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Israel Conducts Preemptive Strikes Against Hezbollah; Harris, Walz to Launch Bus Tour in Key State of Georgia; NASA: SpaceX Capsule to Bring Home Starliner Astronauts. Aired 5-6 am ET

Aired August 25, 2024 - 05:00   ET

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

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[05:00:39]

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN Newsroom.

We're going to show you live pictures now from southern Lebanon after Hezbollah militants said they've, quote, "successfully completed" their retaliatory strikes on Israel for the day.

That's what happened in northern Israel hours ago after the group fired at least 200 rockets from Lebanon. Hezbollah called that the first phase of its retaliation for the recent killings of its top military commander. But earlier, Israel said it hit Hezbollah positions just as they were preparing to launch their strikes.

The IDF says more than 100 fighter jets took part in the operation, destroying thousands of Hezbollah rocket launcher barrels.

Lebanon says three people were killed. And the Israeli military says they've been carrying out more attacks in southern Lebanon in the last hour.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted to Hezbollah's offensive. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): This morning, we detected Hezbollah's preparation to attack Israel. Together with a Minister of Defense and the Chief of Staff, we instructed the IDF to act proactively to remove the threat. The IDF has since been acting vigorously to thwart the threats. It destroyed thousands of rockets aimed at the north of the country. It also thwarted many other threats and operates with great strength, both in defense and attack.

I ask you, citizens of Israel, to comply to the directives of the Home Front Command. We are determined to do everything to protect our country, return the residents of the north safely to their homes, and continue to uphold a simple rule. Whoever hurts us, we hurt them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: We have reporters on the ground across the region. CNN's Nic Robertson is in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Ben Wedeman joins us live from Beirut, Lebanon.

I want to start with you, Ben. So, take us through what Hezbollah is saying about the targets and what might come next.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Hezbollah has put out a variety of statements this morning, Kim. In one of them, it said that this is the first phase in its response to the 30th of July killing of a senior Hezbollah commander by Israel here in Beirut. They said that this first phase has been successfully completed and that it is done for the day.

Now, they say they launched more than 320 missiles at 11 Israeli military positions along the border with the intention of knocking out anti-missile, anti-drone facilities and allowing other drones to go into what they called the depth of Israel.

Now, Hezbollah has claimed that it hit a major military operation deep within Israel. We have yet to hear any confirmation on that from the Israeli side.

Now, we've seen that there have been a series of strikes continuing until this very moment on various towns, villages and other areas in southern Lebanon. The official national news agency of Lebanon describing it as the most intense day of Israeli strikes since October.

They report that three people have been killed so far. One of them, a man who was killed on a strike on his car in the town of Khiam near the border and two others in the town of At Tiri. We don't know as far as the number of injured go.

This evening at 6 p.m. local time, that's in six hours, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah has scheduled to give a speech. In that speech, we'll probably get a better idea as to whether -- as to what the group's next steps are, whether there will in fact be a phase two.

Now, here in Beirut, we've seen that a number of airlines have cancelled departing and incoming flights into the airport here, but others seem to be operating normally at the moment. Kim?

BRUNHUBER: All right. And while you're on, Nic, now from Israel's point of view, take us through the military and the political reaction there.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yeah, a security cabinet called in the early hours of the morning, which lasted until quite a couple of hours after the initial big round of strikes had taken place.

[05:05:06] The IDF not announcing specific damage at any specific sites that Hezbollah claims to have hit. We're aware of one civilian, a woman in Akko in the north of Israel. She was hit by falling shrapnel.

There is a higher level of readiness. The Home Front Command is sort of uplifted its instructions for the population from here in Tel Aviv, actually, all the way to the northern border, telling them today to stay closer to their shelters, not to congregate in groups of more than 30 people.

In fact, in Tel Aviv, officials here are saying the beaches are closed, that leisure and cultural activities should be sort of put on hold at least for today. Two hundred and forty shelters, rocket shelters available to people in the city open, but telling citizens not to go and congregate in them now that more shelters can be opened as needed.

