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Trump Stumps for Struggling Republicans; Polls Indicate Democrats Could Retake Senate in Midterms; Flydubai Pilot Recounts Attack; Cornell University Gang Rape Allegations; Failed Execution Sparks Major Resignation; Protests Over State of Schools in France; Russia Targets Ukraine with Jet-Powered Drones. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired October 04, 2026 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a very warm welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm some of those ease in London.

Let's go to our headlines. President Trump hits the campaign trail for struggling Republicans ahead of the midterms as new polling suggests Democrats could take the Senate. The Flydubai pilot who was attacked by his co-pilot is now recounting those terrifying moments during the flight. And French authorities are trying to contain demonstrations by students and teachers over what they say is an overwhelmed education system.

ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN Newsroom with Salma Abdelaziz.

ABDELAZIZ: Let's start in Ohio, where U.S. President Donald Trump spent Saturday evening stumping for Republicans in what has been in recent years a reliably red state. The president was there to boost Jon Husted, who is currently in a tight Senate race with Democrat Sherrod Brown. Midterm elections are just a month away, and polling shows both the House and the Senate are up for grabs. Republicans are increasingly worried that high gas prices, stubborn inflation and the unpopularity of the war with Iran could trigger a Democratic wave.

A recent Marist poll focused on Ohio shows Brown with an eight-point advantage against Husted. This is in a state that Trump won by over 10 points just a couple of years ago. On Saturday, the president once again promised to give Americans money if the GOP maintains control of Congress.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: If Republicans win, the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, I am going to give all adult citizens in the United States, because we're making so much money with the tariffs and other things, $5,000 to every adult.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: Now, Ohio is not the only red state where Democrats are making inroads. Recent polling indicates that the midterms could leave the Senate map looking very different than it does now. Our chief data analyst, Harry Enten, has been crunching the numbers for us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: It is truly eye popping across five states that Donald Trump won by double digits back in 2024. And you see a lot more blue on your screen than you see red. How about Alaska where Mary Peltola up by seven points? How about Texas, which has not elected a Democratic senator since 1988? But James Talarico, he's up six points. Ohio, Sherrod Brown trying to get back to the United States Senate. Race is close. No clear leader. But even there, he's nominally ahead by three.

Kansas, Kansas, which has not elected a Democratic senator since 1932, that was when my father was five years old. My father was born in 1927, had me in his 60s, that state has not elected a Democratic senator since 1932, yet we got a tie ball game here. And in Iowa, which was another state that Donald Trump won by double digits, very, very close to Republican, nominally ahead by a point. But again, no clear leader here.

Now, I guess the question sort of is for someone like myself, as we look at all this polling data, you know, could these polls possibly be right? Well, actually, they come at a time in which there's been a string of really, really good polling data for Democrats. These polls, they ain't outliers. They ain't outliers at all.

Take a look here. Take a look at the Senate map. OK, this is the 2026 Senate if results, if the result matches the polls. Now, of course, it's still a month to go, right? And polls are not perfect. They come with margins of error. But if the polls didn't match the results, look at this, we'd end up with. We'd end up with a blue Ohio. We'd end up with a blue Maine. We'd end up with a blue North Carolina. These are all flips, right? We'd end up, yes, even with the blue Iowa. Yes, it is true that in the New York Times poll, you had the Republican nominally ahead. But if you take the average of polls, yes, in fact, the Democrat is nominally ahead. You end up with a blue Texas.

You'd end up with, we go all the way here -- of course, Alaska is actually all the way up there. You'd end up with a blue Alaska as well. And look at that. I have Kansas in purple because who the heck knows what might possibly happen. You add it all together, and at this point, if in fact the results match the polls. Look at this. You'd end up with Democrats at 53, Republicans at 46, which Kansas has a big, I don't know.

[04:05:00]

But at this point, you have to think that the Democrats are in fact favored to take back the United States Senate. And indeed, if you look at these poll-based models, that is you put all the polls together and kind of project out outwards, understanding that polls have margins of error and we still have a month or so to go until election day.

