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IAEA: Zaporizhzhia Plant Still Considered Ukrainian Facility; North Korea Believed To Be On Verge of 7th Nuclear Test; School District Fires Ex-DPS Officer After CNN Report; Lee County Residents Grow Frustrated with Relief Efforts; Anti-Government Protesters Burn Scarves in Iranian Capital. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired October 07, 2022 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: It's worrying to think that two different countries own it when it's so sensitive.

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's been a flash point since the beginning of the conflict but matters have really escalated this week. But from the very start almost Russia took control of the nuclear power plant. It is under Russian military control. However, it is still run by Ukrainian technicians. And it is very close to the front line.

Just yesterday there was an early morning missile strike right around that area. Several people killed including a young child. But why, I say this escalated this week, is because of this decree that was signed by Putin which essentially illegally annexes a nuclear power plant. And in wake of that agreement -- that illegal annexation rather, what the IAEA is saying -- the International Atomic Energy Agency is saying, is those Ukrainian technicians are being pressured to sign Russian contracts to work for a Russian company essentially. And that's very concerning. President Zelenskyy brought it up with European leaders yesterday. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): If the Zaporizhzhia plant does not work, we face certain difficulties in Ukraine. We get a situation where we do not have a surplus of electricity which we can in particular export to EU countries. It is also a disadvantage for the EU nations who lose a reliable source of energy supply.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: Now all of the reactors in that plant have been shut down since September. The IAEA says that there are indications though that one of those reactors could be brought back up. Which brings that concern, that specter, that probability of nuclear disaster, reactor working up near the front lines. This competing claim over who can run the power plant. The practical reality that the Russian military is and now the International Atomic Energy Agency's chief is expected to travel to Moscow as early as today, potentially to try to reach a deal essentially, to create a security zone around this plant.

He was in the -- the IAEA chief was in Kyiv yesterday. He says some progress was made on that. On the Ukrainian side he met with President Zelenskyy. We'll wait and find out if he could push Moscow on the possibility of this security zone around the plant as well. But yet again, justice worrying flashpoint in this conflict.

FOSTER: OK, Salma, thank you.

The U.S. and South Korea have begun two days of joint naval exercises off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula. Joint drills between the U.S., South Korea and Japan have been ongoing since last week in response to North Korea's recent provocations. Biden administration officials privately admit they don't know why North Korea has suddenly stepped up its ballistic missile tests with six of them in just the past two weeks.

And while they can't predict what leader Kim Jong-un will do next, they strongly expect he's about to escalate tensions even further with yet another underground nuclear test.

CNN's Paula Hancocks is following all of these developments with us from Seoul, South Korea. We don't get the intel, do we, from North Korea so we're just trying to join the dots here.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly, Max. Here's the perennial problem, there isn't hard and fast intelligence coming out from North Korea, and quite frankly, never has been. So, this is really an admission by the Biden administration officials to CNN that they have very little to work with. The fact that they don't know exactly why North Korea is carrying out this prolific amount of missile launches at this time.

We did though hear from John Kirby of the National Security Council, the coordinator there, saying that they do know that North Korea wants to improve weapons capabilities. Saying it's hard to divine intelligence but that is what they do now. And that is what Kim Jong- un has also told us.

Back in January 2021 he announced a five-year plan. He effectively gave \ the world a wish list of the weapons and the capabilities that he wanted to perfect. In experts have been pointing to this list saying that one by one he is working his way through that list, ticking the boxes and making sure that he can perfect the weapons and missile capabilities.

Now of course, one of the thing that we know that Kim Jong-un would like to perfect is the nuclear capability. And we have heard from intelligence agencies in the United States and here and South Korea that they believe that may be imminent. They have though, I must caution, been saying that for months.

We have heard from the intelligence agency here briefing lawmakers, they believe there may be a window after the Chinese Party Congress which is in the middle of October. They don't want to upset their main benefactor. It but then maybe before the U.S. mid-term elections. So, it's still a guessing game. But it is an educated guessing game as to what Kim Jong-un wants to do.

There is a tendency among many nations to try and attribute a reason for these missile launches. Kim Jong-un and North Korean foreign ministry have given us a reason through their state-run media.

