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Lawmaker Plans to Oust House Speaker after the Stopgap Bill has Passed; Ukraine Aid in Trouble as U.S. Support for the War-Torn Country Remains Strong; 13 Dead in Spain's worst Nightclub Fire in Decades; Slovak's Ex-PM Wants to Kick-Start Ukraine-Russia Peace Talks; Hong Kong Joins China's 74th Founding Anniversary With a Fireworks Show; Taylor Swift's Appearance in Sunday's NFL Game Boosted Ticket Revenues. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired October 02, 2023 - 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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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States and, of course, all around the world. You're watching "CNN Newsroom" and I'm Rosemary Church.

Just ahead, one crisis ends as another begins. Why U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's decision to work across the aisle to avoid a government shutdown has put his leadership role at risk.

U.S. funding for Ukraine also on the line after being left out of the government spending bill. What that could mean for Kyiv's fight against Russia.

And Taylor Swift embraces her NFL era. The pop superstar's appearance at recent games is giving the league an economic boost.

UNKNOWN (through translator): Live from CNN Center, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Rosemary Church.

CHURCH: Good to have you with us. Well, after Congress narrowly passed a short-term spending bill to keep the government open, U.S. President Joe Biden is now urging lawmakers to approve new funding plans before the next deadline.

He says lawmakers should pass a year-long budget deal and authorize more aid for Ukraine within the next month and a half. He's also calling on both parties to act fast, saying they should stop waiting until the last minute to get things done.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: I'm sick and tired. I'm sick and tired of the brinksmanship. And so are the American people. I've been doing this, you all point out to me a lot, a long time. I've never quite seen a Republican Congress or any Congress act like this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: But getting House Republicans in line for a vote could become more challenging in the days ahead. A far-right Republican who opposed the spending bill says he will soon try to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy after he worked with Democrats to pass the measure.

Matt Gaetz told CNN he will soon force a vote on whether to remove McCarthy, saying the Republican leader cannot be trusted. CNN's Melanie Zanona has more on the challenges facing McCarthy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELANIE ZANONA, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: Well, Speaker Kevin McCarthy may have avoided a government shutdown, but now he is facing a showdown with his critics. And that is because he opted to put a stopgap bill on the floor at the 11th hour that did not include many of the demands that his conservative hardliners were seeking, and instead ended up getting the support of nearly every single House Democrat. So now Republican Matt Gaetz is promising to make good on his threat to try to oust Kevin McCarthy as speaker as soon as this week.

But Kevin McCarthy says, He's not scared of the fight. Let's take a listen.

REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): I do intend to file a motion to vacate against Speaker McCarthy this week. I think we need to rip off the Band-Aid. I think we need to move on with new leadership that can be trustworthy.

KEVIN MCCARTHY, U.S. HOUSE SPEAKER: So be it, bring it on. Let's get over with it and let's start governing. If he's upset because he tried to push us in a shutdown and I made sure government didn't shut down, then let's have that fight.

ZANONA: Now, in order for Gaetz to succeed, he is going to need the majority of the House chamber. That means he's likely going to need most, if not all, Democrats behind him in order for this to work.

But it's just unclear at this point what Democrats are going to do. Most of the Democrats that I talk to say they are reluctant to bail out McCarthy. They feel like they can't trust him. They don't like that he just launched an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden without sufficient evidence.

But there are some moderate Democrats who are really worried about throwing the house into chaos. So as of this point, Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader, is counseling members to keep their powder dry. And Democratic leadership put out a letter on Sunday saying they're going to talk about the issue as a caucus this week.

Melanie Zanona, CNN Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: The Republican division in the House doesn't appear to be impacting Donald Trump's campaign for President. On Sunday, he said he was not aware of the potential plan to oust Kevin McCarthy from his speakership.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Do you support Matt Gaetz's efforts to remove McCarthy as Speaker?

DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't know anything about those efforts, but I like both of them very much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Trump made those comments during a campaign stop in Iowa. He highlighted the state's agricultural industry and pitched himself as the best candidate for farmers while also slamming his opponent, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: No one gets abused on trade like the American farmer, except for four years we had Trump. I took good care of you. I took good care of you. Because I respect the farmer.