You can see this. Take a look here. The Democratic chances, they've been going up significantly over the last few months. OK. Chance that the Dems win the Senate in 2026 polling. This is the average poll- based models. Take a look here. Look at this. On August 13th, Democrats, it was about 50-50, right? It was about 50-50 Democrats with a 52 percent chance. Today, that's up to a two in three chance that Democrats in fact take back the United States Senate. Now, you look at this, you say, well, I don't really trust the polls.

What about the people who are putting their monies where their mouths are, right? That is the prediction market odds. Well, it's very different from what we saw just two years ago with this point. Chance that the Democrats win the Senate as of October 3rd. Two years ago, Democrats just had a 25 percent chance during the 2024 cycle. Today, that's up to a 64 percent chance. So, no matter which metric you look at, Democrats have to be feeling pretty gosh darn good about themselves.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABDELAZIZ: Now, on social media on Saturday, President Trump took aim at Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton, accusing him of delaying a bill to make daylight savings time permanent. The House recently passed the measure, but the Senate has yet to take it up. The president revealed Cotton's cell phone number in his social media post. Now, this is not the first time Trump has made a sitting senator's numbers public. In 2016, he gave a crowd the personal number of the late Senator Lindsey Graham.

Millions of Brazilians are expected to vote in the country's general election, which kicks off later on Sunday. Thirteen presidential candidates are on the ballot, but the top two are in a very tight race. Sitting President Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva is hoping to win a historic fourth term in office. The leftist leader is framing the vote as a choice between democracy and fascism. His main opponent is Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who was found guilty of attempting to overturn the 2022 election in a coup.

The younger Bolsonaro has largely inherited his father's far-right base. He promises to continue that legacy. If neither candidate wins 50 percent of the vote on Sunday, there will be a runoff on October 25th. Some 158 million Brazilians are eligible to vote, including millions in remote communities. Election workers transported ballot boxes and voting machines by boat through the Amazon River to ensure that they'll be able to exercise those democratic rights.

This election is especially important to those groups. It will shape policies on environmental conservation, deforestation, and land rights.

Earlier, we heard from Oliver Stuenkel, a professor of international relations at the Vargas Foundation. He explained the very large stakes at this election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OLIVER STUENKEL, PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, GETULLO VARGAS FOUNDATION: This is the seventh election in Latin America in 20 months. It's been quite a marathon, and the vast majority of these elections have been won by right-wing candidates, many of them pro- Trump candidates. In at least two cases, a lot of evidence of very strong pressure by the United States seeking to sway these elections, such as Argentina and Honduras.

So, this election in Brazil, the biggest democracy, the biggest economy in Latin America, is a real test about whether that rightward shift will continue, whether it applies to Brazil, one of the few countries along with Mexico, and Uruguay and the regions still governed by the left. It's also a big question about to what extent or how Brazilians react to what has been perceived as U.S. pressure for strong support for Flavio Bolsonaro.

The big question is, will that have an impact on voters? Will they be more supportive of Flavio Bolsonaro, or is there some kind of rally- round-the-flag effect, and may it actually end up helping Lula?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: We're learning new details about the Flydubai cockpit attack. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is praising the hero captain's courage and invited him to light a flame on Israeli Independence Day. Mr. Netanyahu says it is the highest honor, usually reserved only for Israeli citizens. But he told the captain that, quote, "in this case, all the citizens of Israel will embrace you." Machchhar recounted the attack to the Israeli leader during that phone call. Take a listen.

