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Cuba Is In A Nationwide Blackout After Hurricane Ian Slammed Into The Caribbean Island Nation; Leaders Blame Russia-Europe Pipeline Leaks On Sabotage; Four Occupied Ukraine Regions Plan Imminent "Votes" On Joining Russia. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired September 28, 2022 - 01:00   ET

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

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[01:00:26]

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm John Vause awes at the CNN Center in Atlanta, it is now 1:00 a.m. on the U.S. East Coast, and almost the entire state of Florida, bracing for the impact of Hurricane Ian, a monster storm stretching 700 miles across, which earlier made landfall on Western Cuba, knocking out the island's electricity grid and causing a nationwide blackout. 11 million people right now in the dark, waiting for morning to assess the damage.

As of this hour no reports of any fatalities.

Since leaving Cuba, Ian has grown in strength fueled by the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, as it heads to Florida now category three, with sustained winds of around 120 miles per hour. Along with life threatening storm surge, Florida is facing catastrophic flooding, strong powerful winds.

All day long Tuesday, residents across the state brace for the hurricane to make landfall now expected sooner than first forecast and further to the south. But in some parts, Ian is already being felt. Conditions will deteriorate throughout the night. And authorities are warning some areas will see more than two feet of rain. While the two and a half million people are under some form of evacuation warning. And as of this hour, officials warned time as fast running out to leave.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RON DESANTIS, FLORIDA GOVERNOR: You still have time to do it. You do not have to evacuate hundreds of miles. Obviously if you have friends, family, some of that, hotels that's preferable. But as a last resort, the shelters are open. And I would just urge people to take advantage of that. It's -- I know it's not easy sometimes to leave your home and I know people don't want to see anything bad happen when they get back. But it's -- the stakes are high. This is a very powerful storm.

(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: CNN meteorologist Pedram Javaheri tracking the storm for us again this hour. So Pedram, we know it's moving closely and a little bit further to the south than before.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You know some changes here that are going to make big implications when it comes to exactly where the system ends up how strong it's going to be, and the impacts even across the Tampa Bay area.

But you notice the storm system, the cloud field measures almost 800 miles across from end to end and strong category three just 10 miles per hour shy of what would be a Category 4 hurricane and the perspective here as assistant pushes just west of Key West and but 100 miles south of Naples is the track of the system will eventually bring it ashore we think sometime inside the next 12, maybe 14 hours or so.

In fact, forecast guidance does take us up to a Category 4, winds at that point over 130 miles per hour and then moving it into a tropical storm across the central portion of the state of Florida. But the major concern with a storm of this magnitude across this region certainly is going to be the storm surge threat. And we've seen the model guidance kind of shift this away from Tampa Bay. A few outliers still want to take it over Tampa Bay, the vast majority of it around the Port Charlotte area of Punta Gorda area, let's say 75 or so miles south of Tampa Bay.

But again, you kind of see this. You follow these trends with models. And you generally know that if it's going to shift every single model run a little farther towards the south, you're probably seen a storm that is wobbling farther and farther towards the south. And that's why we think landfall will happen a bit sooner than initially expected.

But notice, that means areas around Port Charlotte, around Boca Grande, Fort Myers, some of these areas could see storm surge magnitudes up to nine feet, that is catastrophic storm surge threat in place there. And because of that Southern shift, portions of Tampa Bay that were forecast to be closer to nine feet this time yesterday, one to three feet, a few pockets could get up to three to six feet still plenty high. But that is kind of one of the elements of concern that we're watching with a system.

And John, we look at the factors here at play when it comes to what's happening in the Gulf of Mexico, the Florida shelf off the west coast of Florida there spans about 150 or so miles off towards the west here and it's a very shallow broad shelf that sits in place depth of about 300 feet. That reason here that shelf in particular allows water to pile up quite effectively.

So, you get essentially water that can easily go up into the base here and create the storm surge threat that we're seeing, of course that is the primary leader in deaths in tropical cyclones. That is one of the areas of concern with this particular storm in general. And that is exactly what we're watching when it comes to where the system could eventually end up.

