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Israel Admits Strike on Ambulance Near Gaza Hospital; Blinken Urges Greater Care in Avoiding Civilian Casualties; U.S. Surveillance Drones Flying Over Gaza to Help with Hostage Search; Nasrallah: U.S. Threats and Intimidation "Pointless"; Powerful & Deadly Storm Ciaran Lashes Europe; Biden Meets with Families of Mass Shooting Victims in Maine; Appeals Court Temporarily Freezes Trump Gag Order in Federal Election Subversion Case; Asteroid Bennu Sample Now On Display at Smithsonian. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired November 04, 2023 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:42]

ANNA COREN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers watching in the United States and around the world. I'm Anna Coren live from Hong Kong. It's 3:00 p.m. here, 9:00 a.m. in Gaza, where a deadly Israeli airstrike outside the largest hospital in Gaza City has triggered more international outrage.

The U.N. secretary-general said he was horrified by what he saw, and this video explains why. We should warn you it is very graphic. The Israeli military admits it struck an ambulance just outside the al Shifa hospital. The explosion left a scene of carnage and chaos with at least 15 people reported killed according to Hamas-run health authorities.

The ambulance was said to be part of a convoy carrying patients to southern Gaza. The IDF claims the ambulance was being used by Hamas, which it said has used emergency vehicles to transport fighters and weapons in the past.

Eleni Giokos, she's following developments for us from Abu Dhabi.

Eleni, let's start with the airstrike on the ambulance convoy. What's the latest?

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Look, let's start with what we understand the death toll to be according to the Hamas-led ministry of health. They say 15 people have died, 16 people are injured. And we also have seen the images of the strewn bodies on the street. U.N. secretary general saying this was horrific and absolutely harrowing to see some of these images.

Look, the Palestinian Red Crescent said it was part of that convoy that was carrying injured people and patients into the south. We know that the International Red Cross knew about this. They were aware of this convoy. But even though they weren't involved, it does not justify any attack on an ambulance.

The IDF's position is that they were targeting Hamas operatives, and there are many questions around this because we know this convoy was specifically assisting the injured. Look, the death toll in Gaza is becoming untenable not only for people watching on in international organizations that have been calling for a cease-fire or some kind of pause, but also for the United States in terms of questioning the proportionality of the response of the terror attack on October 7th.

As the death toll rises and we're seeing these harrowing images, mostly of children being pulled out of rubble, and of course losing their lives, there are a lot of questions coming through right now. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken who was in Israel yesterday and also talking to Benjamin Netanyahu specifically mentioned the disproportional response we've been seeing coming through and also the impacts on children.

I want you to take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I've seen images, too, of Palestinian children, young boys and girls, pulled from the wreckage of buildings. When I see that -- when I look into their eyes through the TV screen, I see my own children. How can we not?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIOKOS: And it's a question that many people are asking and, of course, quite emotional coming through from Blinken. He also mentioned Hamas is using civilians as human shields and, of course, still supporting Israel with the requirement for them to protect themselves at what cost, and the civilian cost is what's coming up.

Blinken is currently in Jordan. He's meeting with the Lebanese leaders and he's also going to be meeting with other regional leaders as diplomatic discussions continue and, of course, Israeli air strikes continue into Gaza.

COREN: More than 9,000 dead inside Gaza, Eleni. It is just staggering.

GIOKOS: Yeah.

COREN: Antony Blinken, as we know, has called for these humanitarian pauses for aid to be delivered to Gaza. Why is such little aid getting through?

GIOKOS: Look, we've seen delays coming through at the Rafah Border crossing and nationally we saw the line of those trucks unable to get in. And we've seen a trickle coming through in comparison to what you normally get on a good day before October 7th. That would be 450 trucks, aid trucks per day.

Now since October 7th, the number according to the Palestinian Red Crescent is 374. We actually saw a significant number of aid trucks going into Gaza yesterday.

[03:05:03] Antony Blinken was very clear that more aid needs to be going into the strip.

Look, you also just had that conversation with UNRWA, who was just talking about a very dire situation that it's very tough choices, he said, need to be made right now. Where people are getting bread and a tin of canned cheese and figuring out how to actually distribute that in a place where you have food deficits, you have water issues, and, of course, medical supplies are not coming in quickly enough.

