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Israel And Hezbollah Exchange Attacks In Major Flare-up; Discussions On Ceasefire Deal To Continue In The Coming Days; Both Trump And Harris Campaigns Target Battleground States Ahead Of Debate; Ukrainian Forces Capture Two Additional Settlements In Kursk Region. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired August 25, 2024 - 18:00   ET

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

[17:59:58]

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He spoke for quite some time this afternoon or rather this evening and he seemed to be in a good mood is if Hezbollah had actually achieved something, even though we heard the Israelis say that there was no damage to any of their military bases. He explained, for instance, why Hezbollah took so long to take its revenge for the Israeli drone strike on the 30th of July here in Beirut that killed a senior Hezbollah commander.

He said that they delayed that strike, which was basically a month ago almost, was because for one thing they wanted to give the Gaza ceasefire talks a chance and another was that they saw that Israel was on high alert and there was an increased U.S. military presence in the region. He said, nonetheless, they went ahead with this strike and by his estimation, it was a great success. He said that it went according to plan and that they struck about a dozen military targets just on the other side of the border, which allowed them to fire further munitions toward what he said was the headquarters of Mossad and Unit 8200, which is Israel signal intelligence unit.

But we have yet to see any evidence since that despite his claims that they actually struck those places. But he's certainly put on -- putting on a brave face for people in Lebanon who he acknowledged have for a month now almost been on edge waiting for Hezbollah to respond to that assassination and Israel's inevitable response to that. He did come out and say that whether there's going to be a phase two or not, he left that open to questioning, but he said that they are going to evaluate the extent of the effectiveness of their strikes and then take the next step.

This is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HASSAN NASRALLAH, SECRETARY GENERAL, HEZBOLLAH (through translator): We will assess the outcome of the enemy's concealment of today's events. If the result is satisfactory and it achieved the intended goal, we will consider the response process to the assassination of Fuad Shukr complete. If it falls short in our view we will reserve the right to respond at a later time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WEDEMAN: And what is clear is that what's going to happen is that clearly the situation on the border is going to continue with this sort of daily back-and-forth fire between Israel and Hezbollah largely limited to that border region where on this side of the border more than 100,000 civilians have fled their homes, more than 60,000 on the Israeli side.

So it seems that after all the tension that has built up over the last four weeks, we may simply be going back to the situation that existed before, which really doesn't make anybody's lives any better -- Jim.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: No, although the worst outcomes from last night seemed to have been avoided.

Ben Wedeman in Beirut, thanks so much.

Those overnight attacks did come as ceasefire talks continue in Cairo. This for that elusive ceasefire and hostage deal. Tonight, the Hamas delegation in Egypt says it will only agree to the peace deal proposed by President Biden last month, at least that's what they're saying publicly.

CNN's Nada Bashir is in Cairo tracking all these latest developments.

And Nada, invariably with negotiations like this, what the parties say publicly might very well be different from what they're saying and negotiating privately. Tell us at least what the public position is of Hamas negotiators.

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, the public position, Jim, is not too different from what we've been hearing from Hamas for the last few weeks. As you mentioned, they wanted to see a deal on the table which reflects the proposal put forward by President Joe Biden in late May. A deal which would see three phases. The first phase would see a six-week pause in fighting, the release of some hostages.

A second phase, which crucially would see potentially a transition to a permanent ceasefire and the release of yet more hostages. And also of course part of this deal, there would be a release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails as part of that exchange. The Hamas has repeatedly said, at least Hamas officials have repeatedly said publicly that they want that deal put forward by President Joe Biden to upheld as it was presented.

This is the deal which they say they agreed to in early July. But what we've seen so far is the presentation of these so-called bridging proposals by the Biden administration to try and narrow the gaps between Israel and Hamas. Now one of the crucial sticking points, while we have seen discussions focused over the course of the weekend between U.S. delegation is of course the presence of Israeli troops.

[18:05:04]

Hamas wants to see a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip as part of that agreement. That is something that they have reiterated just in the last few hours in a statement but of course as we understand the Israeli delegation has put forward a proposed revision to that. They want to see a presence of Israeli forces on the Philadelphi Corridor. That buffer zone between Egypt and southern Gaza.

