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Halloween Crowd Crush Kills At Least 151 In South Korea; Russian Exits Black Sea Grain Deal; Socialism, Disinformation Prevail In Florida U.S. House Race; 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 4-5a ET

Aired October 30, 2022 - 04:00   ET

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

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

Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, South Korea is mourning right now. More than 150 people in Seoul killed in a crowd surge, celebrating Halloween. We're live to see the details.

Nine days until U.S. midterms and 19 million people have already voted. We'll take you to one battleground state, just ahead.

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

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

BRUNHUBER: We begin with shock and grief in South Korea where at least 151 people have died in a chaotic crowd surge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER (voice-over): These are images from Seoul. The tragedy unfolded Saturday night. Officials say thousands of partygoers gathered there for Halloween celebration. Many of them are crushed when the large crowd moved through a narrow alley.

Many say authorities should have been better prepared. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOON JU-YOUNG, WITNESS (through translator): Seeing this incident, I think the police were not prepared enough. There were way too many people and it was too crowded. I know the police and rescue workers are working hard. But I would say there was a lack of preparation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: CNN's Paula Hancocks is live at the scene.

As people are trying to grapple with the scope of this enormous tragedy, describe what is happening there. Some people are still looking for loved ones and for answers.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, yes. We know that there are still some family members who are looking for their loved ones, who are going to community centers, to hospitals, to try to find out where the people that they haven't been in contact with since last night have gone.

We know that there are a number of reports of missing people. There is some confusion, of course, as there always is in the case of the aftermath of an incident like this, people desperately trying to get hold of those loved ones that they may not have spoken to.

Now this is one of the alleys where part of the crush took place, just about 50 meters behind me, where the policemen are. You can see that there was a small alley just to the right. That is where the most number of lives were lost.

There were bars, restaurants, night clubs all along the area and it was absolutely packed. And we know dangerously so now.

We spoke to a number of eyewitnesses, one who was on this very road last night, saying that she felt she was lucky because she was pushed into the stairwell in one of the bars behind me and felt that saved her life.

I spoke to two sisters, who decided not to come into this area because they said it was simply too busy and dangerous. This is what they said.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): When you start seeing bodies everywhere, the people were drunk, other people trying to revive them, because the situation over here was really bad.

But people are really crowded from there to here. Beside, there were people already stuck inside. Some people were looking at the others and just faint. There was so much blood everywhere. And some people just start pressing them out of their mouths and they were trying to wipe the blood and trying to give them mouth to mouth in the situation that they can help to come back to life. But they couldn't.

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HANCOCKS: There is a sense of shock and disbelief that something of this magnitude could happen here in this entertainment district in Seoul. But this is what has happened. Many have come back this morning. We saw them looking dazed, saying they were traumatized by what had

happened and realized that they were the lucky ones. There are still some deceased yet to be identified. We understand from officials 90 percent of those who lost their lives have been identified.

The problem was some were young, many in their early 20s but some under the age of 17.

[04:05:00]

HANCOCKS: That means they wouldn't have been registered for an ID card and wouldn't have been not in the Korean system. So there is difficulty in identifying all of the victims. Of course, some also were foreigners.

BRUNHUBER: Yes. Paula, hard questions are now being asked both about how this was allowed to happen in terms of the crowd control and also in the immediate aftermath with the rescue efforts.

HANCOCKS: What I heard from one of the eyewitnesses was the surprise that there was no crowd control. They decided not to come into this particular back alley because it was jammed. But they said there was nobody limiting the number of people.

This is the first Halloween in three years since the pandemic that there were no COVID-19 restrictions, no masks, no limits on the amount of people that could come in here. And we see that it has had deadly effect.

We also heard from minister of interior and safety, who said that he didn't believe deploying more officials or police would have made much difference. That is difficult to say before an investigation is carried out. And we know that investigation is being carried out now. But that is the official line at this point.

There have been many officials coming through this area, looking for evidence, for clues of what exactly happened, how it could have happened. Some images that we have seen, eyewitnesses speaking to us, have said that at one point they saw people trying to climb the walls of some of the buildings to try to get out of the crowd and get out of the crush.

We've also heard from eyewitnesses that they didn't believe there were enough first responders to be able to cope with the sheer magnitude of this disaster, the number of people that needed attention.

There simply weren't enough first responders here to do that in the first hour or so. One of the eyewitnesses said that she saw people doing CPR on their friends because there were no first responders available.

Obviously a very devastating incident happening here, in the heart of Itaewon. And this area will be in national mourning and closed off until at least November 5th, we understand.

