Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Four Killed In Russia's "Kamikaze" Drone Attack On Kyiv; Russia Increases Use Of Drones To Attack Ukrainian Cities; Kurdish Women Flee Crackdown In Iran, Take Up Weapons; Prime Minister Liz Truss Apologizes For Mistakes, Vows To Carry On; New U.K. Finance Minister Reverses Controversial Fiscal Plan; China Delays Release Of Economic Data As Party Elite Meet. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired October 18, 2022 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:00:02]
LAILA HARRAK, CNN ANCHOR: Hello everyone, I'm Laila Harrak. Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM.
The White House condemns Russia hours after kamikaze drone strike Kyiv killing several people, including a pregnant woman.
The European Union slaps new sanctions on Iran in response its violent crackdown on protests inside the country.
And Liz Truss says she's sorry for a failed budget that rattled British markets and the pound.
It's 7:00 in the morning in Ukraine, where Russia's latest wave of deadly kamikaze drone strikes is sowing fear in Ukrainian cities far from the frontlines.
Police on the ground in Kyiv taking aim at the drones as they flew overhead on Monday. Ukraine says dozens of drones were shot down but several struck the capital, killing at least four people.
The attacks appeared to be part of a wider assault that took aim at critical infrastructure and civilian targets across the country. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blasted Russia for the attacks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Throughout the day, the demolition of rubble continues in those places where Russian terrorists managed to hit today.
In Kyiv, they killed a young family, targeting an apartment building with an Iranian drone, a man and a woman six months pregnant. Vladimir Putin can record yet another achievement, he killed another pregnant woman.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRAK: Well, CNN Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward was in the Ukrainian capital and heard the blasts that rocked Kyiv firsthand. She took to the streets to see the damage left behind.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A policeman takes aim at the Kamikaze drone as it bears down on Kyiv.
Nickname mopeds in Ukraine because of their distinctive whine, 28 launched toward the city on Monday. The majority are successfully shot out of the sky. But four breakthrough, shattering the early morning calm in the heart of the capitol.
So, you can see that's the railway station down at the end, the air is thick with the smell of explosives.
Investigators are already collecting evidence.
Excuse me. It's from the drone, yes? Where did you find it?
So, they're saying that's the tail fin from the drone that hit.
The target according to Ukrainian authorities, Kyiv's energy infrastructure, but one hits a residential building nearby with devastating results.
You can see at least one person has been killed, they're taking her body away.
Rescue workers comb through the smoldering rubble. There have been reports of voices still alive inside.
An extraordinarily lucky older woman is rescued from her balcony next door. Bundled away to the hospital.
Up until one week ago, the city had been relatively calm. Now, Kyiv's mayor says the Russian's goal is to make life as miserable as possible for civilians as colder weather sets in.
VITALI KLITSCHKO, MAYOR OF KYIV, UKRAINE: The Russian want to destroy right now the critical infrastructure of our hometown, water, electricity, heating.
WARD: What impact does it have on the psyche of the people of Kyiv that there are a kamikaze drones now attacking your capital?
KLITSCHKO: Everyone is so angry. Everyone wants to defend the families. Wanted to defend hometown.
WARD: As we prepared to interview a volunteer medic from Sweden, the air raid sirens start up again.
You must be used to hearing that sound right now. We move to take cover. Three cruise missiles have been reported heading in the direction of Kyiv. This time they are intercepted by Ukraine's air defenses. The Kyiv's residents know that there will be more.
Clarissa Ward, CNN, Kyiv.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRAK: Lieutenant General Mark Hertling is a CNN Military Analyst and former commanding general of the U.S. Army, Europe and Seventh Army. He joins us from Florida with more.
[00:05:09]
Very good day, sir. Help us understand, if you will, how these suicide drones work for people on the ground? Would they be able to tell a drone attack is imminent when they hear something, see the drone coming? And would there be enough time to get to safety?
LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST (on camera): There would be Laila. It's fascinating because these are called loitering munition drones. They don't have the kinds of observation that we know for most drones, where they can see the attack occurring from the system itself.
They are blind, they go over, they're pointed at a specific weapon system. They're pointed at a -- at a target and they crash into them.
But they sound like when they're overhead literally a moped, they're relatively low, less than a thousand feet, they zoom in on the target. And the target is something that's related to the drone through a GPS system.
So, they are launched anywhere from, you know, a couple of a hundred to over 2,500 kilometers away. That's what's reported. They're launched off of a five drone rack, and five drones come out of that. And they go to different targets based on the GPS grid.
HARRAK: And general, what does it suggest to you that Russia is turning to these drones?
HERTLING: Well, truthfully, it suggests that they're running out of their own system. If these were Russian drones, which they had at the start of this campaign, you'd say they're continuing their assault.
But what Russia has had to do is go to other countries to ask for munitions, not just for drone systems, which the Iranians have a plethora of drones that they can use both ones with visual cues and with loitering capability and with the ability to seek out and research targets.
But these are especially particular, because they hit specific targets. They were designed by Iran with about 120 pounds or a 200 kilogram pound worth of payload. And it is actually smaller than what you would see dropped from an aircraft, the smallest possible bomb that's dropped from an aircraft. But it's geared toward hitting a point target, a stationary target from a long distance away.
So, what Russia is doing by buying these drones is basically admitted, they're out of precision weapons, or they're running low of precision weapons.
Russia has turned into somewhat of a hollow army, they came into this with very poor operational objectives that they could not meet. And now they're finding themselves after having used a lot of precision weapons against civilian targets that they've run out of systems to launch. So, they're now launching these purchase drones from Iran.
HARRAK: Let's talk a little bit about that. Because according to a senior U.S. military official, Iran is supplying hundreds of these drones to Russia. What do you make of this Russia-Iran Alliance?
HERTLING: Well, they had been allied for quite a while. They exchanged military gear and ideas, and they've been closely aligned in many operations in the Middle East as well.
But I think the expert that says Russia has purchased close to a hundred, or maybe more of these drones, I think we're at the very tip of that. We're going to see Russia probably trying to get literally thousands of these kinds of drones. And it's certainly going to be problematic for Ukraine, because truthfully, it's very difficult to defend against these weapons. They have a very low radar signature, so you can't pick them up as they're coming in at target. They have a very small payload.
And Russia has, as I've said before, they're gearing these to hit civilian targets, which is an indicator of just the amount of war crimes they're committing by targeting civilians and infrastructure of Ukrainian government.
HARRAK: Lieutenant General Mark Hertling is a CNN military analyst and former commanding general of the U.S. Army, Europe and Seventh Army. Thank you so much for speaking to us.
HERTLING: It was a pleasure, Laila. Thank you.
HARRAK: At least 13 people are dead including three children after a Russian fighter jet crashed into a nine storey residential building in the southwestern city of Yeysk on Monday.
Citing Russia's Defense Ministry state media reported, the jet was doing a training exercise when one of the engines caught fire during takeoff, and the pilots ejected safely while the Kremlin says President Putin has instructed authorities to provide assistance to the victims. Russian investigators have opened a criminal case into the crash.
The Government of Ukraine and Russian backed authorities in the Donetsk region released more than 100 prisoners each as part of a prisoner swap.
[00:10:01] The Russian backside released 108 Ukrainian women, military and civilian, and the Ukrainian government released 110 people including civilians, sailors and servicemen.
While it was also the first meeting between Russian and Ukrainian human rights officials, video shows the meeting on a deserted highway shaking hands and speaking briefly.
A senior Ukrainian official described it as a very nerve wracking exchange.
Iran has been slapped with more sanctions amid a brutal crackdown against antigovernment protests. The E.U. is freezing the assets of 11 people and four entities including Iran's morality police and information minister for their role in the crackdown.
