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U.S. Bombers Brought Back Home. Yemeni Government Announces Major Offensive Against Houthis. Less Than a Month Until Midterms. Frustration and Protests at Cornell University; Thousands Of Legal Immigrants Set To Lose Medicaid Benefits; Japan Protests After Police Accuse U.S. Marine Of Murder; Multiple U.S. States On Alert For Dangerous Heat. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired October 05, 2026 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States and from all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church.

Just ahead on "CNN Newsroom," the Pentagon has brought home its long- range bombers from a U.K. airbase. We will have more on the new threat that prompted the rare action. We're less than a month out from the midterms with polls looking bleak for President Trump and Democrats hopeful that they can take both houses of Congress. And the mood of Cornell darkens as pressure mounts on investigators. A former federal prosecutor is live to walk us through what's next for the case.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom with Rosemary Church."

CHURCH: Good to have you with us. And we begin this hour with an unspecified new threat that has forced the U.S. military to move its long-range bombers from a U.K. Air Force base back to their home stations.

An official familiar with the move says it's unusual that the U.S. brought the bombers home instead of deploying them to another base in the region, but it comes as British authorities investigate an alleged plot that targeted the RAF Fairford base, which is used by the U.S. to fly missions against Iran.

Despite strong denials from Tehran, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham says there are strong indications that Iran played a role in the incident, and the Trump administration has also alleged a foreign actor was involved.

CNN's Julia Benbrook has the latest from the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are still gathering information on this but, according to a source familiar, the United States has moved its long-range bombers stationed in the U.K. back to their American home stations following an unspecified new threat.

A U.S. official tells CNN in a statement -- quote -- "We can acknowledge now that all U.S. bombers that were deployed to RAF Fairford have redeployed to their home stations in the United States." That official did not go into detail on why these planes were moved.

Now, this is happening just days after the British government arrested a number of individuals in connection to an alleged Iranian plot to target the U.K. air base where those planes were located. The arrests were made, but those individuals were quickly released on bail. Iran has denied any connection to that incident.

Now, that air base had been used to deploy B-1 bombers used in the war against Iran. We have reached out to the White House for more information on this new threat. A source familiar referred to it as a real-world incident.

Julia Benbrook, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: CNN military analyst and retired U.S. Air Force colonel, Cedric Leighton, explains the significance of the U.S bombers and how moving them home might impact the U.S. military's international strike capabilities.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST, RETIRED AIR FORCE COLONEL: This particular aircraft as well as B-52s like this one and the B-1s, again, they are critical to our ability to project power. And B-1, for example, is a long-range bomber. It has been designed to carry ordinance a long distance, in many cases, an intercontinental distance.

And one of the things that we do is to preposition these aircrafts in locations like the United Kingdom so that they get there, get to their target area, which in this case was the Middle East, at a quicker time than they would if they had to come from the United States itself.

So, what this redeployment of these aircrafts does is it takes these aircrafts back out of England, moves them back to the United States.

And it also makes it longer if these aircrafts are going to be used in any future efforts in the Middle East, any future combat operations in the Middle East. It will take longer for them to get there just because of the geography, the geographic distance involved.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: A Saudi-led coalition is pledging its full support for the Yemeni offensive against the Iran-backed Houthis. The rebel group has carried out a lightning offensive in recent weeks, taking a key port on the Red Sea coast, and claiming several strikes on vital Saudi energy facilities.

[02:05:06]

CNN's Nic Robertson has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: The internationally- recognized government of Yemen says that it is moving from preparations operations to actual military action, that it is going on the offensive to retake the whole of the country from the Houthis whom the leadership calls terrorists.

