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CNN International: France Reels Unrest As President Condemns Rioters; Zelenskyy: U.S. Siding With Russia Would Be "Historic Mistake"; Rubio Asks Israel To "Crack Down" On Settler Violence. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired October 19, 2026 - 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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[04:00:29]

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome. I'm Christina Macfarlane in London.

Ahead here on "CNN Newsroom," massive protests in France spiral into violent riots in some of the worst civil unrest the country has seen in years.

Donald Trump steps into campaign overdrive as new polling paints a worrying picture for Republicans trying to keep control of Congress.

And a string of violent attacks carried out by Israeli settlers in the West Bank is raising international alarm. We'll speak to the director of an Israeli rights group.

ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Christina Macfarlane.

MACFARLANE: French President Emmanuel Macron is vowing to prevent a repeat of this weekend's violent protests as business owners and shopkeepers pick up the pieces from the looting and rioting. He spoke to the nation and said seditious elements from far-left factions will be held accountable for the violence.

But he also said the majority of the protests was simply calling attention to legitimate grievances that the government cannot afford to ignore.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): Yesterday, several hundred thousand of our fellow citizens demonstrate with a desire to voice legitimate demands. We must never confuse them with those who destroyed it, vandalized and looted. These demonstrators express concern about the cost of living and fuel prices, which stem from the conflict that began in the Persian Gulf, a conflict in which France has taken no part but whose consequences we are suffering. I fully understand their concerns.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Well, a half a million people participated in the demonstrations, which political leaders stressed were mostly peaceful. More than 2,000 people have been detained by police in connection with Saturday's violence. And at least two deaths have been linked to the protests.

Well, let's bring in CNN's Melissa Bell who's on the ground in Paris. And, Melissa, I mean, the -- the riots, over the weekend, have been described as the worst outbreak of disorder in modern French history and it has shocked many.

Walk us through the reaction there and what Macron is proposing to do to stop this violence from spiralling again.

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, it really was a nation in shock that woke up Sunday morning to the scenes of devastation that had been left behind by this unrest.

You know, normally, Christina, these kinds of protests follow a certain pattern. They start off sort of fairly -- fairly jolly even and end up with tear gas and clashes even before the march set off, there were clashes and Republique was sick with tear gas by about 11:00 A.M. which didn't bode well for the rest of the day.

Then as it descended into this rioting and looting, not just in Paris but around the country, it really was like nothing we'd ever seen at these kinds of protests before. So, that shock is what the French president was aiming to address on Sunday night.

And what we see this morning in reaction is actually a great deal of anger. He addressed the violence, saying that those who'd been responsible for the damage to property and clashes with police would face the full force of the law. He also addressed the genuine grievances, but without really making any specific concessions or making any announcements that might go in the direction of that.

Instead, what he announced were series of meetings and considerations of options that might go some way towards meeting those demands, but nothing concrete. This is, after all, a movement that has lasted for a month now with a number of different protests, very concrete demands, and nothing really so far has been suggested that might go in the direction of the students or of the many other people who are on the streets Saturday to demand answers urgently to the cost of living that they say has become exorbitant and no longer manageable. So, that has fueled part of the anger at what he had to announce last night.

The other part of the announce -- of the anger that people are expressing amongst political classes is that he took no responsibility for what many are clearly laying at the feet of a government who's failed to do enough on all of those fronts over the course of the last few years, Christina.

MACFARLANE: Many issues to the government to be dealing with this morning. We'll continue to follow it closely. Melissa, thank you very much there for us live in Paris. And it's not just France where anger is boiling over, a wave of discontent is sweeping through other cities in Europe as well.

In Albania's capital, student-led anti-government protests turned violent for a sixth day as Prime Minister Edi Rama refuses to resign. Protesters set fire to government buildings and have thrown Molotov cocktails, rocks, and bricks at police. Rama has warned the protests only hurt Albania's chances of joining the European Union.

[04:05:02]

Largely peaceful protests began earlier this summer against a luxury coastal development backed by U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in- law, Jared Kushner. But the movement shifted last week as students upset over high educational and living costs joined in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NOEL XHOXHI, PROTESTER: Well, I think it's going to get even worse, the -- the -- the riots and the civil disobedience.

RENEE REFFO, PROTESTER: People are not getting paid the amount of -- the amount that they're supposed to get paid. They're working long hours to get nothing at the end of the month. There's no rights. There's like lower class and there's high class. There's no middle class.

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MACFARLANE: These are explosions in St. Petersburg over the weekend. Ukraine launched one of its largest drone attacks of the year on Russia, hitting a key oil terminal. The strikes come as tensions grow between Ukraine and the U.S.