Nationwide demonstrations erupted after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody last month, and the human rights group says scores of people have been killed since the protests began. The E.U. says it will always act against serious human rights violations.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEP BORRELL, E.U. FOREIGN POLICY CHIEF: I want to use this opportunity to call on the Iranian government to immediately end the violence to release those detained and to allow normal internet services and flow of information.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRAK: While the Iranian foreign minister says the sanctions are based on widespread disinformation, the Kurdish community has been among the hardest hits in Iran's most recent crackdown. Many are fleeing to Iraq, where some are joining armed opposition groups to support protesters inside Iran.
CNN's Nima Elbagir reports from Northern Iraq. We need to warn you, some of the video in the report may be disturbing to watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): In a remote area in northern Iraq's Kurdish region, an all female fighting unit belonging to the armed Kurdish Iranian opposition party pack continues to train.
These women have been pulled back from the front line. For the last three weeks, the area they patrolled in the northeast of Iraq has been hit by shells sent from across the border by Iran. This unit is part of a larger fighting force. For every single one of these women, this war is personal.
Raizan (PH), not her real name, crossed the border from Iran with the help of smugglers just over a week ago.
The city of Sanandaj which she calls home is in Iran's Kurdish majority western region, and in recent weeks has been likened to a war zone according to its residents as protests have erupted here and across Iran after the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian.
Raizan just a teenager joined these protests.
RAIZAN: We were treating casualties but we were also like most people participating in the revolution in the uprising. Everyone who suffered from the oppression of the Iranian regime came down to the streets and market and defied the government. I was also participating and I had no fear of death.
ELBAGIR: Raizan says that while she was dragged by her uncovered hair, she passed prone lifeless bodies. And even after she left, she says she's continued to receive information about people she knows who have died.
Like this man. Yahira Yahimi (PH), a newly married 27-year-old, murdered by Iranian regime forces for sounding his horn in solidarity with protesters.
What is happening with your family?
RAIZAN: My family told them that no matter how many members of my family they arrest, and for as long as they oppress my people, I will not surrender to the invading Iranian government. We are ready to die.
ELBAGIR: When Kurdish Iranian Mahsa Amini died in police custody, her name became a symbol of the oppression of women across Iran.
But Mahsa is not her true name. Her Kurdish name is Zhina, a name Iranian authorities barred her family like many other ethnic minority groups from using, the regime only legally registers Persian names.
Yet, in her last recorded moments, Zhina resorted to begging her captors in her Kurdish mother tongue in treaties which were ignored. Re-enforcing the fears of Iran's Kurdish minority.
Hundreds of Iranian Kurdish families have crossed the border to Iraq seeking refuge from the most recent regime crackdown. But even here, they're not safe.
This family fears the long arm of the Iranian regime after what they saw inside Iran.
[00:15:00]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I left after I saw one of my friends killed during the demonstration in Zakis (PH), near of the mosque, right in front of the mosque.
They say they're Islamic. But how can they claim to be an Islamic Republic when I saw them murdering my friend outside the mosque?
ELBAGIR: (INAUDIBLE) family have every reason to be afraid. Iran's reach to oppress the protests within its borders is stretching far beyond.
Over the last few weeks, Iranian missiles have fallen into the Kurdish region of Iraq almost every day. The onslaught is relentless. This map shows where Iranian strikes have hit, killing at least 18 and injuring at least 63 to date.
This video filmed by a local television channel shows the moment just after an Iranian drone and several missiles struck one of the Kurdish Iranian opposition party bases, killing eight soldiers and injuring more.
On a day on which 70 missiles Kurdish authorities say rained down in the space of just four hours.
This base only two years ago was on the front line in the fight against ISIS after PAC received U.S. training. It isn't far from U.S. Central Command, CENTCOM forces.
Just one day after the attack on the PAC base, CENTCOM shut down another Iranian drone, which appeared they say as a threat to CENTCOM forces stationed in the area.
And as the U.S. anti-ISIS presence in Iraq is set to continue, so is the threat Iran poses.
