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One World with Zain Asher
Rubio Urges Russia to Share More Info on Lab Worker's Death; Ukrainian Drones Target Large Oil Depot South of Moscow; Yemeni Government Claims Advances in Fight Against Houthi Rebels; Suspect's Social Media Raises Questions About Security Gaps; Yemen Says It's Taken Back Key Areas from Houthi Rebels; Researcher at Russian Plague Lab Dies of Unknown Infection. Aired 11a-12p ET
Aired October 06, 2026 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[11:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAIN ASHER, CNN HOST, ONE WORLD: All right, coming to you live from New York. I'm Zain Asher. This is "One World". Ahead on the show, what started
as a demonstration in support of striking teachers has now snowballed into a national crisis. We are live, you in Paris, with the latest on the
student protests.
Plus, a suspected death from plague in Russia is raising concerns. We'll look at what authorities are doing to guard against an outbreak. And new
polling out today, offering another look at what's on American voters' minds ahead of the midterms next month, as President Trump plays defense on
the campaign trail.
All right, cries of we want change and we want to be heard are reverberating on the streets of France as the nation struggles to contain
the biggest student protests in decades. Well, began last month as a localized demonstration in support of striking teachers at one high school
has now morphed into a movement, a massive national movement.
And today is expected to see the largest protests of all in Paris. Earlier today, authorities used tear gas to control sometimes unruly
demonstrations. In the past couple of weeks, thousands of arrests have been made amid clashes with police. Take a look at some live pictures here from
the streets of Paris.
Students, teachers, parents want action from their government. They have a long list of grievances, among them overcrowded classrooms, staff
shortages, dilapidated school buildings. We take a listen to one protester.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MANAS NADEL, FORMER PRESIDENT OF UNION SYNDICALE LYCEENNE: The strategy of the government since the beginning, without giving any answer, any
political answer, any real discussion to the social movement, they are just creating violence, and the methods used by this power to repress this
movement is unknowingly violent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: CNN's Melissa Bell joins us live now from Paris. I see, Melissa, you are among the protesters. I mean, just walk us through what it's like
today, because one of the things that, in terms of what I've been reading here, not only have you had 6,000 people been arrested so far.
300 high school students and school staff have been injured, as well as more than 700 police officers. It's not just in terms of what the focus is
on now. It's not just what people are protesting about. It's also people are talking about the heavy-handedness of police as well. Just walk us
through that, Melissa.
MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Zain. There's a couple of things. There are initial demands about school funding.
The facts that students say their schools are dilapidated, no longer fit for purpose, absent teachers are not replaced.
There have been funding cuts over the two terms of President Macron, and that's been at the heart of their protests and their barricades over the
last couple of weeks. This now, and this is the very front of the march that has come from -- towards here at -- There's been a lot of tear gas and
scuffles with police.
And this anger has now been fueled even further by what the students, but now also the unions, the grown-ups, the parents, the teachers, the social
workers, the nurses who've joined them to protect them from police, say has been heavy-handedness in the police response.
And again today, we're seeing the police really trying to avoid much more of that, because the violence has caused so many injuries, not just amongst
the police men and women, but amongst so many of the students. The interior minister this morning refusing to apologize, but acknowledging that there
had been regrettable instances that now needed to be investigated.
One of the most interesting things, Zain, is that now, though the unions, the students, teachers have joined this movement. Have a listen to what one
had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ERWAN LE CLECH, UNION REPRESENTATIVE AND TEACHER: There is a blatant lack of resources, whether at the level of the buildings that are poorly
renovated or the buildings that are missing as well. We have an overflow of students for each school and therefore in each class, which makes the
conditions more difficult.
From the moment when too many people are put in one room, it follows that it exacerbates any tensions. There is also a lack of teachers, and the only
way out of that is to have resources to build facilities and hire teachers, so that we have teaching conditions that are much more effective.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BELL: Those demands have come, Zain, sadly for the government, even as it's trying to get its books closer to being balanced in time for 2027, which
means spending cuts, not the kind of spending hikes that these guys are asking for. The problem also how the government and the police officers now
respond to removing the threats to -- even further.
[11:05:00]
The students are saying there will be another big demonstration on Thursday, and then another one later in October that they expect to be even
larger than today. So, how to get a little of a movement that has already escalated so far? I think is going to be a big problem for them now, Zain.
ASHER: All right, Melissa Bell live for us there in Paris. Thank you for that, Melissa. Right. It's not only in France that young people are turning
out to protest. From Mumbai to Lima, Gen Z protesters are taking to the streets, and they are certainly demanding change.