Now, remember that just in the past few weeks, the Houthis in a lightning move dashed down the Red Sea, taking control of the vital Bab al-Mandab Strait, the narrow waterway of the Red Sea. They've been fighting intensively in the southwestern corner of Yemen, around the third largest city there, Taizz, particularly on the mountain range around that city, and that is key territory that the Yemeni government, the internationally-backed Yemeni government has been trying to defend. The leadership, the political leadership in Yemen, is framing their operations this way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN (through translator): Today, I announced the start of military operations to retake the remaining territory of the Republic and extend the authority of the state and its institutions across all national soil. We have issued directives to the armed and security forces and all military formations to begin executing their assigned tasks according to approved plans until the country is liberated from the grip of the terrorist militia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: The expectation of that internationally-recognized Yemeni government that is backed by Saudi Arabia is that Saudi will continue to support, it will increase its support with a coalition that has been building with Pakistan, with Sudan, and other countries bringing in troops and air forces from outside of Saudi Arabia to bolster this offensive against the Houthis.

The Houthis over the weekend were saying that the Saudi Air Force have been having strikes in the capital. Some other Houthis, for their part, have been striking back at Saudi oil infrastructure around the capital, Riyadh. They say that they targeted Saudi Aramco there, targeted another Saudi Aramco facility about a hundred miles east of the capital, Riyadh.

So, really, the tempo of this fight in Yemen has been heating up. The sort of strategic gains of the Houthis have been becoming even more significant in recent weeks. This does seem to be sort of pushing this Yemeni government with its Saudi backers and others to step up the action. Now, they're saying quite simply they're going to retake the whole country from the Houthis.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: All right. Let's take a look now at how oil prices are responding to these developments. You can see Brent Crude at 101.50 and WTI Crude at 89.75. The rise in Middle East crude exports and a release of G7 reserves have mitigated the impact on oil prices for now, at least. And what does that mean for the price Americans pay at the pump? Well, right now, the U.S. national average gas price, according to AAA, is $4.37.

Less than one month until the U.S. midterm elections, and the numbers aren't looking good for President Trump. Recent polling shows more Americans disapprove of his work during his second term, and the cost of living is a big reason why. New polling from the Associated Press and the Nork Center for Public Affairs Research shows many U.S. adults disapprove of how the president is handling the economy. That approval rating has fallen to just 26 percent, a new low, according to the AP.

But the president's director of the National Economic Council disagrees. He claims any reports of Americans being unhappy with the economy are the result of bad polling. Speaking with CNN on Sunday, he went on to defend the president's work so far in his second term, saying the economy isn't just doing well, it's booming.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN HASSETT, DIRECTOR, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: President Trump hasn't failed to deliver at all. The economy is booming. And what you have to do is you have to look at the whole picture. And so, what happens when the economy is booming is that people feel better about their economic circumstances, then they go out, they spend, they buy houses, and they buy cars. And if you look at the housing data over the summer then, income growth is outpacing the mortgage rates at housing starts and purchases and permits are way up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Joining me now is CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein.

[02:10:00]

Great to have you with us.

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

CHURCH: Good to see you. So, less than 30 days from the midterms, a new polling shows Donald Trump's approval rating hovering in the low 30s with the CNN Poll of Polls, putting it at 34 percent, and an NBC Telemundo poll released Sunday showing him slipping with Latino voters, a key block, of course, that helped him win the election in 2024. They are now swinging toward Democrats. So, where do things stand right now with the midterm elections and which seats are in serious play? BROWN: Well, you know, as I've said before, in modern American politics, the assessment of the sitting president is by far the single most important factor shaping outcomes in midterm elections. Right now, Donald Trump's approval rating is not only about somewhere between 8 and 10 points lower than his own rating in 2018, it's lower than Joe Biden in '22, Barack Obama in 2010, George W. Bush in 2006, and Bill Clinton in 1994, all of whom lost control of the House and most of whom had really bad elections in the Senate as well.

And it's not only the depth of the decline, Rosemary, that matters, it's the breadth of the decline. Trump is not only eroding among the groups that move toward him in 2024 like Latinos, like younger men, like the broader group of non-white voters without a college degree, he is showing some cracks even among his base, his core, the pillars of his foundation, whites without a college degree, rural voters.