We've heard from doctors that are operating on patients without anesthetics, without any disinfectants as well. Some doctors have been posting they've been using vinegar. It just goes to show the enormity of this issue. The issue of fuel is a sticking point that has been raised and the U.S. is discussing this. The IDF and the Israeli position is it might end up in Hamas' hands.

On the other end, you've got hospitals that have had to shut down operations because they do not have fuel for generators to keep critical operations going. And that is the reality, that if you extract fuel from this conversation, that means you can't supply for desalination plants, supplying key water. I mean, you've got the sewage issue which, of course, is also creeping in as one of the big issues.

Look, a big call for a cease-fire, the U.S. calling at least for some kind of pause not only for mediation talks, but also to allow more aid to come in. It is a big conversation that is happening, I think, with all international organizations, putting enormous pressure on Israel right now, and, of course, the humanitarian plights that we are seeing playing out in real time in the Gaza Strip.

COREN: Yeah, pressure is definitely building.

Eleni Giokos, joining us from Abu Dhabi, really appreciate your reporting. Thank you so much.

Well, the White House says the U.S. embassy in Cairo has helped more than 100 U.S. citizens and family members get out of Gaza. The departures which began on Wednesday are the first since the war began almost a month ago. An Egyptian source tells CNN that 730 foreign nationals are expected to cross through the Rafah border crossing today. Many people are still waiting desperately for the chance to leave.

But as Melissa Bell reports, for some, leaving brings a different kind of turmoil.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For nearly a month now, Gaza has been almost entirely cut off. Now, finally, some are getting out, bringing images like these captured on their phones along with their stories.

AMAL KHAYAL, GAZA AREA MANAGER, CISS: I don't think there are enough words in the English dictionary to actually describe what every Gazan is going through right now.

BELL: The pictures of Amal and Jacopo as they got through rough on Wednesday speak of their belief.

As an Italian, he was lucky to be one of the first out as his wife, Amal, was allowed through with him even though she's Palestinian.

KHAYAL: For two days, we were completely blacked out. You could just think of the worst and you keep on telling, we're going to be next. That's what you keep on telling yourself. It's going to be us next, the humanitarian situation is catastrophic.

We can't find water, food, bread. When people go to bakeries, they're freaking die because they have bombed almost all the bakeries in Gaza.

BELL: What difference would a humanitarian pause make?

JACOPO INTINI, COUNTY DIRECTOR, CISS: It's not important to reach a humanitarian pause. An actual cease-fire, prolonged, one with strong conditions.

KHAYAL: A Gazan would say they're giving us some painkillers and then they're going to continue wiping us out. But we will manage to get some water and some food, and then they can just kill us.

BELL: Tell me about the feeling of people inside about that, that sense of what's happening to them.

INTINI: I think the feeling abandoned, that's the issue. Like children who died or like women are delivering, like, in very poor hygienic situations.

KHAYAL: This is so inhuman, and then they come on the news and they tell you Israel has the right to defend itself. Come on. What are we talking about? Come on.

They are wiping us out. We have entire families killed. I'm just wondering what the world is waiting to see so they can actually start doing an action.

BELL: But with no hope in sight, Amal and Jacopo made the hardest of choices, leaving behind an entirely besieged and bombarded Gaza.

Was leaving a difficult decision?

INTINI: Yeah, it was dissolve a difficult decision. As an Italian, our role is to stay together with, like, together with the population, like people in need.

[03:10:09]

So it was so difficult to take this decision. The situation wasn't safe anymore for us. So many people are talking about this coming out as a victory for us, but it's not a victory. It's a loss for everyone.

KHAYAL: To be honest, since yesterday, I was already regretting going out because I was -- the entire day, I was unable to reach my family. So I couldn't even tell them that I made it safely and I'm okay. And I know that's -- my mom, she actually begged me to go out. For me, I wouldn't have done it. And I still feel I shouldn't have gone you. You know the survival guilt.

BELL: They say the future is impossible to imagine even as they head to Italy with their heads full of Gaza and their hearts desperate to return.

Melissa Bell, CNN, Cairo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: Military analyst Malcolm Davis is with the Australian strategic policy institute and joins us now from Canberra.

Malcolm, good to see you.

I'd like to get your assessment of this war thus far. I mean how close is Israel to achieving its objective of destroying Hamas, which some say is impossible?

MALCOLM DAVIS, MILITARY ANALYST: Look, I don't think it's close to destroying Hamas. I think Israel is making steady but slow progress in terms of advancing carefully into Gaza. Clearly, they've got to the point now where they encircled Gaza city and they control much of north Gaza. But they're not anywhere near destroying Hamas.

