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Israel's Largest Labor Union Calls for Nationwide Strike; Exit Polls: Germany's Far-Right AFD Party Set for Victory; Philippines & China Trade Blame Over Vessel Collisions; Dozens of Civilians Wounded in Russian Attack on Kharkiv; Biden, Harris to Meet U.S. Negotiating Team on Monday. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired September 02, 2024 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello and welcome, everyone. I'm Michael Holmes. Appreciate your company.
[00:00:32]
Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM, Israel prepares for a general strike to shut down the country after a night of mass protests. The deaths of six hostages in Gaza ramping up pressure on Prime Minister Netanyahu to reach a ceasefire deal.
A far-right party projected to win regional elections in Germany for the first time since World War II.
And Brazil grappling with unprecedented wildfires that the government says should have been prevented.
ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Michael Holmes.
HOLMES: It is 7 a.m. in the morning across Israel where the country's largest labor union has called a nationwide strike and threatened to shut down the entire Israeli economy, as anger and anguish build over the deaths of six hostages in Gaza.
This comes just one day after tens of thousands took to the streets in Tel Aviv and other cities demanding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reach a ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas.
The frustration boiling over as clashes broke out during one massive rally on Sunday in Tel Aviv.
And this video from the scene showing police using stun grenades against protesters blocking a highway. One man who came out to protest explained what's fueling the anger.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAFI KRECHMER, ISRAELI PROTESTOR: We are here to protest against the Israeli government that is making wrong decisions. This country was built on some core values. One of them is strictly that the government of Israel will do everything in its power to bring back the hostages and soldiers from captivity wherever they are. And this government, because of political reasons, and for the right, extreme coalition of Netanyahu, is breaking those values. And this is the core of the existence of our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: An Israeli official says the prime minister is worried about the widespread protests. On Sunday, Mr. Netanyahu saying he was shocked by the cold-blooded murderer, as he put it, of the six hostages and said, quote, "Those who murder hostages do not want a deal."
The Israeli military says it recovered the bodies of the six hostages, including an Israeli-American, from an underground tunnel in Southern Gaza on Saturday. Israel's health ministry says they likely died between Thursday and Friday morning.
The tragic news met by an outpouring of grief and calls for action. On Sunday, here was the message from Israel's largest labor union.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARNON BAR-DAVID, HEAD OF ISRAEL'S HISTADRUT LABOR UNION (through translator): I call on the people of Israel to take to the streets this evening. Tomorrow, leave the workplaces. I call on all economic organizations in the state of Israel, everyone, to join the strike.
Tomorrow, we must shout the cry of our beloved country. We must raise the cry of our hostages, our displaced, our dead. The state of Israel must be returned to normal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: CNN's Nic Robertson is following developments and has more now for us from Tel Aviv.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): Alive, and with them, real hopes of their release until so recently. Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Carmel Gat, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, Ori Danino, found by the IDF in a Hamas tunnel in Gaza.
Forensic evidence showing they were executed less than three days prior.
REAR ADMIRAL DANIEL HAGARI, IDF SPOKESPERSON (voice-over): They were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists a short while before we reached them.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): American-born Hersh Goldberg-Polin, happy-go- lucky, according to his family, a hero on October 7th; losing part of his arm, trying to save others from Hamas gunfire and grenades at the Nova Music Festival.
HERSH GOLDBERG-POLIN: Hersh Goldberg-Polin. ROBERTSON (voice-over): Becoming an international icon of the hostages' horrific suffering, forced to perform a propaganda video for the terror group.
His oh-so-hopeful parents at the Democratic National Convention, less than two weeks ago, telling him to hold on until a release deal reached.
[00:05:02]
JON POLIN, FATHER OF HERSH GOLDBERG-POLIN: The time is now.
RACHEL GOLDBERG-POLIN, MOTHER OF HERSH GOLDBERG-POLIN: Hersh, if you can hear us, we love you. Stay strong. Survive.