[04:10:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SMIT MACHCHHAR, FLYDUBAI CAPTAIN: I had that one last fight left in me that, you know, call it personal or call it for people, but let's say I did it -- that if I don't do it, I'm going to die. And that's when I pushed against everything, I gave everything that I had, and just went for the door and opened the door. And thankfully, people were waiting to pounce back, took over the control.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: We're also learning new details about the co-pilot that is suspected of attacking the pilot. CNN's Oren Liebermann joins us live now from Jerusalem. So, Oren, start with the investigation for me. But I also understand that more stranded passengers were able to make it back to Israel this weekend. What is the mood across Israel today?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: There is still this overwhelming sense of relief about how this all ended. And you see the pilot here, the Indian pilot being hailed as a hero in just about every country connected to this, not only that phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but earlier with Indian leader Narendra Modi. And we now have new video of the crown prince of Dubai visiting that pilot in the hospital where he is recovering after he was attacked in the cockpit itself that began this entire, frankly, dramatic episode in which the pilot was able to ward off the attack, even though he was severely injured, and open the door and get other passengers in there to help. So, this is still being viewed very much as a story of heroism in terms of how it ended. The question is now how it began. As we learn more about how all of this unfolded, there are questions, and we see it in the Israeli media and around the Israeli discourse, about how this could have ever happened in the first place. Israel, and specifically its main international airport, Ben-Gurion, are known for the vaunted security checks not only at the airport itself, but going in and in advance of who's on the flight, who are the passengers, who are the flight crew, and the pilots.

Now, a spokesperson for the tax authority in Israel said they were aware in advance of the names of the crew on board, even though the transportation ministry, which is in charge of the Israel airport's authority, says they didn't know who was on board. So, there are huge questions here about how an Omani pilot, keep in mind, Oman doesn't have relations with Israel, was able to fly into the country, potentially, it seems, although this isn't certain yet, multiple times, and be able to have carried out such an attack. So, these are some of the questions.

In addition, there are social media posts from the pilot suspect here, Hammam Al Hammami, that should have been a red flag. We see from his LinkedIn page and from sources familiar with the investigations and the questions here that Al Hammami flew and worked for Oman Air, that is Oman's national carrier, for a number of years, but one of those sources says he was effectively let go because of concerns over his radical views.

From there, according to his LinkedIn page that we've identified, he went to work for Morocco's carrier, Royal Air Maroc, but he was only there for a few months. In a statement, the airline told the Associated Press that he didn't get through the pre-employment screening, so it seems he didn't become a pilot there, though it's unclear exactly why. And then, as we've seen from how this all played out, he went to work for Flydubai.

CNN has also analyzed his now-deleted Twitter account, which had thousands of deeply religious and misogynistic posts. So, there will be questions about how all of this got through what should have been a screening on the Israeli side. I suspect there may also be an investigation on Dubai's side about how he was allowed to fly for Flydubai. This is where the focus of the questions are right now. Salma, how did it ever get to this point?

ABDELAZIZ: So, many questions for investigators to dig into as Israel breathes a sigh of relief and welcomes its own back home safely. Oren Liebermann, thank you so much for that.

The U.S. Coast Guard has found debris from a medical transport jet that went missing on Saturday with six people on board. It was located off the coast of Nantucket in Massachusetts, an island located about 30 miles south of Cape Cod. The air ambulance was flying from Bermuda to Boston. Now, officials say the two pilots and two medical staff were Canadian. The two others on board were a patient and their family member who were from Bermuda. According to FlightAware data, the plane was flying at an altitude of 24,000 feet before it plunged 13,000 feet over the course of just two minutes.

We have so much more to come here on CNN Newsroom. Cornell University is facing a growing backlash over its handling of a student's alleged gang rape. Now, the school's president is finally speaking out.

And new fallout from Tennessee's latest failed execution as the state's prison chief steps down amid the controversy. More on that story and others ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:15:00]

ABDELAZIZ: University's president is speaking out for the first time about the school's handling of a student's alleged gang rape at a fraternity party in 2024. He called the allegations, quote, "deeply disturbing" and says, the university must do better to prevent sexual violence. CNN's Mark Morales has that story for us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK MORALES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT REPORTER: The message from the Cornell University president comes as pressure continues to mount. Students at the university have largely been upset with how the university and the local district attorney has handled the investigation. There's a protest scheduled for Monday.