In India, the cockroach Janta Party, with its origins an online joke, accumulated the resignation of the education minister. In Morocco, young
people mobilized under the umbrella Gen Z 212, the country's international dialing code. They're calling for reform in healthcare, education, social
justice.
In cities across Madagascar as well, young people have been protesting water shortages and power blackouts in Peru. There are calls to stamp out
corruption, repression, and crime. In Nepal last year, Gen Z took down the government amid protests that were triggered by a social media ban.
Let's bring in Jennifer Earl, who has done some research on youth activism. She's a Chairperson and a Professor in the Department of Sociology and
Criminal Justice at the University of Delaware. Jennifer, thank you so much for being with us. I mean, it's interesting, isn't it, that all of these
sort of different protests are happening across the world for various different reasons.
I mean, it's not as obviously in the past you've had one particular trigger, perhaps for protests happening around the world. For example,
Black Lives Matter or climate change or climate justice, that sort of thing. This is very different because you're seeing various triggers for a
lot of these Gen Z protesters rising up.
Although you could also argue that the -- there's a general theme in terms of some of the underlying triggers, be it you know a lack of political
voice, a lack of economic opportunity, issues with social mobility. Just walk us through if there is a common thread to some of the protests I've
just listed.
JENNIFER EARL, PROFESSOR IN THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE: Thanks for having me here today. I think young people being
active, politically active, particularly in protest, is actually long standing. And so, you can think of examples where you see a wave, which is
sort of what you're describing, but if you look into things, this has been happening for a long time in really localized ways that are about local
grievances.
So, if you think about contrast Tiananmen Square, which was primarily young people to Hong Kong, those are both really local contexts, local
grievances. They're still happening in this overall awareness about young people's engagement. That awareness is perhaps a little newer than young
people's actual engagement.
MLK, for instance, the United States was in his mid-20s. We can think of lots of examples around the world historically where young people have been
active, but certainly there are serious grievances that young people are raising their voices about today.
ASHER: Are we seeing more of a disconnect right now between the expectations of some of these young protestors? And what is being provided
to them by their local governments?
EARL: Young people have often been a population that governments worry about. So, there's research around revolutions and around protests that
show that governments are a bit wary of having what's called a youth bulge. So, a lot of younger people, generationally, also young people's
unemployment is often really threatening to governments.
There's even some research that shows that governments tend to be more repressive to protesters in general when they have larger youth
populations. So, I think there is this long-standing way in which young people haven't usually been heard and honestly are sometimes actually
disenfranchised from the formal political system.
Many young people can't vote, for instance, until different ages of majority in their country. So, it is long standing that young people have
grievances that they've been protesting around. Those particular grievances often focus on some of the same kinds of things, feeling disenfranchised,
conflict around the world, and the kinds of problems that the prior generation is setting up for them to have to solve.
Here, we could think about climate change, we could think about rampant global corruption, both of which are highlighted in some of the protests
that you've mentioned.
ASHER: How important is the environment in which some of these young people are protesting? I mean, France has had a long history of you know people
taking to the streets. I mean, even in recent years, just on this program, it feels just in the past couple of years, I've covered, you know, the
yellow vests protests, the protests against any sort of change to the pension age in in France, and then obviously now this.
[11:10:00]
So, the environment in which some of these protests are taking place is also a key part of it too.
EARL: Well, there is a bit of a potential feedback loop where young people realize they aren't being heard in formal institutional political systems,
and they see young people around the world getting coverage for their protest engagement. So, it is possible that there is some feedback loop
where young people are feeling left out of part of politics and finding that they can have voice and get coverage.
We can end up in conversations like this when they go to the streets. Now, whether longitudinally that's true in any given country or around the world
that there's more now, that's actually hard because we haven't cared enough about young people in protest to count them really well.
So, it's hard to have longitudinal data to know whether young people are in the streets more or not. But some of the theoretical propositions that look
like they hold more weight revolve around young people being able to see themselves being heard, getting coverage, promoting their issues around the
world, and that encouraging that as a form of engagement.
ASHER: Right, because young people are more digitally connected than ever, and so if they're plugged in to sort of seeing other young people in
various countries have their voices heard, then that might inspire them to also take to the streets. So, you touched on this earlier, and I want you
to expand on it.