So it's a heightened state of alert without specificity of precisely what Hezbollah has hit, what damage they may or may not have done. But a very real understanding from Israeli officials that this threat, unlike the recent strikes by Hezbollah, which have been confined to northern Israel, along the Golan, some of the small areas right up at the very, very tip of northern Israel.

This was different. Some of the missiles, they say, were intended to target central Israel. And knowing that or understanding that and seeing the readying of those weapons systems is why they had this preemptive series of strikes in the early morning.

Beyond that, we're not getting a stronger read, but I think it's a reasonable assumption, given the heightened state of alert, to understand that Israel's air force that deployed close to 100 fighter jets overnight is probably standing by should they get instructions to take to the air again to hit more targets. But again, having said that, at the moment, we seem to be in a pause phase while both sides assess the impact on them and what they assess the other side is going to do.

BRUNHUBER: All right. Appreciate that. Nic Robertson in Tel Aviv. Thanks so much.

I want to bring in retired U.S. Army Major General Mark MacCarley.

Thank you so much for being here with us, sir. So, first, what do you make of the scope and the targets of the strikes on both sides?

MARK MACCARLEY, U.S. ARMY MAJOR GENERAL (ret.): Well, as we look at this, I can almost establish very clearly we began with the preemptive Israeli strike. There was a response, significant response, the attack by Hezbollah with its approximately 300 missiles. And immediately after that, Israel responded to targets.

Some are same as the ones in which Israel attacked earlier in the preemptive strike. The bottom line is we now are looking at Hezbollah. Hezbollah has stated it has completed successfully phase one. And I am sure that with the Israeli high command, the question that's circulating is what is phase two? Is it a continuation of what we've seen over the last 24 hours? Or is it an asymmetrical attack, meaning it's not an anticipated attack, an unexpected attack, an attack from various compass directions? And when I say compass directions, is that a consolidated attack from Iran? Is it one from Yemen? Will we see missiles, rockets firing from parts of Syria or Iraq? That's the concern and that nobody can calculate.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, so far, it seems as though the attacks have been sort of more symbolic and carefully calibrated not to go over a certain line to then sort of trigger a massive escalation. Do you get a sense that it will fall in those parameters?

MACCARLEY: Yes. When you look at, once again, as I reference an earlier statement I made about the sequences of events, the response, this phase two attack identified by Nasrallah as something that will take place. Hezbollah is in fact both a military entity and as well a political one.

It is an absolute prerequisite if you're looking at this attack, this last 24 hours from the perspective of Hezbollah that it should not and most probably will not attack civilian centers because then the informational response, what's shown in social media, puts Hezbollah in a bad light.

[05:10:17]

If it focuses on military targets, that might suggest phase two or something else might occur that we have not in any way calculated.

BRUNHUBER: When we're talking about Hezbollah, its capabilities have expanded a lot since the full-scale war between the two, between them and Israel in 2006. So, what are the risks here for Israel militarily of going into a full-blown war in Lebanon?

MACCARLEY: The immediate risk is that it's facing an enemy, perhaps the best equipped and resourced and trained non-state military actor. Some estimates, including those made even on our station, CNN, suggests that Hezbollah has over 100,000 rockets. Not all of these have been expended over the last couple of months.

So, big risk with the growth in the technology and the sophistication of the Hezbollah missile, the array of missiles. There are rockets that are now deployed by Hezbollah that have a range in excess of 400 kilometers. What that means is that from launch positions -- there you go, from launch positions within southern Lebanon or even further north to protect those very rockets, Hezbollah can reach the most southern portion of Israel. That's the big concern.

And if one of those rockets were somehow to succeed, that Iron Dome was unable to destroy that weapon and that weapon hit a population center, then I would say that all bets are off and that we're looking at a huge regional conflagration.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, and one which might drag in the U.S. We know the Biden administration has been in touch with its Israeli counterparts. What response, if any, do you expect from the U.S. military assets that are in the region right now?