And that is what is really expanding the map into previously almost unimaginable terrain for Democrats. They are not going to win all of those places, but the fact that so many of them are on the board as we are 30 days out, it gives you a sense of where this election is headed.

CHURCH: And Ron, a recent AP poll shows a record low of only 17. One, seven percent of voters approve of Trump's handling of the cost of living issue even as his own administration insists the economy is booming. How is the Trump administration downplaying this critical issue and what other major issues are dragging down Trump's approval ratings and motivating voters to get out and cast their ballots?

BROWN: You know, on the economy, it's kind of -- you remember the comedian, Richard Pryor? Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes? Donald Trump is not the first president to try to convince Americans that the economy is better than they think and it always ends in tears. I mean, you can tell them how something is going halfway around the world, and they might believe you because they have no other information. They know how much money they have in their pocket at the end of the week.

And, you know, the economy is obviously the biggest thing bringing Trump down, but it's not just proximity. Often, presidents are hurt simply because they're around when the economy is bad. What makes this unusual and especially, I think, dangerous for Trump and Republicans is that people attribute the cost of voting problem directly to some of his decisions, particularly the war, which has raised gas prices and the tariffs. So, not only do they faulted for not making more progress against the problem, they elected him above all to solve. They also feel that he is compounding the problem rather than ameliorating it.

CHURCH: And Ron, you recently wrote and you actually just said at this interview that there are even cracks in Trump's main base. And now, of course, the U.S. president is out campaigning in red states as polls show the GOP struggling. But despite just recently trying to shut down mail-in voting, he's actually now calling on everyone to get out and vote in person or by mail. What changed his mind and how panicked is Trump and his administration, do you think? BROWN: Oh, look, I mean, they see the same numbers that everybody else does. They are putting on a brave faith. But if you look where MAGA Inc., his pack, is spending its money, it's to fortify places the Republicans could not have imagined they would need to fortify.

A few weeks ago, districts that he won, House districts that he won by 10 or more points, you know, they are competing now not only in Ohio, Alaska, Texas, and Iowa. All states that he won by double digits and where polls this weekend put his approval rating at only 40 to 41 percent in states where he got 55 percent of the vote. Kansas, the Republicans are shifting money into Kansas where Democrats haven't won a Senate seat in over a hundred years.

Now, the fact that almost the entire battlefield is unfolding in red places, places that voted for Trump in '24, means this is not a done deal for Democrats. They may be reversion to the mean. In some of these places, they still have to struggle to secure voters, to lock down voters who are down on Trump but still dubious of them. But, again, the fact that we are serious -- talking seriously about places like Kansas and Nebraska gives you an idea of what the election is like in places that are more marginal or swing.

CHURCH: Ron Brownstein, always a pleasure to have you with us and to share your political analysis. Thank you so much.

BROWN: Thanks for having me.

[02:15:00]

CHURCH: The U.S. military says at least four people have been killed in a strike on an alleged drug-running boat in the Caribbean. U.S. Southern Command cited -- quote -- "confirmed intelligence" that allegedly linked the boat to narco-trafficking. Sunday marks the latest strike in the Trump administration's ongoing campaign to curb the flow of drugs into the U.S. since the original operations began in September 2025. The U.S. military has killed at least 238 people and destroyed about 80 vessels.

We have much more to come here on "CNN Newsroom," including an update on the medical condition of death row inmate Christa Pike after her failed execution by lethal injection. And frustration is growing at Cornell University over the school's handling of an alleged gang rape. We will have a look at the ongoing protests and the renewed criminal investigation. That's just ahead.

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CHURCH: Reuters has obtained a new video from inside the Tel Aviv bound FlyDubai flight that almost ended in tragedy.

[02:20:00]

In the video, passengers can be seen helping the wounded captain. A warning, though. The video you are about to see is graphic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNKNOWN: Really, really bad (ph). My head is --

UNKNOWN: No, just the head. Just the head, it appears.

UNKNOWN: My head is spinning. It is dripping. It is dripping.

UNKNOWN: Give me the pillow. Give me the pillow. Yes.