Just in terms of young people being posing more of a threat to certain governments, or at least being more likely to get their voices heard or the
demands being met. I mean, we saw protests just this year take place in India that was over exam papers being leaked and published online as a
result of some, you know, some corruption that was taking place in that country.
And so, we had young people take to the streets, and then the education minister ended up resigning. Are young people generally more effective? I
mean, obviously, it's impossible to generalize, but are they more effective in terms of instigating change?
EARL: I think that we don't have the longitudinal data yet to know that that's true for sure. But the research that I've done with my team leads me
to believe that it is true that young people are quite effective. The reasons that they are effective are still sort of in competition.
So, one reason they might be more effective is that they're less socialized and bought into the current frames, narratives, and even governing sort of
systems that they're coming up in. And so, they're more willing to break things because they're not invested in those things, and that challenge can
upset conversations and also upset leadership structures.
It is also true that young people engage digital technologies and use some of the really powerful aspects of those technologies. So, you mentioned the
ability to organize online. That's something that maybe if you're older and haven't grown up with digital technologies at a population level, it may be
that you use that capacity less, but young people they're organizing their social lives.
They're organizing all parts of their lives with digital media coming in and out of face-to-face encounters. And so, this is a really normal thing
for them to be doing. And they -- as they're showing us, they're quite good at it.
ASHER: Right, Jennifer Earl, live for us on that. Thank you, thank you. Appreciate your perspective. Thank you.
EARL: Thank you for --
ASHER: All right, several people who had contact with a Russian researcher who died last week have now been diagnosed with COVID and rhinovirus, a
frequent cause of the common cold. That's according to Russian state media. The researcher was studying infectious diseases at a Siberian laboratory
when she got sick.
The 28-year-old died of pneumonia of an unknown origin. Russian, Russia rather is downplaying the incident. Although reports say authorities have
quarantined dozens of people. The lab is in the town of Shelekhov in Eastern Russia, near the border with Mongolia.
CNN's Fred Pleitgen joins us live now with more on this. So, Fred, what are the Russians saying about any risk here to the wider public?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, answer is still pretty difficult to come by. There have been several press
availabilities today by the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, but then also by local authorities as well.
And all of them, as you put it, still trying to downplay any risks that that might be there for the general population. Also, some of the images
that we've actually seen from that town, Shelekhov, that you were just talking about near Lake Baikal and also near the border with Mongolia, seem
to indicate that things are fairly normal.
However, you're absolutely right to point out that those quarantines still do appear to be in place in hospitals, specifically at that hospital where
this lab worker, who of course worked in that lab studying an anti-plague lab, where she died, and that hospital is still very much under lockdown.
Now the Kremlin was asked if there are any updates. They said any updates would come for -- from Russia's agencies for infectious disease control,
however, so far that's not been the case.
[11:15:00]
The governor of that province, of Irkutsk province, he was also asked about all of this as well, and all he said was that the situation is under
control and that things in Shelekhov, as he put it, are functioning as normal. Now, there are of course some internationally who are demanding
more information from the Russian Federation, including the U.S. Secretary of State, I want to listen into what he had to say earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We're glad to be aware of it. We're watching it very closely, hour by hour. We have multiple agencies, not just
in the United States but internationally, that are watching it. We encourage Russia to be transparent and share more information with the
world, so that all of us could react accordingly and appropriately.
But we'll have to make those decisions on the basis of the information that we're learning and are being provided. And so far, that's still quite
limited. But hopefully, that will change in the next few hours and days.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PLEITGEN: There was also a statement, Zain, that came out. I would say a couple of minutes ago from the European Center for Disease Control, where
they spoke of a suspected case of the plague. However, they also outlined that they only are receiving limited information from the Russian
Federation.
And again, right now the Russians are saying the situation is completely under control, and that none of the things or the agents that this lab
worker worked with during her duties, as the Russians put it, were detected on the patient. Of course, as a post mortem was done on that patient after
she died in that hospital, Zain.
ASHER: All right. Fred Pleitgen, live for us. Thank you for that. Right, Ukraine bombarded Moscow with more than 600 drones overnight. That's
according to Moscow's Mayor, who says that one person was killed. In addition, homes and vehicles were damaged.
Video geolocated by CNN shows plumes of smoke and fire rising from an oil depot south of Moscow. Ukraine has targeted Russian oil sites in an effort
to cut off funding for the war. Russia, meantime, pounded Ukraine's second- largest city, Kharkiv, on Monday.