This all comes as new reporting from the New York Times shows that there was evidence that campus police wanted to give the local district attorney but that the office refused to review the evidence because they'd already made up their mind. They based it largely on the six-page document that Jane Doe had signed and decided based off of that they weren't going to pursue charges.

Now, this new evidence was said to have more interviews and even a deeper dive on some of those chat messages.

[04:20:00]

Now, ABC News is also reporting that two of the alleged attackers had actually messaged Jane Doe in the days after the incident and actually apologized for what happened to her that night. And all this is adding to the growing sense of anger that's coming not just from the university but also from New York Governor Kathy Hochul, who appointed New York Attorney General Letitia James to be the special prosecutor.

Now, in this message we also hear from the university president who seems to be threading the needle between both accountability and support from the investigations that are coming. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL KOTLIKOFF, PRESIDENT OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY: I believe we as an administration and we as a community must do better. We must do everything we can to prevent what happened to Jane Doe and everyone before her and anyone after her from ever happening again. I welcome the independent review by an outside law firm into all aspects of Cornell's handling of the 2024 matter, which the board will announce next week. We also support the governor's decision to turn the criminal investigation over to the New York Attorney General.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MORALES: The university president also wants to look at fraternities on campus and address accountability amongst the students themselves so that if they see something happening that shouldn't be happening, they can step in amongst themselves, but also address the culture that would actually encourage some of these incidents where sexual assault or sexual violence from one of these parties actually starts happening, to address that culture from the beginning so that those don't happen.

Mark Morales, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABDELAZIZ: Now, the attorney for Jane Doe, the woman who made the allegations, responded to the Cornell president's remarks, saying, in part, quote, "Today we watched and listen to the president's statement. We are hopeful that his statement is backed up by meaningful reforms that leads to real change for the of the students at Cornell. We are hopeful but we are also wary."

Now, to Tennessee, where the governor has announced that the state's prisons chief will resign following the failed execution of a death row inmate. Frank Strada took over the department in 2023. This is after serving as a top prison official in Arizona. During his tenure there, he oversaw several executions that were marred by complications.

The inmate, Christa Pike, is in hospital and receiving treatment for the effects of pentobarbital. She survived two doses of the typically fatal drug during her scheduled execution on Wednesday. This is Tennessee's second failed execution since May. An independent review is now underway to figure out what went wrong. The state says they followed protocol. Now, new questions are emerging about lethal injections and the drugs used in executions. CNN's Meg Tirrell has more on how something so serious could go so wrong.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: What I heard from experts is that that is actually happening more frequently. But what's really different about her situation is it does seem like the drug, this pentobarbital, was actually delivered to her.

So, often one of the things we hear about is that there's a difficulty finding a place to place an IV, for example, that can often lead to these really long delays or them not happening at all, as happened in May with the previous execution in Tennessee that was botched and didn't end up happening. But here, you know, the drug actually did seem like it was getting to her. You know, data from the drug penalty -- sorry, death penalty information center shows that botched executions using lethal injection happen about 7.2 percent of the time. And that is twice the rate with other methods of execution. And according to an Amherst College professor, Austin Sarat, who's been studying this, that has been ticking higher since 2010. He says closer now to 8 percent for lethal injection.

And there's a few reasons for that, potentially. One is that around that time, there was an advocacy group out of the U.K. called Reprieve, which started putting pressure on pharmaceutical companies, first in Europe, to not export their drugs to be used in lethal injections in the United States. That also led to export controls from the U.K. and Europe. And then American pharmaceutical companies followed suit and put restrictions in place to try to ensure that their drugs, which they say are used for lifesaving and medical purposes, should not be used to execute people.

And so, that caused states and the federal government to have to turn to alternative sources to try to get these drugs. And, sometimes, experts have questioned the quality of those drugs and how well they're stored and tested. Beyond that, we know that major medical groups here in the United States, including the American Medical Association, the American Nurses Association, they oppose or even prohibit their members from participating in executions. The AMA says in its code of ethics, quote, "An individual's opinion on capital punishment is the personal moral decision of the individual. They say, however, as a member of a profession dedicated to preserving life when there is hope of doing so, a physician must not participate in a legally authorized execution."