Of course, now the questions are, how did it happen and what should change so it never happens again?

BRUNHUBER: Absolutely devastating. Paula Hancocks, thanks so much.

Earlier I spoke about the crush with crowd security expert Keith Still. And he explained how a crowd collapse can create a domino effect. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. KEITH STILL, CROWD RISK ANALYSIS LTD: 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.

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. [04:10:00]

STILL: 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.

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BRUNHUBER: We're just over a week away from the U.S. midterm elections. Both parties are sending out their biggest names in key battleground states in the final stretch. Former president Barack Obama was just in Georgia, rallying Democrats.

And President Biden will also be stumping in four states. And Donald Trump will be campaigning for Republican candidates in Iowa, Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio. But a large number of voters have already made up their minds.

More than 19 million early ballots have been cast nationwide, according to data from elections officials and Edison Research and Catalist. Texas and Florida have both received about 2.5 million votes each. Georgia is seeing record-breaking turnout. And races here could determine control of Congress.

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.

Russia is shutting the door to much of Ukraine's grain exports. Next, we'll see how countries in Africa could be affected, now that the major source of grain is going away.

Plus polls open in a few hours in Brazil's runoff election. And results could shape the global economy and fight against climate change. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Ukraine is accusing Russia of playing hunger games with millions of people desperate for food. This is after Moscow pulling out of a grain deal signed in July. Russia says it is leaving the deal because of alleged Ukraine drone attacks on Crimea.

And the White House slammed Moscow for what it called weaponizing food. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that Moscow has been planning to get out of the deal for weeks. Here he is.

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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Russia began deliberately aggravating the food crisis back in September, when it blocked the movement of ships with our food from September to today.

And 176 vessels have already accumulated in the grain corridor, which cannot follow their route. Some grain carriers have been waiting for more than three weeks. This is an absolutely deliberate blockade by Russia.

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BRUNHUBER: And David McKenzie is in Johannesburg. But first 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 accusing Ukraine of attacking its ships in Sebastopol in Crimea. They are saying that this is a significant ability that caused them to pull out of the Black Sea grain initiative.

The deal itself was two parallel deals that the U.N. spent a long time to strike, one with Ukraine, one with Russia. And Russia was given incentives to join the deal. They had some sanctions relief.

Ukraine wanted to export the grain because it needs the money. And there was a huge amount of international pressure at the time on Russia because it was seen as the perpetrator of the war, the one affecting all those Black Sea ports, not allowing Ukrainian ships and other ships to get the grain out to the global market.

And therefore that was the impetus for that deal. But as we've heard from President Zelenskyy, the deal has not been going very well. There was an anticipated 20 million tons of grain expected to be exported under that deal.

And it has only been about 9.1 million tons so far. Russia complains that much has gone to the first world and not the third world. But I think what we're seeing as well is pressure on Ukraine, pressure on its allies and global partners, to pressure Ukraine to agree to President Putin's terms of peace, which is a complete annexation of those four regions of Ukraine, which, categorically, Ukraine says won't happen.

So there is a bigger political picture behind this. But there is a knock-on here. Yesterday the U.N. said five ships were able to exit with grain and four ships are in the navigation part of the Black Sea, to come and pick up grain.

Today they say there are 10 ships waiting do that but they can't move. Ukraine said there were 175 ships waiting under contract to move grain. And so there is still a huge backlog of grain.

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ROBERTSON: And, of course, what happens with the deal now affects what farmers do for next year. You already see around this country many fields, where they just haven't taken the seeds or the grain from the fields.

And many farmers in light of what they are witnessing today may not plant for next year. So the food shortage problem and higher prices globally, potentially for next year, could be worsened again because of what is happening right now.

BRUNHUBER: A great point. Nic Robertson, thanks so much.

So in all more than 9 million tons have flowed out of Ukrainian ports since the agreement began. More than 70 percent of it has been corn or wheat, with the rest being sunflower oil, rapeseed or other products like soybeans. Much of it has gone to the European Union or China.

But a lot has gone either directly or indirectly to countries where people need the assistance simply to survive. Many of the countries heavily dependent on Ukrainian grain are from Africa. And for more, we're joined by David McKenzie.

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think the short term impact will be on price and long term is price and supply. And while that sounds kind of dry, it certainly is potentially devastating because, as we've seen, while that initial blockade was in place, countries in North Africa and the Horn of Africa were feeling a major squeeze.

Wheat is often subsidized by governments. And their inability to afford that food for the population and keep it subsidized is a major humanitarian and political threat.

