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Halloween Crowd Crush Kills at least 151 in South Korea; Georgia Voters to Cast 2 Million Ballots by Next Week; Africa Braces for Russian Exit from Grain Deal; Brazilian Voters to Decide in Presidential Runoff; Iran's Revolutionary Guard Chief Says Saturday is "Last Day" of Protests; Tornadoes Reported in Southern U.S. Aired 3- 4a ET

Aired October 30, 2022 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber.

Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, South Korea is in mourning right now. More than 150 people in Seoul killed in a crowd surge celebrating Halloween.

And 1.5 weeks to U.S. midterm elections and early ballots are coming in by the millions. In one battleground state, see where else each party's heavy hitters are campaigning.

The White House accuses Russia of weaponizing food. A grain deal to feed much of Africa and the Middle East now in jeopardy. We're live in Kyiv and Johannesburg with the fallout.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Kim Brunhuber.

BRUNHUBER: South Korea has declared a national day of mourning after a chaotic crowd surge claimed the lives of at least 151 people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER (voice-over): These are live images from Seoul, where the tragedy unfolded Saturday night. Officials said thousands of partygoers had gathered there for a Halloween celebration but the turnout was so large and the space was so small that many people got crushed in the middle of the crowd.

Here is how one witness described the scene.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SONG SEHYUN, WITNESS: And I saw the people like going to the left side and I actually saw the person actually getting to the -- at the opposite side. So, actually, the person in the middle, they got jammed, and they have like no, no way to communicate and they're like, no, they cannot breathe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: CNN international correspondent Paula Hancocks is live at the scene.

Paula, as people are now trying to grapple with the scope of this enormous tragedy, describe what's happening now as some families are still looking for loved ones and for answers.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kim. We've heard from officials that a few thousand missing person reports have been filed. The hope, of course, is that that number goes down quickly and significantly.

What we do know is some families are still trying to track down their loved ones that were here just last night in the entertainment district of Itaewon. This is one of the back alleys that was absolutely packed last night.

There are bars, restaurants, night clubs along here; you can see many of the Halloween decorations are still in place, much debris on the ground as well. Just about 50 meters up there, where you see those policemen, is where there is a smaller alley that is at an angle.

And that is where many of the -- those that lost their lives were crushed. We have spoken to a number of eyewitnesses who were here last night, one of them telling me that she felt she was lucky because she was pushed into the stairwell of one of the bars along this street.

She said she could see people being pushed along. She could hear screaming. But she felt that she had been extremely lucky. Of course, 151 people were not lucky. Many questions are being asked at this point.

I also spoke to another eyewitness, who had started to come into this particular area, which is always packed on the weekend since the COVID pandemic restrictions have been lifted; in particular, during Halloween.

She said she tried to get into the area but it was just too full. She now knows how lucky she was and was watching the aftermath. Let's listen to what she said.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When we start seeing bodies everywhere -- the people who dragged other people from the crowd so they can revive them, because the situation over here was really bad. People are really crowded from to here. Besides the people who were already stuck inside, some people were looking at the others and just faint.

It was so much blood everywhere. Some people just start passing out, pressing the mouths, trying to give them mouth to mouth, help them to come back to life but they couldn't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANCOCKS: There's a significant amount of shock here in Seoul that this could have happened. The eyewitnesses I spoke to said that there were no crowd limits.

[03:05:00]

HANCOCKS: Any restrictions of any kind that they could see. Of course, that will be one of the questions being asked.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, absolutely. In terms of the crowd control and also questions being asked in the immediate aftermath about how authorities handled that.

HANCOCKS: Well, that's right. We know there was significant fire engines, police cars, ambulances that were here fairly quickly, we understand. But of course, what we're also hearing from eyewitnesses is that the sheer number of victims and casualties on the ground did outnumber the amount of first responders that were able to cope with that influx.

We have heard from one eyewitness that she had seen a number of couples and one was performing CPR on the other because there just weren't enough first responders. She saw that, she said, at least three times.

So it just shows the sheer scale of what had happened. We have had investigators going into the alley behind me all day, trying to assess the damage and what exactly happened. We saw President Yoon Suk-yeol visiting. He's called this a national disaster zone, calling for national mourning until November 5th.