MACCARLEY: The assets are there, first of all, to provide that air defense coverage and, as well, second responsibility, and that is to maintain the equipment posture of the IDF. So that's continuing at this point. And the U.S. and its allies, Jordan, Great Britain, the Emirates, to the extent that the Emirates some or sometimes assist us, that effort on the U.S.' part is to avoid, as it did on July 30th, avoid a missile, destroy all rockets that are penetrating Israeli airspace. Because, once again, if a population center such as Tel Aviv is struck, then we have no idea of the intensity of that future campaign.

BRUNHUBER: We're, again, we don't know what -- what phase two might entail, but you're sort of talking about it widening possibly and involving other entities in other countries like Iraq. If that happens, could U.S. troops and assets be targeted here?

MACCARLEY: The last part, that question, the answer is easy. And I say easy because it has already occurred. Within the last couple of months, we've had Iranian proxies strike in Syria.

In Syria, we have U.S. forces. Fortunately, there have been no deaths, at least in this round. But the answer to that question is, I think that the proxies, if this conflict goes beyond what we see today, very, very likely that there will be, on the part of the proxies, some manner of strikes against the U.S. I'm not suggesting that we're going to be looking at another Iraq in which you had the hostilities that were an effort by al-Qaida and ISIS to destroy U.S. forces, but there will be an attack on installations as there have been in the last couple of months.

BRUNHUBER: We'll have to leave it there, but really appreciate your expertise, Major General Mark MacCarley. Thank you so much.

[05:15:04]

MACCARLEY: Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: Well, as I mentioned, U.S. President Joe Biden is monitoring the events in Israel and Lebanon. The White House says Biden has discussed the strikes with his national security teams. Senior U.S. officials have also been communicating with their Israeli counterparts, and that includes Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who spoke, who spoke with Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The Pentagon reaffirmed America's ironclad commitment to Israel's defense.

All right, after the break, we'll look at how these latest attacks could impact ongoing ceasefire negotiations in Cairo. That's all coming up. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Turning to the breaking news in the Middle East, Hamas says its delegation is now in Cairo for ceasefire talks that were due to resume today. The goal is to stop the fighting that's been raging for more than 10 months and negotiate the release of hostages held by Hamas. An Israeli official told CNN that an Israeli delegation was still expected to go to Cairo today.

Earlier, an Egyptian official said negotiators are still far apart on some issues, including the presence of Israeli troops on Israel's border with Egypt.

We have Elliott Gotkine standing by in London. So, Elliott, despite these latest attacks, it seems the talks are still going ahead?

[05:20:03]

ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: That's how things seem right now, Kim. And look, the two conflicts, for want of a better description, are related in the sense that Hezbollah started firing on Israel the day after the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in solidarity with the militant group in Gaza.

And at the same time, there are some observers that thought that maybe Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza and also of Hamas generally now, may have been playing a bit of a waiting game to see if Hezbollah's retaliation for the killing of its top military commander nothing of Iran's planned retaliation for the assassination of Hamas' previous political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran to see if those retaliations would drag the region into wider war.

Now, certainly for now, at least, after what Hezbollah is describing as phase one of its retaliation, it doesn't look like Hezbollah's attacks or indeed Israel's preemptive strikes or strikes after the barrage was launched by Hezbollah earlier today is going to do that, at least not yet. And so, you know, we are now focused back on these talks which haven't been knocked off course, not that they need to be knocked off course, because they've been stuck now on and off for the past nine months or so.

And there seem to be, you know, some major sticking points here, not just between Israel, Hamas, but now between Israel and the Egyptians as well, not least because of Israel's demand to retain control of the so-called Philadelphi Corridor, the 14 kilometer or so strip of border between southern Gaza and Egypt.