We were in Tunisia earlier this year. And they had to get an emergency loan from the World Bank just to afford to buy wheat. And that is the short term impact.

As Nic was alluding to, the long term impact could be devastating, both from the point of view of producers in Ukraine, who might feel that there is not -- it is not worth them growing the wheat and other products because they might not find a market for it.

And at the demand side, you know, even farmers we've been speaking to over the months say, well -- I mean producers -- if they can't guarantee that they will have the supply, they will have to drop what they are doing.

And it is not just for food, it's food for animals, for people who want to sell their livestock. This is a major knock-on effect. And Ukraine is a very large producer of grains and oil and other products. So the leverage that Putin may be trying to gain from this has a very real world impact, especially in those countries that can least afford it.

BRUNHUBER: Absolutely right. David McKenzie, thanks so much.

And it's not just food at stake. There are also political implications. Earlier I spoke with Mamadou Goita, the executive director of the Institute for Research and Promotion of Alternatives in Development. And he's also a member of the international panel of experts on sustainable food items. Here he is.

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MAMADOU GOITA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH AND PROMOTION OF ALTERNATIVES IN DEVELOPMENT: Millions of people who will be starving because you look at the statistics, then for these countries there are big parts of the population that will be in difficulties with accessing to food.

And so even if some of them will be ready to change, how can a hungry population get access to some of the solutions that we have been proposing for years and years, trying to restructure a system of this country. So it really --

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BRUNHUBER: Let me ask you about the politics here, because it seems -- I mean, despicable that Russia is apparently using these vital shipments as a bargaining chip with millions of lives on the line.

Russia has tried to blame the West for these problems. Many African nations have taken a position of neutrality in this war.

Do you think that will now change?

GOITA: I think that only there have been some changes in the position because actually even the West African commission, the chair of the West African commission, that is the president and several of the commission itself have been traveling to Russia, trying to find a solution.

And this has been organized after the (INAUDIBLE) was organized by the (INAUDIBLE) president from Senegal.

I think that the position that is coming out.

[04:25:00]

GOITA: And some of the reaction that we can see from different countries, (INAUDIBLE) that people are trying just by the first step just to negotiate so that there can be (INAUDIBLE) not only for this country (INAUDIBLE) but for a long term element on the peace building process itself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Still ahead, much more on the deadly crowd crush in South Korea. We'll hear from a witness about what he went through and how he got out. Stay with us.

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

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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

South Korea's president has visited the site declared a national mourning period. Many people are still considered missing, their friends and family desperately searching for them, hoping that they made it out safe and sound.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: The crowd surge happened at a popular nightlife district in the South Korean capital. And Will Ripley spoke with one of the witnesses, there who described what he went through you and how he made it out.

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WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Can you tell me what happened and what we're seeing in these pictures you took?

SONG SEHYUN, WITNESS: So I was still out here with my friends, especially my soldier (ph). Because I was starving the U.S. (INAUDIBLE) (ph) too.

[04:30:00]

SONG: So this was Halloween, so I was going out with my soldiers and having fun with them.

And people started to get jammed up, starting from 6:00 pm. And I actually went to one bars and I saw already people jammed. I saw people going to the left side and I saw the person getting to the opposite side.

And so the person in the middle, they got jammed. And they have like, you know, no way to communicate. And they cannot breathe. They cannot breathe. And so I actually got through that, too, with my friends.

And I was thinking something like, oh, yes, this is going to be happen something. And after I actually get through it, I mean I was lucky to get through that. But like after I get through that, like an hour later, I heard like people got killed because of them, because like people get stamped on them and people got jammed together.

RIPLEY: So can you describe the space, how everybody was packed?

SONG: It was literally less than one feet. It was literally less than like -- you know, you can imagine like a jammed subway. Peoples are like crowded together. We have nowhere to move. Like we just got pushed by the back.

RIPLEY: So you are on this narrow street and it is so crowded that you can't even move and you can't even breathe.

SONG: That's correct.

RIPLEY: Were you scared?

SONG: I was scared, too. I was pretending to be not to be scared because if I try to be scared because people beside me will be scared, too. So I was trying to be like, this is going to be decent, like I can get through that.

But like deep in my heart, I was like, oh, yes, this is going to be happening. Like they really got jammed because, at the time that I was there, it wasn't jammed. But I didn't really feel that I'm going to be died. I felt like, you know, after -- I like, an hour later, I saw, there were like people were going crazy.

And I was like oh, yes, this is going to be -- this is going to be serious.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Expressions of sympathy for South Korea are pouring in from leaders around the world. President Joe Biden said he and the first lady, quote, "grieve with the people of the Republic of Korea and send our best wishes for a quick recovery to all who were injured."