Officials say that Russian bombs were concentrated in a residential area, killing six people and injuring dozens more. All right still to come here
on "One World", Houthi rebels gained momentum in September, but with the new month comes a new offensive from Yemen's government.
We'll have an update on that for you. And CNN goes deep into the background of the man accused of trying to take down a passenger jet last week. Show
you what we found out after the break.
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ASHER: All right, Israeli sources tell CNN the co-pilot accused of trying to hijack a Flydubai flight last week was likely targeting Israel's Ben
Gurion airport. We're also learning from a regional diplomatic source that Flydubai didn't reach out to his previous employer, Oman Air, before hiring
him.
CNN's Tamara Qiblawi did a deep dive into the suspect's social media. A warning: some of the images you're about to see are graphic.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TAMARA QIBLAWI, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER (voice-over): CNN has exclusive video that may give us insight into the mindset of the co-pilot,
who sources say allegedly tried to down a Flydubai plane enroute to Israel. Hamam al-Hammami, whose views were so extreme, two sources said that he was
removed from a position with Oman Air before joining Flydubai.
Hammami appeared to have posted two videos to his now deleted LinkedIn and Instagram pages on the day he allegedly attacked the captain with an ax.
The first post is a compilation of videos showing multiple planes belonging to El Al, Israel's national carrier, both on the tarmac and in the sky.
We geolocated one to Dubai. It was filmed in 2023 from inside the cockpit of an Oman Air flight from Dubai to Muscat, you can see here that date and
flight number tracks with Hammami's time at Oman Air. The video ends with a tribute to Al Qaeda's Former Leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's
successor, as well as to a suicide bomber who killed nine people at a CIA outpost in Afghanistan in 2009.
The second video he posted is AI generated, showing Islam's three holiest sites from the sky. The videos appeared on LinkedIn and Instagram nearly
nine hours after the incident, well after Hammami was detained. We don't know if the posts were scheduled in advance, or if they were published by
someone else.
CNN has reached out to LinkedIn and Meta for comment. We looked at earlier posts, more than 3,000 tweets from a deleted account bearing his name. They
were published between 2021 and 2022. These portray a murkier mindset, one obsessed with women. Nearly half the posts reference women.
Including this one, the post brags about putting women through quote, unquote, slut tests. In other posts, he refers to them as quote, unquote
banging machines.
QIBLAWI: Now, it's still too early to tell what the possible motives were, but the findings raise many questions. Namely, how did Hamam al-Hammami
pass his security checks, and how did he end up flying a plane on one of the world's most sensitive routes?
QIBLAWI (voice-over): These are questions security officials in the region will be asking as they try to understand what happened. Tamara Qiblawi,
CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ASHER: Right, Yemen's government forces says or Yemen's government rather, says that its forces have retaken key positions near the Bab al-Mandab
Strait, a vital waterway for global trade. It's part of a renewed push to roll back recent advances by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
You can see it from this map how important the strait is for oil tankers heading out of the Middle East, even more so while the Strait of Hormuz is
at a near standstill because of the U.S.-Iran conflict. The Yemeni army says it's regained control of a key road from the Dhubab district to the
port town of Mokha.
The rebels had pulled off some rapid advances last month, but the Yemeni government is counting on its current offensive to stop their momentum. The
Saudi-led coalition has been fighting the Houthis for more than a decade has pledged its full support to the Yemeni government in its new campaign
against the Houthis.
The people of Yemen, however, continue to suffer amid all of this. According to the World Food Program, in some parts of the country, three
out of every four families are going hungry because of the long-running war. CNN's Nic Robertson is following developments for us from London.
So, despite this sort of strategic victory, I guess by the Yemeni armed forces, just walk us through how much of a long road this is going to be
ahead for them, especially when you consider that the Houthis have much more of a unified command structure, but the Yemeni government forces are
strategically, militarily, politically fragmented, Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: They are. They represent different groups, whether it's different religious groups,
different power centers. That you know, remembering that Yemen was once two countries, North and South Yemen, there you have the sort of southern
separatists.
You have the sort of Islamists in the northeast of the country as well. So, it is fragmented, and that's one of the things Saudi Arabia has really
tried to do. When we saw earlier in the year the United Arab Emirates pull its forces out, and you were actually looking at some video there a little
earlier.
[11:25:00]
I'm assuming it was Houthi video shot in in Mokha of the former UAE base there. It was pretty empty. The UAE did have forces in along that Red Sea
area, and they pulled them out very early on this year, and that gave the Saudis sort of the political opportunity to try to cement a more cohesive
political leadership in Yemen, which to a degree they've done, but still the forces on the ground don't necessarily trust each other.