UNKNOWN: Nosebleed. Nosebleed. My head is hurting.

UNKNOWN: Give me that. Give me that pillow.

UNKNOWN: Take this.

CHURCH: Israeli sources tell CNN the co-pilot accused of attacking the pilot and trying to hijack the flight probably acted alone. The United Arab Emirates and Israel are both investigating the incident, which has since raised serious concerns about the security failures before the flight and, of course, how it happened in the first place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike is still critically ill and unconscious in the hospital after surviving a failed execution attempt by lethal injection. Her attorneys say she is on a ventilator after the state administered two doses of the typically fatal drug pentobarbital. Now, her medical and legal future remain unclear. One of Pike's lawyers spoke to CNN about her condition and what obligation he thinks the state has to her now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN FERRELL, CHRISTA PIKE'S ATTORNEY: At the very least, the governor should commute Ms. Pike's death sentence to a life sentence. At the very least, we had already asked that the governor commute her for many good reasons. I think she has spent over 30 years in prison, most of that in solitary confinement, only to be taken out and not executed, but tried to execute her. And that we don't know right now, and we may never know what sort of torture she endured during that process, where her consciousness was, what physical pain there was, what mental torture she went through.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Pressure is building at Cornell University of the school's handling of an alleged gang rape by several fraternity members in 2024. Demonstrators held a rally off campus on Sunday in support of the accuser, and 20 student organizations have planned an on-campus protest in the day ahead.

CNN law enforcement reporter Mark Morales has more on the growing demands for accountability.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARK MORALES, CNN REPORTER: A large number of demonstrators gathered about a mile away from campus today in just the most recent show of frustration with how this case has been handled. Now, they spoke at large about how unhappy they were with how the university and the local district attorney has handled this case. But also, their message was one of support. They supported Jane Doe, anybody that's in a similar situation to her, not just at Cornell University but at universities all over.

And they're not the only ones that have been expressing how unhappy they were about this investigation. We've heard from New York Governor Kathy Hochul, who has since put in the New York attorney general, Letitia James, in charge of the criminal investigation on this side.

But we also heard from Jane Doe's attorney. His issue from the very beginning was how the district attorney's office was looking at the evidence that they had already had, and they based most of their decision not to pursue charges on a six-page document that Jane Doe signed. But the attorney says that that document was severely lacking in a lot of real key parts of evidence that it did not have. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL KOTLIKOFF, PRESIDENT, CORNELL UNIVERSITY: I communicated enough about what the university did after the assault was reported, which has led to distrust. There are real legal and privacy limits on what we can say, but we will make a greater effort to explain what we can to provide context about the actions Cornell has taken and to be more transparent.

This message is the beginning of what we hope will be an ongoing constructive and dynamic conversation with our community. In the coming weeks, we will create additional opportunities for members of our community to ask questions and hear directly from the university leadership. That will include opportunities for Cornell leadership.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MORALES: Now, remember, there's going to be two separate investigations happening here. There's the criminal side that's going to be done by the attorney general in her office. She's going to have the power to go through and conduct interviews, search for evidence, render that search warrant. She's going to have the full prosecutorial power. That's going to be given to her to find out what happens.

But on the other side, there are major questions for how the university handled this, how did local university police handle this, and that's going to be done by an independent investigator that's going to be hired by the university to do that forensic analysis and to basically figure out what went wrong.

[02:25:00]

Mark Morales, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE) CHURCH: For more, I want to bring in Neama Rahmani. He is a former federal prosecutor and the president of West Coast Trial Lawyers. Appreciate you being with us.

NEAMA RAHMANI, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR, PRESIDENT OF WEST COAST TRIAL LAWYERS: Of course, Rosemary. Thanks for having me as always.

CHURCH: Of course. So, the lawyer for Jane Doe, who's at the center of the alleged gang rape at Cornell University in 2024, he says he believes they may not have everyone involved in that alleged assault. And he says she is now receiving threats, but he says he expects fairness in the new state attorney general criminal investigation. Do you agree this will be a fair process and that outstanding questions will be answered and justice served?