Now, Israel has revised that initial proposal. They have reduced the number of troops they want to see there. They have reduced the number of military posts. But at this stage, according to that public statement from Hamas, that has been deemed unacceptable. They still want to see that full withdrawal. And crucially Hamas is reiterating that they want to see a permanent cease fire. As we understand it, the Israeli government has so far said it would welcome that initial six- week pause.

We haven't seen public agreement to that lasting ceasefire as outlined in the second phase. But as you mentioned, these are public statements. These are what we're hearing from Hamas officials who have now left Cairo. But as we understand it, according to officials and sources said, there will continue to be officials present to take part in these technical discussions over the coming days.

So whether we see any progress, any movement in those positions over the coming days remains to be seen.

SCIUTTO: It may hinge on the definition of what counts as a populated area in Gaza and whether that's the crucial sticking point, whether there can be a presence in the populated area there.

Nada, I do want to talk about what's going on in Gaza in terms of continued Israeli military activity because I understand that Israel has issued, as it often does, new evacuation orders in Central Gaza. Do we know the extent of what the Israeli military is planning in that area and why its calling for these evacuations?

BASHIR: Well, we've had similar messaging in the past from the Israeli military. They have said that they are preparing to act forcefully, in their words, against Hamas targets, any Hamas infrastructure and Hamas militants in parts of Central Gaza.

But as you mentioned, Jim, we have seen these evacuation orders repeatedly now in the past, ordering civilians to move to so-called safe areas for their protection. But as we have seen time and time again these areas are not necessarily guaranteed to be safe. And in fact, there is a humanitarian zone in the west where the Israeli military has now ordered civilians in parts of Central Gaza to evacuate to.

But according to our analysis, we have seen that humanitarian zone getting smaller and smaller. It is shrinking. And what we've been hearing from humanitarian organizations unfortunately U.N. agencies present on the ground is that these areas are not guaranteed to be safe. And frankly, there is nowhere safe left for Palestinians, civilians within the Gaza Strip. We have at times seen these humanitarian zones come under attack themselves.

And of course it is very difficult to communicate these evacuation orders. The Israeli military has been sending out text messages to Palestinians. But as you can imagine, the connectivity in the Gaza Strip is hugely limited. So not everyone will be getting these messages and for some civilians who have been forced to evacuate on multiple occasions, there is a feeling now there was simply nowhere else for them to turn to at this stage.

And what we've been hearing from our colleagues on the ground in Gaza that this particular area, the focus of these latest evacuation order is an area known to be housing tens of thousands of civilians, many of whom are taking shelter in schools in the areas. So certainly a concerning situation once again for Gaza civilians.

SCIUTTO: Yes, I've spoken to aid groups there who say that what are described as safe areas in Gaza don't often turn out to be safe for those who move there.

Nada Bashir in Cairo, thank you.

Joining me now to discuss president and founder of Eurasia Group and GZERO Media, Ian Bremmer.

Ian, good to have you on this Sunday evening.

IAN BREMMER, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER, EURASIA GROUP AND GZERO MEDIA: Jim, good to see.

SCIUTTO: So let's begin with what transpired early this morning Israel time when there was an enormous exchange of fire, as you know, in both directions, at least Hezbollah seemed to be planning something quite big, Israel got intelligence and carried out a preemptive strike.

It seemed to me like this was quite a close call that had that strike been carried out, had some of those targets been hit, we could be in the middle of something quite worse at this point. Is it safe to say that the region dodged a bullet in the last 24 hours?

BREMMER: It's certainly becoming more dangerous, Jim. I mean, the fact that the Americans and the Israelis had intelligence about 48 hours in advance that something big was coming in and were able to make strikes. Israel was on a lot of Hezbollah sites I think certainly made a difference. Having said that, right, the fact is that Hezbollah is not looking at least at this juncture to target Israeli civilians or civilian government infrastructure, and there were a lot of Israelis that were concerned that that might happen following the Israeli assassination of one of Hezbollah's founders.

[18:10:10]

The fact is that today if Hezbollah wanted to overwhelm Israel's military defenses, they could, they have that capacity. They can cause a lot more death and destruction than they have heretofore, which implies that Nasrallah and the Hezbollah leadership is really reluctant to get involved in a full-fledged war with Israel.