When the Houthis were advancing recently, the forces that were in Mokha found they got stopped at checkpoints and asked for their weapons. And when
I spoke to leaders from that, the other side, they were trying to go into, they said, well, we didn't know if we could trust them.
So yes, that's a big issue. What we're witnessing right now on the ground, I think, is a situation where we saw at the weekend on Sunday, the
President of this Unified Presidency Council in Yemen-led back by Saudi Arabia, said that they were launching this offensive to rid the country of
the Houthis, to take the whole territory, and to a degree, we saw the beginnings of that on Monday.
But your question is, it a long road? 100 percent yes, because of that sort of military fragmentation. But the Saudis are building a coalition to
support the Yemeni government, and really, I think, you know, it's that old thing. It remains to be seen how much does Saudi Arabia commit to
supporting the Yemeni government forces on the ground.
At the moment, we see air strikes, and air strikes will make some difference. But what we've witnessed in the past couple of days is yes,
some small gains along the Red Sea coast retaking a bit of territory from the Houthis, and that road to Mokha that you talked about it's a road along
the coast.
It's not heavily defended. It's pretty flat territory. Yet I note it's sort of significant today. The Yemeni government forces have not been able to
push up the remainder, sort of 30 or 40 miles from the air strip that they took to get to Mokha. So, the Houthis are putting up resistance.
And I think that's where we're at. You have a sort of a fight going on in the north of the country as well, in Jawf and Marib governorates that sort
of hit and run as the government forces try to draw out the Houthis, bring in Saudi air strikes on the Houthi positions.
All of this, and your very initial point, the humanitarian situation, more than half the people in Yemen fall below or require international
humanitarian assistance, and that situation certainly won't get better while the war is going on.
ASHER: Right, Nic Robertson. Thank you for that, and obviously noted with that last point. Appreciate it. Right, still ahead on "One World", concern
about a potential epidemic after the mysterious death of a lab worker. Just ahead, what we know about the Russian authorities' response next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:30:00]
ASHER: Right, welcome back to "One World". I'm Zain Asher in New York. Here are some of the headlines we are watching for you today. In France,
thousands of students, teachers, and others are taking to the streets in the biggest day of protests in decades. They want changes to the nation's
education system.
Protests have blocked hundreds of schools, demanding the government address staff shortages, crowded classrooms, and deteriorating school buildings.
Dozens of people in Russia are reported to be in quarantine after the death of a lab technician from an unknown infection.
She works at an institute in Siberia studying the plague. Russia has downplayed any link between the woman's death and her place of work. State
media say that some people who had contact with the victim have been diagnosed with COVID and rhinovirus. Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces
claim they are gaining ground in their battle against the Houthis.
On Monday, they claim to have retaken key positions near the Bab al-Mandab Strait. Meantime, two airports in Saudi Arabia were targeted Monday night.
The kingdom did not name the source of those attacks. And police have arrested a seventh British man in connection with a suspected plot
targeting the UK's Fairford Air Base.
Six other arrested British nationals have already been released on bail on Sunday. U.S. long-range bombers were moved from Fairford back to their home
bases after an unspecified new threat. Right, let's get back to one of our top stories this hour. Dozens of people are reported to be in isolation
after a Russian worker at a plague research institute died of an unknown infection.
Russian authorities have told the World Health Organization. There are no known cases of the plague in Irkutsk, the nearest city to the laboratory
where the victim worked. But a key question is whether the 28-year-old lab technician died of pneumonic plague.
It's considered to be the most dangerous form of the plague, and the only kind that can pass directly from person to person. The World Health
Organization has said it is in contact with Russian authorities and told CNN, based on unofficial information available, the public health risk to
the general population appears to be low.
My next guest is a Professor of Medicine, Global Health, and Epidemiology at the Emory University School of Medicine, Dr. Carlos del Rio joins us
live now from Atlanta. Dr. Rio, thank you so much for being with us. I think I want to start with this. Just explain to us what happens when a
person contracts pneumonic plague.
What are the symptoms, and what is the experience of that? I think a lot of people are curious about that.
DR. CARLOS DEL RIO PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE AT THE EMORY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: Well, let's start first by saying that plague is a fairly rare
disease. Most common plague presents in three different types. The first and the most common one is what's called, you know, bubonic plague.
