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Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva Wins Historic Fourth Term, Beating Flavio Bolsonaro; Student-Led Movement Topples Longtime Ruling Party In Serbia; Israel To Hold First National Vote Since October 7th Hamas Attack; High- Stakes Midterms With Global Implications; Hundreds Of Thousands Take Part In Weekend Protests In France. Aired 10-11a ET
Aired October 26, 2026 - 10:00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:01:17]
ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Abu Dhabi, this is CONNECT THE WORLD with Becky Anderson.
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome to the second hour of the show from our Middle East programming headquarters. I'm Becky Anderson in Abu Dhabi,
where the time is just after 6:00 in the evening.
And democracy takes center stage this week as we follow a string of momentous elections around the world. Voters pulled the lever in Brazil and
in Serbia over the weekend. Both outcomes seen as upsets, rejecting the right, and in both, Gen Z playing a huge role.
People in Israel will chart a course for their future tomorrow in the most important election to be held there in years.
And next week, of course, Americans will choose the makeup of their Congress and send a message to President Donald Trump. We're going to find
out what that message is in eight days of course.
Well, this hour we're going to walk you through all of that. We start though in Brazil, where Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva defied the odds in a
second round of voting to win a fourth term as president. When the results were in, the 80-year-old, 81 tomorrow, acknowledging that youngsters were
key to his victory.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LUIZ INACIO LULA DA SILVA, BRAZILIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I thank the people who coordinated our campaign and the parties that joined
us, but I wanted to thank the Brazilian people for the generosity they have shown me for so long, and in the second round, I want to thank Brazil's
young people for their generosity and taking to the streets. They took to the streets to defend democracy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, CNN's Julia Vargas Jones following all of this for us. I want to start with the very latest, which is that the opponent Flavio
Bolsonaro not accepting defeat at this point. He says he will challenge the result in court. Can you explain why he says the election was unfair?
JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Becky, it was a tumultuous day of elections in Brazil. Both candidates actually had requested more time to
the electoral authorities for voting. Should have ended at around 5:00 p.m. local time. It ended up being extended by two hours.
Now, each campaign had different arguments. Lula had asked in about nine different states for those polls to stay open an extra couple of hours
because of problems with transportation. Public transportation is a key factor in getting people to and from the polls on those days. Lula's base
particularly had been affected in the campaign's view.
Now, on the Bolsonaro camp, there were issues with rains, heavy rains that could have impeded some people from accessing the voter polls in southern
Brazil, a Bolsonaro stronghold. So, he had asked that polls there stay open. It ended up that it was the Supreme Court and not the electoral court
that decided on those two hours of extra voting time for Brazilians across the entire country, and that order came from a judge appointed by Lula, who
had been his personal attorney years prior, and that is what the Bolsonaro campaign is taking issue.
In a statement that his campaign put out, it is not clear yet what legal argument they will use to continue to fight these results.
But I do want to remind our viewers, Becky, that in 2022, Flavio Bolsonaro's son, former President Jair Bolsonaro, tried to overturn the
results of the elections that he lost to Lula, the result of all of that was then, of course, Brazil's very own January 6th, January 8th of 2023,
where thousands of Bolsonaro supporters then took Brasilia, took the seats of power in what ended up being a turning point for the country, and that
arguably we could say has got us to the point we are today.
[10:05:19]
It is historic for Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to have won this, as you said, almost 81 years old. Now, coming from a movement with support from a
movement that is much younger than him. It wasn't only young people, but I do think, in speaking to the observers who are there in Brazil now, and
people have been observing these elections for decades, it was quite different. The kind of mobilizing that the left has done, it hasn't really
been seen. There's been so much apathy in on the left, and I think a little bit of that has been some influence from the rest of the world. As we are
seeing Gen Z take to the streets and mobilize as much as they have now, Becky.
And as you pointed out in Serbia as well, but it was old people. It was people from all over Brazil making efforts to get to the polls, and
particularly also online. That's where that campaign really took off, with some representatives and senators really pushing their base to get out the
vote.
ANDERSON: Important stuff. Always good to have you. Thank you.
On a major political shift, as we've just been discussing in Serbia, after parliamentary elections this weekend, the long-time leader there,
Aleksandar Vucic, and his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party conceded defeat to the youth-led Students List, as it's known, crowds took to the
streets to celebrate the end of Vucic's 14 years in power. This student-led opposition movement has been protesting the government for the past two
years, accusing it of corruption and dismantling democracy.