[04:35:00]

They've said their launching missiles at the moment because they are irritated by the U.S./South Korea joint drills which happened last week.

Now as you mentioned, Max, those are now happening again in response to the missile launches, the naval powers of the U.S. and South Korea are carrying out a two day naval drill. Japan was involved on Thursday as well. So, at this point experts point to this tit-for-tat reaction. A missile launch from North Korea, a military response and reaction from the U.S. and South Korea, sometimes from Japan. They don't see that changing in the near future.

FOSTER: Paula Hancocks in Seoul, thank you for the update.

A former Texas state trooper under investigation in the response to a deadly state shooting is out of her new job after a CNN report. We'll explain.

A week after hurricane Ian tore a path of destruction across Florida, patience is wearing thin. Coming up, why some residents say recovery efforts have left them behind.

Plus, another powerful storm brewing in the Atlantic. CNN's Britley Ritz has the latest forecast next.

BRITLEY RITZ, CNN METEOROLOGIST: We now have tropical depression 13. When the storm will be named and the latest on its track and impacts across Central America coming up in just a few minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: CNN has learned an officer who responded to the school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, has now been fired from her new job. This comes after CNN report that Crimson Elizondo is one of the officers under investigation for the response to the mass shooting in which 19 children and 2 teachers were killed. Officers waited 77 minutes before taking out the gunman and Elizondo is seen here standing outside the school that day but with no body armor or rifle as officers are trained to do. Later she's heard on camera in exchange with fellow officers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[04:40:00]

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER (voice-over): An officer asked if her children attend Robb Elementary. Elizondo's response.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your kids, OK?

CRIMSON ELIZONDO, FORMER STATE TROOPER: Yes, my sons in daycare. He's not old enough.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw you.

ELIZONDO: Yes, no. If my son had been in there, I would not have been outside, I promise you that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: After the shooting Elizondo left her job as a state trooper and was hired as an officer at an elementary school where children who survived the massacre are now being sent. Parents who recognized her there were outraged. The school district issued a statement announcing her termination effective on Thursday. Elizondo declined to speak with CNN. She's one of seven current and former DPS officers under investigation over the response to the Robb Elementary shooting. The school's police chief was fired in August.

Now local authorities say 84 undocumented migrants were rescued from a semi-truck in southwest Texas on Thursday. Sheriff's deputies along with U.S. customs and border protection found the vehicle while responding to a call from a concerned citizen. It was found in a town about eight miles north of the U.S. border with Mexico. That's about 13 kilometers. Officials say the migrants are from Central America and that none of them asked for medical assistance when found. An investigation into the incident is underway.

Hurricane Ian is now blamed for at least 131 deaths in the U.S. nearly half of the 126 deaths reported in Florida are in Lee County where the hurricane made its U.S. landfall. Many who survived the storm lost everything. And now there's growing frustration with recovery efforts from state and federal agencies. CNN's Leyla Santiago reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the line for help, help for people like Mary Fernandes.

MARY FERNANDES, FORT MYERS BEACH RESIDENT: Pretty awful. We lost our mobile home and everything in it.

SANTIAGO (voice-over): She arrived really hoping to talk to FEMA in time to make it to a scheduled surgery she's been waiting for two months for. On top of that, in a week, she has to leave the place where she's staying.

FERNANDES: We just have to wait and see and hope that they can give us something and we can go stay somewhere. We have no home

SANTIAGO (voice-over): In line in front of her, Susan.

SUSAN TADEY, FORT MYERS RESIDENT: My roof is gone. The shed's gone. The lanai is gone and my car got flooded.

SANTIAGO (voice-over): And way behind them, Mary Broomfield.

MARY BROOMFIELD, HARLEM HEIGHTS RESIDENT: The sad part of that is I have yet to see a government official or anyone that come -- came into our community.

SANTIAGO (voice-over): It's a one stop shop set up by FEMA. Here, you'll find the federal government, state agencies, insurance companies. You also find long lines under the hot sun, as well as overwhelming emotions and needs of all kinds, mounting frustrations.