RAHMANI: Well, I believe that it will be a thorough process because the entire country, maybe the entire world, is now watching Cornell University and this investigation. Now, it has reached the highest levels of New York State, and that's Tish James. Of course, Tish James handled the civil lawsuit against President Trump. Even the president of the United States is now commenting on the case.

So, we'll certainly get answers. Obviously, we know that university interviewed more than 30 witnesses. Expect to see additional interviews as well and, potentially, charges being presented to a grand jury, as well as discovery and depositions in that civil lawsuit.

CHURCH: And the lawyer for the accuser says there's a problem when you have a complaining witness saying that she is 100 percent certain she was raped, and there's clear evidence of a group chat inviting people to participate in that rape. Does the lawyer asking why none of that information made it into the six-page report submitted to the district attorney in 2024? What is your legal response to that? What do you think happened there?

RAHMANI: Well, certainly, we have two sets of interviews. We have the written statement that was reportedly single-space. That was presented to the district attorney. And there was, apparently, days of interviews that the district attorney says that he did not review those transcripts. So, I don't know what happened there.

But, obviously, when you have a complaining witness and she is giving statements, multiple statements, both oral and written, that's something that's to be considered.

Now, the district attorney here, Matthew Van Houten, has received a lot of criticism. He came out and did something that's very surprising. I've certainly never seen it in my 25 years of practice, where a district attorney not only declines to prosecute, that happens all the time, but years later, in response to a civil lawsuit, puts out a very lengthy explanation as to why he believed the victim's conduct was consensual Once you decide not to prosecute, you close the file, you don't necessarily rain on the parade in the civil case.

So, we'll see if Letitia James and her office, if they have a different conclusion because, of course, we know when it comes to sexual activity involving adults, they can't consent no matter how gross or horrendous that activity may be. We saw that in the Sean "Diddy" Combs case, for instance.

CHURCH: Right. Of course, we've talked about the criminal investigation being conducted by New York Attorney General Letitia James. But in addition to this, there will also be an independent counsel hired to look into how the university and the district attorney handled this alleged gang rape, to find out who knew what and when. How important is it to have both those investigations underway at pretty much the same time and what's the next step for each of those investigations?

RAHMANI: Well, certainly, when it comes to Cornell University, they are in crisis mode right now. There are students there who are very unhappy with university justifiably so. There are students who want to disenroll from the university. So, this is a black eye, and they need to really figure out what happened here.

Now, there are a lot of reports on social media. A lot of information hasn't been made public. So, I don't know what they did and whether they acted properly, but they will certainly hire very expensive outside law firms to conduct a report, to determine what happened.

Now, with the district attorney, it's a little different. There's not really a whole lot that can be done. But, of course, we know that every prosecutor in this country is elected or appointed by someone. So, if people are unhappy with how the district attorney did his job, they can certainly vote him out of office. But as far as what can be done to him legally for declining to prosecute, not really a whole lot, unfortunately.

CHURCH: And as we were reporting, of course, student groups plan to protest Cornell's handling of the gang rape allegations, and all this is reigniting debate about sexual assault on this campus and on others. Why is it so difficult for these colleges and universities to properly investigate sexual assault cases on campus?

[02:30:03]

And what needs to change, do you think?

NEAMA RAHMANI, PRESIDENT, WEST COAST TRIAL LAWYERS: Well, unfortunately, drug use and alcohol use is rampant at colleges, and it doesn't matter if it's an Ivy League or large state university. This is a huge problem. And unfortunately, sex and drugs go hand in hand.

And in this particular case, we have a very strong drug, a narcotic called ketamine. And ketamine is originally was a horse tranquilizer. Now it's used as a party drug. And it's very common in colleges and universities now.

And unfortunately, it can potentially remove someone's ability to consent. They can be physically helpless. And that's what we're dealing with here. We're dealing with a new drug. And it's certainly much stronger, much

more potent than something like alcohol. And as their new drugs that are being introduced to colleges, this is going to continue to be a problem. And that's why were seeing this here.