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also tweeted his condolences, saying he is, quote, "wishing a fast and full recovery to those who were injured." And from the U.K.'s new prime minister, Rishi Sunak, "All our thoughts

are with those currently responding and all South Koreans at this very distressing time."

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BRUNHUBER: U.S. midterm elections are just more than a week away and the nation's 30 million plus Latino voters are in focus for both Democrats and Republicans. In one south Florida House race in an area dominated by Latinos, socialism and disinformation are now main talking points. CNN's Boris Sanchez spoke to some people to find out why.

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REP. MARIA ELVIRA SALAZAR (R-FL): Why are the Hispanics coming to the GOP?

Because we are not stupid, because we know, we know very well ...

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Running in Florida's 27th District, the centerpiece of Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar's reelection campaign resonates in a largely exile community.

SALAZAR: And socialism is a really bad dirty word for people that speak and sound like me. Why?

Because we have lifted and it's beautiful in theory, it's miserable in practice.

SANCHEZ (voice-over): The daughter of Cuban refugees says her party has made recent gains with Latino voters because the GOP is defending them from what they call radical policies put forward by Democrats.

SALAZAR: Unfortunately, the Democratic Party leadership has been infiltrated and it's been hijacked by radical forces that are Neo- Marxists. No one has to misinform them. They recognize it.

SANCHEZ: When your opponent calls you and your party socialists and communists, you say what?

ANNETTE TADDEO, (D-FL) U.S. HOUSE CANDIDATE: I say, "Really?" Because I am the one that came to this country because my father was kidnapped by a Marxist terrorist group.

La mentirosa, as they call my opponent.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ (voice-over): Salazar's rival, Annette Taddeo, argues it's hypocritical for Republicans to link her party with radical authoritarians when they support former President Donald Trump.

TADDEO: So how can you fight for democracy in Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, if you're not going to fight for it right here in the United States? [04:35:00]

SANCHEZ (voice-over): The Democratic Florida State senator believes misinformation is a key reason more Latinos are voting Republican.

TADDEO: We need to fight back when they call us out and call them out, because they're the ones taking our freedoms away.

AMORE RODRIGUEZ, CO-FOUNDER, CUBANOS PA'LANTE: There's a fear of losing their second home because they already had to lose the first one.

SANCHEZ (voice-over): Amore Rodriguez, who founded a liberal group focused on Latino outreach, says it's a manipulative message, preying on an area dominated by immigrants fleeing for left regimes.

RODRIGUEZ: And this is why I've been so frustrated with the Republican Party using the term socialism and communists as equivalent to Democrat in -- as a way -- as a fear tactic to tap into the tragedy of our community.

SANCHEZ (voice-over): A tactic she calls cruel because it's torn her family apart.

RODRIGUEZ: We don't even agree on reality.

SANCHEZ (voice-over): She says one of her family members now believes conspiracies spread on social and Spanish language media.

RUY TEIXEIRA, SENIOR FELLOW, AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE: The idea this is driving this big movement of Hispanic voters away from the Democrats, I think it's absurd.

SANCHEZ (voice-over): A left-leaning analyst who has studied the Latino vote for decades, Ruy Teixeira, argues that by blaming misinformation, Democrats are avoiding more serious questions about their approach to Latinos.

TEIXEIRA: It's actually like, unproductive for the Democrats to think about it this way, because it prevents them thinking about what aspects of the Republican message are really working with these voters and why and why are -- why is our party not as attractive to these voters as we used to, what are we doing wrong?

SANCHEZ (voice-over): Boris Sanchez, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Polls open in just a few hours in Brazil's hotly contested presidential race. Today's runoff pits Jair Bolsonaro against his center left rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. A key demographic both are trying to win over is the millions of Brazilians living in poverty. CNN's Paula Newton has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nova Vittoria Speranca (ph), this pandemic-era village on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, is fertile ground for votes but not food. The irony, not lost on anyone here.

Food is the issue this mother of four will be voting on. Evanilda's (ph) partner works 16 hours a day and still she tells us, there isn't much in her refrigerator.

"I just don't want my kids to go hungry," she says.

She feels they may if President Jair Bolsonaro is reelected, even though he raised welfare payments ahead of the election.

"In my view," she says, "Bolsonaro didn't fulfill his promises and has only given us a subsidy to see if he can get more votes."

People here know better than to expect too much from either candidate. But from former President Lula da Silva, they expect something.

"I intend to vote for Lula," she tells us, "because Bolsonaro has been there for four years and, in four years, he's not been able to do much."