These female fighters have vowed to fight until there is a regime change in Iran. They say they share Zhina's pain called by a name forced on her by a repressive regime. All of them have a Kurdish name just like her, not spoken outside their homes. All of them say it's hard to imagine going back to how life was before.
CNN, Nima Elbagir, Iraqi, Kurdistan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRAK: She's sorry for the mistakes but won't be going anywhere. That message from the British prime minister as her new finance minister guts her flagship growth plan.
Plus, China's communist leader is touting the country's economic progress. But it's a very different story for many ordinary people just trying to get by.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRAK: Britain's embattled prime minister admitted she's made mistakes with her controversial economic plan that tanked the pound and jobs at the markets. But Liz Truss told the BBC she will write the ship and lead the conservatives into the next election.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[00:20:01]
LIZ TRUSS, BRITISH CONSERVATIVE PARTY LEADER: Now I recognize we have made mistakes. I'm sorry for those mistakes. But I fix mistakes. I've appointed a new chancellor. We have restored economic stability and fiscal discipline. And what I now want to do is go on and deliver for the public.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRAK: And she announced her newly appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer has a new strategy to restore economic stability.
Jeremy Hunt wasted no time reversing almost all of the tax cuts announced just three weeks ago.
While in Parliament, the opposition quickly accused the Truss government of making life harder for everyday people.
Labor M.P.s has also mocked Liz Truss for not being present and having the leader of the House of Commons answer their questions. A move that's not unusual when the prime minister has another commitment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PENNY MORDAUNT, LEADER, THE HOUSE OF THE COMMONS: The prime minister is not under a desk as (INAUDIBLE).
I can assure -- I can assure the house -- I can assure the house -- I can assure the house that she -- with regrets, she is not here for a very good reason.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRAK: Well, she went on to say the prime minister had been detained on urgent business. Liz Truss eventually did appear as she fights for her political life.
Dominic Thomas is CNN's European Affairs commentator and he is with us from Los Angeles. Dominic, good to have you with us.
All the theatrics aside Westminster, where does this leave Prime Minister Liz Truss?
DOMINIC THOMAS, CNN EUROPEAN AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR (on camera): Well, it leaves her in an incredible -- incredibly precarious position. I can't think of anything that would have been more important than for her to be there in Parliament today, and to have an opportunity to speak to the M.P.s gathered and ultimately to the nation in that forum.
So, her position is remarkably weakened, by the way that things ultimately played out there today, Laila.
HARRAK: Now, Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt, he's not sugarcoating what's ahead. Tough times basically. This is how he announced the seismic change to the prime minister's flagship policy, take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEREMY HUNT, CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER: We are a country that funds our promises and pays our debts. And when that is questioned, as it has been, this government will take the difficult decisions necessary to ensure there is trust and confidence in our national finances. That means decisions of eye watering difficulty.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRAK: Eye watering difficulty, Dominic. The chancellor basically throwing the prime minister signature plan that made her the leader of the conservatives and the leader of the United Kingdom. Just enter the bonfire, is her position still tenable? And if not, why is she still in Number 10?
THOMAS: That's a really fantastic questions. I mean, I think what's so unbelievable is that she ran this leadership race on a particular economic agenda that ultimately her opponent, Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor of the Exchequer, had taken a very different position, advocating for fiscal prudence.
And ultimately, the M.P.s did not support her, they supported Rishi Sunak, it was the membership that is far more conservative, far more concerned with her free market agenda, deregulation and ultimately the way in which they hoped she would continue the Brexit agenda of Boris Johnson.
And now you have at best, a caregiver government in which Jeremy Hunt, who did run in that election race that was eliminated in the first round with the lowest score of any of the candidates.
And you now have with the incorporation of Jeremy Hunt, seven out of the eight candidates that run in that election, or either the Prime Minister Truss itself, or folks that ran against her. And the only person that's on the outside here is Rishi Sunak.