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YOON SUK-YEOL, PRESIDENT OF SOUTH KOREA (through translator): The tragedy and disaster that should not have happened took place in the heart of Seoul during Halloween celebration last night.

I express my condolences to the victims of the unexpected incident and hope the people who are injured will get better soon. My heart goes out to family members of the victims, who are suffering from the heartbreak of losing loved ones.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANCOCKS: It is a very somber atmosphere here in the heart of Seoul's entertainment district of Itaewon. Many people have been coming to lay flowers to show their respects. Kim.

BRUNHUBER: All right, just so tragic. Paula Hancocks live in Seoul, thanks so much.

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BRUNHUBER: I want to discuss this a bit more with Keith Still, an analyst of crowd safety and risk. He joins us this hour from England.

Thanks so much for being here with us. So why do you think this was so deadly. I mean, talk to me about the physics of what made this such a deadly event.

DR. KEITH STILL, CROWD RISK ANALYSIS LTD: Certainly. I mean, the analogy here is, like a tachometer in a car, when you rev the engine in the red, there's a high chance of engine failure.

It's the same with crowd density. Once the density, the packing density, the number of people per square meter increases above six or seven, there's a high risk of shock waves, progressive crowd collapse and people toppling like dominos.

The more people you have in a confined space, the greater the risk to life and limb. So it really is very much the number of people per square meter, duration of exposure, the geometry and any escape routes that might have been available.

So this is a progressive crowd collapse, a crowd crush. The surge was in a crowd, with a very small amount forces but they get amplified in the crowd. So the physics here is horrendous but the analogy is simple. It's like a car tachometer. Don't run it in the red. Don't allow density to exceed that critical limit.

Then you keep these environments safe and flowing freely.

BRUNHUBER: What do you mean by a progressive crowd collapse, exactly?

You used that term a couple of times.

STILL: Certainly. This is when people fall against each other and you get a wave of the crowd falling over like dominos so but in two dimensions so that it forms -- very much what we call a shock wave.

We've got video footage, we've created models and simulations of this to try and study it. And what happens is the forces get amplified. So as people fall against each other, these forces become very, very strong; extreme high pressure.

And many people get caught up. At that point, people are then struggling to get up. And arms and legs get twisted together. It takes 30 seconds to cut the blood supply off to the brain.

If you've got too much pressure on your chest, you can't breathe. Oxygen deprivation sets in. And you get the phenomenon called compressive asphyxia or crush asphyxia, where literally the amount of weight on your chest is so great, you can't breathe. So suffocation, compressive asphyxia, horrendous.

BRUNHUBER: It's just -- exactly, horrendous is the word. To think that it might have happened to so many people in this case. And it doesn't take that much force from pushing to exert enough pressure to cause damage, to break ribs, even kill, as you've just described.

STILL: No, exactly. Some studies were done after Hillsborough, in a book called "Engineering for Crowd Safety." It looked at various experiments on human frames and forms. This data was analyzed and published then, which you can't replicate now because it's significant risk to anybody you expose to high pressure and high density.

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STILL: But it takes five people pushing against one to break a rib, collapse a lung or smash a head. So if you've got that level of pressure, multiply it by tens of thousands of people. Well, it just doesn't bear belief. It's utterly horrendous.

BRUNHUBER: The fact that this was the first big post-COVID event in Seoul, what role might that have played here?

STILL: We have seen that, after the COVID lockdowns, where people are coming back into public spaces, there's a degree of forgotten behavior. There's an exuberance. So we see three different types of crowd categories.

The COVID cautious, those people that are avoiding places of public assembly, so exclude those. The contentious, people that are still argumentative about various rules. And the celebratory, those individuals who are just exuberant, overenthusiastic, moving into these spaces. It's great, we're free, we're back again, crowds are here.

And they've just forgotten the various risks that are involved. They've forgotten the behaviors in those environments. And coupled with the fact that there's been a skill shortage in trained crowd managers, in people that design and manage these spaces because they've all left for other jobs.