Hamas still has a large bombing force. A lot of them probably have relocated to the south using that tunnel network, and the obvious key question in everyone's minds is at what point does the war escalate horizontally? In other words, spread regionally to include other combatants such as Hezbollah and Iran and various Palestinian militant groups?

So I think we're well away from being able to declare, for example, mission accomplished.

COREN: I want to talk to you about a potential escalation in the region. But first, the U.S. is expecting Israel to shift tactics, reducing the scale of its air campaign and forcing more on tactical ground operations.

Do you agree with this assessment, and tell us about the challenges involved in that?

DAVIS: I think that would make a lot of sense. I think what the Israeli defense force needs to do now is go in and consolidate and exploit their advantages on the ground to actually pursue Hamas deeper into Gaza, and that could also involve going into the tunnel network, the Gaza Metro as it's called. And I think probably reducing the number of air strikes, increasing the amount of air surveillance, but reducing the kinetic strikes probably makes a great deal of sense.

And I think that certainly the United States and others will put pressure on Israel to do that, and I think it's a shift that Israel probably could comply with.

COREN: Will we see less civilian casualties in the next phase of this war, do you believe?

DAVIS: I think it's probably going to continue unfortunately. The nature of the environment is that, you know, Gaza is a densely populated, small area with large numbers of civilians. Hamas has refused to allow many of those civilians to evacuate to the south. So they're trapped, and Hamas is using them as human shields. They're operating bases and their logistic bases underneath civilian areas such as refugee camps and hospitals.

So there is that risk that civilians will continue to suffer. But the Israelis have to advance. They have to fight street by street. They have to deal with the sorts of threats they'll face from Hamas, such as IEDs and mines and booby traps and the ability of Hamas to use dense urban environments as a defensive position.

And unfortunately, civilians are just co-located in that area, so it's almost impossible to discriminate.

COREN: That was Malcolm Davis speaking with me earlier.

Well, still to come, we are following the U.S. secretary of state who is now in Jordan after visiting Israel. What he told top Israeli officials, including the prime minister.

And the leader of Hezbollah makes his first public comments since the start of the war. What Hassan Nasrallah said, next on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:18:45]

COREN: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is now in Jordan, where the foreign minister is expected to tell him that the, quote, Israeli war on Gaza must stop. It follows a visit to Israel where Blinken met with Prime Minister Netanyahu and other top officials on Friday.

More details now from CNN's Becky Anderson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arriving in Tel Aviv on Friday with a forceful message. America's top diplomat reinforced Washington's support for Israel's right to defend itself after the brutal October 7th Hamas attacks. But he also said this.

BLINKEN: How Israel does this matters, and it is very important that when it comes to the protection of civilians who are caught in the crossfire of Hamas' making, that everything be done to protect them and bring assistance to those who desperately need it.

ANDERSON: In his meeting with Israel's war cabinet, Blinken pushed for a humanitarian pause to help get the hostages released, some of whom are American citizens.

BLINKEN: A number of legitimate questions were raised in our discussions today, including how to use any period of pause to maximize the flow of humanitarian assistance, how to connect a pause to the release of hostages, how to ensure that Hamas doesn't use these pauses or arrangements to its own advantage.

[03:20:10]

ANDERSON: But after meeting with Blinken, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted his government opposes any temporary cease-fire unless Hamas frees all the hostages. And sources tell CNN the defense minister directly told Blinken there will be no pause without their release. Those directly involved in the Qatar-led talks say negotiators need a, quote, period of calm to facilitate the hostage release.

MAJED AL-ANSARI, SPOKESPERSON, QATAR MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS: Obviously, when there is bombardment, constant bombardment on the sector, you can't even expect for the hostages to be safely from one place to another. So the best situation for us, the best scenario would be a period of calm, a considerable period of calm that would allow for the hostages to be taken out of Gaza, but at the same time would allow for humanitarian aid to go in.

ANDERSON: Blinken has left Israel, and the fate of the hostages remains far from certain.

Becky Anderson, CNN, Doha.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: Israel is getting some high-tech help from the United States in the search for those hostages.

CNN's Oren Liebermann reports from the Pentagon.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The U.S. military's flying surveillance drones over Gaza in attempt to provide Israelis with intel about the possible location of hostages and assist in hostage rescue efforts, according to multiple U.S. officials familiar with the operations. These drones have been flying since October 7th, when the U.S. shortly thereafter said it would help Israel in any way it could on intel and planning for a hostage rescue effort.