From Brazil's impoverished suburbs, to the streets of its commercial capital, inflation is biting here. Access to food has become a central election issue and a convenient campaign promise as tens of millions continue to live in poverty.

At a Bolsonaro rally, supporters ridicule Lula, calling him a thief who belongs in jail, hardly a savior of the poor. Evanilda (ph) sees past corruption scandals differently.

"Every single one that is in there steal something," she says, "even just a little. They are talking about Lula and saying he stole. Maybe he did. But at least he takes care of us, takes care of the poor."

Bolsonaro has spent billions on welfare subsidies in the leadup to this election, trying to prove he can save Brazilians from hunger.

Robson Mendonca has been feeding the hungry for decades. He says hundreds more have been lining up at his soup kitchen in recent months. And he's troubled that the desperate plight of so many is being exploited for votes.

ROBSON MENDONCA, SAO PAULO COMMUNITY LEADER (through translator): Bolsonaro was even capable of lying on national radios saying there is no hunger in Brazil. They don't see anyone asking for bread at the bakery. He doesn't know reality. There are millions asking for a plate of food, because they can't feed themselves.

[04:40:00]

NEWTON (voice-over): To win, both presidential candidates need to count on votes from those can't count on their next meal. A stark snapshot of what is at stake of Brazil's hungry -- Paula Newton, CNN, Sao Paulo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Carnage on the streets of Somalia could be retaliation. The latest on the deadly car bombings in the world's most troubled nations. That and more when we continue. Please do stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: British rock group Coldplay is voicing its support for the Iranian protesters.

The group performed alongside Iranian singer and activist Golshifteh Farahani in the concert Friday night in Buenos Aires. They sang 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.

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BRUNHUBER: 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, Saturday is the last day of protests has and said do not come to the streets again.

And Nada Bashir is joining me now.

So explain what that means, what are they -- what are the consequences of this and is there any sense of whether the protesters will actually listen?

[04:45:00]

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is perhaps some of the most direct warning we have seen from the head of the Revolutionary Guard against protesters, telling them that they should not come to the streets today. Saturday would be the last day of protests. And, of course, we've already seen a crackdown by security forces in

Iran for the last seven weeks now, using violent methods to quell the demonstrations -- tear gas, metal pallets, batons for beating and live fire being used against protesters.

Now the concern is, after the stark warning, that this crackdown could perhaps intensify today and indeed in the coming days if we do see protests continue. And we've already heard from one human rights group based in Norway focused on the northwestern Kurdish region.

And they say that the protests have already begun in particular in cities where students have reportedly taken to the streets. CNN hasn't been able to verify that footage just yet.

But there is concern that this could potentially be a turning point if we continue to see intensification of that violence. As you mentioned, what we've seen is an uptick in the violence, reports of more weapons being used, snipers being used against protesters.

And, of course, we have seen that death toll rise. And according to the United Nations, at least 250 protesters have already been killed since demonstrations first began in September. The regime, however, has maintained that these are not anti regime protests. These are not demonstrations calling for human rights.

These are attempts by foreign actors, mainly the United States and Israel, as accused by the regime, of trying to stoke instability and chaos in Iran. And Revolutionary Guard issued a statement Friday, saying that the CIA and State Department have been working with Kurdish separatist leaders in an attempt to stoke unrest in Iran.

The CIA hasn't responded to that. We've previously heard from secretary of state Antony Blinken saying that any attempt by the regime to pin these protests on foreign actors, to suggest that this is unrest being stoked by foreign countries, is a clear sign that the regime is not listening to the will of its people, who have been protesting now for weeks, demanding not only regime change, many of them, but also crucially for their fundamental human rights and freedoms to be upheld.

BRUNHUBER: Appreciate it, thanks, Nada Bashir in London.

And at least 100 people are reported dead after two car bombs rocked the Somali capital of Mogadishu. The blasts happened near the education ministry on Saturday as the government is pledging to crack down on Al-Shabaab. So far no claims of responsibility.

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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): And as you can see, plumes from the blast could be seen for miles. Well, this was the view from ground level. Al-Shabaab is increasing its attacks on civilian targets after the newly elected president declared an all-out offensive on the group.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BRUNHUBER: Coming up, tornadoes touch down in Mississippi and Alabama Saturday and the threat is not over yet. We're live from the CNN Weather Center next. Stay with us.

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[04:50:00]

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

BRUNHUBER (voice-over): That 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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[04:55:00]

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BRUNHUBER: That wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. You can follow me on Twitter. I will be back with more. Stay with us.