So, the fact that she's been able, at the moment, at least to hold on to that position simply has to deal with the fact that the Conservative Party is trying to calculate whether or not it can afford a new leadership appointment before they have to face the general public and what the reaction will be. And those are the debates and discussions that are going on in the scenes behind this. And for this moment, they don't want Liz Truss out there in the public eye and Jeremy Hunt now has taken on that role.
HARRAK: He's taken on that role, the way things have played out Dominic, since Miss Truss's appointment, they haven't been good. I think everybody's in agreement about that.
But one could argue that over the span of the past six years, things haven't been going well in the United Kingdom.
THOMAS: They haven't, you're absolutely right. And for me, I'm absolutely convinced that the moment Boris Johnson won that election in 2019. And ultimately did it on a single issue, a highly emotional issue that was simply around Brexit.
[00:25:10]
The reality post Brexit now is that the government has to actually deal with concrete, economic, global problems. And what we're seeing is that they're not equipped to do that. Liz Truss is the fourth Prime Minister since 2016.
But given the fact that the major challenges today are economic challenges, and that this is the fourth chancellor in the guise of Jeremy Hunt, just since the summertime shows you the extent to which this party is ultimately no longer able to come up with solutions and policies that can address this particular question that they have that majority that Boris Johnson delivered.
And for the moment at least, they're able to essentially map out their future, take their time to calculate, whether or not there is somebody there in the wings that can help restore their reputation after the damage done by Boris Johnson and now by Liz Truss and help them rebuild in the two-year period leading up to that 2024 scheduled general election, or whether ultimately it will be time for them to face the registered voters in the U.K. and for them to decide finally who the new prime minister should be Laila.
HARRAK: Dominic Thomas, thank you so much.
THOMAS: Thank you.
HARRAK: China is delaying the release of highly anticipated economic data, including its third quarter GDP. The delay comes as China's Communist Party Congress is underway in Beijing this week.
Senior party leaders and the political elites met with delegates for our panel discussions on Monday where they all praise the country's achievements under the leadership of Xi Jinping.
While inside the party Congress, China's leaders may be touting the country's economic progress over the past decade but outside the gathering on the streets of Beijing, ordinary people say they feel frustrated and hopeless as China's economy falters.
CNN's Selina Wang reports.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Migrant workers like Mr. Hu (PH) moved from Chinese villages to Beijing in search for better job prospects.
On a lucky day, he can make the equivalent of a few dozen U.S. dollars from construction work. Anything leftover, he sends home to his kids in the village.
He says the pandemic has made it harder to find work and China's economy is in bad shape because of all the COVID restrictions.
The world's growth engine is sputtering. After decades of unstoppable growth, China's economy is cracking.
Constant COVID lockdowns, wrecking businesses and lives. He shows us his rental home in Beijing, just four square meters. It's really small, he says.
Since Chinese leader Xi Jinping took power in 2012, he's pledged to reduce income inequality. But workers like Hu aren't seeing the benefits. He says I don't think it's a good idea for him to continue to serve.
SUSAN SHIRK, CHAIR, 21ST CENTURY CHINA CENTER: I think there are a lot of people in China who have lost confidence in the pragmatic judgment of their leader, it could become a big challenge to Xi Jinping.
WANG: Unemployment is skyrocketing, not just because of the pandemic. China's once vibrant private sector, suffocating under Xi Jinping's crackdown to bring companies under tighter communist party control.
Beijing insists the moves protect consumers and reduce economic inequality. But instead, mass layoffs are sending youth unemployment to a record high of nearly 20 percent.
Protests also erupted this summer in central China, thousands of depositors lost access to their savings at several banks in the region. As police violently quashed the protesters. Beijing arrested hundreds of suspects allegedly involved in the scandal, and promised that depositors would start to get their money back. But many still have not.
This is my family's hard earned money over the last 20 years, he says. Our lives depend on it.
How has this whole experience changed your perception of your country of China's leaders?
I'm like an ant that they can trample on. I have no hope, he says.