CNN's Sebastian Shukla with more.
SEBASTIAN SHUKLA, CNN PRODUCER: Monumental, groundbreaking, era-ending. Choose whichever one you like. And I think we've been all looking and
seeing the protests coming in other parts of Europe, in Italy, in particular in France.
What has happened overnight in Serbia is really the showing of what a group and united voice behind a political idea, a movement can really achieve.
They have managed to remove the long-standing 14 years as President Vucic in Serbia, and have replaced him with this group that is known as the
Students List. And they have won an overwhelming majority. And it all began for something that was a roof collapsing at a central train station that
then elicited these months of protests, which were calling for an end to corruption within the government and for them to be able to listen to what
the people of Serbia really wanted.
And those images that we're seeing coming from Belgrade and other parts of Serbia last night, excuse me, are really the culmination of this months-
long effort. Take a listen to some of the euphoria that was simply in you could not miss it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NASTAS, BELGRADE RESIDENT: This is an amazing feeling. Relief, big relief, but we have to continue to remain democracy, to continue. It's really good
to fight against corruption when everybody is like murdering you.
SEJLA KIPOIC, BELGRADE RESIDENT: The feeling is surreal. I laughed, I cried, I screamed, I jumped. It's just unbelievable. After so many years of
this tyranny and dictatorship, we are finally free, and that's -- you cannot put it in words.
SELENA LEBOVIC, BELGRADE RESIDENT: It's really fabulous. We are all crying, and what to say? We couldn't believe that it will be so easy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SHUKLA: Euphoria and disbelief there, Becky, from some people. But I think that this is really a seminal moment for Serbia. For a long time, it has
been slipping towards a more authoritarian regime under President Vucic, who's slowly been clawing the powers closer to the central government,
including clipping the freedom of the press and freedom of expression.
What the Serbs will be hoping now is that they are able to right the course and the trajectory for the country. Very, very similar to what we saw
coming out of Hungary at the beginning of this year, where they overthrew longtime leader Viktor Orban.
They will hope now that this will mark Serbia and plot it back on a more pro-European course than the one it's been on most recently. Becky.
ANDERSON: It is election eve in Israel, of course today. Tuesday's vote is seen as the country's most important in years, with one day to go. Israeli
media reporting a, "Unprecedented confrontation over Iran between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the head of the IDF."
[10:10:19]
Netanyahu's main challenger, Gadi Eisenkot of the centrist Yashar Party, rallied thousands of supporters in Tel Aviv ahead of Tuesday's vote, the
first national election, of course, since the Hamas-led attack on October the 7th, 2023. Now, the latest polls show neither candidate's party has a
clear path to victory.
CNN's Jeremy Diamond is in Tel Aviv, and he's got this closer look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: The polls are extremely close. Eisenkot and his coalition partners running in the opposition, they are
leading in the polls right now, leading against the governing coalition of Benjamin Netanyahu. But still, for the moment, falling short of the 61-seat
majority they would need in Israel's Parliament in order to form a majority government.
But Eisenkot tonight said that he will do everything possible to prevent repeat elections that would keep Netanyahu in power. He has said that he is
willing to form a minority government if necessary, anything to get Benjamin Netanyahu out of office.
He also warned Israelis not to fall for the scare tactics and the lies that he said, Benjamin Netanyahu is going to come out with right up until the
end of the election. And indeed, on Sunday, the Israeli Prime Minister, posting an A.I.-generated image showing a nuclear bomb falling on Israel,
another attempt by a man who has been dubbed Mr. Security to try and tell Israelis that he is the only man who can keep Israel safe.
But 48 hours from now, Israelis will finally head to the polls. The first opportunity that they will have since the October 7th attacks to weigh in
on the security leadership of this country, on the security failures that led up to that day. Gadi Eisenkot once again vowing that on his first day
in office, he will establish an investigative committee to investigate the failures that led up to that day.
Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Jeremy reporting Sunday night from that event. Yaakov Katz is the co-founder of the Middle East America Dialogue and a senior economist at
the Jerusalem Post. Good friend of this show. Happy to say he's joining us from Jerusalem tonight. It's good to have you, sir.
I want to pick up with Jeremy's point there about Netanyahu framing himself as Israel's sole protector. He's also warned that Israel could face or soon
face unprecedented banking sanctions. He says he's working on ways to overcome that with blockchain and crypto. You called this the, "Scorched
earth phase" of this election or his election, and that was in the Jerusalem Post, and part of that quote read this, this is electioneering,
you said, at its worst, it is fearmongering dressed up as national security. But Israelis should know better by now. After October the 7th,
after everything this country has endured, the idea that any one politician has a monopoly on protecting Israel should be dismissed.