When there were no crowds, there was nothing to do, so they moved on. And those various reports about how the event industry is suffering from a lack of trained, experienced individuals to deal with and understand these risks before they manifest.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, certainly they'll be poring over all those details, what could have been done to prevent this from happening. Hopefully, this will be a lesson for other people, as more people open and up we have more and more big events like this.

We'll have to leave it there. But Keith Still joining us from England, thank you so much for being here with us.

STILL: Thank you. I mean, it's sure -- it's a terrible tragedy.

BRUNHUBER: Yes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: The U.S. midterm elections are just over a week away. Democrats are pulling out their heavy hitters to drive up voter turnout.

Former U.S. President Barack Obama campaigned in Wisconsin on Saturday, taking special aim at Republican senator Ron Johnson. Obama said Johnson deserves a gold medal for spreading lies and conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

He also took a fiery swipe at Johnson for proposing radical changes to Social Security. Here he is.

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BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Some of you here are on Social Security. Some of your parents are on Social Security. Some of your grandparents are on Social Security.

You know why they have Social Security?

Because they worked for it. They worked hard jobs for it. They had chapped hands for it. They had long hours and sore backs and bad knees to get that Social Security.

And if Ron Johnson does not understand that, if he understands giving tax breaks for private planes more than he understands making sure that seniors, who have worked all their lives, are able to retire with dignity and respect, he's not the person who's thinking about you and knows you and sees you.

And he should not be your senator from Wisconsin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: At stake on November 8th is the balance of power in Congress; 218 seats are needed to control the House. Right now, it looks like Republicans have a slight lead with 212 likely wins.

In the Senate, three seats are considered toss-ups. CNN estimates that 12 are solidly Democratic or leaning that way. About 20 are either solidly Republican or leaning to the Right.

Both parties are bringing out their biggest names to get their candidates across the finish line in battleground races. Barack Obama was here in Georgia, rallying Democrats before heading to Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Nevada.

President Biden will also be visiting Pennsylvania as well as Florida, New Mexico and Maryland. Former president Donald Trump will be campaigning for Republican candidates in Iowa, Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio.

More than 19 million ballots have already been cast during early voting from coast to coast. This according to data from election officials, Edison Research and Catalist. As of Saturday, over 2.5 million people have already voted in Texas. More than 2.4 million have voted in Florida. More than 1.5 million have voted in Georgia.

The Georgia secretary of state's office reports voters are on pace to cast 2 million ballots before Election Day. That's good news to those who are working to get people to the polls.

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BRITTANY BURNS, PROTECT THE VOTE GA: We're telling them the reason why you should vote is because your vote equals your voice. So without a voice, you have no hope because you're not speaking up. And local elections is very, very important, especially here in Georgia because we've been going through a lot.

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BRUNHUBER: CNN's Nadia Romero is in Atlanta with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NADIA ROMERO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Already more than 1.3 million Georgians have participated in person in the early voting process. And we are outside of one of the busiest polling locations here in Fulton County in Atlanta. Take a look behind me.

You can already see a line has formed here this afternoon. This is the last weekend of early voting in the state of Georgia. When you really look at the numbers, the majority of people who are voting are people in their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s. We're not seeing as many people come out in the age group of 22 to 29.

They only make up about 4 percent of the ballots that have been turned in so far here in the state of Georgia.

We spoke with one 19-year-old college student who has been working at this organization, to get more people his age civically minded and engaged in the voting process. We asked him why it was so important to him and what his pitch is to people in his generation. Take a listen.

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AZOLA MARTIN, CIVIC INFLUENCER, MOREHOUSE COLLEGE: Honestly, I say look at the history, look at how hard it was, you know, 60, 70 years ago, for black people to vote. And look at the opportunity that we have now.

You know, our simple vote could -- that could change a whole election, really, you know, looking back at the 2016 election and how those went, you know, just looking at the history and understanding the power and the privilege that we have and that people died to fight for, you know, our voting rights.

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ROMERO: We spoke with other young voters and they say they don't feel like the politicians that are out there right now are really speaking to issues that matter to them, issues like student loans.

Will they be able to find a good job when they graduate?