South of Tampa Bay producing with headwinds that are upwards of 130 miles per hour sustained and away from the center some 140 miles away from the center. You will still feel tropical storm force winds extending all the way into central and north central portions of Florida. Orlando included. So it's certainly not just the area of impact that will feel what the storm has to offer. But the storm of this magnitude the size, John, just about everyone across Central Florida is going to feel the impacts of it as well.

VAUSE: Yes, and then some even beyond that I guess. Pedram, thank you. I appreciate.

[01:05:02]

In many parts of Florida, police and fire departments as well as other emergency responders will soon decide conditions are too dangerous to respond to calls for help. In Tampa, which is especially unprepared and vulnerable to the storm. officials are warning residents of the very real risk to property and the dangers to life. CNN's Ryan Young has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good. Hey, we're coming by and letting everybody know that you're in a mandatory evacuation situation.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): The Tampa Bay area in its final hours of hurricane preparations. Tampa Bay police making last ditch efforts to warn residents flood risk zones to leave now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a reinforcement to let them know that you're in an area where you need to evacuate.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is not a drill.

JANE CASTOR, TAMPA, FLORIDA MAYOR: This is not the time to stay.

YOUNG: Serious warnings to residents here. This vulnerable area expected to be in the crosshairs of hurricane Ian as it barrels toward the west coast of Florida.

CASTOR: We have over 120 miles of coastline just in the city of Tampa.

YOUNG: At least 2.5 million Floridians under various evacuation orders. It's a storm that's predicted to cause water damage like none before.

KENNETH T. WELCH, ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA MAYOR: You're talking about 10 or 15 inches of rain on top of the surge that's unprecedented. No infrastructure is built for that.

YOUNG: With this hurricane, a direct hit isn't necessarily to cause severe flooding. The slow moving storm is predicted to stall just off the coast of Tampa Bay starting Wednesday evening.

CASTOR: It's going to be in our rivers. It's going to be in our streams. It's going to be in our canals. It's going to be in our stormwater drains and ditches. YOUNG: Sandbag locations around Tampa close today at 2:00 and residents doing what they can before heading out.

PEGGY DAVIS, TAMPA, FLORIDA RESIDENT: We're late. But we are we think that if it is a storm surge issue, we will try to seal the openings of the house.

YOUNG: Former Florida Congressman Jim Davis and his wife aren't taking chances. They're prepping their house and getting up.

JIM DAVIS, TAMPA, FLORIDA RESIDENT: I'm not a very good gambler and it's a bit of a gamble if you don't take it seriously.

YOUNG (on camera): The word storm surge is something we heard over and over. City officials are concerned that people will try to drive through water as it starts to rise throughout the city. If you look at the hospital and how they're preparing, you can see those barricades have been put up. That's to stop the water from affecting hospital operations. But again, they are concerned about people who decided not to evacuate and to try to ride this out. Ryan young CNN, Tampa, Florida.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

VAUSE: Joining me now the line is Logan Parham. He's a storm chaser currently in Venice, Florida. Logan, thank you for being with us. What are conditions like right now where you are? And what are you expecting the rain and the wind really start to intensify?

LOGAN PARHAM, STORM CHASER: Hey, good morning, sir. Conditions already are starting to deteriorate fairly quickly. We're starting to have some stronger gusts come through here and there. Rain is definitely getting a lot heavier. I would say conditions. I mean, you know, it can only get worse from here.

VAUSE: Let's check the wind speed of Ian was just 10 miles an hour shy of a category form -- four rather. Add to that, a storm which is more than twice as wide as Central Florida. And it's expected to linger in almost every way. This seems just be the worst possible combination of factors. How bad are you expecting it to get?

PARHAM: Oh, yes, it's not looking great for a vast portion of this area at the moment. I would not be surprised if we see a land falling strong Category 4 hurricane by probably late this afternoon.

VAUSE: Has there been a storm with this sort of factors which has hit Florida the past at all that you can recall?

PARHAM: I see we had -- we've had our run ins with some very strong storms in the past. But this area in particular hasn't seen a whole lot since Hurricane Charley in 2004, which proved to be very devastating. So it'll be interesting.