Give us your sense of how Netanyahu's closing pitch is being received on the ground there.
YAAKOV KATZ, CO-FOUNDER, MIDDLE EAST AMERICA DIALOGUE: Well, you know, Becky, it's good to be with you, but and it's hard to know if what
Netanyahu is doing is an act of desperation, and he really sees the end, and therefore all bets are off. There's no rules anymore, and therefore
he'll do whatever it takes. The mushroom cloud over Tel Aviv, the threat that Israel will be annihilated if he's no longer prime minister, the idea
that sanctions are coming and we won't be able to buy things on Amazon or AliExpress or travel to London or anywhere else in the world.
These are all real issues that have something of a kernel of truth. Iran is a threat. There have been sanctions imposed on Israel. More could come. But
I think it's hard to know exactly, is this working for him? Does he see in the polls that if he does this, people will flock back and come back to
vote for him, or is it like I said he doesn't know what's -- what to do, and therefore he's just shooting in every possible direction. And maybe,
just maybe, he sees a possible end to his term in office.
ANDERSON: Can you flesh out a little more for us then of how Gadi Eisenkot differs from Netanyahu? This is a sort of, you know, clear favorite and
opposition to potentially, you know, lead the building of a coalition. What do we know about him, and how does he differ in narrative from Netanyahu?
KATZ: I almost like to say that Gadi Eisenkot is the antithesis of Netanyahu. Where Netanyahu is tall, Gadi Eisenkot is short. Where Netanyahu
is a little slim, Gadi Eisenkot is a little round. Netanyahu's English is perfect. It's -- you know, he spent years at MIT, growing up in
Philadelphia. Gadi Eisenkot's English is not so good, right? But I think that's what his appeal is to some extent.
[10:15:04]
Netanyahu is of a -- is a Jew Israeli of Ashkenazi Eastern European descent. Eisenkot is of Moroccan descent, right? They're very different
people, and Netanyahu, who grew up in let's say in the Israeli elite, that's not where Eisenkot came from. He also has a real strong, appealing
tragic story, the fact that his son Gal was killed a couple months into the war after October 7. He lost two nephews as well in that war against Hamas.
It's a real story that talks to this moment in time that Israelis are going through.
This is the first election, Becky, after October 7th. Israelis are coming to some sort of reckoning in this vote. Do they believe that this
government that's now up for re-election, did they serve the country right? Did they keep us safe? Did they prosecute the war correctly, or is there a
need for the accountability, the commission of inquiry, and new leadership to potentially steer us in another direction?
So, it's very hard, actually, for the coalition to attack Eisenkot because he's Fardic, he's an IDF officer who served as the chief of staff. He's a
bereaved father. The usual tools and attack weapons don't apply here.
ANDERSON: This is an election which is extremely closely watched around the world, with Israel's reputation sort of at all-time lows over its conduct
in Gaza, West Bank.
That's what international viewers will clearly focus on as they watch this unfold. It's not, though, the focus of Israelis heading into this election,
right, after two Palestinian government attacked IDF soldiers in the occupied West Bank Friday, we've seen Hebron under siege with more than
2,600 Palestinians forcibly displaced from their homes, according to Palestinian officials.
These issues, though, don't seem to figure much in this campaign. Why and what should we expect with regard West Bank and Gaza policy moving forward?
KATZ: Well, first of all, I think that there's a reason why this international standing of Israel has not featured more in the campaign.
It's complicated for Israelis to understand. Yes, there's a decline in support in the United States. On the other hand, though, Trump and Bibi
seem to get along.
Yes, there are sanctions from the U.K. and France, but it's very easy for Israeli political leaders from Netanyahu's government to say, well, that's
just anti-Semitism, and people kind of accept that, even though you and I know it's much more nuanced, it's much more complex.
But this doesn't feature prominently because it's complicated and difficult to explain. It's kind of like some of the parties wanted to feature the
inequity in military service between the ultra-orthodox and those who do serve, but that also didn't gain steam, and I think it's because Israelis
at the end vote on the big question: Who do I think is going to keep me safe? And some still fall back on Netanyahu, despite the mixed record, and
they believe that the other side, Eisenkot, Bennett, Liberman Golan, are too much of a gamble.
