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CNN International: Demonstrations Continue As Police Clash With Students; Ukraine: Putin Planning Broader Attacks On Civilian Targets; Trump Presents Award To Elon Musk, Other Tech Titans. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired October 09, 2026 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

VICTOR GOURY-LAFFONT, REPORTER, POLITICO: And also, maybe express a more general feeling of discontent, of anxiety when it comes to the -- the future. What's particularly hard with -- for the government is that unlike past student protests in France, there isn't one specific policy which is being contested in which the government could just easily pull out of in order to stop this movement.

It appears to be sort of a -- a very general feeling of dissatisfaction with the state of education in France, and also probably with just anxieties when it comes to what the future might look like for this generation.

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN ANCHOR: So, let's -- let's break down the government's response here. We had -- we had that sound bite from the French Education Minister before we started speaking to you, announcing plans to deploy 3000 substitute teachers, there are more measures that are promised by the end of October. But how far does that go towards meeting students' demands, and can it actually deliver lasting improvements when the government is under pressure right now to cut the deficit?

GOURY-LAFFONT: Exactly, the -- the Substitute Teacher Emergency Plan was part of what the students was asking for, so it is a direct response to some of the concerns which have been expressed. But it is only part of the problem. We also have problems when it comes to overcrowded classrooms, high schools not being sufficiently renovated. Students also oppose the fact that universities in France only recently started selecting their -- their -- their students for the different majors, kind of like the same way it works in North America.

For a long time in France, there wasn't the sort of selection process. If you finished high school, you could sign up for university without any sort of selection. So, there are a lot of grievances, and this is only an answer to part of them. What the government is also betting on is the fact that students will go on holiday, October 17, a week from now, so maybe that will sort of put an end to the protest movement.

At least that's what part -- part of the government hopes for. And when it comes to working that in the context of the -- the deficit, that's obviously going to be a big question because if you're spending a lot of money in order to renovate schools, that probably means that you're going to have to spend less elsewhere if you want to keep those deficit goals.

France wants to bring its deficit back to 5 percent of GDP next year, which will obviously make the -- the equation all the more difficult, especially as there are other crises going on in France right now, like in other parts of the world, the gas prices have surged.

Farmers are facing extremely tough economic hardships. France, like other European countries, also wants to spend more on defense. So, there are a lot of different problems which are all just kind of boiling up to the government. And this also comes with a presidential election six months from now, and a government which doesn't have a majority in parliament, so it'll clearly be a very difficult situation for the -- for the government to -- to have to pass through.

ABDELAZIZ: The other response I want to talk to you about, of course, is the police response, which has been seen by many as being too heavy-handed. There's some videos that have gone viral. The government has suspended the use of stun grenades as a response to that, but how has the crackdown impacted the view and the support and the perception for these students?

Because street action is, of course, very common in France. The government can often worry that things will get out of hand and act on that behalf. How has that again impacted the view of the students in the face of that police response?

GOURY-LAFFONT: Yeah, it's definitely been one of the big talking points, especially in recent weeks. The question of police brutality during protests has become a pretty recurrent theme in France since the Yellow Jackets movement, which was six or seven years ago already, where we also saw this sort of these accusations of a heavy-handed police response.

Obviously, the fact that these are mostly minors, children, makes it all the more shocking in the face of public opinion. And you can tell that there was definitely a feeling within the government that this could start working against them, even though there is still a big share of the French population which supports police officers, and even though there are also a lot of people who believe that the protesters are at least partially to blame.

But nonetheless, this was sort of a theme which was really starting to grow, and the fact that the government has decided to ban the use of stun grenades for these protests shows that there was at least a partial acknowledgement that this wasn't being managed in the best possible way, and that's quite obvious when you see that at least one teenager has lost his hand.

A few teenagers have lost eyes due to riot police guns since the beginning of these protests, so it's obviously a big question, and the fact that these protestors are so young obviously makes it all the more shocking for the general public.

ABDELAZIZ: A government that is scrambling to respond, as you said, to what is widespread discontent rather than a specific demand. We had pictures of those scrambling, the clashes on the streets there as you were speaking. Victor Goury-Laffont with excellent analysis for us there in Paris. Thank you so much.

[04:35:00]

GOURY-LAFFONT: Thank you.

ABDELAZIZ: I want to go to neighboring Spain, where hundreds of people marched through downtown Madrid on Thursday. Now they were paying tribute to Maricarmen Abascal, she is an 87-year-old who died after she was evicted from her home. This was following the eviction that Abascal became a symbol of Spain's housing crisis.

President Trump is heralding what he calls the Golden Age of American Science. We're going to have a look at his awards to the nation's tech leaders right after the break.