[03:05:05]

His entire career has shown that Ron DeSantis is a sworn enemy of the American farmer. How does that play in Iowa? I don't know. Senator, does that play well in Iowa? An enemy of the farmer. They call him an enemy of the farmer. But that means he's going to be an enemy of the farmer as soon as an election will be over in Florida, he's been voting horribly, and he's been vetoing funding and support for farmers left and right. You know that? Yet now he's trying to lie about his record.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: In the hours ahead, Trump will appear in person for the start of his civil fraud trial in New York. The former president, who arrived in the city just a short time ago, made that announcement on social media. New York Attorney General Letitia James brought the lawsuit alleging the former president, his elder sons, and his company engaged in fraud.

Just last week, the judge overseeing the case ruled that Trump is liable for fraud and that he overvalued his properties on financial statements for a decade. The New York Attorney General is seeking $250 million in damages and a ban on the Trump serving as officers of a business in the state.

CNN's senior political analyst, Ron Brownstein, joins me now. He's also a senior editor at "The Atlantic." Always great to have you with us.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Hi, Rosemary.

CHURCH: So Congress narrowly averted a government shutdown Saturday with House Democrats helping to pass a stopgap measure, which has put Republican Gavin McCarthy in jeopardy. Can he survive an attempt from the far right to oust him as speaker, do you think?

BROWNSTEIN: The remarkable answer to that question is it depends on what Democrats do. And you know, in the House, much like in a parliamentary system, the minority party usually has very little power.

But in this case, there are enough Republicans who are probably willing to depose McCarthy if enough Democrats also vote to do so, which is what you would typically expect.

But the Democratic leadership is playing its cards very close to the vest and not sending out clear signals about whether they will join in this effort to vote out McCarthy.

CHURCH: And President Joe Biden says the brinkmanship, which we've seen, has to end. So What role might the Democrats play in any effort to remove McCarthy from the speakership and of course to prevent funding for Ukraine to continue along with the uncompromising spending cuts that the GOP want to see happen?

BROWNSTEIN: Well first of all it's really an unprecedented situation. We have not had a motion to vacate in effect to fire the speaker since 1910 and in that example, I do not believe the minority party was a decisive block of votes. We know, as I said, that the vast majority of Republicans will vote to keep McCarthy in place.

But because there are enough that will vote to put him out, Democrats can join with them and actually remove him. One school of thought in the Democrats says the devil you know. McCarthy has been a very partisan speaker he wants impeachment inquiry into Biden without any hard evidence to justify it but at least you kind of understand who he is and now twice with the debt ceiling and with the government shutdown he has behaved in a generally responsible way building a bipartisan vote to avoid potentially catastrophic economic consequences.

The other point of view of the Democratic party says, you know, puts the emphasis on the other part of the sense. McCarthy has been a deeply partisan speaker. He has generally conceded almost whatever the far-right wants, and that Democrats should not lift a finger to save him. Plus, there is certainly an understandable view among many Democrats that the more chaotic a Republican's management of the House becomes, the better it is for the Democrats' chances of winning it back in 2024. I really don't know what they are going to do.

My instinct is that the White House will kind of fall on the devil you know side of the equation and that will probably lead to enough Democrats supporting him for him to survive but I wouldn't rule out the other possibility either.

CHURCH: And Ron on another issue we're keeping a close eye on Donald Trump's trial gets underway today in New York, the first of multiple trials. The civil fraud lawsuit against him and his eldest sons, their companies and several executives comes after a state appellate court denied Trump's motion to stay the trial. So how are things looking for him politically as his legal woes mount? And what are the implications of this specific trial, do you think?

[03:09:51]

BROWNSTEIN: Well, first of all, you know, there's no question that within the context of the Republican primary, he has been able to convince the vast majority of Republican voters, and maybe they didn't need that much convincing, to see all of these indictments and all of these other trials, the civil verdict in New York on the sexual abuse claim, what's coming here with this already sweeping ruling from the judge. He's been able to convince Republican voters to see it in the way that he wants them to see it, as an attack on them through him.