Now, with that said, if that government does come and they do win on the opposition, I would want to just pour a little cold water, Becky, to our
listeners. It's not going to be a dramatic change right away. It's going to be a tough government to manage. You got left wing sides. You got right
wing sides. You have pro-Palestinian state people, anti-Palestinian state people within one coalition.
I think what we will see, a lower of temperature, less noise, less toxicity, a different rhetoric. They will confront the settler violence to
bring it to an end because it can be brought to an end with a political will. They will engage more with the Board of Peace in trying to advance
the situation in Gaza and try to ease the humanitarian situation there, but don't expect a full withdrawal as long as Hamas doesn't disarm. So, it's
going to be tough, but I think we could see a dramatic change in policy.
ANDERSON: What about in Syria, for example, in Lebanon? Across the Gulf here, as our viewers and people, residents around this region, brace for
the possibility of renewed U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran. Let's just take a 10,000-foot view, as it were, as we close this out about what this Israeli
election will mean for the region, short and longer term.
KATZ: Look, Iran is going to be a threat no matter who's the prime minister, and there's no question that even if it's Gadi Eisenkot or
Bennett or Netanyahu, they're all going to be looking at Washington and saying, OK, there's a bit of a two-year window here to potentially work
with Donald Trump. There's no guarantee he'll even want to do anything anymore, even after the midterms, a week exactly after our election.
But if so, is there a chance to potentially go after Iran and try to really push the regime to topple? Will that even happen? You know, they tried
twice, they didn't succeed. Is third time a charm? Who knows?
But I look at it a little differently when I look at the region and I look at the potential for change here in Israel, and I look at the normalization
agreement that was back on the table pre October 7th with Saudi Arabia. Can we get that back in? And can maybe that really be the answer, Becky, to
everything else that we're talking about? To Hamas, to the violence, to protect, to projecting and showing the people of Israel, of the Palestinian
territories, and of the region that another option exists one of normalization, one of integration. Maybe that's where we can go, and I want
to hope that a new government can potentially take us there.
[10:20:34]
ANDERSON: I want to sort of hold that thought there as I -- as I say goodbye, and I really appreciate your time as ever, Yaakov, thank you, and
I want to stay in region and pick up there. Nearly three months ago, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan signed the Mecca Pact, a mutual defense
agreement loosely modeled on NATO's Article Five, combining nearly 1.5 million troops, some 3,500 aircraft, and the weight of these three major
regional powers.
Well, today, they sent their defense minister, their intelligence chief, and their army chief, respectively, to sit across the table from the
Iranian leadership, and here's the thing: my guess is that Washington won't just be welcoming this. Washington asked for it. Trump's national security
strategy explicitly calls on regional partners to take primary responsibility for deterring Iran and its proxies. The Pentagon already
reportedly exploring pulling forces back from the Gulf bases and repositioning west.
So, the message from Washington then will be the backstop. Will tend your yard, to coin a recent Tom Barrack line, but this is your neighborhood,
your backyard.
So, as those Mecca-packed states pitch up in Tehran for talks, understand what we're seeing here: the first real test of whether this new regional
security architecture can do what American guarantees used to.
Look, there's some strategic friction here. Remember Donald Trump's seemingly random mandate that Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt,
and Jordan sign on to the Abraham Accords as part of any final settlement to end the wider war with Iran.
You could argue, on the one hand, the U.S. is trying to weaponize the Accords to build a unified Israel-aligned regional front against Tehran.
On the other, you got this core Gulf state, Saudi Arabia, and its allies bypassing an anti-Iran framework, sending their big guns directly to Tehran
to negotiate potentially a parallel, independent path to regional stability.
Maybe the two aren't mutually exclusive in this world of six-dimensional chess. Anyways, I'm thinking about this Tehran trip as less a diplomatic
visit and more as a debut.
Still to come, President Trump and former President Obama both hit the campaign trail in Michigan over the weekend, rallying support for their
party's candidates. A closer look at that ahead.
And later, Anthropic has filed to go public amid growing safety concerns. We're going to unpack what that means for the tech industry at the bottom
of this hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:25:50]
ANDERSON: We are eight days out from one of the most consequential midterms in U.S. history, with massive, serious global ramifications, and the
conversation we're about to have is about beef butts and bigotry.
Here to explain is CNN's Stephen Collinson. Always good to have you, Stephen.
We're getting into a pretty absurd closing stretch on the campaign trail, and that's perhaps best embodied by what we saw in Michigan on Sunday,
Trump's near daily commentary on Ohio Senator Jon Husted's behind, and now Nicki Minaj's too. Have a listen to that and Democratic candidate El-
Sayed's response.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I said, I looked at his ass, and I've never done that with a man before. It's true.