Israel says that it needs to retain control of that in order to prevent the smuggling of weapons and money and other materials to Hamas. And it simply doesn't trust the Egyptians to prevent that from happening and from enabling Hamas to rearm itself. So that's one of the major sticking points.

Hamas also accusing Israel of changing the parameters of the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails in exchange for the release of hostages. And I suppose the big one is that Hamas has consistently been demanding an agreement for a complete and permanent ceasefire before getting to phase one, which would be the temporary six-week ceasefire of this three-phase deal that President Biden outlined several months ago. And of course, at the same time, you have Prime Minister Benjamin

Netanyahu reiterating Israel's demands that it will not, that it reserves the right to go back to fighting after the initial six-week truce in order to destroy Hamas' military and governance capabilities and to prevent the Gaza Strip from threatening Israel.

And Prime Minister Netanyahu believes to continue to keep up the pressure on Hamas to release those hostages or to do a deal that would see those 109 hostages still being held in Gaza, around a third of whom are believed to be dead, to get them back in Israel.

And earlier this week, of course, you have hostage families also becoming even more concerned than they already were for the plight of their loved ones in Gaza when six bodies were discovered in tunnels underground Khan Yunis in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

Forensic analysis showing that they did suffer gunshot wounds that they couldn't definitively say that those gunshot wounds were what killed those hostages.

So you've got hostage families demanding a deal. You've got Israel's military, really, and defense establishment, according to reports in the Israeli media, pressuring the government to do a deal as well.

And, you know, in a strange kind of way, it may be the heightening tensions on the northern border with Hezbollah may encourage Israel to kind of wrap things up in the Gaza Strip in order to focus on the northern border, something that Israel's Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, has said that Israel is increasingly doing to focus on the north and the threat of Hezbollah.

But for now, look, at least the talks are still ongoing. They haven't collapsed. And as long as they are talking, there is still the possibility that a deal can be done that would see a cease-fire and also the return and freeing of the hostages being held in the Gaza Strip.

But, of course, we have been seemingly close so many times over the past nine months of on-and-off talks. There is, I think, you know, hope, but optimism for now, Kim, I fear, is perhaps in short supply.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, agreed. All right, Elliott Gotkine, thanks so much. Appreciate that.

When we come back, we will go live to the Middle East and Israel's preemptive strike on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. Stay with us.

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[05:27:42]

BRUNHUBER: I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN Newsroom.

Our top story this morning, Hezbollah says its retaliatory strikes on Israel are done for the day and they've been, quote, "a complete success." The militant group released the statement after firing at least 200 rockets into Israel in response to the recent killing of its top military commander.

Earlier, Israeli fighter jets pummeled Hezbollah positions in Lebanon in what's been described as a preemptive strike. And Israel announced in the last hour that it followed up with even more attacks in the last hours.

Meanwhile, Hamas says its delegation is now in Cairo for ceasefire talks that are due to resume today. And an Israeli official says an Israeli delegation is expected to go there.

We have reporters on the ground across the region. CNN's Nic Robertson is in Tel Aviv, Israel. And Ben Wedeman joins us live from Beirut, Lebanon.

So, Ben, first to you, do you get a sense that Hezbollah is walking a fine line here, mostly symbolic attack without crossing the line in order to avoid a major escalation?

WEDEMAN: That's been their stated goal for quite some time, that they did want to respond to the killing in late last month of a senior Hezbollah commander here in Beirut. But at the same time, we heard twice in the last few weeks from the head of Hezbollah saying that Hezbollah does not want a full-on war. They always stress that their front with Israel is a front of support for the Palestinians fighting in Gaza.

What we have seen is several statements put out by Hezbollah so far today saying that the first phase has already been completed, that their military strikes have been completed successfully today. They said that they launched more than 320 missiles at 11 Israeli targets, all of them bases along the border, including the Meron base, which is an important air control and surveillance position just a few kilometers south of the border.

We're going to hear from the head of Hezbollah this evening at 6 p.m. local time. That's in five hours from now. And I think that speech will give an indication of whether Hezbollah is going to continue or it's going to de-escalate this situation.