[04:25:00]

Experts I've talked with have said this is just this sort of terrible, perfect storm of things that can go wrong, possibly not the best quality drugs. And we don't know who the people are who are actually performing the executions themselves and what their medical training is.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABDELAZIZ: Body camera footage of Luigi Mangione's arrest inside a Pennsylvania McDonald's nearly two years ago has finally come to light, after a judge unsealed it. The video was taken just days after Mangione shot and killed United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York. CNN's Kara Scannell takes us through that footage.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just give me a favor. I want to pat you down. Stand up.

LUIGI MANGIONE: This is a jar of peanut butter by the way. You can take that but I'm just letting you know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Just put your hands up on the wall. I'm going to pat you down.

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Newly unsealed police body cam footage first seen on CNN shows the moments Altoona, Pennsylvania, police officers handcuffed Luigi Mangione and took him into custody, ending a five-day manhunt.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep your hands on the wall. Left hand first and your right hand back.

SCANNELL (voice-over): A New York state judge unsealed the footage at the request of CNN after Mangione pleaded guilty to federal stalking charges and admitted to fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The videos were played during a suppression hearing last December but have not been publicly released until now. Officers responded to a 911 call on December 9, 2024, that the suspected New York City CEO shooter may be in a McDonald's restaurant.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How you doing? Can you put your mask down real quick for me?

MANGIONE: Yes, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Appreciate it. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

SCANNELL (voice-over): The officers immediately thought it was him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's 100 percent him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I told you, man.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That shooter checked into a hostel with a fake ID.

SCANNELL (voice-over): Officers confront Mangione about a fake driver's license bearing the name Mark Rosario.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that your name, Mark Rosario? Rosario?

MANGIONE: No, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's your real name?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Luigi?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Luigi?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mangione.

MANGIONE: I'll write it down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give me the date of birth, then, too.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you spell your full name? L-U-I-G-I?

MANGIONE: L-U-I-G-I. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mangione, M-A-N-G-I-O-N-E.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why are you lying about your name?

MANGIONE: I clearly shouldn't have.

SCANNELL (voice-over): A search reveals a gun magazine.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's -- him, dude.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's -- him. 100 percent.

SCANNELL (voice-over): About 10 minutes later, Mangione is taken to the police station. Mangione is asked to remove layers of clothing so he can be searched more thoroughly, while another officer unzips his backpack and finds a gun that authorities later link to the crime scene.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's a weapon. So, you want me to clear it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's just clear it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Clear it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. There's another magazine that was hidden in his underwear.

F--. Silencer.

SCANNELL (voice-over): She also finds Mangione's handwritten notes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's like a journal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bag it?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would.

SCANNELL (voice-over): While a different officer ticks off the evidence, including a checklist.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has a handgun, suppressor, his cell phone is in a Faraday bag.

He has a checklist for today. Tomorrow, he's supposed to do an intel check-in and get a survival kit.

SCANNELL: These videos were critical to Mangione's lawyer's effort to argue the searches were illegal and key evidence should be thrown out. But the judge kept the videos under seal until he ruled that most of the evidence could be used at trial. Mangione will be sentenced on federal charges in December. A decision on whether the state case moves forward is pending.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ABDELAZIZ: Still to come here on CNN Newsroom, protest violence continues across France as students openly clash with police. Ahead, how this is impacting French politics.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:30:00]

ABDELAZIZ: Welcome back to CNN Newsroom. I'm Salma Abdelaziz in London. Tens of thousands of protesters in Spain are calling for a general strike. This is after the Spanish Parliament voted down a housing bill that was aimed at protecting vulnerable tenants. The demonstration started after an 87-year-old woman was evicted from her home. This caused widespread outrage. CNN's Pau Mosquera has the latest from Spain.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAU MOSQUERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Housing protests were back on the streets of Madrid this Saturday morning.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): It's something that affects all of us. Beyond ideology, social class and everything else.