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ABDELAZIZ: Welcome back. Ukraine is right now assessing the damage from the latest round of Russian attacks. Authorities there say at least three people have been killed in cities across the country today. A strike on a warehouse in the Kyiv district injured three people. In other parts of the country, firefighters were battling flames after Russian shells hit several buildings.

Now this comes just one day after 33 people were killed in a strike on a public bus in eastern Ukraine, the deadliest single attack this year. Public transportation was shut down following that strike in the Donetsk region.

Ukrainian officials are now urging residents to evacuate to safer parts of the country. And Ukraine's president has confirmed negotiators will meet with U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Miami this weekend. Earlier this week, President Trump said he planned to talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone soon.

This weekend's talks in Miami will also include officials from NATO and the European Union. I'm going to go straight now to Natia Seskuria. She is a Senior Research Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute and a Director of the Regional Institute for Security Studies. She joins me now live from London.

[04:40:00]

Good morning, first of all, to you. Thank you so much for being on with us, because there are so many different aspects right now that are happening with Ukraine. But I want to begin with the attacks, because Ukraine's intelligence services says that it's obtained these documents that show that President Putin has issued a new doctrine of military attacks, much broader range of civilian targets. What is the aim of this shift in policy, and what does it tell us about Moscow's position if they need to expand their target list?

NATIA SESKURIA, DIRECTOR, REGIONAL INSTITUTE FOR SECURITY STUDIES: Good morning, and thank you very much for having me on your program. I think we do see this strategy materialize in Ukraine because the targets are becoming much broad. Unfortunately, we see some of the deadliest attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure as well as Ukrainian citizens.

And as you mentioned in your report, just over 24 hours ago, Ukraine has experienced one of these attacks. Unfortunately, a lot of civilians have been hurt by these attacks, and I think this is a deliberate strategy of escalation from Putin because it is related directly to Ukraine's long-range drone attacks on Russia that have been successful over summer, and Russia has shrinking options when it comes to escalation.

And this is one way in which Russia is aiming to inflict greater psychological damage on Ukrainians, undermining their morale, and at the same time to signal to the West that Ukraine does not have many options in terms of -- in terms of continuing the war, and they ultimately need to go back to the negotiation table and accept some of the Russian deals.

ABDELAZIZ: So, you describe this as a deliberate escalation, but it is taking place as we reported there. While the Trump Administration is trying to yet again launch these three-way peace talks. We have reports that indicate that it may already be faltering. What do you think is Moscow's position on negotiations right now? Is there any possible off-ramp that would be attractive to President Putin at this time?

SESKURIA: I think over the past couple of months, we see that Russians have not really been willing to change their positions when it comes to negotiations. They have put forward maximalist demands that they have always had since the beginning of the war. So, I'm very skeptical about the prospect of any sort of credible peace deal that could be acceptable for Ukrainians as well, because Russians are very much stressing on their territorial ambitions, something that is unacceptable for Ukraine.

And even though we see that Trump Administration has the willingness to continue these peace negotiations, I think there is a very little space there to -- to achieve anything tangible, given the Russian positioning. And I think this escalation in the war also indicates that Russia is very much committed to its long war and its aspirations to take as much territory of Ukraine, damage as much civilian and critical infrastructure on Ukraine, so that Ukraine ends up in a very difficult position and somehow accepts the deal that Russia is proposing, which is indeed against Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

ABDELAZIZ: And let me just dig into this further because we have these talks that are set up in Miami for this weekend, and we understand that President Trump says that he is going to have a call with President Putin now. Now, this is supposed to be around the death of that lab worker at a Plague Research Center in Siberia. Two questions here, really, can Washington get credible and verifiable information on what happened at that Plague Research Center? Because Moscow obviously continues to downplay this. And how else can this phone call be used to try to bolster that peace effort?

SESKURIA: Yes. Firstly, about the plague, I think it is very hard to deal with the Russian state and to trust the Russian state when it comes to obtaining credible information. For now, we see that these sort of assumptions around this case have been pretty much downgraded by Russians saying that there is nothing serious happening there.

But right now, we see that there are concerns of these cases, and I'm not really sure that President Trump will be able to obtain credible information from the Russian state because they will obviously -- the -- the Russian system is very much restricted system, and they are not open and transparent when it comes to communicating these things with -- with -- with American or any other governments outside of Russia. Secondly, on negotiations, I think, Americans still have the leverage over Russia because there is the ways in which Americans can escalate sanctions.

[04:45:00]

For example, imposing secondary sanctions possibly on the enablers of the war, Russia's partners, that are still enabling Russia's war economy to function properly and also to -- for Russia to produce weapons and -- and escalate the conflict this way in Ukraine, but right now I think there has been a lot of emphasis on somehow finalizing some sort of peace plan that Americans have been trying to push for over so many months and even more than -- more than a year now.