[05:30:11]

Now, the Israelis are claiming that they took out a lot of the rocket launchers that are on the border. It's important to keep in mind that Hezbollah's real heavy arsenal, its long-range precision rockets are not based in the border area. They're based further away in more remote areas. And as we've seen in a propaganda video, they put out just a few days ago, probably deep inside tunnels dug into the mountains.

As far as the situation in the south of Lebanon goes, it seems that Israeli airstrikes have continued throughout the morning, the official Lebanese National News Agency reporting that this was the most intense period of Israeli strikes since last October. We know that at least three people have been killed as a result of

Israeli strikes. One individual killed when his car was struck in the town of Khiam, which is not far from the border and in the town of Tiri, two other people were killed. We're not aware of the number of injured at this point.

Now, what we've also seen is that a variety of incoming and outgoing flights to Beirut -- from Beirut have been cancelled. Otherwise, there are flights still coming and going but at a much slower pace than is normal.

Now, the U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Lebanon UNIFIL has put out a joint statement with the United Nations special coordinator for Lebanon calling on all sides to exercise restraint. We've also seen that the Emergency Ministerial Committee of the government of Lebanon is also discussing the situation. But it's important to keep in mind that the Lebanese state is very weak and has very little control over what Hezbollah does.

Kim?

BRUNHUBER: All right. I want to go to Nic now. Nic, take us through the -- the mood and the reaction there in Israel as it's targeted yet again?

ROBERTSON: Yeah, there's been a lot of concern since that strike killing a senior Hezbollah commander a month ago that Israel -- that Hezbollah and indeed Iran would choose to strike at Israel as their leaders had said not intending to cause a massive escalation, but in response to the killing of Fouad Shukr and Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader in Tehran.

So, the country has sort of been on a footing where it's been wandering and waiting and watching for that to come. But all the time the instruction from Israel's officials here has been there's no change in the alert level, the Home Front Command alert level system that tells people how close they should stay to their shelters, what shelters are open to limit gatherings, that sort of thing. It hadn't happened until now.

So this -- the level that the threat is being perceived at for today at least is enough for the Home Front Command warning system to tell people particularly in the north from Tel Aviv to the north not to travel too far, not to congregate in numbers of greater than 30.

In Tel Aviv, there's a ban on people going to the beaches for swimming today, so they don't congregate there. There's a ban on leisure and -- and, you know, other sorts of gatherings that people might have.

So there is a heightened level of alert. Only one civilian as far as we know was injured, that was in Akko in the -- in the north. No details of what was hit militarily which if we had that then you could perhaps get a sense of Israel's military posture at the moment. We can understand that they will be ready for action as they normally are and indeed having strikes in the same vein the lower-level strikes that they've had along the border. I think one can expect that to continue. But in terms of what the military here does next on a big scale that

does seem to be on a pause as both sides try to assess what the other side is doing next and -- and -- and how bad the impact has been on them. And typically the IDF really doesn't get into detail of damage done to its military sites.

Kim?

BRUNHUBER: All right. Nic Robertson in Tel Aviv and Ben Wedeman in Beirut, I want to thank you both.

And stay with us here on CNN Newsroom, we'll be right back.

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[05:37:57]

BRUNHUBER: Back to our top story, Israel has responded preemptively to a planned strike by Hezbollah earlier this morning. For more on this, I'm joined by Jasmine El-Gamal in London, and she's a former Middle East Advisor at the U.S. Department of Defense.

Thanks so much for being here with us. So first, big picture, your take on these latest developments. What do you make of Hezbollah strikes and what Israel says was a preemptive attack?