ALTANA, MADRID RESIDENT (through translator): It has been shown that taking to the streets can make a difference. Marie Carmen will return home after being evicted. The demonstration in Seoul, the encampment, shows us how important it is to be out there.

MOSQUERA: Thousands of people marched through the city center to send a clear message to the authorities. They are not going anywhere. Demonstrators actually say that they will keep their encampment at central Puerto del Sol and also keep pushing the authorities as to get better access to housing and more affordable living conditions.

BEA, MADRID RESIDENT (through translator): Luckily, I've had access to a home that I'm still paying for. But I'm fighting for the rights of my sons and daughters, for the future rights of this whole city and this country.

JUAN CARLOS, MADRID RESIDENT (through translator): I belong to a generation that even in our 30s still doesn't have a life project under a roof where we can fully develop our adult lives.

ANA, MADRID RESIDENT (through translator): I'm close to 30 and I still haven't been able to move out on my own. I do have savings, of course, but if I have to dip into them, it just isn't worth it.

[04:35:00]

GABRIEL, MADRID RESIDENT (through translator): The other day, I was with my partner thinking about the future and we realized that even with two fairly decent salaries, we would have to save for 20 years just to then take out a 50-year mortgage.

MOSQUERA: Following Parliament's rejection of the government's proposals to handle the crisis, it remains unclear what will be its next move. Some national media outlets report that Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is considering calling an early election, a possibility that has not yet been confirmed from La Moncloa to CNN.

Pau Mosquera, CNN, Madrid.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABDELAZIZ: Now, to France, where violent protests continue as high school students fight openly with the police. The demonstrations are over what the students claim is an underfunded and inadequate education system. CNN's Melissa Bell explains how these protests are impacting politics.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, for the time being, there seems to be no end in sight to this. There was this meeting yesterday between the education minister and student representatives, which ended with the students announcing that they didn't feel their demands were being addressed and that they were urging other students to carry on with the movement into next week.

I think what surprised everyone here in France is how suddenly and how violently this protest, which has sort of been simmering for the last 10 days, really escalated this week. Thursday, say authorities, was a turning point when a lot of it descended into, rather transformed into, urban violence. And on Friday, yesterday, we saw again there were 1,700 people taken in for questioning. That takes the number over the course of the week to 5,000.

Many of them, of course, are minors. Of those who've ended up being arrested, the question will become what sort of punishment they get. And there has been this question about the police response and how brutal it's been outside some schools. There have also been questions on the part of the government about the presence at some of these barricades of the French far-left, the LFE party, which for its part defends its right to be at the barricades and defends the right of the students to protest.

So, you have this growing political side to the debate. And remember, we're just really just a few months from the French presidential election, so that was inevitable. But which adds also, of course, more fuel to the fire that is already raging among students.

So, what we expect to see next week is more of these barricades from Monday. There is this broader social movement right now on the part of unions and public sector workers. We expect them to have another protest Sunday, but the big one will be on Tuesday. And the latest we've heard from the students is that they're encouraging all students to take part in that, once again, to make their anger plain.

So, very difficult to see at this stage how authorities are going to get a lid on it. They certainly didn't manage it with that meeting yesterday.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABDELAZIZ: To learn more about the student protest, I want to bring in now Anais Ella. She is a national high school student representative and spokesperson for Les Lyceens. Thank you so much for joining us this morning. It is wonderful to be able to hear directly from a student who is involved in these demonstrations. And I think I really want to start there if I can. What was happening in your school? What issues were you seeing day by day inside of your school that inspired you to take street action? And what are your demands for the French government? What are you hoping that they would see inside your school if they could?

ANAIS ELLA, SPOKESPERSON, "LES LYCEENS": OK. So, thank you so much. Our movement starts because our schools lack basic human and material resources. So, we are facing the removal of 1,500 teachers, which means even fewer teachers. So, our schools also lack of nurses and specialized support staff for students with disabilities. Classrooms are too full and the buildings are old and broken. So, we want a big change in our school system.