VAUSE: Charley was so -- was powerful, but fairly small relative to Ian wasn't in terms of how the distance, it was spread across, right? PARHAM: Yes, yes, Charley was a much more smaller, compact storm. This storm is wind field (ph) is very large. So impacts are probably more than likely going to be a lot more widespread than Charley.

VAUSE: So given that, what's the situation emergency responders now facing in Florida because it is spread over a wide area with powerful winds. It's not just one small area, which will take the brunt of it. It's a very wide area. They will take the brunt of it. Are they ready for this in Florida?

PARHAM: Correct. Yes. So I will say that yesterday, it was very unfortunate to see a lot of people were still making last minute preparations. Home Depot was filled up here in Venice, seeing a whole lot of people, you know, making those less mad dashes for gas and any fresh food or water they can get. So, I think a lot of residents are prepared, but I think there's a lot that, you know, really aren't to be honest.

VAUSE: What would you advice right now for someone who decides to ride out the storm?

PARHAM: My best advice right now is really just to have a weather radio on standby that's going to alert you for potentially devastating winds. The potential for tornadoes. Keep an eye on that water level if you know you're in a flood don't know your evacuation zone as well. If that water is coming up, you know, make sure you have a plan that you can enact on.

VAUSE: And explain why it is that this storm got so big so quickly.

PARHAM: Really, we've seen a rapid intensification process. And last night, before closing my eyes for a little bit, we saw a eyewall replacement cycle, which basically means that the eyewall will replenish itself and basically become a more stronger hurricane. Conditions are prime. I mean, it's that time of year, everything's in place.

VAUSE: And the fact that it's heading to the south and avoiding very populated areas of Tampa. That's good news for Tampa, right, but not exactly good news for it's how heading, which is somewhere around Port Charlotte.

PARHAM: Exactly. Yes, very, very eerily similar to Charley where we had mass evacuations in 2004 of the Tampa Bay area, when just the south of Tampa took the brunt of it. So, it's going to be a very, very interesting day or so.

VAUSE: And very quickly give us a timeline here of what we can expect say over the next 12 hours or so.

PARHAM: Over the next 12 hours again conditions now are starting to deteriorate relatively quickly. They will continue to do so giving way to probably sustained hurricane force winds, if I had to guess maybe closer to the 9:00 a.m. hour, you know, early this morning as you're going to be waking up you're going to be having some pretty strong winds rip through and it's not expected to get better for a long time. This is a very large storm that's, you know, forecast a bit slow its forward motion down prolonging the impact of the wind so it's going to be a day-long event.

VAUSE: It's going to linger for a while it seems. Logan, thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate your time sir.

PARHAM: Absolutely. Thank you guys.

VAUSE: Still to come here on CNN, another move by Russia to claim Ukrainian territory as its own by the West is calling voted for partially occupied territories share referendums.

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[01:15:43]

VAUSE: 15 minutes past the hour. Welcome back. European leaders suspect of the mysterious leaks into Nord Stream gas pipelines because they sabotage. Methane bubbles were seen rising to the surface of the Baltic Sea in the damage pipelines. Seismologists reporting two explosions in the area on Monday. It's not clear if that was the cause of the leaks.

Russia cut off the flow of natural gas in one pipeline to Europe last month a bit tensions over the war in Ukraine. The other was not operating commercially yet.

Let's go back to authorities (ph) in full partially occupied regions of Ukraine, say four referendums have resulted in an overwhelming vote in favor of joining Russia. The referendums have been widely denounced by most Western governments as either a sham or facile both.

The hastily arranged referendums were held over five days in the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson, which make up almost 20 percent of Ukraine sovereign territory.

Russian state media say early results show about 95 percent of the vote in favor of joining Russia, although there are reports of officials going house to house collecting votes accompanied by armed soldiers.

The U.S. has introduced a resolution at the UN Security Council calling on Member States not to recognize any change to Ukraine's borders. Here's the US Secretary of State.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We and many other countries have already been crystal clear we will not, indeed we will never recognize the annexation of Ukrainian territory by Russia. And I've also been equally clear that Ukraine has the absolute right to defend itself throughout its territory, including to take back the territory that has been illegally seized in one way or another by Russia.