CHURCH: Neama Rahmani, thank you so much for your perspective and analysis. We do appreciate it.

RAHMANI: Thanks for having me, as always.

CHURCH: Of course.

Well, still ahead on this hour of CNN NEWSROOM, refugees, victims of sex trafficking and interpreters who assisted U.S. troops in Afghanistan, these are some of the people who were losing federal health care coverage under Donald Trump's domestic policy bill. Their stories just ahead.

Plus, Brazilian voters will head back to the polls in a few weeks for another round of presidential elections. We will show you what's at stake in this race.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Rosemary Church.

Well, thousands of legal immigrants, legal immigrants here in the U.S. are losing their Medicaid benefits. Those Republican-led cuts were part of President Trump's so-called big beautiful bill. And many went into effect on the 1st of October.

CNN's Rafael Romo shows us who will be affected.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Among the people who have already been impacted by changes to Medicaid eligibility under President Donald Trump's Big, Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law last year are refugees, asylees, who fled persecution and some victims of sex trafficking. This is according to an analysis by KFF Health News, an independent health policy publication that also says interpreters who risked their lives assisting U.S. service members in Afghanistan, all of whom are in the country with the federal government's permission, have also lost benefits. Trump administration officials say they are reserving taxpayer funded programs for American citizens.

The law changes to key safety net programs such as Medicaid and food stamps are also a hard blow to some immigrants who have legal status but are not yet permanent residents. The immigrants affected are people living legally in the country, but not yet eligible for a green card. That's the case of a Romanian immigrant in Chicago who depended on Medicaid to pay for nursing home care after suffering a stroke, and who, according to his partner, was notified by the state of Illinois. The federal government will no longer pay for it.

TERESITA MORALES, PARTNER IS LOSING MEDICAID BENEFITS: And suddenly, they decided to cut him off. I'm not having it. I'm going to fight for him and everyone else that needs it. And this is, to me, insane.

ROMO: Another group that is deeply affected by the Medicaid cuts under President Trump's law are refugees, including Ukrainians who fled their native country after Russia invaded it in 2022.

OLENA LEVKO-SENDEHA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SELF-RELIANCE ASSOCIATION: People are disappointed. People are discouraged. They really don't know what to do because, unfortunately, they cannot go back yet, because, as you know, the war is still going on.

ROMO: Now, just to be clear, Olena, these are people who are here in the country legally, right? These are not undocumented immigrants.

LEVKO-SENDEHA: Yes. These people are here legally. They are here on the program of you, for you, which is united for Ukraine. And they are also called parolees, which is a different than refugees and asylum seekers.

ROMO: Asylum seekers are immigrants who fled persecution in their home country and have requested U.S. protection, while parolees are those allowed into the country by the U.S. government for humanitarian reasons.

According to the Self-Reliance Association, a Chicago based organization that offers support services for immigrants, as many as 9,400 Ukrainians are affected by the cuts just in the state of Illinois. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that 100,000 people would become uninsured over a decade as a result of Medicaid cuts under President Trump's law. But the KFF Health News analysis of state level data says that more than 281,000 immigrants from nine states and the District of Columbia were expected to lose Medicaid starting in October.

Rafael Romo, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Brazil's presidential race will enter a runoff later this month. Neither of the top two candidates secured 50 percent of the vote in Sunday's general election. Right wing Brazilian senator Flavio Bolsonaro won 47 percent of the vote. Just days ago, polls showed he was trailing sitting President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva.

The leftist incumbent is seeking his fourth nonconsecutive term in office. He took second place with just shy of 45 percent of the vote. The two candidates represent very different political visions for Brazil, both domestically and internationally.