They also feel like they're being told you need to vote but those politicians leave their neighborhoods and don't come back. And they don't feel like there's a real connection there -- Nadia Romero, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: We're now hearing from U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the first time since her husband, Paul, was viciously attacked in a home invasion on Friday.

In a letter to her congressional colleagues, the Speaker wrote, "Our children, our grandchildren and I are heartbroken and traumatized by the life-threatening attack on our Pop.

"We are grateful for the quick response of law enforcement and emergency services and for the life-saving medical care he's receiving."

Paul Pelosi remains hospitalized with a skull fracture and other injuries but is expected to fully recover. The 42-year-old suspect will be formally charged tomorrow with arraignment set for Tuesday.

The food supply for millions of people around the world could be on the line. We'll look at why Russia says it's scrapping a deal that allowed Ukraine to send its grain abroad.

Plus Brazil's presidential race comes to a head when polls open in just a few hours. Take a look at the global stakes in Sunday's election. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Ukraine is accusing Russia of playing hunger games with millions of people desperate for food. This follows Moscow announcing it's pulling out of a grain deal signed in July. It allowed Ukraine to resume grain exports from its ports, which Russia had been blocking as part of its invasion.

Russia says it's leaving the deal because of alleged Ukrainian drone attacks on the Russian navy in Crimea.

The White House responded by slamming Moscow for what it called weaponizing food. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Moscow has been planning to get out of the deal for weeks.

Saying Ukrainian grain is a lifeline is not an overstatement in many countries. Take a look here. This map gives you an idea how many of them depend on imports from Ukraine and Russia.

The World Food Programme estimates 47 million people worldwide face acute hunger because of Russia's invasion. And CNN's covering this story from all angles. We have David McKenzie in Johannesburg to talk about the impact on Africa.

But first we go to Nic Robertson in Kyiv.

Nic, bring us up to speed about why Russia made this decision and the reaction.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Russia is saying it made this decision because vessels, it said, were involved in guaranteeing this humanitarian food corridor were targeted by Ukraine.

Ukraine has not taken responsibility and tried to indicate that this is fiction coming from the Russian side. The Russians had also said that this operation against their ships was led by British specialists.

And the MOD in London, the British Ministry of Defence, have flatly denied that and called it a fabrication.

The bigger picture of what seems to be happening, recent weeks here -- and this is something President Zelenskyy referenced -- Russia has been criticizing this deal, saying it's not working, saying that the grain is not going to the third world; it's mostly going to first world countries.

Ukrainians have been saying that Russia hasn't been keeping good on its promises here. I think, take a step back, even, and you begin to see a bigger picture, which is what we've heard indications of coming from President Zelenskyy's office, and that is that Russia is trying to create many points of pressure.

Whether it's threatening the potential of nuclear aggression, whether it's cutting off electricity supplies in the country here; now this, to try to pressure Ukraine into negotiations by trying to garner enough world opinion to put pressure on Ukraine to make Ukraine capitulate and sign up to Russia's demands.

So the grain deal at the moment, nine ships went out yesterday; there are 10 standing by to come and go today. None of those have left. The grain deal, when it was struck three months ago, was expected to move 20 million tons of grain.

In that time, it only moved about 9.1 million tons. Part of the U.N. deal to get this deal off the ground was to give sanctions relief to Russia. Russia essentially given sanctions relief to get it to sign up to this in the first place.

BRUNHUBER: All right, Nic Robertson, thank you so much.

We want to go to David McKenzie in Johannesburg.

David, what impact could this have on developing nations, including many in Africa?

[03:25:00]

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kim, global impact. As Nic says, a lot of this is believed to be leverage from the Russians, to try and squeeze Ukraine and the group of nations that is supporting it.

It is worth noting that the nation that has received the single biggest shipment of product has been Spain. There is a sense that the developing countries haven't received necessarily as much grain as has been talked about.

But that doesn't really paint the real picture here. There's two aspects to this.

One is the physical grain that has reached countries like Somalia, desperately in need of food. But it's also the price, inflationary pressure, that places the entire globe in more of a squeeze because of the shutdown of grain.

I remember we were in Tunisia earlier this year. While we were there or just before that, the government had to get in more than $100 million in an emergency loan from the World Bank just to afford wheat for the subsidized prices that they have for their nation.