POLIN: Bring them home.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Horrible truths, piling on the pain. Israeli officials telling CNN Hersh and Eden and Carmel all slated for the first phase of releases in hostage negotiations.
Heartbreak, anger, and anguish at Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's failure to make a deal, save Hersh and the others. An emotive cocktail surging, unprecedented numbers of anti-Netanyahu protesters onto the streets across the country. An outpouring to get the other hostages home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need a deal now for his future, for our future.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This shouldn't have happened. It shouldn't happen.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Eden Yerushalmi was just 24 years old, a bartender at the Nova Music Festival when Hamas attacked, calling her two sisters. Her last words: "They've caught me."
Carmel Gat, a 40-year-old occupational therapist, was visiting her parents at Kibbutz Be'eri next to the Nova Music Festival; saw her mother killed before she was snatched by Hamas.
Twenty-seven-year-old Almog Sarusi was at the music festival with his girlfriend. When she got injured in the Hamas attack, he stayed with her, trying to staunch her fatal wounds before he was captured.
Alexander Lobanov was the bar manager at the festival, 32 years old, a Russian Israeli. His wife, Michal, gave birth to their second child this year, a son. He will never meet his father.
Ori Danino was another October 7 hero. The twenty-five-year-old fled the music festival, taking friends to safety in his car, then returned to help Maya and Itay Regev. The three got captured. Maya and Itay released last November.
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Hamas is continuing to steadfastly refuse all proposals. Even worse, at the exact same time, it murdered six of our hostages. Whoever murders hostages does not want a deal.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): The prime minister insisting Hamas, not him, responsible for the untimely deaths.
ROBERTSON: And the prime minister's message just not cutting it on the streets here at all. There are growing tensions within his government. The anger on the streets here is growing.
This country could be on the cusp of change, but no one here is going to take that for granted.
Nic Robertson, CNN, Tel Aviv.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Now a source familiar with the cease-fire talks tells CNN it is not clear yet how the deaths of the hostages will affect those discussions.
The U.S. team involved in the talks will meet with President Biden and Vice President Harris on Monday. And families of the American hostages say that the White House national security adviser has promised to meet with them again later in the week.
They say Jake Sullivan told them, quote, "The next few days will be critical in the push to free the 101 hostages, including the seven Americans who are still being held by Hamas." And that the Biden administration is heartbroken by this senseless and cruel act by Hamas.
Joining me now from Jerusalem is Yaakov Katz, a senior columnist at "The Jerusalem Post" and author and fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute.
Good to see you again, Yaakov. This massive anger on the streaks in Israel. Protests, calls for strikes and so on. Summarize the feelings there in Israel after this news, these deaths.
YAAKOV KATZ, SENIOR COLUMNIST, "THE JERUSALEM POST": Well, yesterday after the news and the identification of the six hostages whose bodies were recovered on Saturday, really, I think, broke the hearts of all Israelis, probably many millions, tens of millions of people around the world, but definitely here at home.
Because they felt that these people were within our reach, were people who could have been brought home. All these months of negotiations were aimed at -- at getting these people out. And they had failed, and Israel had failed its people.
And of course, there was going to be, Michael, this massive outpouring. We saw main highways throughout the country blocked for hours on end.
Not far from where I live here in Jerusalem is where the prime minister's residence is. They were already blocking the police, were blocking the main road to his home already earlier in the day, just in anticipation; knowing that those protests were going to also reach outside his home.
[00:10:02]
The airport that he started through (ph), the main labor union is striking today. Kindergartens are closed. The airport is closed to take-offs for a number of hours.
It's a very terrible, sad day. Some of the funerals were already hold -- held yesterday and more. For example, Hersh Goldberg-Polin's funeral is going to be later this afternoon.
HOLMES: Yes. Meanwhile, the rift between Benjamin Netanyahu and his own defense chief, Yoav Gallant, couldn't be more stark, and Gallant's criticism continued on Sunday.
We talked about this yesterday. There were others in Netanyahu's administration angry at him, too.