(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: With us this hour is Masha Gessen, staff writer for The New Yorker and a prolific author writing on topics like Russia, Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, it is a long, long list. Their most recent book is "Surviving Autocracy." Welcome to CNN Newsroom.

MASHA GESSEN, STAFF WRITER, THE NEW YORKER: Thank you for having me.

VAUSE: OK, so the referendums in the former Russian occupied Ukrainian provinces are straight from Putin's playbook after the occupation of Crimea, which means annexation, illegal annexation is likely next. The vote, the results all been announced by Ukraine, the U.S. and Europe and the mayor of one occupied city in eastern Ukraine describe the voting process as being carried out at gunpoint telling the York Times, they bang loudly, they ring the doorbell, they give people a ballot and point with their rifles where to put the mark.

You know, the referendum was a sham in 2014 in Crimea, it's a sham now. So from the Kremlin's point of view, what's the value in all of this?

GESSEN: Well, the value, John, is exactly what you know what you and I are doing right now. You've used the word referendum, you've used the word vote, you've used the word results, right? And I'm going to do that too, because we don't have any language to indicate that all of this is false, right? It's an event. It's a manufactured event. But it has some significance, right. And as much as we try to detract from that significance, something is still happening. They're making some sort of mark, right.

And the purpose of making this mark is obvious. It's to announce that these territories are being annexed. But again, you know, think about it. We do see some sort of distinction between the way that Russia occupies Crimea, which is an illegally occupied territory, and the way that Russia occupies eastern Ukraine, which is an illegally occupied territory.

VAUSE: As expected, the unexplained Moscow illegally that then gives the Kremlin, you know, this sort of excuse, if you like, they can claim the Russian army is there as defenders on invaders, and that puts the threat by Vladimir Putin to use nuclear weapons. He said even quite insignificant since the Russian president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Our country has also various similar weapons, in some cases, more modern weapons than later in order to protect our people, in order to protect Russia we will definitely use all means.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[01:20:00]

VAUSE: So, in other words, in other words, basically the use of nuclear weapons will be used in a defensive capacity as farcical as that sounds. Why is that necessary? Because again, this all seems like kabuki theater. Is it necessary for the domestic audience? Is it necessary for the international audience?

GESSEN: There's still a kind of legalistic aspects of this regime. It is diminishing. But at this point, they're still pretending for some audience, you know, primarily Putin's own audience, which is an audience of people from whom he perceives a potential threat, and his perception of threat is always exaggerated. He's much more afraid of protest, he is much more afraid of dissent than is warranted by the regime and the way it's constructed.

VAUSE: We're also hearing from Dmitry Medvedev, who is the former prime minister, former president, he's currently the Deputy on the National Security Council in Russia. He posted on Telegram that the security of Washington, London and Brussels is much more important for the North Atlantic Alliance than the fate of a dying Ukraine, which no one needs. Overseas and European demagogues are not going to perish in a nuclear apocalypse, they will swallow the use of any weapon, any weapon in the current conflict.

Is he still speaking for Putin? Is this abuse of Vladimir Putin? And I guess, how confident are they in Moscow that there will be no nuclear retaliation? Is that sort of ironclad guarantee in their minds? Or are they sort of rolling the dice here?

GESSEN: Medvedev is not speaking for Putin. He is speaking to Putin. And he is speaking to Putin for two reasons. One is he is trying to convince Putin of his loyalty and importance. He's trying to hold on to his seat, which is not important and tenuous, but he's doing what he can for his own position. And two, he is trying to convince Putin of his right that -- Putin's right to use nuclear weapons.

And so he's trying to tell Putin exactly what Putin wants to hear, which is that as long as he uses a small, tactical nuclear weapon on the territory of occupied Ukraine, which Putin is going to claim is Russian territory, the NATO is not going to respond, because NATO doesn't want that kind of escalation.

VAUSE: But we'll leave it there. But thank you so much for your insights incredibly valuable, and we're really grateful for you being with us. Thank you.

GESSEN: Thank you for having me.