ABDELAZIZ: And do you feel that message? Because you're talking about under-resourced classrooms. You're talking about a lack of staff, a lack of teachers, overcrowded classrooms. I understand there was a meeting with the government yesterday. Has that message, have those demands been heard by the government? And do you feel that the government will make any changes because of these protests?

ELLA: So, students struggle with mental health issues that nobody fixes.

[04:40:00]

And as you say, we talked with the minister and he wants to work with us later, but he made no concrete commitments and we are very disappointed by this and call all students to continue demonstrating.

ABDELAZIZ: So, you said you didn't feel like you got a concrete commitment from the minister. Demonstrations will continue but we see also these images of violence on the streets of Paris. Are you hoping that you can continue these demonstrations but that there can be a more peaceful approach and what changes do you want from the government that would make you say OK we have been heard we can stop demonstrating now?

ELLA: OK so for our association Les Lyceens we want to be very clear about violence. Most violent acts are done by troublemakers from outside who are not in high school and they are not a part of our movement. We want people to focus on true demand and the real anger of students for years the minister ignores our demand and did not listen. So, if this movement is happening now it is because talking with the authorities did not work. We want a real human and financial commitment material resource in our high school.

ABDELAZIZ: Anais Ella there describing the lack of resources inside of her school the demands that she says government officials have yet to meet and saying those who are causing violence on the street simply do not represent her and her movement. Thank you so much for bringing that perspective to us.

ELLA: Thank you.

ABDELAZIZ: Coming up next on CNN Newsroom, Russia is ramping up its air assault on Ukraine with jet powered drones. We're going to talk to a military analyst about what it could mean for Kyiv as winter sets in.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:45:00]

ABDELAZIZ: A European leader has arrived in Kyiv to show his support for Ukraine. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz arrived in the city a short time ago. Earlier Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country would escalate attacks on Russian oil refineries but would not target civilians. Russia has been using a new generation of jet- powered drones that are wreaking havoc across the country. It's left caves scrambling to develop interceptors capable of stopping them. Fearing energy infrastructure could become more vulnerable than ever as temperatures drop this winter.

I want to discuss this further with Malcolm Davis. He's a senior analyst in defense strategy with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and he joins us now live. Welcome. Thank you so much for coming on the program.

We're very curious about these jet-powered drones because I understand they're more than three times faster than the original Shahed drones that Russia procured from Iran and one Ukrainian official said they're being launched at Ukraine practically straight from the factory. That's how he described it. And they're increasing in number, 1,500 used in July, more than 2,500 used in August. To what extent can this new weapon, these jet-powered drones, tip the scales in Moscow's favor?

MALCOLM DAVIS, SENIOR. ANALYST IN DEFENSE STRATEGY, ASPI AND AUSTRALIAN STRATEGIC POLICY INSTITUTE: Essentially what we're talking about here is the Geran, which is the Russian derivative of the Iranian Shahed. The Russians have essentially taken the concept of a Shahed that was provided by Iran and upgraded it into a jet-powered system that is faster, still packs a punch and still can be produced cheaply.

And that's the key point here, is that the drones that are being used are being produced in large numbers. And the Russians are waging what's known as saturation attacks, whereby they launch large numbers of these drones to force the Ukrainians to expend their very limited number of air defense systems, the Patriot missiles that they have, as well as other air defense systems, and whittle those down. And then the Russians will follow up quite often with ballistic and cruise missiles.

And so, that's the way the Russians are blasting through Ukraine's defenses, with the goal being to attack Ukraine's energy infrastructure, its logistics infrastructure, and make life miserable for the Ukrainian people in the coming winter, in the hope that the Russians have of breaking Ukraine's will to fight.

ABDELAZIZ: So, you are saying the aim of these jet-powered drones is not only to hit targets, but to quite literally overwhelm Ukraine's air defense systems. Given this, what can Ukraine realistically do to protect its energy sites this winter? And where are the greatest gaps here?