Where do you see the political path headed in terms of negotiations, in terms of strategy?
KATZ: I mean, let's also remember the timing, where Thursday night, there was a cabinet meeting chaired by Netanyahu, where they had a vote. Do we condition any hostage deal on Israel remaining what's known as the Philadelphi corridor, that strip of land between Israel and Egypt, where Hamas has those tunnels. Israel's discovered about 150 of those tunnels.
And all of the ministers in the security cabinet voted that Israel cannot relinquish control over the Philadelphi Corridor, except for one, the defense minister, Yoav Gallant.
And then, just a day later on Saturday, Israel discovers the bodies of these six hostages. So, you kind of also see the -- the way that it's all connected, right? Israel makes another demand. And then people die. They're murdered.
So, you know, well, did one lead to the other. I can't say necessarily, but definitely, the politics of this. And the way decisions are made in the cabinet is affecting what's happening on the battlefield.
HOLMES: And it gets lost in the messaging. But Netanyahu, one presumes, knew that occupying the Philadelphi Corridor between Gaza and Egypt would be a nonstarter for Hamas.
I mean, what -- what's in it for Hamas to agree to a ceasefire now, given Netanyahu's ever-changing, it has to be said, position?
And not to mention, Hamas is probably enjoying the site of these protests and the political dissent.
KATZ: I have no doubt that Hamas sees what's happening. They murdered six hostages, and what they led to is more civil unrest in Israel.
So, they say to themselves, one second. If we're able to achieve this with murdering just six Israeli hostages, let's murder another ten. I mean, we actually completely bring the elimination of the state of Israel.
Israel does have to show resilience. It does have to show unity, and it has to show strength. And right now, I'm not sure that that's what we're -- we're broadcasting to the world.
With that said, Hamas is the main obstacle to any negotiation, right? Israel does have -- it's stuck between a rock and a hard place, Michael.
On the one hand, we want to get our people back. I've no doubt that that's what everyone in this country wants, ultimately. The question is going to be, what's the price that we're willing to pay as a country?
And if, for example, when it comes to the Philadelphi Corridor, we pull out and Hamas reconstitutes itself, is able to rebuild and rearm, what did we achieve in this 11-month war?
These are real dilemmas that there are no simple answers to. But I think that what -- what most Israelis feel is what I feel. This was a real viable opportunity to bring people who were alive home whom we had let down as a country.
They were there. They were alive. They were waiting for us 11 months. What happens the day after the war, whether we stop Hamas, we don't stop Hamas, that's elusive. And that's fluid, and that's something that will take time anyhow.
This was a real opportunity to get these people back to their families, and we owed it to them because we had let them down.
HOLMES: And when it comes to the negotiation and Netanyahu, and what many think is his desire to not have an agreement, I mean, Hamas accepted the ceasefire hostage framework put forward by the U.S. and -- and Israel back in June. That was the 24th, I think.
And it was Netanyahu then started adding conditions to that deal.
Do you think he was caught off-guard by Hamas accepting that framework when he didn't really want a deal at all?
KATZ: I think it's very possible where you're describing here, Michael, is that he already at the end of May, Israel basically agreed to a lot of terms. And this was the proposal that was put forward by President Biden.
Israel agreed to it. Hamas apparently also accepted it. It seemed like a deal was just a week or weeks away. And then suddenly, more conditions were put into this deal by Israel. New drafts were being proposed, that Israel's head of intelligence of the Mossad was being sent to those talks in Rome, in Paris, with the Qataris, with the Egyptians, with the Americans. Suddenly with new -- new conditions that weren't there before. It seemed that Israel was suddenly slowing down, realizing one second, if we're able to get Hamas on this deal that we've proposed ready at the end of May, beginning of June.
Maybe if we continue the military pressure, we add some work conditions. We can actually get a better deal.
And maybe that made sense at the time. And, you know, these will be negotiations that people will have to study for years to come.
But at the end of the day, people's lives are on the line. And every day that passed, the risks and the danger that they were in grew. And we saw, tragically, what happened on Saturday.