There's one more point that's very interesting here, which is that the Israeli military understands that in the coming year, they expect to have a new defense capacity, they call it Iron Beam, online, which they believe would be able to intercept well over 95 percent of all incoming Hezbollah rockets, in other words suddenly, you'd have a very different balance of power between what Hezbollah can do and what Israel can defend against, and whether or not that makes the Hezbollah leadership more risk acceptance as the Israelis get closer and closer to that military capability. That is a very important question.

SCIUTTO: No question. I wonder, though, do you see deliberate calculation by all of the parties here because to your point Hezbollah, it would pay a heavy price for a larger war and not the least of which coming from the Lebanese population, which doesn't appear to get involved in such a war. But Israel, for instance, in its preemptive strike, kept its targets to the southern part of Lebanon, did not go north, did not go around Beirut.

And of course, from Iran's perspective, you've had Iran keeping their powder dry to some degree in terms of carrying out what they have publicly vowed to do, which is a revenge attack against Israel for taking out Ismail Haniyeh inside Tehran. So do you see a deliberate calibration here by all the parties to avoid a bigger conflict?

BREMMER: Not by all the parties, Jim, but by the most powerful parties that are better organized. So in other words, when the Israelis took out the Hamas leader in Tehran, Haniyeh, they clearly calculated, they weren't very concerned about Iranian response. They thought, well, we know Iran doesn't want to be involved in the war. We and the Americans have effectively deterred that. And the Iranians thus far have shown that calculation to be correct.

Hezbollah very similarly, the Israelis have shown a willingness to continue to strike and strike deeper and deeper inside Lebanon territory to hit senior leaders of Hezbollah and military capabilities because they feel quite confident that Hezbollah will be restrained. That clearly is not true of the Houthis, for example, who continue to use every military capability they have to hit pretty big tankers as well as to try to blow up, you know, American warships, others in the Gulf.

That's a serious problem. Also, I mean Hamas, they've been blown up, so they don't have the military capabilities to pull off another October 7th, but they certainly haven't been deterred. And, you know, one thing that we haven't seen thus far, thankfully, are major Islamic terrorist attacks against Israel, against American, against ally targets in the region and more broadly linked to this Middle East conflict.

But certainly they're not deterrable either. So I think it's important to differentiate what we're seeing from Iran and Hezbollah, which would make us feel a little more comfortable that this isn't going to blow up into a region-wide war. And what we're seeing from less, let's say controllable members of the so-called axis of resistance.

SCIUTTO: Yes, long history, right, of powers losing control of their proxies.

Let me ask you this, when you look at these ceasefire talks, again there's a difference between what's happening privately in those negotiations and what's being said publicly. But do you see the sticking points as bridgeable sticking points? One of them being, does Israel maintain some presence inside Gaza in particular along the border between Gaza and Egypt? Do you see these despite Hamas' public pronouncements as bridgeable differences?

BREMMER: Certainly the interlocutors, the United States, Egypt, the Qataris, they all see it as bridgeable and that's why they're putting so much effort. And I don't believe that this is all just symbolic. We need to be seen to be engaging in diplomacy. I can tell you at the highest levels in the United States, they continue to truly believe this is close.

[18:15:02]

But they believe that for months now, Jim, and some of that is a calculation that needs to be made by the Israeli prime minister who is stronger today domestically than he was a few months ago that he can get away with this kind of an agreement at least in the short term. He can benefit from having hostages finally freed those that are still alive at this point. And he won't lose power. That he can get away with that and he won't lose his far-right coalition. That's a calculation that thus far he's not been willing to make.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BREMMER: Certainly Hamas is under a lot more military pressure. They've taken a lot more hints, successful hits from Israel that should make them, if they are rational actors capable of communicating consistently, and that's a big question, should make them more willing to accept the deal. They've been beaten up pretty hard. This war is not going well for them on the ground, though they have a lot more influence and political support from the broader Palestinian population.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BREMMER: And ideologically, you would expect that there are certainly Hamas fighters and leaders that are motivated by that rather more than other traditional actors would be.

SCIUTTO: And they were able to launch a rocket this evening, we heard the boom just to the south of us here in Tel Aviv, which is remarkable given the enormous Israeli military presence on the ground, not just on the ground in Gaza, but all the assets they have pointed in that direction.

Ian Bremmer, thanks so much for your time this Sunday.