One voter explains the stakes for the country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RENATA MANZZO, SOCIAL SCIENTIST: There is a great deal of apprehension, I suppose I didn't expect this. I had high hopes that the election would be decided in the first round in Lula's favor, so it's very hard to see us heading into a runoff, trailing someone who is beholden to the United States, someone who, in our view, has bad plans for Brazil. It's too much hopelessness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Earlier, we heard from Bryan Pitts, the assistant director of UCLA's Latin American Institute, and he explained why the pre-vote polls were so far off.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRYAN PITTS, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, UCLA LATIN AMERICAN INSTITUTE: This happened in the previous election, in 2022 as well. There was significant underreported support for Flavio Bolsonaro's father, Jair Bolsonaro. I mean, we've seen this in the United States as well. A lot of times people don't admit to the pollsters they're going to vote for a far right candidate.

And generally, these candidates in both the U.S. and Brazil have over- performed. This puts Lula at a distinct advantage in a runoff because out of the candidates who got the other eight percent of the vote, they only most of those are right wing candidates as well. It's likely their support will go to Flavio Bolsonaro in the second round in three weeks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[02:40:01]

CHURCH: A day after tens of thousands of people protested all across Spain, demonstrators have returned to their base in downtown Madrid. They're calling for a general strike following the defeat of a housing bill, which was meant to protect some tenants from eviction. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez might call a snap election for November. In the wake of the huge public anger, the outrage was sparked by the eviction of an 87-year-old woman in Madrid.

Thousands of young protesters took to the streets of New Delhi and Mumbai on Sunday in yet another day of demands calling for India's election chief to resign. Anger over changes to voter rolls is fueling the protests. Demonstrators say the changes benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party, and that the names of millions of eligible voters were purged. The electoral commission says the changes are necessary to remove dead, inaccurate and duplicate entries.

On Friday, a directed officials to reregister eligible voters who were mistakenly missing from the voter rolls. Well, protesters are planning a long march to show support for Pakistan's former prime minister, Imran Khan, and his political party, the PTI. The protest marches want khan to be released from prison, where he's been since 2023. They say they will walk hundreds of kilometers to Islamabad, Pakistan's capital. Negotiations between the PTI party and the government fail to reach any kind of agreement concerning the planned march.

We have much more coming up on the show, including a mysterious death in Siberia. An employee at a laboratory studying the plague has died after an accident there. What we know so far. That's just ahead.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:45:03]

CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone.

An investigation is underway in Japan after an American marine was arrested on suspicion of murdering a woman while stationed in Okinawa Island. The Japanese government has filed a rare formal protest with the U.S., calling the alleged killing extremely brutal and heinous.

CNN's Hanako Montgomery has more details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're getting more details now about a gruesome murder in Okinawa. Police have arrested a suspect, 20-year-old Lance Corporal Devin Jacob Ballard, a U.S. Marine stationed in the prefecture. He was arrested on Sunday on suspicion of killing 39-year-old Anna Yagi.

Police say Anna was found collapsed inside a hotel room in the early hours of Saturday, and that she died from strangulation. They're also investigating the case as a possible robbery, given that some of Anna's belongings were taken from the room and later found discarded nearby. Investigators have also told us that security camera footage shows a man believed to be a foreign national with a shaved head entering the hotel room with Anna and later leaving with her belongings.

Now, Ballard, the suspect, has denied the allegations, according to the police, and the investigation is ongoing. Now, separately, both the U.S. Marine Corps and the U.S. embassy in Japan have expressed their condolences, with the embassy also adding that the U.S. is cooperating with Japanese authorities over this investigation.

Now, this case has stirred up a lot of anger in Japan, where the prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, has lodged a rare protest against the United States. She's also called for the, quote, "fullest" possible cooperation with the investigation, thorough discipline among U.S. military personnel, and measures to prevent the recurrence of crimes and accidents.

And for people in Okinawa, this stirs up painful memories of 2016, when, similarly, a woman in Okinawa was murdered. Now, this victim was also raped and later a former U.S. Marine was arrested and sentenced to life in prison for those crimes.

And many in Okinawa point to the fact that they shoulder what they call an unfair burden that a majority of U.S. military bases in Japan are stationed in Okinawa. And they argue that, therefore, there are more violent crimes involving U.S. military personnel in the prefecture.