Off the record, women yes, men no, OK?
By the way, I looked at one hell of a beautiful ass before, Nicki Minaj. That's hard to miss.
ABDUL EL-SAYED (D), SENATORIAL NOMINEE OF MICHIGAN: For whatever reason, this is like the third campaign stop in a row where Donald Trump can't
mention -- can't help but mention somebody's ass. Did you see that?
When I get to D.C., man, I'm just going to make sure that I never let him see mine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Steve, what is it with this -- with Trump's fixation on this?
STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: I have absolutely no idea, to be honest. I think the president, in his 81st year, maybe perhaps losing
whatever inhibitions that he had and sense of decorum. Not that he ever had a great amount of either of those. If there is a strategy behind this, I
think it's possibly that Trump is trying to recreate that rebel spirit that animated his 2016 campaign, as he tries to get those supporters out. There
was a real sense, if he went to a rally back then, that the president or the future president was saying stuff that was off the wall that no normal
politician would ever say, and that perhaps is what he's doing.
I do think it shows the extent to which there's no countervailing influence at all around Trump anymore. He says and does exactly what he wants because
there's a team around him that was picked to allow him to do that.
More seriously, I think what it does is show that the president is completely detached from the issues of this election, the affordability
question, the high cost of diesel and gas, groceries, those things which he promised to fix and didn't. And I think if Republicans have a bad night on
November the 3rd, we're going to be looking back at some of this stuff and say it just shows how oblivious the president was the way the country is
feeling.
ANDERSON: Yes, and on a more serious note, Republicans turning to bigotry and smears against Democrats across the map that was on display again in
Michigan, as Donald Trump renewed his Islamophobic attacks on El-Sayed, former President Obama campaigning with El-Sayed on Saturday, and I just
want our viewers to have a listen to all of them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I'm here to keep a jihadist Muslim Brotherhood member from becoming a United States senator, and that's the fact. We're not going to let that
happen.
If Abdul and the Democrats win, they will open the floodgates and invite hordes of jihadists to our shores, creating a nightmare of violence and
terror until you cannot even have a Christmas.
[10:29:57]
BARACK OBAMA, 44TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have seen this movie before!
AMERICAN CROWD: Yes!
OBAMA: I starred in it.
Ive got a long form birth certificate to prove it.
ABDUL EL-SAYED (D), SENATORIAL CANDIDATE, MICHIGAN: I don't care how he pronounces my name.
I don't even care that he remembers my whole name, because he can just go on and call me Senator after November.
I will be Senator Mohamed to you, bro.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: I just wonder whether you think the sort of mudslinging, and we are hearing from Republicans, whether that's going to move the needle in
any way at this point.
COLLINSON: So, I mean, what you saw there was I think something that's not got as much attention as perhaps it should in this campaign, but the
absolute, blatant, open, conscious demagoguery and anti-Muslim rhetoric and smears.
If you just step back and think, and take Trump out of the equation, if there was a candidate saying this at any other time in the last 25 years,
for example, you would have thought this was appalling and something would never happen. Now, it is almost routine.
I think, what Trump is trying to do strategically is to present El-Sayed as an unacceptable choice as a senator. We saw in the debate last week. His
opponent, Mike Rogers, talk about how he would be a security risk to the United States if he got into the Senate. There are no signs that Abdul El-
Sayed is connected to any extremist organization.
But what they are saying, in a wider sense, is that if you are a Muslim, you don't have the right to be in the U.S. Senate, you are not a full
member of American society. That's an extraordinary set of charges, and what they are doing is they are trying to deflect from Trump's own failures
here, because they can't talk about the Trump record.
As to what extent it will move the needle? Will it get Trump's base voters out in rural areas of Michigan? Possibly, will it raise doubts about El-
Sayed, who is already perhaps facing questions about his progressive connections among some voters.
But at the same time, there is a very big Muslim community that's very important in some of those counties around Detroit. A strong turnout there
means it could well backfire against Trump. But I think it's a symptom of a campaign and a movement that is perhaps not -- if not in its death throes,
at least, confronting its own mortality. And at that point, everything goes.
ANDERSON: We start off by suggesting that we were going to talk, you know, butts, bigotry, and beef. So, I want to close this out on beef.