You know, they're going after you, but I'm just in the way, is what he says. It's a very different question what this might mean to a general election. You know, I think people are much too quick to write off the idea that this could be a significant burden for him if he is the Republican nominee.

Americans are hesitant about re-electing Joe Biden. We see that about concerns about his age, about inflation. So it's not as if Donald Trump's legal troubles are a silver bullet for Democrats. But I think that many Republicans are been too quick to assume that because none of this is phasing Republican primary voters, that it will be equally indifferent for general election voters. When you have a candidate whose case for managing the economy is based on his business acumen.

And his companies are being convicted of systematic fraud or judged to have committed systematic fraud. That is a potentially serious challenge for the core, really, of his candidacy, the idea that he can manage the economy better than Biden.

CHURCH: Ron Brownstein, thanks so much for your analysis. Always appreciate it.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.

CHURCH: The European Union's foreign policy chief is reassuring Kyiv that Ukraine's future lies within the E.U. Josep Borrell says he is convening all the member states foreign ministers in Ukraine's capital today, the first ever such meeting outside of E.U. borders.

CNN's Nada Bashir joins us now live from London. So Nada, this meeting of EU foreign ministers is a significant show of support, that comes of course as Ukraine watches the wavering dedication from some U.S. lawmakers. What more can you tell us about the significance of today's meeting in Kyiv?

NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: Well, you're absolutely right, Rosemary. We've heard just in the last hour from the E.U. High Representative Josep Borrell saying that all his colleagues within the European Foreign Affairs Council are taking this as an opportunity to express their will, their commitment to continue supporting Ukraine over the course of this ongoing war to continue to offer that support over the course of the continued counteroffensive. This is an extraordinary and symbolic show of support from the European Union. It's the first time that this sort of meeting, though informal in technical terms, will be taking place outside of European Union premises.

So this is, of course, a significant step for the E.U. We heard from the Ukrainian Foreign Minister speaking alongside BorREL just in the last couple of minutes. He said that this is symbolic in showing that this will be taking place perhaps outside of European Union borders right now, but this is taking place within future European Union borders. Of course, Ukraine adamant and confident they will become a member of the European Union. But as you mentioned there, there has also been some discussion, some focus of the back of the U.S. Congress budget decision, which does not include provisions for additional funding for Ukraine. That has certainly sparked some concern.

We heard yesterday from Josep Borrell speaking in Ukraine, expressing the European Union's own concern in response to this decision. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEP BORRELL, E.U. FOREIGN POLICY CHIEF: To tell the truth, we were surprised by the fact that the last-minute agreement has taken a decision that we have to regret deeply. I have the hope that this will not be a definitive decision and Ukraine will continue having the support of the U.S.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASHIR: We heard from Kuleba in the last hour, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, saying that he does not believe that U.S. support has been shattered, that Ukrainian officials are in touch with U.S. officials in Congress on both the Democrat and the Republican side, that those talks are ongoing. We've heard from the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry saying they are working with U.S. partners to ensure that a new budget will include provisions for additional funding for Ukraine, so certainly some confidence on that front from Ukrainian officials.

But of course, This is a big step. We've heard from Josep Borrell reaffirming the European Union's support and we've had a little sense of what today's discussions will be focusing on. Josep Borrell saying that they will be looking at President Zelenskyy's proposed peace plan in Ukraine and trying to garner support from the international community for this peace plan. Rosemary?

CHURCH: And we'll continue to watch this story very closely. Nada Bashir, joining us live from London. Many thanks.

CNN military analyst and retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Layton joins me now. An honor to have you with us.

[03:15:02]

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Thank you so much, Rosemary. It's great to be with you.

CHURCH: So the failure of Congress to pass funding for Ukraine in that stopgap bill to keep the government open came just days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed for continued U.S. support on Capitol Hill and after President Joe Biden and top aides voiced confidence that new funding would be approved. What will likely happen if that funding for Ukraine does not get passed?

LEIGHTON: Well, that would definitely be a worst-case scenario, Rosemary. And the key thing to think about here is that if the funding is not passed and if Ukraine does not get funding for its war effort, then it's a very bad situation. In fact, I would call it a desperate situation.