Ukraine's actions are in defiance of pressure from President Trump to stop targeting energy infrastructure, even as Russia has continued to hit Ukrainian energy sites.

In a Truth Social post, President Trump slammed the Ukrainian president, saying, quote, "Zelenskyy is using diesel refineries in Russia as a target, knowing that these attacks are seriously hurting the world diesel markets. Zelenskyy doesn't care. And frankly, with all of the money that Europe is famously giving him and that crooked Joe Biden gave him in the past. He doesn't want to end this war and probably never did."

Mr. Trump also defended his decision to waive sanctions related to Russian fossil fuel sales just days before they were set to begin. In a Truth Social post, he said he doesn't want to do anything to drive Russia away from negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, claiming great progress is being made.

Well, Mr. Zelenskyy said in an interview that the U.S. siding with Russia would be a, quote, historic mistake. He also said he spoke with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, on Sunday as part of nonstop communication working towards the goal of achieving peace.

CNN's Clare Sebastian has been following developments here from London. And, Clare, I mean, this Truth Social post from Donald Trump is just another sign of the deteriorating relationship with President Zelenskyy and the fact that the president is continuing to believe that siding with Russia will lead them back to the negotiating table.

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Christina, and I think at this point, it's pretty clear that Russia could not be further from a desire to negotiate to end this war. We saw another massive overnight attack Sunday into Monday. There are now reports of one killed, eight injured in Kyiv. Russia said that it targeted military facilities, but we're hearing about a metro station, a medical facility, an educational institution hit in Kyiv. There are six injured and another three missing in the Kyiv region.

And Western Ukraine was targeted. Zelenskyy said, that 10 energy facilities were hit there in the space of one night, knocking out power from more than half a million households.

Crucially, I think, given what we've seen over the past week, we are hearing from President Zelenskyy, he said that there was no early warning when it came to these ballistic missile attacks. This would be the fourth time that this has happened in the past week that Ukraine has said that the usual early warning that it gets via U.S. intelligence it didn't get.

There was a clarification on Ukrainian T.V. from the spokesman to the Air Force who said there were two ballistic missile strikes over the past night. There was one at 11:00 P.M. and another at 3:00 A.M. and there was no warning from partners for the first strike, but for the second one, there was.

So, it's a little bit unclear what is happening there. That came just hours after President Zelenskyy did a couple of interviews on Sunday including with NBC's "Meet the Press" where he said that intelligence sharing from the U.S. had been stopped for three days but then restored.

So, again, it's -- we don't understand at this point what's happening and why they didn't get early warning, they said, for one of those ballistic missile strikes.

But what is clear, of course, is that Moscow is capitalizing on this rift between the U.S. and Ukraine. We now have a waiver, of course, from Trump in place when it comes to those new sanctions that were due to kick in over the weekend, as well as, of course, the sanctions relief inherent in that diesel deal.

President Zelenskyy has stepped up his rhetoric towards the U.S. over the past week, but it's also clear that Ukraine cannot afford to give up on that relationship entirely. Take a listen to this clip from his interview with "Meet the Press" on Sunday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTEN WELKER, NBC NEWS ANCHOR: Can Ukraine win this war without the United States, President Zelenskyy?

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Very difficult. If it's without United States support, it's very difficult. But if United States will support Putin, I mean, it's unbelievable. It's tragedy. It's historic mistake and big tragedy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: So that he continues to warn about this. I think the fear from President Zelenskyy is that on top of the sanctions relief that we've already seen, the U.S. could go further and deepen its economic ties with Moscow, which would put Ukraine, of course, in an even more vulnerable position. Christina.

[04:10:14]

MACFARLANE: Yes, and very concerning, Clare, as you say there that Ukraine are saying they apparently, again, receive no warning from partners on Russian attacks. We'll continue to follow this.

Clare Sebastian, thank you for the updates.

MACFARLANE: The U.S. midterm election is now just 15 days away, and Republicans are facing increasingly uphill battles in a number of states that went their way just two years ago with the control of both the House and Senate at stake.

In CNN's latest poll of polls, Democrats lead Republicans 54 to 45 percent when voters were asked which party's candidate they would support. This comes with President Trump's approval rating still or near his all-time low and with many Americans upset about the rising cost of living.

In fact, a brand-new poll from ABC News and "The Washington Post" reflects a real cost of living crisis. A vast majority of voters say they're struggling to afford everyday items like groceries, healthcare, and gasoline.

While hoping to turn things around, President Trump is scheduled for campaign events every day this week, all of them in states he won in 2024. That includes Kansas on Monday, North Carolina on Tuesday, South Carolina Wednesday, Iowa on Thursday, Florida Friday and Georgia on Saturday.