[00:15:04]
HOLMES: Yes, important context. Always good to get your analysis. Yaakov Katz, thanks so much. Appreciate it.
KATZ: Thank you.
HOLMES: Now, in Gaza, the United Nations says it is critical that there be no fighting while it vaccinates more than 600,000 children for polio.
UNRWA, the U.N.'s main agency in the enclave, says it, quote, "cannot vaccinate children while they are running for their lives."
Israel has agreed to temporary pauses during the vaccination campaign, which began on Sunday. The drive comes after the highly infectious polio virus was found in sewage samples in the territory in June.
There has already been one confirmed case.
Well, for the first time since World War II, a far-right party is projected to win regional elections in Germany. In the state of Thuringia, the initial exit polling says the Alternative for Germany Party is polling well ahead of the Christian Democratic Union with an expected third of the vote.
But numbers show a much closer race between the two parties in Saxony, where the CDU is leading by less than one 1 percent.
Meanwhile, the German chancellor's Social Democratic Party is bracing for some pretty disappointing results. These local elections are viewed as a litmus test of sorts for Olaf Scholz and his coalition partners ahead of next year's general election.
Liana Fix is a historian and political scientist or resident fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and the author of "Germany's Role in European Russia Policy: A New German Power." She
joins me now from Washington.
Doctor, good to see you. Official results yet to come in, but apparent success for the far-right in the state elections, the first far-right wins since the Nazi era. What is it all going to mean for German politics?
LIANA FIX, HISTORIAN AND POLITICAL SCIENTIST: Yes, it is quite a dramatic result. And we do not only see a big victory by the extreme right AFD party, but we also see a rise in left-wing populism.
So especially Eastern German states, we have a polarization of the political landscape. It makes it almost impossible to build a center coalition by the governing parties. And that has repercussions for the federal elections in Germany in September 2025. It makes the government in Berlin a lame duck.
HOLMES: And to that point, Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democratic Party performed woefully in these -- these two state elections.
So, what do those results mean for him, his not always unified coalition, and the overall state of stability of his government?
FIX: Yes, the Social Democrats historically have not always performed very well in those Eastern German states that had elections now.
But still, the result after the parliamentary elections in June, which were already bad. Another sign that his progressive three-party coalition is perceived by the government, by the population as not working, as dysfunctional.
And the problem is that this coalition is really far apart on many policy issues. It would -- it was -- it was held together by money.
This money is not available as the budget has become tight. And so, the question is, will this coalition survive until the federal elections in September 2025?
HOLMES: Wow, yes. The AFD has been designated as a right-wing extremist party. Its leader was fine for using Nazi slogans, even had courts define him as a fascist.
What are the fears among those who do not support the AFD when it comes to the party's agenda. What do they fear the party could do or influence?
FIX: So, there are multiple dimensions here. On the economic side, it is a huge problem that those Eastern German states do not receive the workers that they need, the skilled workers who are often coming from abroad or have immigration background; because there are real fears to move into those states and into those areas.
Then on the political level, there's a real question if, at some point, the AFD will be able to govern by itself or find a coalition partner. So far it has not been in government responsibility.
And then on many policy issues, it is driving the debate, especially on migration policy. The other parties of the political center have taken up a lot of the arguments that the AFD has made about refugees and migration in general.
HOLMES: Yes, and immigration, indeed, played a big part in this election. But the AFD also wants to do things like dump the Euro as a currency, stop weapons, supplies to Ukraine and so on.
Is there concern regionally among the E.U., among NATO about the rise of the AFD?
[00:20:04]
FIX: Yes, in contrast to other European populist right-wing parties, the AFD is not mainstreaming.
They're not becoming softer to appeal to larger parts of the constituencies. They are becoming more and more radical with each year.
And so, the fear is that, while the AFD is not in any government responsibility, those positions that it holds, especially on Ukraine, might trickle up on the federal level and might make other parties more hesitant to be forward-leaning on Ukraine support and other issues.