So this means that, if there is this cutoff of grain, not just today but into the grain that has come in this harvest, it will have a major impact, potentially, on the inflation. That hurts poorest countries the most.

BRUNHUBER: So then, David, what about alternatives?

Is there another route for Ukrainian grain, then?

MCKENZIE: Well, when this blockade first happened, there was a great rush of activity to try and figure out where the grain could be shipped, over land, on trains or trucks. There has been some aspect of this.

But if you just look how the sheer numbers we're looking at, upward to this point, as Nic said, more than 9 million tons of grain has come out of Ukraine, that's just a small percentage of the overall amount of grain that Ukraine produces and other agricultural products.

It just doesn't make sense logistically to get it out of the road, through into the European Union and elsewhere. It has to be by ship to be effective. And it's a snowball effect.

At the moment, it's the current harvest that still needs to get out. They have had a bumper harvest in that region. And it means that, if this blockade continues, it really could have a major knock-on effect with inflation and provide a great deal of pressure on nations, especially here in Africa.

To say there needs to be some kind of negotiated settlement to this conflict as they feel that squeeze.

BRUNHUBER: Huge impact as you say. David McKenzie, thank you so much.

Still ahead, much more on the deadly crowd crush in South Korea. We'll break down what exactly happened and how officials responded to the tragedy. (MUSIC PLAYING)

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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

South Korea is in mourning after a chaotic crowd surge claimed the lives of at least 151 people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER (voice-over): These are live images from Seoul where the tragedy unfolded during a Halloween celebration. Officials say victims were crushed when thousands of partygoers packed a narrow alley.

South Korea's president has visited the site and declared a national mourning period to honor the victims. He's pledging to investigate the cause of the tragedy to make sure it doesn't happen again.

CNN's senior international correspondent Will Ripley is there in Seoul and he has more on the tragedy in the Itaewon neighborhood. We have to warn you: some of these images are very disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Halloween horror and heartbreak; in Seoul's popular nightlife district, nightmare scenes. The narrow alleys of Itaewon lined with lifeless bodies, many in costume. Frantic first responders trying to save them.

RIPLEY: This is a row of stretchers that we initially thought were waiting for potential survivors of this incident at a Halloween party, where thousands of people were packed into a relatively tight area. But in fact, we've now realized that these stretchers are being used to bring back bodies. And we've just seen body after body rolling past here.

RIPLEY (voice-over): Most of those hurt or killed in their late teens and 20s. The local fire chief says young people from South Korea and beyond. Witnesses say Itaewon's iconic Halloween festivities always draw an international crowd.

This video on Twitter shows an apparent lack of crowd control, a sea of bodies pouring into a tiny area, an ominous warning, telling people to be careful.

Police and emergency crews rush to the scene shortly after 10:00 pm local Saturday night. Yonhap News Agency reported emergency lines flooded with calls from people in the packed area, saying they were stuck, suffocating.

Some who fell down apparently crushed under a growing pile of people. Official causes of death not confirmed but Yonhap reporting dozens suffered cardiac arrest.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SONG SEHYUN, WITNESS: And I saw the people like going to the left side and I actually saw the person actually getting to the -- at the opposite side. So, actually, the person in the middle, they got jammed, and they have like no, no way to communicate and they're like, no, they cannot breathe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIPLEY (voice-over): The fire chief calls this a presumed stampede. The investigation is ongoing.

Social media video shows emergency crews struggling, pulling injured and unconscious victims from the narrow alleyways, still jammed with hundreds if not thousands of people.

South Korea's president Yoon Suk-yeol holding an emergency cabinet meeting. The tragic incident now being treated as a national disaster. Authorities say hospital beds and morgues filling up fast.

President Yoon making rapid identification of victims a top priority. Anxious families and friends desperately waiting for word, waiting for loved ones who left for a night of Halloween fun and haven't come home -- Will Ripley, CNN, Seoul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[03:35:00]

BRUNHUBER: Stay with CNN for developments in this unfolding story. We will return to Seoul for a live report from the scene of the tragedy in just about 30 minutes.