I think that the funding will get passed eventually, but any delay in this type of funding is going to have a significant impact on the training efforts, for example, for the F-16s or for the Abrams tanks. And it's also going to have an impact on the supply chain when it comes to supplying and resupplying ammunition and weapons systems for the Ukrainian war effort. Just in that war effort was beginning to show some signs of success in that counteroffensive that we've been looking at for the last few months.

CHURCH: So why do you think it is that some Republicans don't understand this -- this situation and that failing to fund Ukraine is a win for Vladimir Putin in essence?

LEIGHTON: Yeah, that's the real problem. They seem to have gotten into the isolationist mold of the Republican Party of about a hundred years ago. And it is something that is very different from, let's say, the Republican Party of Ronald Reagan of the 1980s or even the party of Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1950s.

So it's a very different Republican party, at least for those elements of it that do not support funding for Ukraine. I think the big issue is that it's a misunderstanding that some of the things that are happening in places like Ukraine don't impact, they think they don't impact the United States or its allies.

And it's a very nationalistic, very USA-centric view of the world. And fortunately, we can't afford to have a USA-centric view of the world. We have to view the world as being something we're all interdependent to, where we're all working together for a certain goal. And especially with our NATO partners, which have achieved a great deal of success when it comes to dealing with Ukraine, this becomes doubly important. And in the case of this funding measure, it becomes doubly troubling as well.

CHURCH: So Colonel, what are the likely ramifications and consequences if Russia wins this war because Ukraine doesn't receive sufficient funding and support from the U.S. specifically on time?

LEIGHTON: Well, I think if Russia were to actually win this war, it would mean the obliteration of the Ukrainian state. It would mean the demise of not only the Ukrainian government, but Ukrainian culture, Ukrainian language, and in essence what we'll be looking at is at the very least cultural genocide, and in some cases physical genocide.

So this is something that I think is very dangerous. We do not want to see this. We should have kept the lessons of 1945 from the end of World War II in mind when we are considering measures like this. And it becomes really important for us to look at this with a long lens of history, and with an idea of Putin's strategy. Putin's strategy is to divide and conquer. And if he divides us from our partners and is able to make something like this happen, where the Ukrainian aid is not passed to the Ukrainians, then it becomes much easier for Putin to move into areas of Europe, to gain influence in areas.

We've already seen the results of the Slovak elections, for example, and that becomes a critical issue where NATO becomes frayed and then Putin has a much freer reign in Europe and that is something that we don't want to see and we really shouldn't see in the Europe of today.

CHURCH: Colonel Cedric Layton, we thank you for joining us. I Appreciate it.

LEIGHTON: Thank you Rosemary.

CHURCH: The late California Senator Dianne Feinstein will lie in state at San Francisco City Hall on Wednesday. Her funeral will be held the following day and will be closed to the public.

Feinstein passed away last week at the age of 90 and was the longest- serving female senator in U.S. history. California Governor Gavin Newsom will appoint Lafonza Butler to Feinstein's Senate seat. Butler is currently the president of EMILY's List, a group that works to elect democratic women who support abortion rights. Butler will be the only black female senator serving in Congress and just the third in U.S. history.

[03:20:09]

Well, still to come, we will go live to Spain to get the latest on a deadly fire that ripped through a nightclub on Sunday killing at least 13 people.

Plus Slovakia's former Prime Minister Robert Fico reiterates his stand on Ukraine as his party wins the parliamentary election. We'll have the details just ahead.

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CHURCH: At least nine people have been killed and 40 injured after the roof of a church collapsed in northern Mexico. As many as 30 others are believed to be trapped under the rubble. Authorities say about 100 people were at the church when the collapse occurred. Several emergency teams and Red Cross volunteers are on the scene to help with the search and rescue.

And turning to Spain now where at least 13 people have been -- have died in the country's deadliest nightclub fire in decades. The cause of the blaze, which broke out early Sunday in the south eastern city of Murcia, is not yet known, but officials fear the death toll could rise as search operations continue.

[03:25:05]

Journalist Al Goodman, joins me now live from Madrid. So Al, what more are you learning about this deadly fire?