BREMMER: Good to see you, Jim.

SCIUTTO: And let's get back to Paula Reid in Washington.

PAULA REID, CNN ANCHOR: Jim, thank you.

The Trump campaign is tweaking its approach in the final months before election day, but will the updated game plan be enough to slowdown Harris' momentum and her record-breaking fundraising? We'll discuss that ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:21:47]

REID: It's a sprint to the finish line in the race for the White House. With only 72 days to go both campaigns will be heading to the battleground states this week. Former president Donald Trump will be in Wisconsin and Michigan, while Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz will be crisscrossing Georgia.

Harris is hoping to keep the momentum going following the DNC while Trump campaign advisers are warning Harris could benefit from an extended polling bump.

Joining me now is former U.S. representative from Pennsylvania, Charlie Dent, and Democratic strategist, Chuck Rocha.

All right. Chuck, I want to start with you. We have new reporting tonight on Trump's sprint to November. We're learning that his campaign plans to aggressively ramp up his schedule, holding several events each week, one adviser saying, quote, "think Trump on steroids." That'll be all hands on deck. What do you think of that strategy?

CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I think that it's a good strategy. I think that we're getting down to the close to the end now. We keep talking about 72 days, but folks actually start voting here in about 40 days. Early ballots go out in Nevada and Arizona and a lot of these other battleground states, and for folks who do campaigns like me, Labor Day is normally the time where everything kicks in, but that's all been amplified now by the conventions. All the craziness that we've had to recover.

So now it becomes the sprint. All the TV advertising, all the surrogates, all of these great bus tours and all the things that folks are used to doing in a campaign season, it's now. Campaigning is now and folks will start voting in little over a month.

REID: I heard some people even suggest this is the way we should always do it, right? Don't drag it out to 72 days.

Charlie, I want to get your take on this new reporting as well.

CHARLIE DENT (R), FORMER PENNSYLVANIA REPRESENTATIVE: Well, look, this campaign is full sprint mode right now. Harris and Walz have gotten a lot of momentum and they're going to try to carry this as long as they can. We'll see. This election remains tight. I still think it's, you know, it's anyone's race. Harris might have the slight advantage, but she's expanded the playing field from when Biden was in. I mean, Georgia is in play, Nevada is back in play. Arizona is back in play, when under Biden those states seemed like they were gone.

So now it's time for the Trump campaign actually focus and try to make this a policy-based campaign rather than what it's been so far, which has really been focused on personal ad hominem attacks and insults which aren't probably going to be able to sustain him going forward.

REID: Well, speaking of policy, Trump's running mate, Senator J.D. Vance, he addressed what Trump would do if Congress passed a nationwide abortion ban. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JD VANCE (R), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: California wants to have a different abortion policy from Ohio. Then Ohio has to respect California and California has to respect Ohio. Donald Trump's view is that we want the individual states and their individual cultures and their unique political sensibilities to make these decisions.

KRISTEN WELKER, NBC NEWS ANCHOR: If such a piece of legislation landed on Donald Trump's desk, would he veto it?

VANCE: I think he'd be very clear he would not support it. I mean he said that explicitly.

WELKER: Well, would he veto it?

VANCE: Yes, I mean, if you're not supporting it as the president of the United States, you fundamentally have to veto it.

WELKER: So he would veto a federal abortion ban?

VANCE: I think he would.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: Charlie, how are Republicans handling this issue overall right now on the campaign trail?

DENT: Well, I have said for some time as the last member of the House Republican Conference who was pro-choice on abortion, I'm glad the party seems like it's trying to moderate, but the challenge for Donald Trump, of course, is that on the one hand, you know, he's boasted of restricting abortion rights for women across the country and now he's saying he would ban -- he would oppose or veto a federal ban on abortion.

[18:25:12]

So his problem is he's not going to persuade those people who are pro- choice voters that now all of a sudden he's had an epiphany, but I think the evangelicals have learned the hard lesson. They realized that, you know, they often say they stand on principle, but look what happened. They supported the most transactional guy on the planet in Donald Trump, and Trump is completely transactional on abortion.

Nobody had ever believed he was really pro-life. No way to believe that, but he took that position, though, just to get their support. And now they're all shocked that he is somehow betraying principles. Well, he was not the most principled guy in the world to begin with. So I don't think it's going to help the Republicans too much. They need to moderate, they don't know how to talk on this issue.

