That is ongoing.
And they're working with countries in the region to try to stem some of that tide. More broadly, however, there's recognition, particularly in this political season, that the efforts by Republican governors to continue to transport migrants up into Democratic cities and states not going to end anytime soon. Administration officials tell me they are ready for that, working with
government agencies, FEMA in particular, and some cities where thousands of migrants have been sent.
They don't know of any new flights or bus transports happening in the near term. However, there's an expectation they will continue. Obviously, Election Day is less than 50 days away -- Phil Mattingly, CNN, the White House.
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BRUNHUBER: Fighting coming close to home in a Ukrainian city that's fending off Russian attacks. Some residents experienced it in front of our camera, have a look.
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Still ahead, what life is like for Ukrainians near the front lines.
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Plus, a live report coming up in the latest Iran, where the death toll from days of street protests continues to rise amid a government crackdown. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.
Many Russians are trying to get out of the military draft by getting out of the country. Have a look here.
This is some of the latest video from Russia's border with Georgia, which has been swamped by traffic out of Russia in recent days. Now people have been scrambling to leave the country since President Putin an announced a mobilization on Wednesday, which could see 300,000 men called up.
It was a similar scene along the border with Kazakhstan, where traffic was picked up by 20 percent in recent days. According to some witnesses, the wait was 10 hours long at one point.
Now to the north, along the line of cars backed up at Russia's border with Finland, the Finnish prime minister said her government is ready to take action against Russian arrivals but fellow E.U. member Germany said it's open to accept Russians who flee mobilization.
More than 6,400 Russians traveled into Finland on Thursday by land, according to a local border official.
Ukrainian troops say they have improved their position around Bakhmut, an eastern city that Russia is trying to take. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh was there and spoke to residents who have been forced underground.
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NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As Russia forces a fake choice and a sham vote on occupied Ukrainians, elsewhere, Igor (ph) and Xena (ph) make the daily deadly choice of their own. They must brave the shelling to go and get food.
XENA (PH), DONETSK REGION RESIDENT (through translator): We have no relatives. Nowhere to go.
IGOR (PH), DONETSK REGION RESIDENT (through translator): It's worse and worse.
XENA (PH) (through translator): That's it. We're going home.
WALSH (voice-over): They've heard of Russia's stage referenda here in Bakhmut but Moscow makes itself felt here with artillery, rather than imposing a ballot, likely having entered the city's east.
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WALSH (voice-over): Streets in a strange quiet, as if in the eye of a storm where nobody is in control. They will still have to fight their way in.
A sign of how things are changing fast here, Ukrainian forces have blown the bridge in the middle of the city, in the last day or so. Russian forces getting close.
The people left ask us not to film the outside of shelters as the Russians will target them and they've already gone underground as much as they can.
They are saying some of these things are taken from buildings that have been bombed and brought to here. A lot of people want the back of their head filmed, possibly because they're concerned that, in the days ahead, they may be under Russian control.
He tells me perhaps 20,000 people are still hiding out here but there is no real way to know.
The choice Russia imposes on Ukrainians here is spending nights underground and scurrying between shelter.
Days of hot words from Putin haven't cooled Ukraine's advance. The threat of nuclear annihilation carry slightly less aura here on the road to liberated Izyum, where it looks like the apocalypse has already come, bar the radiation.
Ten days ago, Russia was kicked out of here after heavy fighting; even the Russian Orthodox Church has collapsed. The devastation seems to almost spur them on.
Announcements in Moscow about partial mobilization haven't really changed the dynamic here of an army that feels it is moving forward.
They've heard about Russia's mobilization and nuclear bombast here, too.
"It will have a role," he says, "But you need to train and supply people, so it won't make much difference as you've destroyed most of their armor."
"There's nothing worse than nuclear war," another says, "But you must understand, these decisions aren't taken by one person and we see in Russia, not everyone supports those moves."
This liberated road is where Donetsk region begins. Ukraine already taking back the places Putin made central to his goals where faked ballot boxes and absurd claims of official Russian sovereignty cannot change who owns and who scarred the land -- Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Donetsk region in Ukraine.
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BRUNHUBER: Iran state media reports released at least 35 deaths in a wave of anti-government protests not seen in years. Casualty figures vary widely, depending on the source and CNN can't verify the death toll.
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Internet service in Iran has largely been shut down, making it extremely difficult to know what's happening. But we are hearing reports that the government crackdown is underway.
The mass demonstrations erupted after a young woman, Mahsa Amini, died last week while in custody of Iran's morality police. The U.N. and others are calling for an independent investigation into her death.
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BRUNHUBER: Now to counter the protesters, a large pro-government rally was held in Tehran as the Iranian president Raisi returned from attending the UNGA in New York. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz joins us live.
Salma, what can you tell us about the growing outrage and crackdown against the protesters?
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Mahsa Amini has really become a symbol of defiance, something much bigger than this horrifying case of a 22-year-old woman, who died in police custody after being arrested by the morality police.
This is becoming a much bigger, a much wider form of protest that we're seeing across dozens of cities against the government, against the morality police, demanding more freedom, calling her name, saying, "Women, freedom, life, using those chants in the street." Those protesters, those demonstrators are being met with brute force.