The second one is septicemic plague, which is when the bacteria disseminate from the lymph nodes into the blood, and the last one is pneumonic, the
when it goes into the lungs. The first two types of plague, bubonic and septicemic, usually occur after infection with infected lice that are in
mice, and the lice then you know bite you, and that's how you acquire the infection.
Pneumonic plague usually is very rare, and when we see pneumonic plague, we think about inhalation, which is extremely rare. And but it is a
possibility of this being a bioterrorism event. You know, when you see somebody with pneumonic plague, you always worry how did they get the
plague?
It had to be aerosolized, and when it's aerosolized, it's because somebody put it in the environment, and that's why it's considered a bioterrorism
agent. So, pneumonic plague is not something we see regularly. And when you have somebody with pneumonic plague, you're worried that they inhaled the
organism, and it had to be either because it was dispersed in the environment in some sort of fashion.
[11:35:00]
ASHER: One of the things that I think is I don't want to say raising a lot of eyebrows, but people are sort of curious about is the fact that Russian
authorities are saying that the infection that this young lady died from has no real connection to her place of work, and there is of course the
issue of transparency when you are dealing with Russia.
How concerned are you about that? Do you think that at this point in time, I guess it's impossible to say, but you know, concerns about whether or not
we're getting the full picture are those concerns justified?
RIO: Oh, I'm very concerned that we're not getting the full picture. I think there's a total lack of transparency. This was a young, healthy,
otherwise healthy woman in her 20s. People in their 20s normally don't die of pneumonia. That's -- that raises a flag immediately. What kind of
pneumonia would have killed somebody young that way?
And one of the possibilities, because she had worked -- she was working with plague, is obviously pneumonic plague. Pneumonic plague has a very
high mortality, over 70 percent. So, I still have an odd rule out that she died of pneumonic plague, even though we haven't been told that.
The other thing that raises a lot of questions is why are 200 people that were close to her in isolation? What is the reason for that? What are they
trying to prevent? If this had been influenza or some other cause of death, you wouldn't be putting 200 people in isolation.
So yeah, I have a -- I think there's a lot of questions. I think there's a lot of lack of transparency. And I think this is an example of why we need
clear information that is disseminated and is made available so people can make the right decisions.
ASHER: And we've all learned from COVID and various other sort of, you know, various other sort of contagious illnesses that we've covered about
the importance of contact tracing. When you hear that 189 people have been placed, as you point out, under medical observation.
It does raise the question of how many people those 189 were also in contact with before they were placed under medical observation. From that
perspective as well, when Russian authorities and the W.H.O. say that the risk to the general public is low. How important, in order to minimize the
risk to the general public and to continue to do so?
How important is contact tracing? Is ensuring that those -- whoever those 189, whoever else they came into contact with, is also track to?
RIO: Well, we don't know what we're dealing with. At least I don't know. We haven't been told what we're dealing with. But the most important thing
right now is outbreak control, right? Controlling, limiting the extent of the outbreak, and you do that by two things, you isolate those infected,
and you quarantine those that have been exposed.
By doing that, you can contain the outbreak. It's fortunately occurring in a very remote area of Siberia, so would likely stay there and not go
anywhere. So, I do agree with the Russian authorities and I do agree with W.H.O. that the risk of the general public, the risk of the individual
living in the United States or living anywhere else in the world, is essentially zero.
You have a much higher risk of you know getting killed going home today in your car or crossing the street than you are of acquiring whatever
infection is happening there right now. However, we do need to understand what happened, what kind of accident occurred.
We hear that a vial broke. Did she get exposed that way? So, we need to understand what occurred. Lab accidents do happen, and we need to
understand what is being done to contain it and to prevent it from leaving the area where the outbreak is happening right now.
ASHER: And final question, just in terms of the transmissibility of this, what do we know?
RIO: Well, we know very little because we don't know what it is. Let's assume it's pneumonic plague that she died of. The transmissibility is very
low. Its -- pneumonic plague could be transmitted by the person breathing the you know putting out secretions and other people inhaling them.
But the transmission is very low. This is not COVID. This is not influenza. This is non measles. It's not a highly contagious situation. It changes,
however, if you put this into the ventilation system of a building, or you drop a you know balloon full of plague in a big city, then you aerosolize
it, and you could potentially again have a bioterrorism event.
This is not something that happens naturally. So, the transmission of pneumonic plague from natural infection is exceedingly low. Now we don't
know what she died of. Russia is telling us it's not plague, it's something else. Well, we need to know what that something else is in order to tell
you what the risk of transmission would be.