BROOMFIELD: My patience is gone. People in my community, they lost everything.

SANTIAGO (voice-over): FEMA says it will open other disaster recovery centers like this one in Fort Myers. Nearly 2,800 FEMA staff are supporting Ian's response efforts across the west coast of Florida where Ian hit. But still, some of these people feel they've been left behind.

BROOMFIELD: I don't have to live in Sanibel or Fort Myers Beach to be one of the people that they care about, because to me that seems like that's all they care but at this point.

SANTIAGO (voice-over): We went to Mary Broomfield's neighborhood, Harlem Heights, with the loses on display on every road.

PASTOR TERRY MOBLEY, THE CHURCH OF HARLEM HEIGHTS: Sanibel, Fort Myers Beach, McGregor Boulevard, nothing about Harlem Heights, so we felt -- definitely felt left out.

SANTIAGO (voice-over): There are distribution points but mostly by nonprofits.

MOBLEY: We're trying to provide and meet the basic needs of the people of my community.

SANTIAGO (voice-over): As for Mary Fernandes, she never made it to the front of the line. She left when she realized she ran out of time in order to make it to her surgery. Time now critical for those with dire needs a week after Ian left these people devastated, still waiting for help.

SANTIAGO: And remember, this week President Biden was here in Florida. He asked people to be patient with the response, but as we've been here talking to people, it is clear patience is wearing.

But now a bit of an update. I was able to catch up with Susan as she was leaving. She had a new cell phone. She said that the insurance company is going to help her out with getting a car so she can get back to work. And FEMA will be helping her with housing.

Leyla Santiago, CNN, Fort Myers, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: We're tracking another powerful storm churning in the Atlantic. Tropical depression 13 formed in the Caribbean that is now located southwest of Caraco. It's expected to strengthen into a higher category 1 hurricane before making landfall in Nicaragua on Sunday morning. CNN meteorologist Britley Ritz joins us now with the very latest developments. Hi, Britley.

RITZ: Hi, good morning. Yes, we are definitely tracking tropical depression 13. A lot of convection around an undefined center still getting sheared off to the west a bit.

[04:45:00]

And as it moves over the Guajira Peninsula, it's expected to strengthen as it pushes into warm waters. Right now, the Peninsula under a tropical storm warning. The eyelets under a hurricane watch. That just indicates strengthening. The warm waters -- they're in the 80s. That's fuel for the system to get its act together and that's exactly what's forecast to become a cat one storm with 75 mile per hour winds later Saturday evening.

Moving on shore as a tropical storm somewhere along the coast line of Nicaragua with winds 50 miles an hour. Weakening as it moves through Honduras -- is the friction of the land -- and significantly weakens. But regardless of that weakening, one of the bigger threats going to be life threatening amounts of rain. Landslides in the higher elevations -- 4 to 6 inches widespread. Some of these areas and parts of Guatemala and Honduras could be picking up over 10 inches of rain. Not a good situation to be end.

I want to show you this. The American model versus the European model, yes, they are in agreement when it comes down to where the eye will be and where we may be getting potential landfall. But the on shore flow, another thing to pay attention to. All of that water gets pushed up on to shore within the islands. 1 to 3 feet expected for the Catalina Islands. So, we have to pay attention to that as well.

Another thing to mention, it's getting cold. We're in fall and we're really starting to feel it. Another burst of air with the next front that's moving through. The Ohio Valley and the southeast all the way through New England, Pittsburgh, working our way into the 50s for highs, by the way, on Saturday. And doing the same for us in Boston and New York. Yes, some of us are actually dealing with frost advisories and freeze watches later on through the weekend. And that includes parts of the Ohio Valley.

So that cold air moves through. We'll try to warm it back up but it's just going to take some time. Look at New York, trying to warm it back up there through the middle of next week but Saturday's going to be awfully chilly down into the 50s.

FOSTER: Britley Ritz thank you very much indeed for joining us.

We are getting new images of a fiery protest in the Iranian capital. Demonstrators burning scarves and calling for the dictator's death. Details just ahead.