AL GOODMAN, JOURNALIST: Hi Rosemary, a police spokesman told CNN late Sunday that other nationalities, not just Spaniards, are among the victims of this tragedy. More details expected on that, soon. The mayor of Murcia, which is Spain's seventh largest city, promised the full weight of the law for the people who are responsible for this tragedy. Now 13 bodies have been recovered. Here's what the mayor had to say about them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSE BALLESTA, MURCIA MAYOR (through translator): 13 bodies have been found. All of them are now at the Institute of Legal Medicine for Autopsies. Of these 13, 3 have been identified through fingerprints and the rest cannot be identified through this test and will have to be identified through DNA tests.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOODMAN: The deputy mayor said in addition to the 13, five other people are reported missing by their family members and there were four people who were injured. Now this nightclub district is in an industrial and commercial area just outside of downtown.

Police say it attracts a wide range of people from 18-year-olds up to 50-year-olds depending on what kind of music is being played. Some of them come from Murcia's huge agriculture business that exports fruit and vegetables all across Europe. There were three discotheques in a row in sort of a rectangular building. Authorities say the bodies were recovered and the worst of the fire was at one on the end. What authorities don't know, they say, is whether the fire burned across from that one to the other two or if it started in the middle and burned out. They do know that it started on the second floor and burned up and the roof caved in.

The police official saying because it started at six in the morning on Sunday morning local time, and a lot of people had already gone home, it could have been a lot worse if it had been hours earlier when the discos were fully packed and if it had started on the first floor. Family members who are waiting for their loved ones have been taken to a sports center or being helped by psychologists and others. One man there told Spanish media that his daughter sent a phone voice message to the family saying she was trapped in a fire. She didn't know if she was going to get out, Rosemary.

It is the worst fire since 1990 in terms of fatalities. 43 people died at a previous one, and the very worst in Spain was back in the 1980s. 81 people died. Spanish officials are trying to get these things under control. Rosemary?

CHURCH: Horrifying and heartbreaking details there. Al Goodman bringing us the latest from Madrid. Many thanks.

And still to come, former Slovakia Prime Minister Robert Fico's party won a significant slice of the vote. But can he get the coalition he needs to return to power? We'll have details next. Plus, the crisis at the U.S. border. In the wake of a recent surge of

migrants, one county bordering Mexico has declared a humanitarian crisis.

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[03:30:00]

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CHURCH: U.S. border patrol agents are breathing a sigh of relief now that a government shutdown has been averted. Those agents are considered essential employees and would have been forced to continue working without pay if the funding bill was not passed.

CNN's Camilla Bernal has more on the influx of migrants desperate to reach the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAMILLA BERNAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A dramatic increase. Hundreds of migrants almost constantly arriving in waves into the California border.

Sometimes 50 or 100 or just five. Many with the help of a so-called coyote or smuggler. We ran into one operating openly at the border. He asked us not to show his face and distort his voice for fear of being killed.

(on-camera): He says to get to the U.S. you need at least $2,500.

(voice-over): The illegal trafficking of people operating almost like a travel agency. The Coyotes arrange the trip starting in the Middle East, Asia, South or Central America. Then they buy plane tickets and tell migrants exactly where to go.

With each paying a few thousand dollars or between nine to 12,000 for Mexican nationals, The business is lucrative.

(on-camera): He says they're at war with another cartel, and so the only way they can get money is by bringing people in.

(voice-over): People like Alexander.

(on-camera): He says he came here because of the violence that you live in Colombia. The number of hundreds of people being here at any given time over the last couple weeks is not normal.

Behind me is Mexico. This is an area in Boulevard, California, where there is a gap in the border wall. So a lot of the migrants are able to just walk into the United States. They continue this walk along the border wall and eventually turn themselves into border patrol. This is where that asylum process begins.

JACQUELINE ARFELLANO, BORDER KINDNESS: They don't have food and they don't have water and they don't have supplies on them. BERNAL (voice-over): Jacqueline Arellano with the nonprofit Border

Kindness, says there's not enough to address the need.

ARELLANO: It's just regular folks patching up together in a humanitarian response to a huge crisis is not sustainable.