Another crisis is unfolding in China's all important property sector. Giant developers have defaulted. Home sales are dropping. Homebuyers across the country are boycotting mortgage payments on unfinished homes, fearful that their properties will never get built. These protesters chant evil developer, give back my property.
KERRY BROWN, LAU CHINA INSTITUTE DIRECTOR, KING'S COLLEGE LONDON: The Chinese property market is probably the world's greatest economic asset, single economic asset. If it does collapse, then we have a full blown recession, maybe even depression.
[00:30:04]
WANG: Xi Jinping is preparing to be ruler for life, claiming that his brand of authoritarianism will realize the China dream of strength and prosperity.
But for people like Hu (ph), all he wants is to make ends meet, and even that is a dream out of reach.
Selina Wang, CNN, Hong Kong.
(END VIDEOTAPE) LAILA HARRAK, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Just ahead, the Indian Supreme Court is taking up a case of gang-rape during the 2002 Hindu-Muslim riots after the perpetrators were released recently. We'll have a live report for you, from New Delhi.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRAK: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Laila Harrak.
The gang-rape case of a pregnant woman during the Hindu-Muslim riots in India in 2002 is once again in the spotlight, after the 11 men convicted of the crime were released in August.
Bilkis Bano was just 21 years old when she was raped and 14 of her family members killed, including her 3-year-old daughter. Well, now the Indian Supreme Court is taking up the case.
CNN's Vedika Sud has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VEDIKA SUD, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Twenty years after a brutal hate crime, the convicted perpetrators are being celebrated by family members and some Hindus in western India, while their Muslim victim is reliving her trauma.
YAKUB RASOOL, BILKIS BANO'S HUSBAND (through translator) We are very scared, Bilkis is so upset that she's not talking to anyone.
SUD (voice-over): In 2002, these men were part of a Hindu mob that killed 14 members of one Muslim family during religious riots.
Bilkis Bano, then 21 years old and pregnant, was gang-raped and left for dead.
Twelve men were sentenced to life imprisonment in 2008 for rape and murder. In India, a life sentence usually means just that.
One attacker died in prison, but in August the remaining 11 attackers were freed.
SUD: Their life sentences cut short after a recommendation from an advisory panel set up by the local government, run by the Hindu Nationalist Party, Janata Party, which is Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party, the BJP.
SUD (voice-over): Modi was Gujarat's chief minister in 2002, when more than 1,000 people were killed in the riots. But an investigation found he wasn't to blame for the riots, and the BJP maintains a political stranglehold on the state, where the latest census figures, from a decade ago, show just one in ten are Muslim.
[00:35:03]
With fresh elections in Gujarat months away, activists and opposition party leaders have accused the government of polarizing voters on religious lines.
KAVITA KRISHNAN, ACTIVIST (through translator): The message the Gujarat government is sending out to its voters is that "We support the men who raped Muslim women in the 2002 riots. Vote for us."
SUD (voice-over): Amid protests in support of Bano, parliamentarian Mahua Moitra and a few activists have petitioned in the Supreme Court for the re-arrest of the men.
MAHUA MOITRA, INDIAN PARLIAMENT MEMBER: The government is sending out a very clear message that, if you -- show me your face, and I will show you how the law applies to you. Show me your religion, and I'll show you how the law applies to you.
SUD (voice-over): CNN has reached out to the BJP in the state of Gujarat, with no response.
Meanwhile, Bilkis and her family are in hiding. Her husband agreed to meet CNN on a strip of highway in Gujarat. They fear the men have been emboldened and might return.
RASOOL (through translator): Bilkis was slowly rebuilding her life. The news of their release has filled her with fear. We have changed our house 15 to 20 times.
SUD (voice-over): Indian crime records show a rape takes place every 17 minutes in this country. Bilkis's husband says freeing the men who attacked his wife, and brutally murdered her family members, puts all women in greater danger.
RASOOL (through translator): Bilkis is not just a Muslim's daughter. She represents every Indian's daughter. What has happened to Bilkis should not happen to anyone else.