Trump heading to deep red Mississippi today. Now the Democratic candidate for Senate there is a guy by the name of Scott Colom, has -- and he's
gotten viral for this ad about his opponent's gaffe about high beef prices. Just have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT COLOM (D), SENATORIAL CANDIDATE, MISSISSIPPI: On price of beef continuing to go up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, you have so many proteins to choose from.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pick another protein? I'd rather pick another senator instead.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pick another protein? She done lost her damn mind. I'd rather pick another senator.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pick another protein? What the --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pick another senator instead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Stephen, it's a long shot for the Democrat there, but still telling that Donald Trump is going there just eight days before the
midterms. Can you just unpack this Mississippi race for us and what Donald Trump is trying to -- trying to achieve there today?
COLLINSON: Yes. I mean, this is a really interesting ad. It kind of got national attention. One of the best ads of the election cycle, in fact.
Trump is going there because you have a number of candidates in what is a deep red pro-Trump state that are having a lot tighter races than you
expect. The Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith there never expected to be in this kind of close race.
And I think, what that ad is also getting at is that the sense of complacency among some Republicans that they thought their seats were safe
and they could just support whatever Trump does without thinking about it.
She was branded by the Democrats' campaign there Cindy High Prices, and that is getting at this key issue of the campaign. It's actually been quite
interesting how meat has emerged as a bit of a theme in this campaign, not just in Mississippi. There was a big issue in the Midwest where Trump
suspended some tariffs on beef imports to try and alleviate the pressure on grocery shoppers.
That got him into a lot of trouble with the agriculture lobbying with farmers because they saw their prices buckle and go south.
[10:35:02]
That ended up causing potentially more political damage than it was supposed to help.
In Texas, Trump has been branding the rising star Democratic candidate James Talarico as a vegan, clearly trying to make out that he is not man
enough for Texas, a real carnivorous state in terms of his diet as well as its politics. So, it's very interesting.
Now, you rarely see a few days go by without Talarico being, you know, pictured alongside a steak or a plate of ribs. So, you know, in many ways,
the themes of this campaign are being brought out through some rather strange and innovative methods and forms of attack.
ANDERSON: It's always good to have you. It's a pleasure. Eight days and counting. We will speak again.
All right. Just to round this out, it is quite rare for former President Obama to attack his predecessor. He really took the gloves off, though, in
Michigan on Saturday. Let's watch one of the most viral moments of his speech.
COLLINSON: Thanks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: I don't know if you have noticed, but he is very focused on home renovation. He should be on HGTV.
The guy is building a ballroom that is bigger than the White House, paved over the rose garden, paved it over, put a helicopter pad on the South
Lawn, and then, there is just gold everywhere. What's up with the gold?
And then, he has got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a cheesecake factory.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: -- means for Wall Street is up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: Right. Welcome back. I'm Becky Anderson in Abu Dhabi. You are watching CONNECT THE WORLD. You are more than welcome. These are your
headlines this Monday:
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been re-elected as Brazil's president. The leftists defied the opinion polls and a regional shift to the right to
defeat the Trump-ally Flavio Bolsonaro, Sunday. Bolsonaro vowing to challenge the results in court.
Serbia's long-standing leader Aleksandar Vucic conceded defeat in the country's parliamentary elections this weekend. His right-wing Serbian
Progressive Party faced off against a student-led opposition movement that has been protesting his government for the past two years.
[10:40:08]
Voters in Israel head to the polls, Tuesday. It's the first national election since the October 7th attacks in 2023, and former military chief,
Gadi Eisenkot has emerged as the principal challenger to the incumbent prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Polls suggest the election there could be a tight race. Neither candidate's party appears to have a clear path to victory at this point.
Well, A.I. giant Anthropic has just filed to go public, marking what could be one of the largest stock market debuts in history. This comes amid
warnings from the company's CEO that advanced A.I. could pose an existential risk to humanity.
Well, our business tech reporter Lisa Eadicicco has been following the story. She joins us live from New York with the very latest.
Not unexpected, at least, this IPO has been flagged for some time. But let's talk about the timing on this, Lisa. Given those massive headlines,
Anthropic has been generating on the future of A.I.
LISA EADICICCO, CNN BUSINESS TECH EDITOR: Yes, Becky. Exactly.
This is coming as Anthropic has been very vocal about the potential risks of A.I. and whether the technology is advancing too quickly for it to be
safely managed and controlled, and that was a big theme in Anthropic's filing this morning.