DAVIS: Well, the challenge, of course, with the Gerans are that they are moving a lot faster than the Shaheds. And so, it is more difficult for what's known as counter-UAS, counter-drone capabilities to shoot them down. And because the Ukrainians have a limited number of these more advanced Patriot missiles that have been supplied by the U.S., and only a limited number of systems from the Europeans, they're in a very difficult situation because it's becoming more and more difficult for the Ukrainians to effectively counter these saturation attacks.

I think that the goal here for the Ukrainians has to be to strengthen their own, the resilience of their own critical infrastructure, their energy infrastructure, the logistics infrastructure, hospitals, communications, as well as identify areas where they really do need to apply what limited counter-drone capabilities they have.

But they also need to be able to stop or intercept the ballistic missiles and the cruise missiles, so they just can't afford to concentrate on drones. And that's the dilemma for the Ukrainians. They have to be able to defend against all these incoming threats. And they don't have the means to do it because the U.S. has stopped supplying Patriot missiles to Ukraine. The Europeans only have a limited amount of capabilities to support Ukraine in this way, because they're actually preparing for the possibility that Russia may launch attacks directly against Europe itself. So, I think that the Ukrainians are in a very difficult situation as a result.

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ABDELAZIZ: Malcolm Davis describing the saturation attacks that are overwhelming Ukraine's defenses ahead of winter and describing these really powerful new jet-powered drones. Thank you so much.

Hostilities are also escalating between Saudi Arabia and Yemen's Iran- backed Houthis. The rebel group is claiming responsibility for an attack on the Aramco facility in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. The Houthis say they used ballistic missiles and drones in Saturday's attack, which they maintain was in retaliation for recent strikes across Yemen.

Still to come this hour, saving a princess and avoiding fireballs all with a joystick. It's the popular arcade game that's still drawing competitors more than 40 years later.

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ABDELAZIZ: Donkey Kong is one of the world's classic arcade games, and more than 40 years later, the popular game is still drawing competitive players from across the U.S. for an annual tournament. Carter Thweatt with CNN affiliate station KTHV is there and talked to those devoted fans.

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CARTER THWEATT, KTHV (voice-over): Dodging barrels, swinging hammers, and trying to save the princess. For these players, it's a lifelong passion.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 81, I'd be 12 years old when Donkey Kong came out.

THWEATT (voice-over): Still playing all these years later, and willing to drive quite a ways to do it.

AARON KENNEY, KONG KLASH ATTENDEE: I'm from across the border in Illinois.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tacoma, Washington.

THWEATT (voice-over): So, why come all this way to Vortex Arcade in Sherwood, Arkansas, for Kong Klash 16, a tournament hosting elite players from across the country.

DANIEL SOLIS, OWNER, VORTEX ARCADE: We do this every year, first weekend of October. It's for beginners, intermediate, and pros.

THWEATT (voice-over): And with the tournament starting Friday at noon, I figured I'd give the beginners bracket one more player.

THWEATT: A lot of people here, their goal is to get past level 22. I have an equally ambitious goal. I would like to get past level one. This is the closest we've ever been. Yes. Level one.

THWEATT (voice-over): That brought me to level two.

THWEATT: This level I barely even trained on because I frankly never thought I was going to get here. So, we'll see how this goes.

THWEATT (voice-over): Not very well, but while my score may not be winning tournaments anytime soon, everyone wins with a weekend like this one.

KENNEY: It's probably the most prestigious tournament in the country, given how much effort goes into it.

SOLIS: It's getting to see people from all over, my friends that they started as just competitors in the event, and now they've become family.

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ABDELAZIZ: Hundreds of colorful hot air balloons dotted the sky over New Mexico for the annual Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. The event opened up with a drone light show before the festival's signature mass ascension got underway on Saturday morning. Founded more than 50 years ago with just 13 balloons, the event has grown into the world's largest ballooning festival. It lasts nine days with more than 500 balloons scheduled to take flight.

Thank you so much for watching. I'm Salma Abdelaziz. I'll be back with another hour of CNN Newsroom right after a quick break.

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