JASMINE EL-GAMAL, FORMER MIDDLE EAST ADVISOR, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE: Good morning, and thank you so much for having me on. So big picture, this is a strike, a retaliatory strike by Hezbollah that was planned and was expected. It was entirely expected after Israel assassinated Hezbollah's top military commander, and subsequently, the Hezbollah Secretary General, Hassan Nasrallah, stated very clearly that the organization was poised to retaliate for the assassination, and that the delay in the timing of that attack was part of its psychological warfare against Israel, that idea that Israelis were living in fear, waiting to see what kind of attack would come and when it would come.

So this was all played out very publicly. It was not a surprise. What it does tell us, though, about the larger picture in the region is that things are not going well. The ceasefire negotiations that have been going on for months, between Israel and Hamas, which were supposed to have offered all the actors in the region, from Iran to Hezbollah to Hamas, an off-ramp to choose sort of a diplomatic end to this conflict, those ceasefire negotiations have not been going well.

And so that, you know, it gives us a sense of just how badly the ceasefire negotiations are going, because if there were an imminent breakthrough in the negotiations, it would be highly unlikely for Hezbollah to jeopardize that by trying to strike Israel at this time.

The second thing it tells us, of course, is the shortcomings. It sort of highlights the shortcomings of American diplomacy in the region over the last 10 months.

[05:40:05] You know, Secretary Blinken has gone to the region almost every single month since October 7th, and the fact that those efforts have not yet borne any fruit when it comes to lowering the temperature in the region, advancing the ceasefire negotiations, or stopping these attacks by Hezbollah, Israel, Iran, the tit-for-tat attacks that we've been seeing over the last few months, tells you just how ineffective or ineffective, excuse me, that American diplomacy has been.

BRUNHUBER: OK. So on the ceasefire negotiations then, do you think that this attack and the prospect of maybe a wider war on its northern border will be an incentive for Israel to come to an agreement now?

EL-GAMAL: There's no reason to believe that, and I'll tell you why. The idea that these attacks were going to push Prime Minister Netanyahu towards a deal have not really played out in that way. We've seen over the last 10 months that instead of engaging in good faith negotiations, Prime Minister Netanyahu's own negotiators, Israeli negotiators, have complained that he has stymied a deal time and time again, that he keeps adding in new conditions to bring the parties farther apart, to the point where now, 10 months into this conflict, there is no sort of sign that the parties are coming any closer to an agreement, and the Israeli negotiators themselves are blaming Prime Minister Netanyahu for that.

The problem with choosing military tactics to pressure Hamas versus engaging in diplomacy is that military action begets military action. The more that you assassinate commanders, the more that you engage in this kind of warfare, the more you're going to invite similar actions from your adversaries, and so on and so forth.

And so the cycle that we've been seeing right now has been extremely damaging to the prospects of a negotiated diplomatic solution to the conflict in the region, and because no one party has paid too heavy of a price, in their opinion, they will continue to do so.

You know, in any conflict, and specifically in the Middle East, as we've seen over decades, the only reason that a party to the conflict would stop engaging in military action is if the price exacted on it was too high for them to bear. And we haven't gotten to that point yet where we've seen a high price either exerted, or any leverage exerted, on the Israelis, on Hamas, by their patrons, or on Iran for that matter. The parties feel that they can still continue to engage in military action without having to pay too heavy of a price.

BRUNHUBER: All right, we'll see if that changes. Really appreciate your insights, Jasmine El-Gamal. Thanks so much for joining us.

EL-GAMAL: Thank you for having me.

BRUNHUBER: NASA has made a decision on the two Starliner astronauts stuck on the space station. We'll look at how they'll get back home, when, and why. Well, that's ahead. Stay with us.

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[05:47:22] BRUNHUBER: Prosecutors have now opened a criminal investigation in connection with the sinking of a luxury yacht off the coast of Sicily. They say initial investigations indicate that crew behavior and the handling of the boat were responsible for the sinking, but the investigation wasn't aimed at any individual.