But the president could face some pushback on these campaign stops from Republican Latino voters. Just ahead, we'll hear from voters in Miami on the state of politics in Florida, including some who are angry over immigration crackdowns. Plus, Israeli settler violence on Palestinians is ramping up. Ahead, we'll talk to the head of an Israeli non-profit that has been working to protect the rights of Palestinians in the West Bank.

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[04:15:45]

MACFARLANE: President Trump has finally endorsed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with just over a week to go until Israel's election day. The relationship between the two leaders has sometimes been rocky in recent months. President Trump told CNN contributor Barak Ravid that it was always his intention to endorse Netanyahu, but he, quote, didn't want to do it too soon.

Netanyahu was quick to thank Trump for his tremendous support. The Israeli prime minister also cited the endorsement in an appeal to undecided voters.

CNN's Paula Hancocks joins us live from Abu Dhabi. So, as we mentioned there, Paula, the relationship between these two leaders has often been fractious of late. So, how likely is this endorsement to help Netanyahu just days ahead of the election?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christina, there is really no guarantee that this endorsement was even going to come, but it's a good question. The fact that we don't know exactly what kind of a bump that Netanyahu could even get from this, given the fact that the popularity of the U.S. president has really shifted in recent months. He was extremely popular a few years ago, but that certainly seems to have waned.

Let's look at the Truth Social post, first of all. This was from the U.S. President and I'll quote part of it where he says, "Bibi Netanyahu has been strong, brave, and brilliant in the face of tremendous opposition, including that coming from even Israel itself. Despite of all that, he has, in fact, he has thrived. He has endured and he has thrived."

So, what we've seen is a very full-throated endorsement from the U.S. President there. Mr. Netanyahu was very quick to jump on it, saying he appreciated the tremendous support and the joint work.

But it's interesting because we are not seeing the -- the Israeli Prime Minister use his relationship with the U.S. President to the extent we were expecting. Israeli sources tell CNN that they had intended Trump to really be a centerpiece of Netanyahu's campaign, but we have seen Trump's popularity disintegrate effectively in Israel.

I'll give you one example of that. A survey here from the Jewish people, Policy Institute, back in July, which found that just seven percent had a great deal of trust that Trump would do the right thing. Forty-five percent had no trust.

Now, we do know that Trump's decision to carry out a -- a ceasefire in Iran was not popular in Israel, so it'll be interesting to see how much of a bump Netanyahu even gets from this. Christina?

MACFARLANE: Yes, very interesting. Paula Hancocks, thank you very much.

Now, the U.S. is calling on Israel to do more to crack down on settler violence in the occupied West Bank. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the Trump administration is disturbed by the images of an attack on a veteran "Washington Post" photojournalist and a group of Palestinians.

CNN Jerusalem bureau chief Oren Liebermann has more on the escalating violence. And a warning, some of the images you're about to see are disturbing.

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OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: Well, we're seeing a series of brazen attacks across the occupied West Bank. Part of this is for months now we have seen increasing settler violence. And then it's also the beginning of the annual olive harvest. And that in and of itself brings a surge in settler violence.

We saw it last year and it looks like we're seeing it again. And the Trump administration here is clearly taking notice. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on Israel to crack down on settler violence. That's something we haven't seen Israel do now over the course of recent months.

And we saw that here, not only on Friday, in an attack on veteran American "Washington Post" journalist Heidi Levine, but also on Saturday in a settler attack against European diplomats who were trying to visit the Christian town of Taybeh, not far away from where the attack happened on Friday.

So, let's walk through both of these. On Friday, Heidi Levine was accompanying a group of Palestinians for the annual olive harvest, and that's when settlers attacked them. Levine, who was hospitalized after the attack, says she was thrown to the ground, beaten, and that the settlers stole her cameras and her passport. She was clearly wearing a vest and a helmet that identified her as press, and yet the attack continued.

[04:20:02]

She was rushed to a Ramallah hospital by the Palestine Red Crescent Society, and then she was taken to a hospital in Israel where she is recovering. She underwent surgery on her hand because of that attack.

"The Washington Post" issued a statement saying, we are outraged by this unwarranted attack on a journalist doing her job and urge a thorough investigation and follow through from authorities.

Yet, one day later, we see another settler attack near the village of Taybeh, that Christian village, on a group of European diplomats, French, Belgian and Polish. Condemnation from across Israel. That is Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar, the Israeli military, Israel police, all condemn the attack on European diplomats. Many of them also condemn the attack on Heidi Levine.