Trump is not saying that he supports abortion rights, just said it should be left to the states, but the right to life community I'm sure is furious and feeling betrayed.

REID: And of course, abortion is on the ballot in many states, including Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, South Dakota, Missouri, Florida, Maryland, and New York. So how could that impact the election?

ROCHA: There's a reason that it's on the ballot because Democrats worked hard to put it on the ballot because it helps get a lot of people out who vote with us and vote for the party.

Going back to the video you just showed, you want to know how well Kamala Harris' campaign is going, play that video again. This is exactly where you see Republicans backing away from issue, which is really their fault. The Dobbs decision, the courts are because Donald Trump appointed three Supreme Court justices, and that's why where in the position we're in. And he's trying to walk away from that, it's really crazy to hear Republican trying to walk away from that because this is the issue that Democrats will use to motivate the base along with a lot of working class economic issues, that are going to be the reason that we're actually going to win in November.

REID: So before we get to November, of course, we have this big September debate. This is the next really defining moment in the campaign. And so I want to hear from both of you. I'll start with you, Chuck, what do both candidates need to do to come out on top in September?

ROCHA: This election will be about contrast. At the end of the day about who the American people trust and who they like. Sure, we should talk about issues and they should hear about issues. But presidential elections are a little bit different. I've done this for a long time. Who do you like and who do you trust? And this is a chance for us to get back in front of the American people and make that case.

REID: Charlie, what do you think? September 10th, what do you think Trump needs to do specifically to come out on top?

DENT: Well, Trump is going to have to -- he's going to have to pound away on Harris on the economy, inflation and the border. He has to play issues that are to his strength. Harris, similarly, is going to have to do the same thing. You know, certainly abortion rights, democracy. But if I were Trump, I would probably be pounding Harris relentlessly on her price gouging and price controlled proposal.

I think there's a lot there to hit her on and he should be able to try to tie her up by saying that, well, if she's going to do all these things, why didn't she do them over the past four years? So -- but right now, you know, he's going to have to focus his campaign efforts and his rhetoric on policy rather than what he's done so far, which is on the personal insults, ad hominem attacks and name calling.

I just don't see how that's helping him persuade independent and swing voters. So right now, I still think it's pretty much of a tossup, slight edge to Harris, but, you know, anything can happen between now and November.

REID: A lot will happen likely between now and November.

Chuck and Charlie, thank you so much.

And ahead what the presence of two Navy strike groups means for tensions in the Middle East after they were ordered to stay put following last night's heavy exchange of rockets between Israel and Hezbollah?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:33:01]

REID: Tonight the Pentagon is ordering two American carrier strike groups to remain in the region after a major flare-up of strikes between Israel and Hezbollah.

Here to help me a break it all down is retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton.

Cedric, let's start with this order for the Pentagon to have these carrier strike groups remain in place. What is the significance of this?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: It's huge actually, Paula, because when you look at this part of the Middle East and you see Israel here in Lebanon, here, the Eastern Mediterranean is a perfect jumping off point for the U.S. to exercise some degree of influence. But more importantly, it also -- these carrier strike groups also allow the U.S. to collect intelligence in this area.

They can provide tactical intelligence to the Israelis so that the Israelis better themselves through the Iron Dome system, and other systems that they have to protect themselves from a missile attack or any other kind of rocket attack.

REID: Now we saw attacks coming from both Israel and Hezbollah. Talk about the significance about this exchange.

LEIGHTON: So when you have -- this is very interesting because you had Israel of course doing preemptive actions in Lebanon. So they would be attacking areas in the south right along here. This is where Hezbollah is concentrated. So what the Israelis did was they made a preemptive strike against all of these areas. They employed over 100 aircraft and these aircraft would go in and attack these areas.

One of the types of aircraft that they used was this F-35. They use this along with several other aircraft, including F-16s, aerial refuelers, to actually conduct operations in this area. Now what was important here was they struck these areas first, but what Hezbollah was doing once the Israelis attacked, Hezbollah attacked targets or tried to attack targets in Israel. Now, they weren't able to actually strike many of the targets in Israel and what they were able to do, what the Israelis were able to do, was they were able to intercept almost all of the missiles that were coming in that were going to strike certain military targets, or certain civilian areas.