So, there's no direct causal link here, but there is some trickle-up effect to the national level in Germany that makes European partners concerned about a German lame duck in Europe.
HOLMES: Fascinating. We're almost out of time. I wanted to quickly go back to something you mentioned, and that is the rise of the far left.
What impact has that had? And, you know, if you have growing support for far-right and far-left, what does that say about polarization in Germany? Real quick, if you can.
FIX: Yes, the fascinating part is the far-left is actually very conservative on migration and Ukraine support not far away from the extreme right.
So, we might see a situation here where, actually, the extreme right and the extreme left are closer to each other and might even want to work with each other, which would be a unique situation.
HOLMES: Fascinating. Always great to get your analysis, Liana Fix. Thanks so much.
FIX: Thank you.
HOLMES: Coming up here on the program, Russia launches more missiles at Ukrainian residences, a sports complex, and a shopping center. How Ukraine is responding, after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Tensions are high between China and the Philippines after a series of incidents in the South China Sea. The most recent one took place on Saturday when Coast Guard vessels from both countries collided. You can see it happening there.
Both China and the Philippines blaming each other, saying the collision was deliberate. The U.S. and European Union condemning China's actions.
CNN's Marc Stewart is following the story for us from Beijing.
Good to see you, Marc. This is a concern, not just in your part of the world, but far beyond.
MARC STEWART, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Michael. This is a very volatile part of the world. These waters have been long under dispute. There have been lots of confrontations.
But this most recent run-in, if you will, is happening off the East or the West side, I should say, of the Philippines coast and some -- in an area full of low-lying reefs.
It's an emerging hot-spot that is -- is really getting the attention of both the United States and the E.U. In fact, the E.U. issuing a statement just over the weekend, saying that the Chinese Coast Guard is acting in an unlawful way, undermining international law, and threatening peace and stability in the region.
A similar condemnation from the United States State Department.
[00:25:12]
This is an issue that has been simmering for quite a while. It's an issue that I brought up, actually, last week when the U.S. national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, was here in Beijing as part of regular meetings with Chinese government officials.
I asked him about this tension, even before what we saw over the weekend. He said the first priority is to really de-escalate things.
Let's take a listen to some of his remarks that he made just recently here in Beijing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAKE SULLIVAN, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: Nobody is looking for a crisis. Not the Philippines, not the United States. And, we hope, not the PRC.
But I did raise our concerns about some of the de-stabilizing actions that have taken place.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEWART: So, China is starting to respond, in particular, to that E.U. statement, saying that the E.U. has no right to dictate the South China Sea issue, saying that the E.U. is really ignoring the facts.
Now, historically speaking, China has claimed sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, a good portion of the South China Sea. But an international ruling has said otherwise.
And so now we have this back and forth between -- in this case, between China and the Philippines. Michael, we could get some more clarity on where China stands when its Ministry of Foreign Affairs holds a briefing coming up at 3 p.m. local time. That's 3 a.m. Eastern Time in the United States, Michael.
HOLMES: All right. You'll be keeping an eye on. Marc, good to see you.
Marc Stewart there for us in Beijing.
Well, Ukraine says at least 45 people, including five children, have been wounded by Russian attacks in the city of Kharkiv. Several Russian missiles struck a shopping mall, a sports center, and residential buildings, as well, on Sunday, causing massive damage and possibly burying people in the rubble.
Ukraine's president says its Moscow's latest effort to target civilian infrastructure and terrorize residents.
CNN's Fred Pleitgen with the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Russians certainly continuing their aerial campaign against Ukrainian towns and cities. And really Kharkiv, which is really close to the Russian border, suffering the brunt of some of those attacks.
On Sunday, there was an attack against the areas inside of Kharkiv, Ukrainians saying that the rubble was still being clear in some of those places. Some of the children on the ground there were also wounded in that attack.
And this comes after several days that the Kharkiv area and the city of Kharkiv have been targeted by the Russians. On Friday, seven people were killed in a massive attack by aerial glide bombs.