A lot of the risk factors kind of get at not just those concerns, but a lot of the concerns that have been swirling around about A.I. in general,
including some related to the concerns of an A.I. bubble.
For example -- and also, I want to note one thing that's unique about this S-1 filing is that there is a lot of space dedicated to the risk factors.
There is almost a hundred pages in there on the risks alone, which is more than we typically see in these kinds of filings, and that includes things
like whether A.I. advances too quickly to keep up with safety guardrails, to properly manage it.
Whether Anthropic can keep up with the competition, whether it's able to secure enough computing resources. A lot of these -- and also, whether its
projections for the future of its business will line up with actual demand for A.I. That is a key question that has kind of been at the top of
everyone's minds on Wall Street over the past couple of years, as massive amounts of money have been poured into the A.I. race.
And speaking of that, we also got our first really clear look at Anthropic's financials. It said, in the second half of 2026, it -- or --
sorry, in the first six months of 2026, it saw its revenue grow by more than a thousand percent year over year, which is pretty significant.
But those -- that revenue still came in at 16.3 billion compared to its valuation, which was last valued at 965 billion. So, definitely a lot of
interest in seeing what's going on there and how the future of Anthropic's business is going to play out.
(CROSSTALK)
ANDERSON: Yes.
And watch this space. Thank you, Lisa.
Up next on CONNECT THE WORLD. A country in turmoil. France gripped by another weekend of protests, and our next guest says the crisis may be far
from over. More after this.
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[10:46:51]
ANDERSON: Well, more than 400,000 people took part in weekend protests in France, which were largely peaceful.
Still, clashes did break out between police and demonstrators in several cities, with nearly a thousand people detained. Protesters demanding action
on the rising cost of living, more job opportunities for youngsters, and greater investment in education.
My next guest wrote a fantastic article. "France is looking ungovernable. And it's going to get worse."
He says this: "The French tend to talk radical but act conservative. This is a country where 57 percent are homeowners, and many people spend their
lives looking forward to retirement. They rely on the state. They want it to function. Revolutionary language is in part just a bow to French
heritage. Even many of the voters who backed radicals in past elections quietly wanted an overeducated technocrat to win."
I'm quoting Simon Cooper, who joins us now. He is columnist for the Financial Times, and it's jolly good to have you today. Thank you.
And I want to unpack that a little more. I do just want to start with this weekend's protest, which appeared at least on the surface much calmer than
last week's. You are in -- you are in Paris. Your observations, Simon, briefly?
SIMON KUPER, COLUMNIST, FINANCIAL TIMES: They never want to repeat again what happened on the 17th of October when people were breaking into shops
all over Paris. There was violence on the streets in the center.
And so, this Saturday, the 24th, they moved the process to the edge of town. So, it was a rainy, windy day, and people had to march more or less
along the highway at the bottom edge of town, and across France, it was much more peaceful. There were still about 1,300 arrests nationwide, but
much better than last week.
ANDERSON: All right. Let's get to the broader question here of how to govern the ungovernable. To sort of steal your line here.
Le Pen has officially thrown her hat in the ring. But you point out she doesn't have a clear economic plan for France. Philippe Aghion, the French
economist who won last year's economics Nobel, told you, "She doesn't understand a damn thing about economics."
If she is likely to win next year's election, and there is a big possibility there, where does that take France to your mind at this point?
KUPER: Well, a financial crisis is threatening France, because the markets are becoming unwilling to lend, because Parliament is very divided; they
can hardly pass a budget. They cannot pass spending cuts, and so, the appetite of the French to curb their very high-budget deficit, which is
about five percent of GDP every year, is sort of off the charts by European standards.
The appetite to curb that just isn't there. And so, when Le Pen comes in, if she does, is she willing to make very painful spending cuts? That's
uncertain.
So, she, as the next president, could face a financial crisis with markets unwilling to lend. She will ask the Europeans to bail her out. They are not
going to be very keen on that. What happens then?
[10:50:03]
ANDERSON: It's really fascinating. We introduce this segment by noting your belief that the French psyche wants an overeducated technocrat. You wrote
about Macron quote: "Macron looks as ineffectual as his police. It's hard to say now what he has achieved in almost a decade in power. France's
economic growth has been anemic as usual, and his biggest achievement, a modest raising of the pension age from 62 to 64, later had to be frozen
after opposition."
So, I just wonder, is -- do you see this -- and I've had this conversation with others, but I'm really interested in your sort of thought here?
Is this the end of that centrist version of politics for France? And what is the long-term way forward at this point?