CNN's Barbie Latza Nadeau has more from Rome.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBIE LATZA NADEAU, CNN REPORTER: An Italian prosecutor in Sicily has opened a manslaughter and negligent shipwreck investigation in the fatal sinking on Monday of a luxury yacht off the coast of Sicily. Seven people died, including British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his daughter, when the ship sank. Fifteen survived, including Lynch's wife, whose company owns the vessel.

The ship went down in bad weather, but the prosecutor blamed what he called human behavior for the deaths. He did not take any of the surviving crew members, none of whom are Italian, into custody. He said the captain said he would make himself available for further questioning.

Investigators did not do drug or alcohol tests on any of the survivors, either, saying they were in a state of shock or injured. Other details that were newly revealed include that five of the victims were found in the same area of the ship, which they said suggested perhaps they were looking for an air pocket that may have formed, though they also said the water currents could have moved the bodies into one place as well.

The next step is to raise the vessel from the seabed to continue the investigation, which will be paid for by the owner of the yacht, which is Mike Lynch's wife, who, as I mentioned, survived the tragedy.

Barbie Latza Nadeau, CNN, Rome.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Here in the U.S., Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz will hit the campaign trail again this week. They'll kick off a bus tour in the battleground state of Georgia, marking their first time campaigning together in the state. The tour will swing through southern Georgia on Wednesday and conclude with a rally in Savannah on Thursday.

President Joe Biden won Georgia by less than 12,000 votes in 2020 and is a closely watched state again in this election.

Meanwhile, former U.S. President Donald Trump will campaign in the Midwest this week in two battleground states that could prove to be decisive in this election. He'll deliver remarks on the economy in Michigan on Thursday and host a town hall later in the evening in Wisconsin. His campaign says he'll also meet with voters in Wisconsin to listen to their concerns.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL NELSON, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: The spaceflight is risky, even at its safest and even at its most routine. And a test flight by nature is neither safe nor routine.

[05:50:10]

STEVE STICH, NASA'S COMMERCIAL CREW PROGRAM MANAGER: It was just too much risk with the crew and so we decided to pursue the uncrewed.

KEN BOWERSOX, NASA'S SPACE OPERATIONS MISSION DIRECTORTORATE, ASSOCIATE ADMINISTRATION: I'm really proud of the NASA team and the Boeing team for all the work they've been doing the last couple of months. It's really been impressive to see how they've been very agile in testing, gathering data and completing analysis. And then having the tough discussions that go along with processing that data and coming to conclusions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: NASA officials there announcing that Boeing's Starliner capsule isn't safe enough to bring two astronauts home, which Wilmore and Suni Williams have been stuck on the International Space Station since June because of technical issues with the spaceship. NASA says a capsule from Boeing competitor SpaceX will bring them home in February at the earliest.

Meanwhile, Boeing's Starliner will fly home empty. If the uncrewed ship goes well, NASA could still certify Starliner for human spaceflight, authorizing it for routine trips to orbit despite not completing its mission as intended.

All right, for more on this, I'm joined by former NASA astronaut Mike Massimino.

Thank you so much for being here with us. So just broadly, what do you make of this decision here?

MIKE MASSIMINO, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: I think it was the right one and they explained it pretty well in the press conference. Safety is the number one concern and there was some concerns about the Starliner thrusters in particular and they felt the prudent thing to do was to make this decision to bring Starliner home empty.

BRUNHUBER: What do you think that'll mean for the ISS to have to accommodate two extra astronauts for much longer than planned?

MASSIMINO: Well, the two extra astronauts, it's going to be two extra. Typically it's a crew of seven. They also go up to a crew of 11 during handovers for the -- when they do a SpaceX Dragon handover or up to a crew of 10 when they do a Soyuz handover.

So it's not necessarily unusual to have more than a typical crew of seven up there. And for the long term -- for the longer term, it's going to be only two astronauts coming up on the SpaceX vehicle. So it'll be -- it'll be a crew of seven for most of that time. But they have plenty of supplies, they have plenty of room, the logistics work out. It's not what NASA would have liked. They're a little disappointed in having to make this decision that they can't complete the test mission with the crew inside.