ASHER: Right, Dr. Carlos del Rio. Thank you for that. We appreciate it. All right. Still to come on "One World". Less than a month to go until
Americans cast their votes. A new poll reveals what's really on their mind.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:40:00]
ASHER: Right, less than a month to go until the U.S. midterm elections, and a new poll is putting a spotlight on what is on the voters' minds.
According to a KFF health tracking poll, registered voters say the price of gas and the cost of healthcare are their biggest economic concerns ahead of
expenses for groceries, utilities, and housing.
The economy clearly a major part of the midterm fight, and President Trump says he is changing how he sells his message. After bipartisan backlash for
using millions in taxpayer funds for campaign-style ads, Trump now says he will use Super PAC money to pay for them.
The president is also zeroing in on the high cost of fuel. He made this announcement on Monday at a rally in Nebraska.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The typical trucker will save over $100 every time they fill up, so it's more than $100
each time. And farmers will also save millions and millions of dollars. And this order will also drive down the cost of all goods, including grocery
prices, very substantially.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: Right, CNN's Alayna Treene joins us live now from the White House with more. So, obviously, President Trump pulling out all stops to really
get an advantage just a month away at the midterms. But in terms of this executive order, he's essentially allowing on-road use of tax-free red dye
diesel fuel.
What's been the reaction to this executive order, how much of a difference will it make, Alayna?
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I think for farmers in particular, they're very happy about this. We saw some statements from
different groups related to farmers, agriculture groups, of course, saying that this will hopefully be in the immediate term helpful.
But of course, this is not a long-term fix. And broadly, I don't think this, you know, when you talk, when you see the reaction online, people
saying that they don't think this is going to do much in the in the sense of helping everyday Americans with the high price of gas.
And I do want to go back to some of the polling you mentioned because Zain, if you look at one of the questions was the issues that voters want their
candidates to be talking about, the cost of living, 62 percent. That is the number one issue they want their candidates to be talking about.
Healthcare costs, 47 percent I think also getting into this idea of affordability really being a priority ahead of these elections. The
president, for his part, has been a little bit blunter lately in actually addressing and acknowledging that some of these prices are too high.
I should note when he was in Nebraska last night, Zain, he argued that some of this was because of the Former President Joe Biden. There was a little
bit of a tepid reaction to that. People, you know, many people arguing against the Iran war that has really been driving up these costs,
specifically when it comes to energy costs and gas prices.
[11:45:00]
But he also has been arguing that the economy is great, things are great. They're just not messaging right. But one thing that I think would give you
a sense into how his team is actually looking about the midterms and how they're strategizing is just where he has been going.
Recent days, the president has traveled to Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Ohio, last night, Nebraska. These are all states that the president has won three
times, 2016, in 2020, and in 2024. This shows that he is on defense. I mean, if you talk to Republicans a couple months ago, six months ago, let's
say, they would argue that all of these places, particularly the districts in many of these states, are likely safe ones.
But that's not the case now. They're having to defend these areas that perhaps many Republicans did not go into the cycle thinking they would need
to spend time and money on, of course, the most important resources when it comes to elections like this. So, what we're really seeing the president do
is go to these places, and the number one strategy that I know his advisers are telling him is turnout.
He needs to focus on driving enthusiasm among his fiercest supporters to ensure that they show up in an election year when many times you know can
people don't really want to show up for midterm elections or they you know don't come out as strongly as they do for general elections.
So that's really been the goal of this White House and messaging-wise, Trump is trying to I think message more on the economy than he has in the
past.
ASHER: And as usual, we have the president making some controversial comments that are raising eyebrows, including this idea of perhaps allowing
Iran to bomb San Diego and Los Angeles, sort of take those cities out. Just walk us through what was said and how the White House is now trying to
clean it up, Alayna.
TREENE: Yeah, I mean these were striking comments. I will say, I think it shows, Zain, just the perils of going off script, which the president, of
course, is want to do on most occasions. I want you to listen to exactly what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I want to see a tremendous victory. You want to see a tremendous victory because it verifies all the things we did. And again, remember,
with the war, it's just artificial. It's a little bit high. It's a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe.
They can take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego. That's this is a very small price to pay, and it's going to be
open very soon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TREENE: So, listening to that, I think it's no surprise that his comments have drawn a lot of backlashes from not only Democrats but some
Republicans. I should note one Republican, a navy veteran and someone who was running for Congress in California, in San Diego.