All but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who tried to cast doubt on both of these attacks, saying that there has to be evidence that despite the fact that we have video and pictures of both of the attacks and the aftermath, why would Netanyahu be doing this? Well, he's in a tight race for re-election and it appears he's trying to appeal to his right-wing voter base and make sure he doesn't upset them with only days to go, even it seems if that upsets the Trump administration.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: Ziv Stahl, Executive Director of Yesh Din, joins us now live from Tel Aviv. Yesh Din is an Israeli non-profit that works to protect the human rights of Palestinians in the West Bank. Thank you for joining us.

I know Yesh Din recently published data about the extent of settler violence in the West Bank linked to olive harvesting, and I do want to get to that.

But first, Ziv, can I just get your thoughts on these violent attacks that we, you know, we're just seeing there on European diplomats and the photojournalists, Heidi Levine? And why settlers are so emboldened in this moment to openly attack them, given they were obviously signposted as to who they were?

ZIV STAHL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, YESH DIN: I'll get back to it in a minute. Let me just open with very fresh news from this morning, very upsetting news for us. One of our employees, a field researcher here in Yesh Din, was arrested by the army. It happened two hours ago. We still don't know where he is or what is the ground for his arrest.

We are talking about very old employees of us, more than a decade in the organization. And in fact, all the local news and even foreign news reporters know him. They have been to the field with him many, many times. So, this is what -- what's happening today on the ground.

In regards to -- to your question, I think the settlers are very good in taking the opportunity of these events that we see around us, the war, the continuing war, the elections that are coming, and of course the harvest as a time to show more violence towards Palestinians in the West Bank.

The main reason and something that is very important for us that people will understand, this is not a sporadic violence. It is very well-intent. The purpose is very clear to dispossess Palestinians from their land all over the West Bank in order for Israel to annex it without Palestinians in it.

MACFARLANE: Can you just expand a little on, on what has happened to your employer? I mean, I'm sorry to hear this, but -- but what was your employee doing exactly? Was it related to the activities in the olive harvesting and the protection of Palestinians when this happened? And what happened? STAHL: So, we don't know a lot yet because he was arrested and we have no connection with him. As far as we managed to understand from his relatives and people who were around, he was arrested near to where he lives, which is Burin in the Nablus district.

And he was apparently either documenting or just present near to other people who was harvesting in the land. And we don't know much more than that.

Just the fact that he's disappeared two hours ago, people saw him get -- get arrested and we don't know where he is. No one in the authorities replies to our request to know where he is. And we actually asked a lot of other people, journalists, Knesset (ph) members to also ask and see if they can get answers from the army. So far, no news for us.

Just to say that this is a method. This is what happens when Palestinians get arrested in the West Bank.

MACFARLANE: Yes. Can you tell us how bad this olive harvest has been for Palestinians this year compared to previous years? And why, you know, these settlers are so rarely prosecuted? I feel that we've had very few prosecutions or even arrests come from this.

STAHL: So, this harvest season is really bad. We've seen bad seasons in the recent three or four years since this government was elected and the war.

[04:25:05]

In fact, this season is not even at the middle of the season. The violence is already exceeding new records.

In total, in 20 days of -- of harvest, we in Yesh Din documented 538, sorry, violent incidents of settler violence attacking Palestinians. We are talking about an average of 27 attacks each day.

Specifically, half of them is directly directed to the harvest. Some of the attacks are -- we cannot directly address to the harvest -- to the harvest but it's still harming Palestinians or their property in the West Bank.

The army is the first law enforcement authority that is on the ground that are supposed to give the soldiers, or supposed to give the first response. They -- they have both the authorities to do it and the duty to enforce the law. They can detain violent settlers. They can use force if necessary.

They can do a lot of things which they avoid doing. Actually, our data shows that in a quarter of these incidents, 25 percent that we just talked about, there was soldiers present on the ground which did nothing but to protect the -- the harassers or the attackers and didn't protect the Palestinians on the ground.

The second force that is in charge of law enforcement is, of course, the police which avoids getting into the field on time, but more importantly avoids of investigation of these kinds of attacks and more so avoids filing indictments against settlers who attack Palestinians or damage their property.

We are looking at 24 percent -- I'm sorry, 94 percent of all investigation files into settler violence who are closed without charges being pressed.

MACFARLANE: I mean, those are some concerning numbers. And, of course, all of this is playing out amidst the backdrop of the Israeli elections in a little more than a week to go, which of course, many are saying are embolding -- emboldening these settlers and their -- their violence.

Ziv, we appreciate the update. Thank you. And please do continue to keep us across the updates regarding your employee. Thank you.

STAHL: Thank you very much.

MACFARLANE: Here's still to come. Tear gas and looting in the streets of Milan. We'll go live to Italy for the latest details on the violent protests sweeping through European cities.

Plus. Pope Leo addresses the public for the first time after his lung cancer surgery, what he had to say during Sunday's Angelus prayer, that's next.

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