And on Saturday, another aerial glide bomb hit a village in the Kharkiv area, killing two people there. And the Ukrainians say that the Russians used what's called a FAB-500 bomb that has half a ton of explosives inside, and it obviously causes considerable damage.
The Ukrainians, however, appear to be fighting back. The Russians are saying that there was a massive drone attack on Sunday by the Ukrainians against Russian territory. The Russians say that they shot down almost 160 drones in 15 regions across Russia.
However, there appear to have been hits, namely an oil refinery in the Moscow area, and then also an energy facility in Tver. That is very far away from the Russian border.
So, it appears as though the Ukrainians must have been using long- distance drones for that.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Kyiv.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Frustration and anger in Israel. Protesters are turning out by the tens of thousands across the country, demanding Israel's government agree to a hostage deal with Hamas.
More details after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:31:13]
HOLMES: Welcome back. I'm Michael Holmes. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
And returning now to our top story. Israel's largest labor union has called a nationwide strike, one day after huge protests swept across the country, following the deaths of six hostages in Gaza.
Organizers say 550,000 people alone turned out in Tel Aviv on Sunday as protesters voiced their anger at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and demanded he reach a ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas.
The frustration boiling over as police clashed with protesters. More than two dozen people arrested, accused of vandalism, disorderly conduct, and attacking officers.
Now, as Israel faces growing pressure to secure the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza, the White House says President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will make the U.S. negotiating team in the Situation Room on Monday.
CNN's Kevin Liptak with that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The discovery of these six hostage bodies beneath Rafah has lent new urgency to hostage and ceasefire talks that have been led by American officials over the last several months, but which had really intensified over the last several weeks.
LIPTAK: And when you talk to American officials, they do say now that there is new urgency to bring these talks to an end. But also new complications as these hostage deaths now factor into the discussions, one American official saying that there are now new questions about the seriousness of Hamas towards reaching a hostage deal.
But also, that new pressure --
LIPTAK (voice-over): -- will be applied on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to come to an agreement. And certainly, you see that pressure playing out on the streets of Israel.
Now, President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris did speak on Sunday with the family of the American Israeli citizen who was killed and whose body was recovered: Hersh Goldberg-Polin. The families had been in contact with the White House for the last 11 months as they endured this ordeal.
LIPTAK: And in fact, Hersh Goldberg-Polin's parents spoke last week at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Now, in a statement, President Biden said that he was devastated and outraged. The president went on to say, "I've worked tirelessly to bring their beloved Hersh safely to them, and I'm heartbroken by the news of his death. As tragic as it is reprehensible, make no mistake. Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes. And we will keep working around the clock for a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages."
Now, we did hear from President Biden on Saturday evening after these bodies were discovered, who voiced optimism that a deal could still be struck. He said that the negotiators were on the verge of having an agreement. He said we think we can close the deal.
So, President Biden there, very much of the belief that these hostage talks can continue.
We also understand that Jake Sullivan, the U.S. national security adviser, did speak on Sunday virtually with the families of Americans who remain held hostage in that conversation.
He discussed ongoing diplomatic push across highest levels of the U.S. government to drive towards a deal.
Now, in her statement, the vice president, Kamala Harris, did not mention the ceasefire talks specifically, although she has remained adamant that a ceasefire agreement is necessary, including in that CNN interview last week.
In her statement, she said that "Hamas is an evil terrorist organization. With these murders, Hamas has even more American blood on its hands." She goes on to say, "The threat of Hamas poses to the people of Israel and American citizens in Israel must be eliminated and Hamas cannot control Gaza."
So, making very clear in that statement that any agreement must prevent the future Hamas leadership in Gaza, that that is an eventuality that must not be included in any part of this deal.
[00:35:14]
It was interesting. In both of these statements: President Biden's statement and Kamala Harris's statement? There was no explicit pressure or implicit pressure on Netanyahu to come to any agreement.