But I think the problem there is that Russia does not want to cooperate properly, and I think the only way in which there can be some leverage put on over the Russian state, Putin's government, is through using some of the leverages that Americans have in this case, sanctions and direct support for Ukraine.

ABDELAZIZ: Natia Seskuria there on what you describe as a deliberate escalation strategy by Moscow to force Ukraine to accept concessions and meet those maximalist demands from the Kremlin. Thank you so much for that analysis.

President Trump is honoring several U.S. science and technology leaders. This is including Elon Musk and Tesla and SpaceX CEO, who was among one of the recipients of the National Medal of Science.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The National Medal of Science to Elon Musk of SpaceX for engineering achievements of extraordinary ambition and scale that have pushed the frontiers of space exploration, intelligence systems, communications, and beyond.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: The president hailed what he called the start of a Golden Age of American Science. Among the other award winners were Google Co- Founder Sergey Brin, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadellla. Still to come, mind the noise. What commuters and workers want done

about loud tube trains on the London Underground.

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[04:50:00]

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ABDELAZIZ: Welcome back. Commuters and workers want something done about noise from the London Underground. From trains screeching on the tracks to loud rumbling and vibrations shaking nearby buildings, the impact is being felt by riders and nearby residents. Noise levels on some sections exceed 100 decibels, which is comparable to a concert. Charline Bou Mansour reports on calls for an investigation into those noise levels on the tube.

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CHARLINE BOU MANSOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ooh. That was loud. I want to know, is London's underground getting louder? Londoners have long complained about the deafening screech in certain parts of the London Underground, and now mounting complains have sparked calls for a full investigation into tube noise.

We should have brought ear plugs. Some sections of the tube exceed 100 decibels. Now that's really loud if you're listening to that day in day out. TfL received 342 complaints about in-carriage noise in 2025 alone. Oh my gosh, that just hit 100. That's comparable to a concert.

OK, so we're trying out another line now, Victoria Line. Highbury and Islington, between that station and Finsbury Park is what is supposed to be one of the loudest points in the London Underground.

So, we're going to test it. We can see the average decibels and the maximum decibels where we hit over 100. The average is at 83, which is still really loud, and prolonged exposure to these kinds of levels may possibly lead to hearing damage. Even the train approaching is quite loud. It's about 85 decibels.

Are you concerned about these noise levels in the London Underground?

ANNIE MORRIS, AUDIOLOGIST: Conversation is normally about 60 decibels, and that's loud conversation. Anything over 85 decibels, we say that you need to listen for specific periods. So, no longer than eight hours at 85 decibels, but it becomes increasingly shorter as it goes up in decibel level, so for example, 90 decibels should be less than two hours, 95 an hour, and then anything over 100 should be less than 15 minutes in that environment with no protection.

If you've been in a loud environment, you have something called a temporary threshold shift, which is where your hearing feels a bit muffled after -- after a gig, and you think, oh gosh, can't hear quite -- quite well. What is dangerous is when that temporary threshold shift becomes a permanent one, and you can no longer recover back to your normal levels. BOU MANSOUR: Should TfL be doing more to protect their employees, and should they also be doing more to fix the tracks?

MORRIS: We as BSHAA would really encourage any investigation that helps us understand exactly what's happening. What we have seen is people be more proactive around their ear health to make sure that they are getting help as and when it's needed, rather than waiting because of the historic stigma that was around hearing and hearing aids. There is still some of that, but it definitely is becoming less.

BOU MANSOUR: But this isn't just an annoyance for passengers. Tube staff spend hours underground every day, and one driver I spoke to who wants to stay anonymous has worked on the underground for 30 years, and he now has to wear hearing aids daily. He believes tube noise has contributed to his hearing loss. A TfL spokesperson said reducing noise levels is quote, a priority.

[04:55:00]

Adding as part of our work to improve noise and vibration issues, we have removed insulated rail joints, which removes the source of noise and improved the condition of the track. We also continue to invest significantly in track renewal and maintenance, including a continuous program of rail grinding and track modernization. I spent a few hours on the tube looking at my decibel meter. I didn't expect it to peak at 100 decibels as often as it did.

That also hit over a 100 decibels. So, the question remains, when will the screech finally get quieter?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: And I can attest to just how loud it is. You often see little ones with ear muffs when they're on the tube to protect them from just that decibel that you just saw there.

We want to take you now to some live images out of Oslo, Norway, where the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize will be announced in just a few minutes. We will bring you that live at the top of the hour, and of course, this is one of the most prestigious honors in the world. It is meant to recognize those advancing peace, but the significance of the award goes well beyond the actual prize and the money. It can bring that global recognition. It can bring that support to those trying to advance peace.

For now, thank you so much for watching. I'm Salma Abdelaziz. I'll be back after a quick break with our breaking news out of Norway at the top of the hour.

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