So this case has added to these long standing issues, longstanding friction between military bases belonging to the United States and Okinawans. It's also added to the frustration that many locals feel over a number of issues involving sex crimes and U.S. military personnel, and they're also calling for greater accountability over the murder of Anna Yagi.

Hanako Montgomery, CNN, Tokyo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: The U.S. Coast Guard has suspended its search nearly 72 hours after a medical transport jet went missing, with six people on board while flying from Bermuda to Boston. U.S. aviation authorities reported losing contact with the air ambulance on Saturday morning. Debris confirmed to be from the aircraft was later found off the Coast of Nantucket Island in Massachusetts.

According to flight aware data, the plane was flying at an altitude of 24,000 feet before plunging 13,000 feet over two minutes, officials say. Suspending the search was not an easy decision, and they expressed condolences to the families and loved ones affected.

Russian authorities are working to ease public fears after the death of a worker at a plague laboratory. Local officials say a, quote, "suspected" dangerous infection was released in an accident at the anti-plague research institute in Siberia. One employee is said to have died after being diagnosed with pneumonia of unknown origin. Nearly 200 people are reportedly under observation at the hospital, where the laboratory worker was taken. A local official suggested that the victim, a 28-year-old woman, may have died from the plague.

Earlier, we spoke to a virologist who explained whether a potential plague infection is cause for wider concern.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANGELA RASMUSSEN, VIROLOGIST, COLUMBIA MAILMAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: I don't think that most people actually need to be particularly concerned about this, because while pneumonic plague is really, really deadly, it has about a case fatality rate of 71 percent, it's not actually very transmissible. And the Irkutsk area, this whole entire region of Siberia and Mongolia is actually plagued with endemic plague in much of the wildlife there.

[02:50:00]

So that's actually why they have a research institute there. They're very used to dealing with this. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that the secrecy about this has been great, but it actually isn't terribly unusual for plague cases to happen in this region. What is more unusual is that it happened from apparently a laboratory accident.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: An unusually warm October is pushing boot season back and a return to the beach. CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar has more on the summer-like weather

sweeping the West.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGSIT: Nearly three dozen record highs are possible over the next several days in the western portion of the U.S. Every single one of these dots represents one of those records, keeping in mind that some of these places could break record highs several days in a row, because this is expected to be a very prolonged heat wave out into the west.

Take Sacramento, for example, 84 for the high temperature for average right now. Triple digits for the next three days. Los Angeles also looking at some triple digit temperatures, even though their average this time of year is only 80 degrees.

And it's not just California, Las Vegas, Salt Lake, even Denver, all of these areas looking at temperatures ten, maybe even as much as 15 degrees above average.

Now you take a look at the prolonged event because that's what we really talked about. Many of these areas out west are expecting those temperatures above average through at least Thursday or Friday of this week, before we finally start to see them dip back down. And that's the case for Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, a lot of these areas.

It's also why you have the heat risk in some elevated levels here. Notice a lot of the red and even some of the purple indicating the major and the extreme level of the heat risk. Now, this is for Monday.

But notice as we get into Tuesday, a lot of it stays there, but you start noticing more of it begin to spread eastward as we get into Wednesday and Thursday of this week, before we will finally see some relief as we head into the weekend.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, this year's Oktoberfest in Munich had record attendance. We will have more on the German beer festival and what organizers are saying about it.

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[02:55:56]

CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone.

Well, the world's largest beer festival, Munich's Oktoberfest, has wrapped up with its biggest turnout yet. Organizers say a record 7.4 million people attended. That is nearly a million more attendees than last year. Beer sales also went up by almost 3 percent. Organizers say they collected 105,000 of those iconic beer mugs that visitors tried to smuggle home. While many people came from Germany, Americans, Italians and Austrians made up the largest share of foreign visitors. Great stuff.

Thanks so much for your company this hour. I'm Rosemary Church. CNN NEWSROOM with Kristie Lu Stout is next after a short break. Do stay with us.