Of course, we know that behind the scenes --
LIPTAK (voice-over): -- American officials have been frustrated by what they see as a resistance to come to any agreement on the part of Netanyahu.
These statements are very much putting the pressure on Hamas. And I think when you talk to American officials, they do recognize that the pressure on Netanyahu will come from inside Israel itself.
Kevin Liptak, CNN, Washington. (END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: The 2024 presidential race is entering a critical stretch, with voting in some states beginning this week. President Biden will join Kamala Harris on the trail for a Labor Day event in Pittsburgh on Monday.
It's part of the campaign's push to appeal to working-class voters across battleground states. Donald Trump promising what he calls an economic revival while focusing on the Blue Wall of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
He's planning to hold events in all three states late in the week. A new national poll from ABC News and IPSOS, meanwhile, shows Harris holding a lead over Trump. You can see it there, 50 percent versus 46 percent among registered voters.
It is nearly identical to the poll results for early August before the Democratic National Convention.
Vast stretches of land have gone up in flames in Brazil. The Amazon alone has seen nearly 50,000 fires this year. Fifty thousand. Just ahead, why authorities say it's all due to human activity.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Brazil's government is declaring war on arson as unprecedented wildfires have ravaged the country over the past few weeks.
Tens of thousands of acres of rainforest, wetlands, and farmland have all burned.
More now from CNN's Julia Vargas Jones.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Flames engulfing the world's largest rainforest. The world's largest wetlands, and now the Southeastern state of Sao Paolo.
Fires in the Brazilian state have burned almost 150,000 acres, an area nearly as large as the city of Chicago. This video showing the critical moment when flames jump over a river.
"This is hell," one man says.
Smoke turning day to night and covering entire cities, including the capital, Brasilia, hundreds of miles away.
[00:40:00]
But this is no natural disaster. Authorities blamed the recent rash of fires on a perverse chemistry of climate change, extreme weather events, and human actions.
"People are starting fires," Environment minister Marina Silva says, in the Amazon, in the wetlands, and in Sao Paolo. Ten people suspected of arson have been arrested so far, and police are investigating whether criminal networks could be behind these wildfires.
In a span of 90 minutes, multiple hotspots appeared, satellite images show.
CRISTIANE MAZZETTI, GREENPEACE BRAZIL: One single day last Friday, the 23rd, the number of fires hotspots were even higher than the ones registered in the Amazon biome.
JONES (voice-over): Meanwhile, in the Amazon, almost 50,000 active fires spots have been detected so far this year, and officials say none of them started due to natural causes.
Deforestation via arson continues to be a common practice to set up illegal mining sites and cattle farms, researchers and activists say.
MAZZETTI: People is still bet (ph) on impunity. They are not properly held accountable. We still have time, but time is running out. And episodes like what we've seen in Brazil, what we are seeing in Brazil right now show how urgent it is to deal with climate change, to deal with biodiversity loss.
JONES (voice-over): As Brazil battles one of the harshest droughts in its history, the dry months of September and October could cast an even darker shadow.
Julia Vargas Jones, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: The reigning U.S. women's open champion, Coco Gauff, won't be defending her title after losing to fellow American Emma Navarro.
It's Navarro's second consecutive win against Gauff and comes at the same point in the tournament, the fourth round, as the pair's previous meeting at Wimbledon.
Navarro advances to the quarter finals, where she will face Paula Badosa of Spain.
And fresh off a gold-medal victory at the Paris Olympics, Scottie Scheffler has won the 2024 PGA tour championship here in Atlanta. The 28-year-old finished with 30 under par to take the $25 million FedEx Cup prize, his first.
It is Scheffler's, though, seventh tour title this season, making him the first golfer to win that many Tonys in one season since Tiger Woods did back in 2007.
Collin Morikawa coming second and winning me money in my pub golf pool. So well done, Morikawa.
Thanks for spending part of your day with me. I'm Michael Holmes. WORLD SPORT is next. I'll be back with more news at the top of the hour. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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