These drones -- and we don't know what type of drones they are, but these drones have been a part of that. They are unarmed surveillance drones according to the Pentagon, which acknowledged on Friday these operations that are meant to provide intel in the ongoing hostage rescue attempts by flying over southern Gaza.

Take a look at this graphic. That red line -- those numerous red lines, I should say, shows the trajectories and the flight paths of these different drones. You can see them focusing there on southern Gaza over the course of the past several days and weeks.

Now, this coming as the U.S. now has two carrier strike groups in the eastern Mediterranean Sea that have been operating and exercising together. The Defense Department putting out these images of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower carrier strike group and the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group working together in the Eastern Med. They've been exercising together for the past several days.

And then, shortly thereafter, the Pentagon had announced that the Dwight D. Eisenhower will then go through the Suez Canal and be in the waters of U.S. Central Command, the waters of the Middle East, essentially.

This as part of a broader effort not only to deter Iran and Iran's proxies and others from getting involved in the fighting in Gaza, but also to make U.S. forces have force protection. We've seen a number of attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria. So, this is very much part of that effort to show a massive display of firepower and U.S. force in the region.

Oren Liebermann, CNN, in the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: The leader of Hezbollah says the United States is fully responsible for the war in Gaza. Speaking Friday, Hassan Nasrallah reiterated a call for a cease-fire and warned that all scenarios are possible on the border with Lebanon and Israel, where Hezbollah is based.

Our Ben Wedeman has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They turned out in the thousands to hear their leader, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, speaking out for the first time since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.

All options, he warned, are open, and we can exercise them at any moment.

Already, Hezbollah and Israel are engaged in a deadly exchange of fire along the border.

Hezbollah has buried almost 60 of its fighters killed so far. It was a speech watched closely across the Middle East. While other Arab leaders besieged the U.S. to put pressure on Israel to relent in its offensive in Gaza, Hezbollah, well-armed and battle hardened, is the only one putting military pressure on Israel.

Tying down in the process, Nasrallah claimed, a third of Israel's army. The U.S. has deployed two carrier groups to the Eastern Mediterranean to deter Hezbollah and others from joining the fight.

Nasrallah's response? I tell the Americans threats and intimidation against us and the resistance in the region are pointless.

[03:25:03]

But despite the high expectations for the speech, it ended ambiguously, without a clear indication of where Hezbollah and Iran's other allies in the region will go. In the lead-up to the speech, Hezbollah supporters put out what some called trailers with an ominous tone of what might be coming.

After the speech, the word here in Lebanon was that the trailers were better than the film.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: Our thanks to Ben Wedeman for that report.

There's much more to come on CNN after a short break. We'll tell you about mourning in Gaza for a Palestinian journalist killed along with 11 of his family members.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COREN: Welcome back.

Let's now turn to Amman, Jordan. These are the latest pictures coming to us as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken continues his Middle East trip. He's meeting Qatar's prime minister. The Qataris have been key negotiating partners, instrumental in the few hostage releases we have seen so far. We will continue to monitor this meeting and bring you key lines as they emerge.

Well, the U.N. secretary-general is condemning an Israeli airstrike targeting an ambulance outside Gaza's largest hospital. Hamas-run health authorities say the blast killed 15 people and wounded 60 others. Israel says the ambulance was being used a by what it calls Hamas terror cell. The International Committee of the Red Cross says the ambulance was part of a convoy carrying wounded patients from northern Gaza to the south.

[03:30:04]

Meantime, the biggest number yet of foreign nationals is expected to exit Gaza into Egypt in the hours ahead. An Egyptian source says 730 of them will enter through the Rafah crossing. Nearly 400 Americans are said to be among them.

Palestinians in Gaza mourn the death of a Palestine TV correspondent killed Thursday along with 11 members of his family. Palestine TV said his home was targeted in an airstrike. But in a statement to CNN on Saturday, the Israeli military said that it was, quote, not aware of any military activity in the area.

CNN's Salma Abdelaziz has more. But a warning, some may find the images in this report disturbing. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is every journalist's worst nightmare.

While live on-air, this reporter found out his colleague was killed. In his utter despair, he rips off his flak jacket.

There is no protection at all, no international law, nothing, he says. This safety gear, this helmet, it does nothing to keep us safe. These are just slogans. No journalist is protected at all.