[18:35:05]

And that was a key element in what Israelis were able to do in this particular case.

REID: Another key question here, what is the possibility of a possible response from Iran?

LEIGHTON: Well, that is something that is actually quite possible because Hezbollah, this is Lebanon right here is of course concentrated right here, but they are a proxy for Iran. Iran has this vast land area right here, but we'll remember back in April they used over 300 missiles and rockets and drones to attack Israel, basically about 1,000 miles from the Iranian border to Israel. And they were able to do this.

But all of this was intercepted through the Iron Dome system that the Israelis had. And the Iron Dome system is designed to detect incoming missiles, rockets, drones, and really find out where they are, they kind of have the algorithms that predict exactly where these rockets might strike. They assess whether or not that's going to happen. And when they intercept this using the Tamir missile, for example, they will hit the missile right where, at this point, but they won't hit it directly.

What they'll do is this missile will blow up in the proximity of the incoming projectile, and it will actually take things out. So when the Iranians did this strike back in April they lobbed a lot of stuff at Israel but because of the Iron Dome and U.S. intelligence and radar activity and allied activity, they were able to keep all of these -- the Iranian efforts, really they held them at bay and made the Iranian strike in effective at that point.

REID: What are you watching for over the next 48 hours?

LEIGHTON: So over the next 48 hours, one of the key things to look for is what happens next with Hezbollah. They're going to be operating still in this area. Are they going to use some of the missiles that they have in the northern area of Lebanon, right, in this area right here. This area is an area where they store some of their intermediate range missiles. They could launch some of those just from a tactical military perspective.

But the other thing is what is happening in the peace talks, which are happening here in Cairo. Are they going to the ones that are affecting these, the peace talks affecting Gaza? Are they going to have an impact on what Hezbollah does? But broadening this out to the region, what is Iran going to do? If Hezbollah is satisfied, Iran might be satisfied at least in the short-term. And if the peace talks actually bear fruit, Iran might hold their fire for a while and might not be acting in offensive fashion, but that remains to be seen whether or not they actually do that.

REID: Cedric Leighton, thank you so much for breaking it all down.

LEIGHTON: You bet, Paula.

REID: And still to come in the CNN NEWSROOM, Ukraine's president says his forces are capturing more Russian territory as its surprise invasion rolls ahead. Next, how that invasion could be playing right into Putin's hands?

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:42:48]

REID: New tonight, Ukrainian forces are pushing even deeper into Russian territory, capturing two more settlements in Russia's Kursk Region, according to the Ukrainian president.

We're also learning new details tonight about a deadly Russian airstrike on a hotel in Eastern Ukraine. That strike killed an employee from Reuters news agency and left several others injured. The State Department confirms an American citizen is among those injured.

CNN global affairs analyst Kimberly Dozier joins me now.

Kimberly, what is your reaction to Ukraine's advances into Russian territory?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: It's kind of remarkable that the Russian response has been so paltry that not only are they not pushing the Ukrainians out, but they can't seem to stop their advances. And that has me curious because generally -- look, this is like a chess match or a game of Go, where one opponent does something and then the other opponent responds.

The Russians are often very slow to respond on the battlefield, but it has me wondering if Putin has looked at this situation and said Kursk could be the thing to use to motivate the Russian population in that when you talk to a number of Russian specialists in the U.S. government, they say Putin hasn't been serious about winning the Ukrainian war. If he's serious, he would mobilize his entire population.

He would draft more soldiers to make up for his losses on the battlefield. He hasn't done that. Well, he probably hasn't done that because popular opinion would rise up against him unless Russians felt endangered and the Kursk attack is making him feel very threatened.

REID: A new report from "Politico" says that Kyiv is using its battleground success to pressure the U.S. to lift some weapons restrictions. Now, for now, the White House still isn't ready to do that, but is it possible they'll change their mind?

DOZIER: At this late stage in the Biden presidency, I don't think so, especially in that Ukrainian forces are already making progress on the ground in Kursk and there is still the fear that if the Ukrainians hit something key or something that is very important to Vladimir Putin, that he would step up attacks and go back to the nuclear threats that he was making before.

[18:45:13]

So I don't think you're going to see that in this presidency, in the few months left.