BERNAL (voice-over): This week, the County of San Diego with a bipartisan vote unanimously declared a humanitarian crisis.

NORA VARGAS, SAN DIEGO COUNTY SUPERVISOR: The reason why we're advocating that the federal government get engaged in this process is because this is a federal issue. You're talking about asylum seekers that, you know, legally have a right to be here and to be processed and to get to their final destination.

BERNAL (voice-over): The hope is that the federal government provides for migrants like Maida and thousands of others who after being processed by customs and water protection will eventually be released in the streets of San Diego.

(on-camera): She says she wants to work, be honorable and have a good job.

(voice-over): But first, they wait in the desert. These makeshift shelters, their only protection.

Camila Bernal, CNN, Boulevard, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Workers from the United Nations have arrived in Nagorno- Karabakh to help refugees as they leave the region for Armenia. Azerbaijan reclaimed control of the breakaway region, leaving Karabakh Armenians two choices, stay and accept Azerbaijani citizenship or leave. Here's what some refugees are saying.

[03:35:03]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN (through translator): We hear that they raped somebody's daughter-in-law. daughter and it is stuff like this and this nests in your mind and you just can't imagine living there.

UNKNOWN (through translator): How can we live with Turks when we remember how we have lost our heroes, our boys? I left so many things there but I'm not concerned about it. If there's a choice between leaving things behind and staying, I choose leaving.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: More than 100,000 refugees have fled to Armenia amid the crisis, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency. The U.N. says at least 31 percent of the refugees are children and nearly 20 percent are elderly. Many citizens have lost hope of returning after the president of the region dissolved state institutions. Poland is looking ahead to an election that gives voters two starkly

different choices when it comes to governing the country. Massive crowds gathered in Poland's capital Sunday for a rally.

The Liberal opposition is hoping the Million Hearts march can build momentum before the October 15 vote. They're framing the election as a national referendum on the Conservative Law and Justice party. Many voters say they're ready for a change.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN (through translator): I have two daughters and I would like them to be able to live in a good, calm and intelligent country, not to be afraid for their future and to be able to live freely.

UNKNOWN (through translator): I want a Poland that is free, democratic, European, open to the world, friendly, that doesn't isolate itself. I want people to reconnect with each other as they did before.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: The Law and Justice Party has controlled Poland since 2015. The opposition says the ruling party is looking to leave the European Union, but the Law and Justice Party denies those claims.

Well meantime, voters in neighboring Slovakia are waiting to see who will lead their next government. The party of former Prime Minister Robert Fico got the highest percentage of votes in parliamentary elections over the weekend. Fico says as prime minister, he would do everything he could to kickstart peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT FICO, FORMER SLOVAK PRIME MINISTER (through translator): We think Ukraine is a huge tragedy for all. And if SMER formed the cabinet, whether it has the prime minister or not, we will do our best even in the E.U. to get peace talks underway as soon as possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: And for more, we want to go to CNN's Scott McLean. He joins us live from London. Good to see you, Scott. So where do things go from here and what are the implications of these results?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Rosemary. Yeah, now comes the hard part of actually negotiating behind the scenes, horse trading, trying to figure out if Robert Fico can actually form a coalition government.

He got the most votes, 23 percent of the votes, but it is entirely possible that when the dust settles on all of these negotiations that he's actually not the prime minister of Slovakia.

It is customary, though, for him to get the first crack at forming government. You can see the results here. He'd actually not ruled out the possibility of working with the Republic Party, that's a far-right party, which shares his views on Ukraine and Russia. Remember Robert Fico said that it was Ukrainian Nazis and fascists that provoked Russia into war. But that party actually didn't get 5 percent, which is the threshold to actually get seats in parliament.

There are seven parties that did. And so it is very likely that he needs more than one partner. The most likely scenario is that he pairs up with the Hlas party. That's an offshoot of his SMER party that broke away, but they share sort of similar values, and that party says, look, it's difficult to see how a coalition government could function without us, but he's likely going to need a partner in addition to the Halas party to actually make this work.