Correspondent Mohammed Abu Hatab and 11 of his family members were killed in an alleged Israeli airstrike, Palestine TV reported. He is among at least 33 journalists killed since the start of the conflict on October 7th, the Committee to Protect Journalists says, making it the deadliest period for the news media since the group began tracking in 1992, it said.

Abu Hatab was killed in southern Gaza, the part of the strip the Israeli military tells civilians to flee towards but continues to strike daily. Many families too afraid or unable to evacuate remain here in the north of the strip, where Gaza city is encircled by Israeli troops, the IDF says. And some 300,000 to 400,000 civilians are trapped, the U.N. estimates.

They are stuck in a hellscape. Relentless air strikes and an intensifying ground assault have leveled neighborhoods and left over a thousand children missing under the rubble, humanitarian organizations say. Their parents keep digging for them.

My four children, this father cries. why, God? Why didn't you let me die? Why?

And there is nowhere to turn for refuge. U.N. shelters where nearby Israeli firepower has claimed lives are no longer safe.

Now many Gazans live on the streets of a war zone.

We are humans. We are not terrorists, he says. Look, we have our children around us. Not even the U.N. shelters can protect us. Only God can protect us.

And with Israeli troops closing in, their plight seems increasingly more precarious.

Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: Earlier, I spoke with Tom White, the director of affairs in Gaza for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.

He described what he is seeing on the ground.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) THOMAS WHITE, DIRECTOR, UNRWA AFFAIRS GAZA: For UNRWA in the shelters we are operating, once again, you know, in the last few days, we've had four of those shelters that have been hit and numerous people killed and injured. So for a lot of people in Gaza, right now it's basically find somewhere that they are safe from the conflict, from these air strikes.

COREN: Tom, how much aid is getting in and tell us about your supplies of water, food, medicine.

WHITE: Anna, our supplies are critically low. The reality is that most of the aid that we're pushing out right now is stocks that we already had in Gaza. For example, we were already running a food operation for 1.2 million people prior to the conflict. So we've been drawing down on those stocks.

We are starting to see some aid coming in. It is a very complicated process where all the trucks are screened by the Israelis before they can move in. So the short answer is we are not getting enough aid into Gaza right now. I'd also add that humanitarian aid is not going to fill the gap if the public sector and the private sector collapse here.

To give you an example, you know, all of the sewage pumps out of cities in Gaza, it's done by municipalities. If they run out of fuel, for example, the -- well, the sewage is already starting to flow in the streets.

[03:35:01]

So it's humanitarian aid. We need to make sure the municipal services continue. And we also need to be working alongside the private sector.

COREN: Tom, you mentioned the shortage of fuel, and we've heard plenty of reports about that. We know that hospitals, major hospitals are at breaking point, have had to reduce their operational capacity.

What will happen if you run out of fuel?

WHITE: Very simply, in the next couple of days, we will run out of fuel, and that means we will stop delivering fuel to desalination plants, providing clean drinking water. It means that hospitals will continue -- and they've already started this -- closing down some of their critical care services.

For us, it's fueling all of our trucks, our logistic operation here will come to a halt. For example, we are pushing out to the community about 370 tons a day of wheat flour. That will all come to a close. So food, water, medical care.

COREN: Tom, we understand that 700,000 Palestinians in Gaza are taking refuge in 150 shelters run by your organization. And as you mentioned, some of those shelters have been hit in Israeli air strikes. You are obviously running over capacity by multiples. How are you coping? WHITE: It's exceptionally tough for our teams who are working in

these shelters. They know what they need to do. They know what the people need. But we just physically don't have those stocks at hand.

The shelters are very overcrowded. We'd always planned that these shelters could accommodate 1,500 people. We're now averaging over 4,000 people.

So, for example, sanitation in those shelters is dire. And with the stocks that we're getting in, we're making choices. You know, people in Rafah, for example, the other day got the bread and a can of cheese. That's at the point the people really short of food and water.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: That was Tom White speaking to me a little earlier.

People in northwestern Nepal are assessing the damage after a strong earthquake struck the region, killing dozens and injuring even more. Those details after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:40:39]

COREN: More than a week after a powerful hurricane Otis ripped through Acapulco, Mexico, people in the popular tourist destination are trying to cope without basic necessities. The storm killed at least 46 people, and dozens are still missing. About 80 percent of the city's hotels are severely damaged according to the Mexican government's preliminary assessment.