REID: You know, what happens if Ukraine continues to make advances into Russian territory? Where does this go?

DOZIER: Well, the challenges depending on how much territory you take, you've got to put manpower in there and logistics to hold that territory. And that means in a sort of a man intensive war, where you have so many Ukrainian troops engaged on the eastern front against Russian forces there, I mean, how do you cover all of your bases at some point? You have to pick and choose and if too many forces get sent to Kursk, that could weaken their defense along the eastern front and then surely Russia will take advantage of that.

REID: What is Zelenskyy's end game here with this push into Russia?

DOZIER: We really don't know beyond what he said out loud is that they want to create a buffer zone. There were thousands of attacks that were being launched from the Kursk territory into Ukraine enabling Russian advances. So to have some sort of buffer, if they can keep it, could be very valuable to heading off some of those attacks in the future.

REID: But this must add to the pressure on Putin, right? This is in his -- on his home turf.

DOZIER: If it were a free and fair media in Russia, and people could express how angry they were at being driven out of their homes by Ukrainian forces, perhaps. What you hear from Russia watchers is all along the borders with Ukraine the populations that are exposed to war are unhappy with Putin's policies.

But the closer you get to Moscow, Putin is in control of that media and he tells the narrative he wants out there. And that narrative is, see, NATO has backed Ukraine and Ukraine, an authoritarian government, is now pushing into our territory. This is what I warned about all along. And a course we have to keep fighting. As a matter of fact, I'm going to have to drop more Russian sons and daughters to beat back the Ukrainians.

REID: Kim Dozier. thank you.

And ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM, a hurricane is still gaining strength as it lashes Hawaii with dangerous seas, strong winds and raises the risks of fire.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:52:22]

REID: Right now Hurricane Hone is bearing down on Hawaii. The big island is facing multiple warnings for heavy rain, flash flooding, and strong winds. Governor Josh Green has declared a state of emergency.

Joining me now is CNN meteorologist Elisa Rafah.

Elisa, what are the biggest concerns right now?

ELISA RAFAH, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I'm really worried about flash flooding, Paula, because for some places in the big island, we've already gotten more than a foot of rain and it is still a hurricane right now. Hurricane Hone is a category one storm with 80-mile-per- hour winds sitting 100 miles there to the south and east of the islands. And it's been kind of sitting there in pretty slow all day and that's why we've been getting the concern for the torrential rain that just keeps falling.

There's a look at that track. Still tropical storm warnings in effect for the big island, you can see the hurricane warning off the coast slowly. It will eventually exit into the pacific. Look at the radar, you can see that outer bands of the heavy rain that I have just been dumping on the big island, especially all day. Also remember this island is a mountainous volcano. So when you get heavy rain to hit on that certain side of the volcano, that allows the moist air to rise even faster and dump even heavier rain.

That's why we've had flash flood warnings in effect for most of the big island pretty much all day. Rain rates have been one to three inches at times per hour so that's dumped more than five inches of rain at the Helo Airport just in the last 36 hours or so. Here are some of the totals I was talking about. More than 11 inches, more than a foot for some parts of the big island here on Hawaii.

Maui with some totals that have been closing in on six inches. We're looking at wind gusts as well. Gusts over 50 miles per hour with these wind advisories, even some warnings in place. Winds, right now, you can see are gusting at 43 miles per hour for some of the islands, 43 miles per hour also in Honolulu. Those wind gusts or tropical storm force and could continue. Originally we're worried about some fire concerns, but because the storm looks like it's coming a little bit closer, we've had heavier rain instead of that drier air.

What this wind will also do is kick up the significant wave height, we're looking at that as well. You can see the waves there around the islands. We've got warnings in effect for high surf of 14 to 18 feet on the big island. Some advisories for up to 12 feet of surface so really dangerous life-threatening conditions there in the water.

Now when you look at the Pacific, it's not just Hone. Hone right now is over Hawaii, but like train cars, you've got Gilma behind that and Hector as well. Hector just developing here this afternoon, so a couple of more systems to watch as we go through the week here, you kick in see them like train cars working their way through the Pacific. Just an active time of Europe -- Paula.

[18:55:10]

REID: Elisa Rafah, thank you. And tensions in the Middle East are simmering after that overnight

exchange of missiles between Israel and Hezbollah. What this means for the region? Ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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