[04:50:08] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: That is the sound of protesters in the Iranian capital chanting death to Khamenei, meaning Iran's supreme leader, the ayatollah. And they're burning scarves, supposedly hijabs -- but CNN can't confirm that. These bold acts folding into Iran, the government's seat of power after weeks of anti-regime rallies and a violent crackdown of security forces which in turn triggered new U.S. sanctions on Thursday.

This outpouring of anger began after the death of a young woman who had been arrested by Iran's so-called morality police for allegedly wearing her hijab incorrectly. CNN's Nada Bashir has been closely following these developments for us. And these images are so hard to watch, not least because of the reaction of these morality police as they're called.

NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: Yes, absolutely. Across the country now we've seeing protest demonstrations taking place. But time and time again we are seeing this intense, violent police crackdown on the demonstrators. And we are now learning more details about a specific incident in the southeastern city of Zahedan, which is home the minority community, the Baloch community and we've heard their report -- a shocking report from Amnesty International detailing the nature of that violent crackdown on demonstrators. Live fire ammunition, metal pellets being used by the security forces. Teargassed also being ordered to disperse these protestors.

Now this specific incident came -- according to the campaigners in response to the alleged rape of a girl by a police officer. And according to that campaigner they later saw a local police station being set a light, set on fire by demonstrators. But of course, this really reflects the violent crackdown that we've seen across the country in response to these demonstrations.

Antiregime demonstrations that as you mentioned, were sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in detention. But also now, are encompassing wider grievances with the Iranian regime overall. Now we've heard various death toll figures from officials and also course, from human rights organizations. Some pegging this around more than 150 people killed and of course, hundreds of others injured. And we've seen those dramatic videos coming out. According to Amnesty, considering the evidence that they've seen, at least in Zahedan, their expecting the death toll to be actually a lot higher than 82. That's the number that they've outlined there.

On reaction to this, of course, we have seen support from the international communities, not the least of which the United States. President Biden and the White House outlining new sanctions on seven key individuals, including the interior minister of Iran who oversees the Iranian security forces. But also crucially, the minister of communications because of course, we have seen that Internet blackout, the restrictions to Internet.

FOSTER: To stop those videos from getting out. BASHIR: Exactly, and that is the crucial evidence that were seen. And

the Iranian regime is really taking a hardline approach to try to stop those videos from getting out.

FOSTER: OK Nada, thank you.

Now we're just minutes away from learning the winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize as we hear that sort of news. And that announcement was expected at the top of the hour in Oslo, Norway. The Nobel committee is notoriously tight lipped and has a strong track record of choosing relative unknowns as well. But experts have zeroed in on these people as possibilities this year. This year's prize also comes amid Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine, of course. In many people want Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to receive it. Although some experts think that's unlikely and perhaps too soon as well.

On Thursday the Swedish committee in Stockholm awarded the Nobel Prize for literature to the French author Annie Ernaux. The Academy said the 82-year-old writer deserved the prestigious prize because of the quote, courage and clinical acuity of her autobiographies. Upon learning she had won, Ernaux called it a great honor and she offered this advice to young people. Read as much as possible and strive to write honestly.

[04:55:03]

Now a frightening moment in the Thursday night's NFL game between the Indianapolis Colts and the Denver Broncos. Take a look as Colts running back Nyheim Hines catches his short pass from Matt Ryan. He takes a big hit there and just a few seconds later you can see he struggles to stand up and has to be helped off the field. The Colts coach said after the game that Hines had suffered a concussion.

It's been a contentious issue for the NFL this season amid growing concerns for player safety. The Miami Dolphins quarterback had to be carried off the field on a stretcher after a hard hit last Thursday. He's also knocked out of game 4 days earlier after his helmet hit the turf.

Now the Vatican is using modern technology to recreate the life of a man considered by Catholics to be the first pope.

An 8 minute film, "Follow Me, The Life of Saint Peter," is lighting up St. Peter's Basilica. It features Renaissance artwork from the Vatican museums depicting the life of the apostle. The show is free to watch for visitors in St. Peter's Square until October 16th. And you can also all see it on the Vatican's YouTube channel.

Thanks for joining me here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster in London. "EARLY START" with Christine Romans is next right here on CNN.