KUPER: It does appear like the French center has melted down. Macron is hugely despised. His popularity rating is about 15 percent -- his approval
rate. And it's very hard to see how Edouard Philippe, who is thought of as his potential successor, is going to be elected when the opponents will
just say, oh, well, you were Macron's prime minister," and that will discredit him.
So, most of the vote is on the far-right and far-left, with the far right much stronger. And so, it does appear that the French, for the first time
since World War II, are going to take a radical step.
There is always been revolutionary rhetoric here, but they have always elected people of the center-right and center-left.
To go with a far-right president would be -- I mean, it would be an enormous shock for Europe. If you think of Europe's big three countries of
Germany, France, U.K., none of them have had a far-right leader since 1945.
And so, if France is going to go there next May, well, we are in unchartered territory. I mean, a woman who wants to leave NATO's military
command, doesn't want to support Ukraine, wants to take on the E.U. in a kind of fight. This would be really new for Europe and France.
ANDERSON: We get the underlying sort of affordability crisis, the sort of student-led demonstrations which have sort of built up over the past couple
of weeks, talking about the sort of inadequate spending on infrastructure and all the rest.
And you have rightly pointed out that, you know, there is just not a lot of money about at this point. What also seems to have come to sort of bear in
the past couple of weeks is what feels like a lot of agitation behind the scenes, sort of to a degree hijacking the otherwise, you know, genuine sort
of Gen Z concerns out there of this sort of, you know, the political elite and their inadequacy in France.
What do you make of the sort of agitation? Where is it from? How well mobilized is it? And how big a concern is that in France at this point?
KUPER: Well, I see three sources of the violence on the streets we have seen. One is the police, which is much more violent than is common in a
Western European country.
I mean, they routinely use rubber bullets, form of grenade launchers. There is tear gas everywhere. I was tear gassed on the 17th as well. It's already
-- you smell it all over the place.
Another source of the violence, which, of course, the police in Paris are responding to but overreacting is this group of what they call the Black
Bloc. These far-left agitators who wear these balaclavas, dress in black, and use protests to take on the state. They really want to fight the state
in the streets. Small group of people, but very violent.
And then you get 17-year-old kids, boys, who are thrill seekers and who were the people who plundered the supermarkets on my streets as I watched
them do it the day of the protests.
They are not really political. They -- it's more like a kind of hooliganism. So, these three groups together have made French streets
unusually violent, even by the standards of French protests.
ANDERSON: Let's just step back as we close this out with a sort of 30,000- foot view from you, if you will.
We have been spending a lot of this program today talking about elections, specifically, the way Lula's surprise comeback in Brazil, and the Serbian
students' rise to power has sort of, you know, underscored the power of Gen Z.
And I just wonder what lessons you believe there are from these and elsewhere for France's youth, genuine youth who are genuinely sort of --
well, not genuinely, youth that are genuinely involved in this sort of, you know, global movement, as it were.
KUPER: Well, a lot of young people in France vote far right. They see it as a kind of shock to the system that they dislike, that they feel hasn't
delivered for them. So, the youth here are not necessarily anti-Le Pen at all, and this is a country more than almost any other which exists to serve
its old people.
[10:55:05]
So, it has the lowest retirement age in Western Europe. You retire at 62 on average, and its young people working who have to pay for that because it's
a pay-as-you-go scheme.
Young people, to my mind, I'd expect them to protest against pensions and say, why are we helping pay for the old people? But in France, they are not
saying that. They say, we also want to one day retire at 62.
So, the role of youth in France, yes, they were among and the high school student's protest. They are very active. Youth tends to be particularly
demonstrating youth. There is also a lot of far-right as well as far-left as well as far-right.
But I don't see youth as the bulwark against a Le Pen presidency at all.
ANDERSON: Fascinating. It's good to have you, mate. Thank you very much indeed.
(CROSSTALK)
KUPER: Thank you.
ANDERSON: And as I say, that article a really jolly good read this weekend. Thank you.
And a quick reminder for those of you watching wherever you are in the world that we are now streaming in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.
So, if you are there, you can watch CONNECT THE WORLD with me, Becky Anderson, live. You can access exclusive original programming, unlimited
articles, digital shorts, and a lot more on that CNN app.
You can sign up @CNN.com/AllAccess, and we will be coming to a country near you or yours at some point with that as well.
All right. That's it for CONNECT THE WORLD. You can find me online @BeckyCNN on Instagram and on X. Stay with CNN. "ONE WORLD", up next.
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