A monitoring group said live fire is being used on crowds of people. There's social media video that we can't verify. It shows people bleeding and women carrying out incredible acts of bravery, burning their hijabs, standing up to police officers, refusing to put on the head scarf.
But there are concerns that this crackdown that's already been going on for days now that's included an internet blackout, that's included execute forces taking to the streets that's included, of course, the military even showing a willingness to get involved, there are signs, ominous warnings from the Iranian authorities that they could intensify this crackdown.
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ABDELAZIZ: You mentioned, of course, the Iranian president returning to Tehran yesterday. He addressed a group of supporters, describing these protesters as enemies, as a threat to national security.
We saw yesterday, during Friday's prayer, the Iranian government really flex its institutional muscle, using the mosques to get the message out there, that the protesters, these demonstrators, people calling for people, that people should come out in support of the government, counter protests, the internet crackdown going on for days.
The authorities saying it will continue until the so-called order is restored. Already dozens of people -- there are various estimates, of course, on the death toll but dozens of people, we understand, have lost their lives in this crackdown. And yet, it shows no signs of slowing down. So real fears this could all escalate. Kim.
BRUNHUBER: Thanks so much, Salma Abdelaziz in London.
Italians are heading to the polls Sunday. The change in government could lead to the biggest change in the direction of the country since World War II. We'll go live to Rome when CNN NEWSROOM continues. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: History could be made at the polls in Italy on Sunday. The first female prime minister could be voted into office in a country that's seen more than 60 governments in the post-war period. It could also see Italy take a hard turn to the right. Barbie Nadeau is standing by live in Rome.
Barbie, bring us up to speed.
BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is a very important race, not just in Italy but there could be wider implications all across Europe, especially with regard to Ukraine and Russia. If the predictions are right, the far right and center right win the election, we could see a big change. We took a closer look.
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NADEAU (voice-over): Italian politics have never been for the fainthearted. And Sunday's election is already getting a lot of buzz.
And the latest twist is anything but straightforward. Italy has had 67 governments and 30 prime ministers in the last 75 years. Italians head to the polls again on Sunday to try to find the next government. Mario Draghi's fell in July. He spent 17 months in office.
In 2018, the anti-establishment Five Star Movement won the most votes as a party but were unable to find a stable coalition partner.
Giuseppe Conte, who wasn't even listed on the ballot, was chosen as a compromise prime minister until infighting led to the collapse of his government and the appointment of Draghi, before squabbling brought an end to his reign.
The leading coalition, who call themselves center right, is anchored by Giorgia Meloni and her far right Brothers of Italy party. The Roman native started her political career in a neofascist party.
Coalition partners include Matteo Salvini, with his anti-immigrant Lega party, and Italy's longtime former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, with his Forza Italia party.
The latest available polls show the coalition in the lead. But there are already fractures in their coalition and, amid economic fears, calls from some in the coalition to rethink sanctions against Russia.
DARIO FABBRI, "DOMINO MAGAZINE": Sanctions here in Italy, of course, they're perceived as counter-effective and harming Italy's economy first and then Russia's economy. I think they will try to soften our approach toward sanctions.
NADEAU (voice-over): A center right victory would likely also mean a clamp-down on immigration. They have campaigned strongly to stop irregular migration across the Mediterranean Sea.
The left-leaning Democratic Party is banking on former prime minister Enrico Letta, whose government lasted just 10 months in 2013 and 2014 but lacks a strong coalition partner, while polls show that the Five Star Movement has lost some support and many Italians are frustrated.
MAURIZIO TAGLIANI, CAFE OWNER (through translator): Neither Giorgia Meloni nor Letta, nor Conte, I don't feel represented at all.
NADEAU (voice-over): With some voters saying they're undecided and others say they won't vote at all.
(END VIDEOTAPE) NADEAU: And you know, Kim, what's really important, if Giorgia Meloni becomes the first female prime minister here in Italy, which is a male-dominated society, not all women really believe she represents them.
She's got very strong issues on abortion rights and against LGBTQ rights. One of the things we have to keep in mind, when you think about Italian politics, the last available polls were published a couple weeks ago; anything could happen tomorrow. Kim.
BRUNHUBER: All right, we'll be watching. Barbie Nadeau in Rome, thank you so much.
Just ahead, a memorable goodbye as a legendary player ends a storied tennis career. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: A NASA spacecraft about the size of a school bus is on track to deliberately crash into an asteroid on Monday. Although it will be relatively close to Earth, 11 million kilometers away there's no risk of hitting us. Scientists wants to see if the deflection technology could change the speed and path of any asteroid heading to the planet.
A special sight in the night sky Monday for astronomers, both professional and amateur. Jupiter will be closer to Earth than it's been since 1963 according to NASA. The solar system's largest planet will be the brightest object in our sky other than the moon.
So stargazers will have a great view, weather permitting of course. Scientists say Jupiter will seem bigger and brighter because it will only be 367 million miles away.
And before we go, a new image of the new British monarch. Have a look. Buckingham Palace released a photo of King Charles taken last week by Britain's press association. He's pictured with the king's red box, which contains papers from British government ministers, Commonwealth representatives and others.
And in the background, you can see there a picture of his parents, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, given to the couple by the late king's father, King George VI.
That wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. "NEW DAY" is next. For the rest of the world, it's "DECODED: THE METAVERSE."