VAUSE: Hurricane Ian has delivered a powerful blow to Cuba's aging power grid. This is more than just an infrastructure problem after recent protests. We'll tell you more on that report from Havana.

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[01:27:05]

VAUSE: Coming up to 27 minutes past the hour here on CNN. More out of the breaking news from Florida. An urgent calls for evacuation as Hurricane Ian moves closer. This Category 3 storm earlier slammed into western Cuba living a path of destruction with the island power grid knocked out. More than 11 million people have been left in the dark. Already parts of Florida are feeling the impact of the storm with many residents bracing for the full impact of Ian and boarding up windows for the up or gas stations were open. Stocking up on supplies.

Ian is expected to make landfall as a Category 3 or possibly four hurricane earlier than first forecast. Possibly as soon as Wednesday afternoon between Sarasota and Port Charlotte, and officials are warning residents in evacuation zones were still there. The time to leave and get to safety is now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN GUTHRIE, DIRECTOR, FLORIDA DIVISION OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: I urge everyone that is in an evacuation zone that has been asked to evacuate. The time is now. You must evacuate now. There will be a point in time where you will not be safe to travel the roads. The time to evacuate is now. Get on the road.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Right now electricity generation in Cuba is practically zero. Officials are hoping power will be restored in the coming day. But it will still be some time before the full extent of the damage from Hurricane Ian is known. A man in Havana is CNN's Patrick Oppmann.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Cuba and it's 11 million inhabitants are currently in a nationwide blackout official said late Tuesday night. After hurricane Ian batter this island, according to officials, it damaged the island's electrical system to a degree that it led to rolling blackouts across this island even in central eastern Cuba that were not affected by the wind in the rain from Hurricane in to the west of Havana. Hundreds of thousands of people are without power because electric cables and electric posts were knocked down by the storm.

In Havana, initially, officials said that they took down power to the city's 2 million inhabitants to keep from -- there being fires and people from being electrocuted from a fallen powerlines. But clearly as of late Tuesday night, officials are unable to restore power to Cuba's capital and to the rest of the island.

[01:29:44]

Now, this is extremely problematic for Cuban officials because for months now the island's aging power grid has been affected by blackout, sometimes for days.

And that has led to -- that has led to residents of many Cuban cities and towns taking the streets in rare -- and what Cuban officials consider to be illegal protests -- demanding power has been restored. But Cuban officials ask for people's patience, and said that they hope to restore power but acknowledge that the electrical situation on the island is, quote, "complicated".

Patrick Oppmann, CNN -- Havana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Back now to CNN meteorologist Pedram Javaheri for the latest on the storm's path. What are we looking?

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. We have the radar imagery here John and we're getting the storm system, really an incredible depiction of the storm system with a massive eye about 100 miles south, southwest of Naples, Florida. You'll notice, these outer bands, the feeder bands kind of usher in some moisture into portions of Florida. The far east of Miami, Coral Springs, tornado warnings popping up, meaning tornadoes imminent or occurring as a result of this.

And you often see this see this with landfalling tropical systems as these outer bands kind of interact and get friction within land and create these tornadoes that pop up. and that's going to be one of these concerns.

You get these nocturnal tornadoes into the overnight hours that could catch people off-guard towards this part of what Hurricane Ian has to offer, sitting at 120 miles per hour sustained winds, just ten miles per hour shy of what would be considered a category 4 hurricane.

And the concern moving forward is that this system has everything it takes to flourish into a category four within the next 12 hours, right before it makes landfall.

We think early Wednesday afternoon, maybe say as early as 1:00 p.m. -- 2:00 p.m. or as late as 5:00 or 6:00 p.m. It makes landfall somewhere south around portions of the Port Charlotte area, not far from Punta Gorda.

Initially models have put this a little farther towards the north, but, at this point, it is just a broad feature, the impact is certainly going to be south (ph) and wide reaching across the state of Florida.

And you'll notice, still a major hurricane shortly after landfall, continues as a tropical storm through the heart of central Florida, reemerging back over the eastern area of the state there before possibly making another landfall across parts of the state of Georgia.