SUD (voice-over): All Bilkis wants is a life without fear.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SUD (on camera): It's been 20 years since Bilkis Bano was gang-raped, 14 family members brutally murdered, including a 3-year-old daughter.
Today, she's asking for justice. She issued a statement through ha lawyer on the day after those 11 convicts were prematurely released from jail.
This hearing will take place once again in India's top court today, and there are petitioners who are asking for the re-arrest of the 11 convicts who are out and about. And the fear for Bilkis and the family has been are they safe, and should this be the justice that Bilkis should be receiving 20 years after this brutal crime -- Laila.
HARRAK: Vedika Sud reporting in New Delhi, thank you.
Now, spilled milk, orange paint, and tomato soup. It's the perfect recipe for getting attention, but will it lead to change? We'll have the latest on the U.K.'s crackdown on disruptive public protests after a week of shock-and-awe activism.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC: BTS, "DOPE")
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRAK: That's the South Korean K-pop supergroup, BTS, performing their hit song "Dope."
Well, celebrities or not, military service is still mandatory in their country, and the group's members are planning for just that, while they're taking a break from the music scene to serve in the South Korean army.
[00:40:10]
Pop stars there are allowed to defer their service until they turn 30, and the band's oldest member, Jin, will reach that age in December, so he plans to start the enlistment process later this month.
But don't tear those BTS posters off your wall just yet. Their tour of duty would last only 18 months, and their musical tours should resume around the year 2025.
Well, activists have ramped up protests across the U.K., with some groups defacing property and even priceless pieces of art to get their message out.
But they're also -- they've also caught the eye of the British government, which is expected to announce new measures to cut down on the disruptive demonstrations.
CNN's Isa Soares reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ISA SOARES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT/ANCHOR (voice-over): Milk, the latest pantry item to be used by protesters in the U.K. to call attention to a cause they say is being ignored.
On Sunday, activists poured milk on the floors of shops around the country, even dousing the meat counter at Harrod's with it. The group, Animal Rebellion, says it organized the stunt to protest the lack of support for farmers and fishing communities from the U.K. government in transitioning to a plant-based future.
In recent weeks, climate and environmental protestors have stepped up their shock tactics across the U.K. to get their message out.
On Friday, anti-fossil fuel protesters from the Just Stop Oil Campaign stunned museum goers at London's National Gallery by throwing tomato soup at Vincent Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" painting and gluing their hands to the wall. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you more concerned about the protection of a
painting, or the protection for our planet?
SOARES (voice-over): London police said the protesters were arrested on charges of criminal damage. The museum says the painting is now back on display with only minor damage to the frame.
And though the act grabbed plenty of headlines, it's caused mixed reactions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Obviously, I was relieved, very relieved that it was protected. And I just think that they need to choose which things to highlight their causes more.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They could do something a bit more positive, I think. And maybe more educational then just make a mess of maybe something that's nice already.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, it's getting people talking about it, which I guess is what they want. But then how are you going to get people to listen unless you do something drastic?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've climbed up this cable of the QE2 Bridge.
SOARES (voice-over): Just Stop Oil activist have been staging disruptive protests in London for weeks.
On Monday, police had to shut down a major bridge, because protesters were scaling it. Over the weekend, protesters blocked traffic by laying in the road.
And at least one activist spray-painted an Aston Martin show room.
U.K. Home Secretary Suella Braverman says protests like these drain police resources and says she's bringing forward a public order bill that will give authorities more powers to prevent these types of disruptions that are favored by some environmental groups.
A planned climate march by activist group Extinction Rebellion also took place in London, and while there was no soup or milk spilled here, the crowd had a similar message about the urgent need for action on climate change.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's so simple to get us off the streets. It's just to act on the climate and nature crisis.
Isa Soares, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRAK. I'm Laila Harrak. More CNN NEWSROOM at the top of the hour. See you then.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:45:23] (WORLD SPORT)
[00:57:56]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