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BRUNHUBER: Early voting is underway in many U.S. states as the midterms are just over a week away. U.S. President Joe Biden is making his closing pitch, telling voters this election will shape what the country looks like for the next decade or more. CNN's Kevin Liptak has more from Wilmington, Delaware.

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KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Biden is sharpening his message now in the closing days of this midterm campaign. Of course, he's spent much of the past several months trying to highlight his accomplishments as president.

But now as Democrats grow increasingly anxious about their prospects in November, you hear the president making his closing argument about a warning, about what might happen if Republicans take control of Congress in November.

Now on Saturday, we saw the first lady, Jill Biden, campaigning in New Hampshire. She made the same argument. She said that, if Republicans take control, things like Social Security and Medicare will be on the chopping block.

We also saw the vice president, Kamala Harris. She was campaigning in Maryland. She chose to emphasize the potential for a nationwide abortion ban if Republicans take control.

Not on the campaign trail today was President Biden. He was here in Wilmington, Delaware. He chose to early vote with his granddaughter. Listen to a little bit of how he characterized his final week before the midterm elections.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm feeling good. I mean, I've been into, I guess now, 36 constituencies. I'm going to be spending the rest of the time making the case that this is not a referendum; it's a choice, a fundamental choice, a choice between two very different visions for the country. And that's what it's about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIPTAK: So the president there joining the 19 million Americans who have already cast an early ballot in this year's midterm elections. He was joined by his granddaughter, Natalie. She just turned 18 this year. So this will be the first time casting her ballot -- Kevin Liptak, CNN, Wilmington, Delaware.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Meanwhile, Kentucky Republican James Comer made the case for why election voters should get behind his party's economic plan. He told CNN the Republicans need to get unnecessary spending under control to fight inflation and called for a change in energy policy. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JAMES COMER, (R-KY): We can be energy independent in the United States. We shouldn't have to go to the OPEC and beg for more oil. We can produce the oil in the United States.

And I believe right now the policies of this administration have led to higher gas prices, which contributes to inflation. Now we've got a potential shortage of diesel. That could not only increase inflation but also lead to more challenges with the supply chain shortages.

So we've got a lot of challenges in our economy and I think it's going to take new leadership in Washington to reverse course on spending and our energy policy.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BRUNHUBER: Voters in Brazil will choose their next president in the coming hours. The runoff election pits the far-right incumbent, president Jair Bolsonaro, against his center-left rival and former president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The latest polls show a close race growing tighter. CNN's Paula Newton has our story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Campaigning here in Brazil in this second round of the presidential campaign has been just as acrimonious and contentious as the first.

In terms of the vote on Sunday, each camp, whether Lula supporters or Bolsonaro supporters, many agree on a couple of things. One, it's incredibly tense, leading to the vote Sunday.

But also, that despite many polls that have been published, it is really impossible to know the outcome. We got that opinion as well from Bolsonaro's son, take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EDUARDO BOLSONARO, JAIR BOLSONARO'S SON: The polls are tight. But if we look for the first round, the polls lost, they were wrong for a lot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: Supporters of Bolsonaro have been complaining that misinformation, censorship, the fact that they have been, in their words, muzzled through this campaign, may actually affect the voting or the end result.

We should say Bolsonaro and his supporters say they will accept the election result even if they lose. And that has been a pivotal issue in this campaign. Lula supporters here at a certain point are now seeing new hope, though. They are looking to erase the legacy of Bolsonaro if Lula can pull out a win.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANIEL GONCALES DE SOZA, LULA DA SILVA SUPPORTER (through translator): I think it's dreaming. It's important to be together, to think about a fairer country, more egalitarian, which we were building up. But it was interrupted and that we now have a chance to restart.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: Lula and Bolsonaro had a final debate on Friday night, a lot of finger pointing, accusations back and forth about each or the other being a liar.

[03:40:00]

NEWTON: Given everything that's gone on here, likely people who have made up their minds, that debate didn't change anything. What is happening here is that there is a very small amount of votes

that are likely, those undecided or may not come out to vote. And each leader was looking to entice them. I want to remind everyone, here it's mandatory voting. Turnout will likely be very high.