Fico was also asked yesterday about his thoughts on Ukraine and Russia now that the election is over, and here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FICO (through translator): Slovakia and the people in Slovakia have bigger problems than Ukraine. We do not change anything about the fact that we are ready to help Ukraine humanitarianly. We are ready to help in the restoration of the state. But our opinion on arming Ukraine does not change.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCLEAN: So his opinion doesn't change on cutting off military aid to Ukraine, but it may have to soften his stance in order to actually form a coalition and work with, work to actually govern. And he has a track record. He's been in office, been prime minister twice before, being pragmatic and being flexible.

But this time around, he also has the -- the leader of the party which got the second most votes, progressive Slovakia, saying that, look, he will do everything in his power to stop Robert Fico from becoming prime minister. In fact, he says he's gonna talk to all of the other party leaders informally to try to make sure that they don't end up forming a coalition government with him.

[03:40:08]

So there are still a lot of question marks, still a lot of things left to be decided and it could be weeks before we know. We have also got some reaction from the Ukrainian foreign minister on the election results. Dmytro Kuleba said that Ukraine respects the choice that Slovakia made. He also says it's too early to know what the results will be once the coalitions have formed and so they want to withhold comment until they know precisely who's gonna be in office, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Alright, our thanks to Scott McLean joining us live from London. I Appreciate it.

Well, Turkey says it has destroyed 20 targets in Northern Iraq belonging to the PKK. Just hours after the Kurdish militant group claimed responsibility for a bombing outside the Turkish Interior Ministry in Ankara.

The ministry says two attackers killed a civilian and stole his vehicle. Two police officers were able to stop the attackers but were injured in the process. PKK is designated as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and Europe. It has been waging an insurgency against Ankara for four decades.

The U.K. is deploying around 200 soldiers to Kosovo amid rising tensions in the country. They will be supporting a NATO peacekeeping mission that's been operating in Kosovo for more than 20 years. It comes more than a week after an attack on police that left one officer dead and another injured. Three armed men were also killed in the attack. The U.K.'s Defense Ministry says their troops will join a contingent of 400 others already in Percival.

And still to come fireworks light up the night sky over Victoria Harbor. We'll get a live report from Hong Kong on the tourism boom expected for China's Golden Week holiday. Back in just a moment.

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[03:45:06]

CHURCH: A week of festivities continues in China as the country marks the 74th anniversary of the People's Republic as well as the Mid- Autumn Festival. Hong Kong held its first National Day Fireworks show in five years, with police estimating more than 400,000 locals and tourists attending.

Officials say they expect nearly 900 million trips throughout the country during the eight-day holiday period and CNN's Kristie Lu Stout joins me now with more from Hong Kong. Nearly 900 million trips, I mean that is going to deliver the economic boost they want right?

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I mean pretty superlative numbers if you look at domestic tourism numbers here like the mid-autumn festival for the Golden Week in China is underway. This is one of the first holiday periods since the pandemic and also since the end of China's tough zero-COVID travel restrictions so, Yes, nearly 900 million trips are expected during this time.

And according to China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism, some 896 million domestic trips will take place. That's an increase of about 86 percent from the year before.

And revenue from domestic tourism is expected to reach some $107 billion. Now trains are busier than ever, as you can see there on your screen, railway stations across China, you see scenes like this of the surge in domestic train travel. In fact, according to China Railway, some 190 million railway trips will be made during this travel rush.

Around 20 million passenger trips are made on one day alone, on the first day of the holiday. Now, despite the surge in domestic travel, China's overall outbound travel market is still low compared to pre- pandemic levels. China's outbound international flight capacity is down around 50 percent. That's much lower than you compare to other countries and tickets are still very high. International flight fares are still much pricier compared to 2019.

China's economy is in a tough spot right now. It's struggling to recover after the pandemic, after zero-COVID, so many consumers across the country are reluctant to splurge on expensive, pricey, overseas holidays.

And so the Chinese consumers who are going abroad, they're opting for cheaper destinations, Asian destinations, which are closer to China, and also places like Thailand, which has become a top choice after Thailand introduced a visa-free policy for Chinese tourists.

In fact, according to trip.com, we learned that hotel bookings to Thailand surged over 6,000 percent, compared to the previous year after that policy was announced. Pretty significant. Back to you.