They said this is a -- excuse me, this is Jim Desmond. He said, I vehemently disagree with President Trump's comments. America must stand up
to Iran and defend our interests, but the first responsibility of our commander in chief is -- end our homeland. But the White House is arguing,
look, these are being taken out of context.
The president was referencing that gas prices are a small price to pay. This is what the White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said. He
said that the media freak out over President Trump's comments is not rooted in reality. He was clearly stating U.S. cities would have been threatened
if a nuclear Iran hadn't been stopped.
So that's where they're leaving it today, Zain.
ASHER: All right, Alayna Treene, live for us. Thank you for that. Demands for accountability are growing louder at Cornell University over how
authorities handled a woman's allegations that she was gang-raped at a fraternity house back in 2024. A student organization or student organized
town hall is set to take place today.
This after members of the Cornell faculty Senate introduced a resolution calling for a vote of no confidence against the administration. Students
and community members protested Monday, chanting shame and resign over what they say is the university's failure to adequately address Jane Doe's
initial allegations two years ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I think it's really a wake-up call that they need to change because the student body is not going to let Cornell continue to
be a school like this.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When someone comes forward with a story like Jane Doe did, it should be taken with the seriousness that it's being taken with
now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We stand with Jane Doe, but also, we stand with taking more measures to prevent this from happening in the future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: Documents reviewed by CNN reveal campus police drafted requests for cell phone data, one week after they learned of the allegations. But what
happened next is unclear. CNN's Jason Carroll takes a look at the evidence now emerging, including secretly recorded calls between Jane Doe and an
accused fraternity member.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Protests cross Cornell's campus today over how the university handled the investigation of an
alleged rape case at the Chi Phi fraternity house two years ago.
[11:50:00]
This as secret audio recordings of a phone call between Jane Doe, the woman who said she was raped, and a fraternity member she went to see the night
of the alleged attack were obtained by ABC News.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- want me to give my recollection of the entire night?
CARROLL (voice-over): According to ABC, the call was recorded by Jane Doe three weeks after the alleged assault, where she told the fraternity
members, she spent time in the emergency room and in therapy because there's so much damage on my body and my brain.
If I just know what happened, then I can feel a little bit better and move on, and maybe be able to stay at this school. In the recorded call, she
also said what y'all did would be classified as gang rape, and you already knew when I came in, I was 10 shots deep. The fraternity member recounted
it differently.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You did tell me you were sober by the way. You did. You said you hadn't been anywhere.
CARROLL (voice-over): ABC reported that Jane Doe pushed back, saying that is not true. I never would have said that, and she wanted to know how they
ended up in a threesome with another fraternity member.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, you come in, say hi. We start dancing for like maybe three to five minutes, and then I pop the question. You say yes, then I
remember like we didn't know who else to bring, so I go up to -- who was on the dance floor too, and I pop the question, and he's like, 'yo', and then
we go upstairs.
CARROLL (voice-over): Jane Doe continued to ask how so many people ended up in the room.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have racked my brain for this, mystery, you know, it's possible that both of us like remember this and it's not true.
CARROLL (voice-over): According to ABC, again, Jane Doe pushed back, saying, no, no, because I remember looking up and being like, that is too
many people. ABC News says that in that same call, the fraternity member never mentions to Jane Doe the Snapchat message inviting others to join in
that night.
Jane Doe's attorney told CNN he's thankful information is being leaked, though he's concerned evidence of cell phone pics may have been lost.
THOMAS GIUFFRA, ATTORNEY FOR JANE DOE: I think they're in the bottom of Lake Cuyahoga because once they knew there was a problem, they cleared
everything out and they got rid of it. And the fact is that the investigators let that happen.
CARROLL (voice-over): Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ASHER: We'll be right back with more after the short break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ASHER: All right, there's a new furry face at the Bronx Zoo in New York.
[11:55:00]
Meet Sarka, a four-month-old snow leopard. You see her with her mother. Zoo officials say that she's curious and loves to jump around her new habitat.
But as an only cub, she stays very close to her mum. It's estimated only 5 to 7000 snow leopards are left in the wild.
And finally, before we go this hour, scientists say they may have found a new type of planet, one that may have formed from material released after
its host star died, making it a possible second-generation planet. Researchers made the discovery by analyzing data from the Hubble Space
Telescope and other instruments.
Their study is published this week in the journal "Nature Astronomy". All right, stay with CNN. There's more "One World" with my colleague Bianna
Golodryga. After this short break, don't go anywhere.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