But notice the model guidance really getting tight here as far as the confidence on where the system is going to end up. And typically, when you're within about 12 hours of a landfalling system, the margin of error drops down to about maybe 10 to 15 miles.

So, pretty confident on where this track is because, the last couple of days we've kind of seen this gradual shift moving farther and farther towards the south. That has moved Tampa Bay out of the hardest hit, potential zone there for a storm surge threat but now areas around (INAUDIBLE) on Charlie Harbor hits the storm surge area 6 to 9 feet. This would be catastrophic across this region, and of course, we are

looking at a storm of this magnitude that has spent so much time over water, strengthening and maintaining that intensity.

It has piled up quite a bit of water. That's the concern that the storm surge threat and also the tropical strong force winds, John, that extend some 140 miles away from the center.

So, even if you're not close to that landfall, you are going to have power outages. You're going to have trees come down and significant flooding with as much as 20 plus inches of rainfall before the system's all said and done there.

VAUSE: Yes. It's going to be a tough few days ahead and then some. Thank you, Pedram. We appreciate the update.

Iran facing growing international condemnation over the death of a young woman arrested by the morality police. And coming up, the latest on the unrest over the death Mahsa Amini and why protesters are not backing down.

[01:33:06]

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VAUSE: The U.N. Secretary General says he is increasingly concerned about a crackdown on anti-government protesters in Iran and reports of a growing number of fatalities.

Anger and demonstrations over the death of 22-year-old Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini who died while detained by the morality police, now in its second week. And the response from the hardline religious leaders in Tehran has included attacks on Kurdish groups in neighboring Iraq, reportedly for supporting the protesters.

CNN's Jomana Karadsheh reports despite all of that, on the streets of Iran, calls for justice are growing louder.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Nightfall in Iran brings protesters back onto the streets. A near total Internet blackout by the government is making it hard for us to know what's really going on.

But video trickling out appears to show many Iranians undeterred by a government crackdown, the threat of arrest or the bullets. It almost feels like Iran has been in a never-ending cycle of protests over the past two decades. But those who know the country say everything about this time is different.

TRITA PARSI, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, QUINCY INSTITUTE: This time around, very quickly, almost from the outset they started challenging not just policies of the Islamic Republic but the very structures of it. It's also just (INAUDIBLE) looking at the demographics, these are primarily very, very young people. A younger generation who have apparently completely lost faith that this Islamic Republic can be reformed.

KARADSHEH: And on the streets, there have been varied calls for regime change. This video from the city of Mashhad, the birthplace of the Supreme Leader, shows protesters setting fire to the statue of a man considered one of the symbols of the Islamic revolution.

On Monday, this group marched through the capital Tehran, chanting against Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

But it is the powerful act of defiance by Iranian women that have stunned the world. As protests enter their second week, they are still out on the streets, still demanding their freedoms, their rights lost with the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The Iranian government rallied its supporters in mass demonstrations, calling the protest a foreign plot, the work of a handful of mercenaries, rioters, who forcefully remove the head scarves of women on the streets.

But in reality, the country-wide protest were sparked by outrage. Even among government supporters over the death of Mahsa Amini in morality police custody. The protests appear leaderless and spontaneous.

[01:39:55]

PARSI: The frustrations were so significant, it was brewing. But they needed a spark. And the spark was that. This is not something that came from the outside. This is not something that was cooked up from the outside. And that is why they were taken so by surprise.

KARADSHEH: While many Iranians outside the country are holding on to the hope that this wave of protests may bring change, experts say the regime is far from collapsing.

PARSI: I don't think that they are about to fall because we have not yet seen the full scale of the reaction. Unfortunately, I fear that we will see a lot of bloodshed before all of this is over.

KARADSHEH: It's full force may crush these protests, but it won't be the end for a generation of Iranians, more emboldened than ever.

Jomana Karadsheh, CNN -- Istanbul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Well, thank you for watching CNN International -- that is our viewers and CNN International, rather.

"INSIDE AFRICA" is up next.

-- preparations for Hurricane Ian, especially in the third biggest city in the state -- Tampa.

[01:40:57]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ("INSIDE AFRICA")

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