In Nepal, a strong earthquake has killed at least 129 people and injured 140. Officials expect the death toll to rise. The U.S. Geological Survey reports the quake was a magnitude 5.6 with the epicenter in the western region of the country. People felt the tremors as far away as the capital of Kathmandu, about 500 kilometers or 300 miles from the center. Nepal's prime minister visited the area near the epicenter and spoke with a number of the victims. And India's prime minister is expressing his condolences to the earthquake victims.

At least six people were killed in Tuscany, Italy, on Thursday after torrential rain and strong winds from the storm named Ciaran tore through Europe this week.

CNN's Chad Myers has more on this storm and the next one that's moving in.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: The first major storm of the year, Ciaran, and that was the name that came through with 184 kilometer- per-hour winds, also some rainfall totals almost up to a quarter of a meter. But here's Tuscany. The flooding in Tuscany, where the center of Ciaran never got closer than 600 kilometers from there. How did that happen?

Well, the waves and all the wind really in France and also into the U.K., but the storm itself is to the west of Copenhagen. But notice what happened down here in a very warm Mediterranean Sea. The cold front came through Tuscany, and it just rained for hours and hours and hours without end. And that's how we got so much rainfall down there.

Now, look at this. 237 millimeters of rainfall, the top number I can find so far. But more reports are still coming in. The wind, I think we probably have the biggest number at 184. I mean, that's really a short shoot in a formula 1 car. That is really, really going fast there, 120 miles per hour.

Now, there's the next storm on the way already and may be affecting you depending on where you are. There is the low pressure. It is Domingo, the next named storm. It isn't nearly as strong as Ciaran, thank goodness. But it will still bring heavy rainfall and gusty independent winds.

Winds could be 100 kilometers per hour, especially west of Bordeaux, along the headlands there. Some of the areas that are very rocky, that coastal rocky surfaces, just smashing waves into the shore, and much of the rainfall there as well, even into parts of Lisbon and Portugal could see some rainfall. And let me tell you, they could really use it there. Someone else that can really use this precipitation is the Alps. And yes, there will be snow in the Alps. This is a much colder storm than the one that just came through.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: A judge gives Donald Trump the go-ahead to speak freely about the federal election subversion trial against him for now.

Those details coming up on CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:47:47]

COREN: On Friday, President Biden and the first lady were in Lewiston, Maine, meeting with the families of last week's mass shooting victims. A gunman opened fire at a bowling alley and a restaurant, killing 18 people before he was found dead, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

CNN's Omar Jimenez has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Even though it's been more than a week since these shootings, the pain is still very raw for so many in this community. That was the climate that President Biden was visiting over the course of Friday. He met with first responders, nurses, others that were on the front lines of responding to the pair of shootings that happened a little bit more than a week ago now. You can't go far in this Lewiston community and the surrounding areas without seeing signs of support, even just behind me where I am outside the bowling alley, which was the first site of where the mass shootings happened that night.

We've got signs of support, saying Lewiston strong, saying things simply like "be nice", acknowledging the climate and the pain so many are going through still even at this point. Eighteen people killed total in these shootings, and their families are still trying to figure out how to process.

Now, President Biden, along with meeting with first responders, he also met with members of some of the victims' families. He also took some moments to make some remarks about his visit. Take a listen to some of what he said in regards to the political climate around some of these mass shootings.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I know consensus is ultimately possible. This is about common sense, reasonable and responsible measures to protect our children, our families, our communities, because regardless of our politics, this is about protecting our freedom to go to a bowling alley, a restaurant, a school, a church without being shot and killed.

JIMENEZ: And another thing the president talked about is how he's had to make too many of these visits before, including in places like Buffalo and Uvalde and, of course, now here in Lewiston, Maine.

One thing we heard from a community member ahead of his visit about whether they wanted him to be here, they said they were glad he was here because it showed that the highest levels of the U.S. government cared about what happened here in Lewiston.

[03:50:07]

And another thing that my crew and I have heard overwhelmingly, even in the hours after the shooting actually happened a little over a week ago at this point, is that they couldn't believe something like this happened here in Maine. And I say that because when you look at their yearly homicides across the state, that number is comparable to the amount of people that were lost in a single night in this community.

And that gives you an idea of the shock but also the amount that they're actually having to process over what happened, again, in just a matter of minutes at two separate locations, here at this bowling alley and just a few miles from me at that bar and restaurant as well.