And we should have results very early on Sunday evening. It's important to remind everyone that what happens in Brazil is incredibly consequential, not just because it's an important economy and democracy but because environmental policy here will affect everyone -- Paula Newton, CNN, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Coming up, a chilling warning from Iran's Revolutionary Guard as another anti-government protest is met with violence. Details straight ahead. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: At least 100 people are reported dead after two car bombs rocked the Somalia capital of Mogadishu. The explosions happened near the education ministry on Saturday.

The blasts come as the government is pledging to crack down on the Al- Shabaab terrorist group. So far there have been no claims of responsibility. Plumes from the blast could be seen for miles.

Up close, the area looked like a moonscape. Al-Shabaab is increasing its attacks on civilian targets after the newly elected Somali president declared an all-out offensive on the group.

In Iran, the bloodshed continues as anti-government protests are met with violence. Videos posted to social media show protesters encountering gunfire and tear gas after Friday prayers in one eastern city.

Four were killed in the Kurdish city of Mahabad Thursday. A Kurdish rights group says special forces stationed on the roofs of government buildings opened fire on demonstrators. Now the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard is warning demonstrators.

[03:45:00]

BRUNHUBER: Saturday is the last day of protests and do not come to the streets again. Nada Bashir joins us now.

Nada, what does that mean?

What are the consequences?

Any sense whether the protesters will actually listen? NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There are real concerns now that the crackdown on protesters, which was already brutal and deadly, it has been already described as showing excessive, lethal force, could now intensify, if protesters decide to take to the streets today and in the coming weeks.

This is now entering its seventh week of demonstrations across Iran. So far, we have, according to the United Nations, already seen at least 250 people killed at the hands of the Iranian security forces.

Of course, we haven't seen the direct and public involvement of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is that elite military unit of the security forces. There are concerns now we could see that crackdown tightening, a further use of brutal and violent tactics to really crack down on those protesters, who have, for weeks now, been demanding not only human rights to be respected and upheld in Iran, but women's rights to be upheld in Iran, but for now even some of them regime change.

We've heard those warnings over the last few days from the Revolutionary Guard Corps, as you mentioned there, saying to protesters that Saturday would be the last day of what he described as riots, telling them not to come to the streets once again.

Because of course, the regime has long held that these are riots and they have also warned that these are riots, in their words, being encouraged, instigated, facilitated by foreign actors, namely the United States and Israel.

We heard on Friday from the Iranian regime, from the Iranian intelligence unit, saying that -- or rather accusing the United States through the State Department and CIA of working alongside separatist leaders in the northwestern Kurdish cities to instigate chaos and instability in the country.

The CIA has declined to comment and we've previously heard from U.S. secretary of state Antony Blinken, not only expressing support for the protesters in Iran but also stating that, in accusing foreign actors of instigating these protests, the Iranian regime is not listening, is not understanding the will of its own people.

The American government has not been, in fact, directly involved, although we have seen tough sanctions being laid against individuals in Iran, as well as entities in Iran, as well as words of support for the Iranian people.

But of course, the real focus now is the situation on the ground. If we do see those large-scale protests today, as we have seen the last few days, how significant that crackdown will be.

BRUNHUBER: All right, thanks so much, Nada Bashir in London.

British rock group Coldplay is voicing their support for the Iranian protesters, have a listen.

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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): The group performed alongside Iranian singer and activist Golshifteh Farahani at the concert Friday night in Buenos Aires. They sang an Iranian vocalist Shervin Hajipour's viral song, "Baraye," the ballad which, in English, translates to "for," has been watched by millions across the globe.

It's based on tweets by Iranians expressing their anger and frustration with the government.

Still ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, tornadoes strike the southern U.S. Meteorologist Derek Van Dam will explain why you should always be prepared for extreme weather. Stay with us.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is on highway 63. There's a big ol' tornado right there.

BRUNHUBER (voice-over): This video was shot along a road near Moss Point, Mississippi, Saturday. A number of tornadoes were reported in the area. Officials in nearby Baldwin County, Alabama, say at least four tornadoes were spotted there. So far no reports of any injuries.

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BRUNHUBER: All right, that wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'll be right back with more news. Please stay with us.