But as far as the activities on the space station, they will go along as planned and Butch and Suni will join the two astronauts coming up in September to execute another expedition. That's why they'll be up there six months longer.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah. But for those two astronauts, I mean, you're an astronaut. I mean, there's a big difference between preparing to be up there for a couple of days and then being up there for eight months. I mean, how difficult psychologically and physically will that be for them?

MASSIMINO: Yeah, you know, I can't really speak for them. I think if it was me up there, in some ways, you're excited about getting some more time and space. And in the other side of it, you know, you're going to be missing out on things at home, especially when your family thought you were going to be home after a little over a week, most likely.

But you also prepare for this a little bit. I mean, as far as being able to do it, they're fully trained up to do it and they know it's a possibility. This was a bit of a bigger delay, I think, than anyone expected, though.

But now that the decision has been made, I think they can move forward. I think it might have been tougher for the past few weeks, not knowing exactly what was going to happen. But now that decision has been made and they can mentally prepare and so can their families on the ground.

BRUNHUBER: So for the logistics then to get them back, I understand that not everything is interchangeable between the Boeing and SpaceX system. So what has to be done to get them back in a different vehicle?

MASSIMINO: Well, the major thing is going to be getting spacesuits ready for them. Apparently, they have one spacesuit on board that will work on the -- SpaceX suit on board that will fit one of them. They're going to fly up another one. That's the major piece of it is making sure that they can have a spacesuit be suited for the way home. And that was something he mentioned in the press conference yesterday. So they still need one of those suits to come up.

But other than that, you know, I think the training is going to be minimal for them to go from where they were with the Boeing vehicle to SpaceX. And they've thought about this. They plan for now, at least as a backup for the last couple of weeks. So I think all that's going to work out fine.

BRUNHUBER: We heard there in the press conference, the NASA officials kind of downplaying this, saying this is a test flight where we're expecting, you know, perhaps problems to happen. But for Boeing, which has faced so many setbacks, I mean, where does this leave them and their space program?

[05:55:02]

MASSIMINO: Well, they've been a partner for NASA for a very long time, particularly in the space station program for over 20 years now, where we've had people living on board the space station, Boeing's been the prime contract. So the partnership is strong between NASA and Boeing.

Now, this, again, is a bit disappointing, but I don't think the story's over yet. As you said, they plan to fly the Boeing spaceship again. They have to get it back first and take more -- get more test data.

The undock is going to be very interesting, I think, because they're going to have to fire up the propulsion module again and do some maneuvering and get the vehicle back safely, even though there's no one inside these. Of course, they still want to get that vehicle back.

And I think that will give them a lot of important data. And then they'll look at the vehicle and do some more testing on the ground and then get ready to fly it again. I think that's what's going to happen.

And if all that happens successfully, you know, we'll remember this, but I think what will be more important is that the vehicle is operating as planned in the future. Right now, that's not the case. But the story's not written yet. There's still a ways to go here.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, absolutely. As long as those astronauts come back safe, I guess that's all that matters.

Former NASA Astronaut Mike Massimino, thank you so much for speaking with us, really appreciate it.

MASSIMINO: You bet.

BRUNHUBER: All right, before we go, Taylor Swift has been reflecting on the European leg of her Eras Tour, which ended with tighten security shows at Wembley Stadium in London earlier this week, now came after three shows in Vienna, Austria were cancelled due to a thwarted terror attack.

Commenting on the incident for the first time earlier this week, Swift said, quote, "The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear." She added, quote, "I was also so grateful to the authorities because thanks to them we were grieving concerts and not lives."

Three teenagers have been detained in connection with the alleged plot. Swift will resume her tour in Miami in October.

All right, that wraps this hour of CNN Newsroom. I'm Kim Brunhuber. For viewers here in the United States and Canada, "CNN This Morning" is next. For the rest of the world, it's "Called to Earth."