CHURCH: All right. Kristie Lu Stout, joining us live from Hong Kong. Many thanks.

The NFL is enchanted with Taylor Swift. A look at how she's helping to boost ticket and jersey sales. That's ahead.

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CHURCH: Well, the calendar says it's full, but still, parts of the U.S. could see potentially record-breaking heat to begin this first week of October. Thankfully, cooler weather should move in later this week. CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar has the forecast.

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ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Over 40 possible records could be broken in the next several days across multiple areas of the U.S. We're talking about portions of the Midwest to the Northeast, even stretching down along the Gulf Coast. And a few places in Texas could end up having three or even four days in a row of record setting temperatures. But there will be an end to this heat in the next couple of days. And that's because it's going to shift farther to the east, really becoming more of a focus for the Great Lakes and the northeastern region of the country by the middle portion of this week.

And at the same time, cooler temperatures will start to spread into the central U.S. And you can clearly see that on the multi-day forecast. Look at Sioux Falls going from a high of 92 on Monday, dropping back to 69 by the time we get to Wednesday. Similar for Minneapolis, topping out at 87 Monday, dropping back to 68 on Wednesday.

Even farther south, like in Dallas, for example, looking at multiple days of temperatures in the 90s before dropping back into the 70s as we finish out the rest of the week. Cooler temperatures setting in, but also rain chances increasing as well. For the Northeast, temperatures will be on the rise. They won't

necessarily be 15 to 20 degrees above average, like we're seeing in the central U.S., but still most of these places looking at least 5, if not even as much as 10 degrees above average. Take, for example, New York. Topping out at 81 on Tuesday, their average high this time of year is only 70.

Philadelphia looking at highs both Tuesday and Wednesday in the low 80s, also 10 degrees above average.

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CHURCH: Well Sunday was a good day to be a fan of the NFL's Buffalo Bills. The team's safety, Damar Hamlin, made his season debut against the Miami Dolphins. It was his first appearance in a regular season game since going into cardiac arrest on the field in January.

The 25-year-old had been on the team's inactive list for the last three weeks. The Bills, meanwhile, put on a monster performance against the Dolphins, winning 48 to 20.

Well, it's another history-making day for decorated gymnast Simone Biles.

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Spectacular there and while competing at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships on Sunday she became the first woman to land the Yurchenko Double Pike Vault during an international competition. The high difficulty skill is historically done by men and will likely now be named the Biles II in honor of the 19-time world champion making it her fifth named element.

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Well Taylor Swift may not be cheer captain but that didn't stop her from cheering on the NFL's Kansas City Chief Sunday. The superstar, who's rumored to be dating tight end Travis Kelsey, attended the team's away game against the New York Jets and ahead of the game NBC even used one of Swift's songs in a promotional video.

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Swift first stole the spotlight at a Kansas City Chiefs game a week ago and just the anticipation of her appearance at Sunday's game surged interest in tickets and jerseys.

Well Taylor Swift mania has become a moment for the NFL. CNN's Polo Sandoval explains how much of an impact she's had after just two games.

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POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's certainly no resisting this Taylor Swift effect. And not that you'd really want to if you're the National Football League here in the United States, as they have seen sales significantly increase since last week's Taylor Swift appearance at the last game of the Kansas City Chiefs. For example, the Jerseys bearing the name of Travis Kelsey, those have been up about 400 percent in terms of the sales.

There's also the ticket sales for Sunday night's game that according to TickPick, the online retailer of some of those tickets. Those sales up about 40 percent, according to them, they told CNN that they saw the most number of tickets sold in a single day for Kansas City Chiefs game this season. But you call it trailers, falsity, whatever you want to call it, this certainly marks a key cultural and business moment in the United States on Sunday though, for many of the fans of the New York Jets and the defending Super Bowl champs, the Kansas City Chiefs, all eyes were certainly on the football field.

Polo Sandoval, CNN, East Rutherford, New Jersey.

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CHURCH: And thanks so much for your company. I'm Rosemary Church, have yourselves a wonderful day. "CNN Newsroom" continues with Max Foster and Bianca Nobilo, next.

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