Every indication we have seen has shown that they have banded together in the face of this adversity, and they are going to try and move forward, stronger together. That's why you can't go far in this community without seeing symbols like the state of Maine and a heart over where we are in Lewiston to represent the love and the strength they will have for each other moving forward.

Omar Jimenez, CNN, Lewiston, Maine.

(END VIDEOTAPE) COREN: An appeals court has issued a temporary freeze on a gag order that kept Donald Trump from speaking out about his federal election subversion case. The former president can now publicly criticize possible witnesses in the criminal case.

Paula Reid has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: In just over two weeks, a three-judge panel here in Washington will hear arguments about whether or not this gag order is constitutional. And while that is pending, the former president is not subject to these specific restrictions.

Now, Judge Tanya Chutkan, the judge overseeing the election subversion case here in Washington, the case filed by special counsel Jack Smith, she imposed these restrictions at the request of prosecutors. Most defendants know they are not supposed to attack witnesses or go after the prosecutor, but the special counsel's office asked for a broader set of restrictions on Trump after he made a series of statements appearing to attack the judge, witnesses, and prosecutors.

Now, his lawyers have argued that these restrictions are unconstitutional, that they violate his First Amendment, but Judge Chutkan has said that Trump's First Amendment rights must yield to the orderly administration of justice. She points to the fact that she has a trial to put on, and these restrictions are essential to protecting people, she says, who are just trying to do their jobs.

Now, this case will be heard before two judges appointed by former President Barack Obama and one judge appointed by President Joe Biden. Again, that argument will happen later this month. It's unclear when we could get an answer, but this question about whether you can restrict the speech of a presidential candidate who is a criminal defendant across multiple jurisdictions, this is something that the courts just have never contemplated before, and it could possibly wind up at the Supreme Court.

Paula Reid, CNN, Washington.

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COREN: Courts in Colorado and Minnesota are hearing lawsuits aimed at keeping Trump off the 2024 presidential ballots in those states. On Friday, witness testimony wrapped up in Colorado in the Denver District Court is set to hear closing arguments on the 15th of this month. The lawsuits say the former president is ineligible to hold office under the 14th Amendment, insurrection clause, because of his attempts to overthrow the 2020 election.

One of the sticking points in both cases is whether enforcement falls under the courts or under Congress.

Well, a tiny bit of asteroid Bennu was unveiled Friday at the Smithsonian's museum in Washington, D.C. You might remember a NASA mission brought back pieces of the space rock in September.

CNN's Kristin Fisher got a close-up look.

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KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE & DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is the first time since the end of the Apollo program, 1972, that NASA has collected something from the surface of a planetary object and brought it back to Earth and then put it on public display. Back then, it was, of course, moon rocks.

Today, it is a small sample from the asteroid Bennu, which returned to earth late last month as part of NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission.

And so I had the chance to see this asteroid sample at the Natural History Museum, where it was unveiled on Friday. It is a very small sample. It looks like a small rock, but it is a very special rock. The reason why it's special is because it contains water and carbon and organic molecules, the very building blocks of life.

Here is NASA administrator Bill Nelson, who was on hand for the unveiling, explaining some of the questions that scientists hope to answer from this asteroid sample.

[03:55:01]

BILL NELSON, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: Asteroids are these rocks, some of them metal, some of them rocky, some of them we don't know. They're flying through the solar system, and they crash into things. And in the evolution of the solar system and our earth, 4.5 billion years, first there was a star that was spit out of a cloud of dust and gas. That became a medium-sized star called our sun. And then all of these gases and dusts started forming into smaller planets, and some of them were bigger.

And then things crashed into each other, and planets crashed into each other. And over that 4.5 billion years, some of these asteroids that are flying through space are the remnants of those early collisions. And it gives us, then, when we bring a sample back or we send a spacecraft like Psyche out to an asteroid closer to Jupiter, we can determine what is in that asteroid.

And this particular asteroid, Bennu, we know it has ice crystals, and it has carbon. And those are the building blocks to life.

FISHER: And for a sample that traveled billions of miles to get here, you might think there would be some sort of pomp and pageantry associated with its arrival at the museum. But, no. It actually got here from Texas in somebody's carry-on luggage on a commercial flight. It even went through a TSA checkpoint.

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COREN: There you go.

Well, that wraps up this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Anna Coren live from Hong Kong.

Kim Brunhuber picks up our coverage after a short break. Stay with CNN.

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