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U.N. Strongly Condemns Israeli Strike on Gaza Safe Zone; Harris and Trump Face Off in Fiery Presidential Debate; Hardest Part to Come for Historic Civilian SpaceX Mission; Pope Francis Arrives in Singapore, Last Stop on Trip; Francine Now Category 1 Hurricane, Landfall Expected in Louisiana. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired September 11, 2024 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: ... torture chamber after she watched that video but also saying it's not the torture that killed them but military pressure reached them before the deal did, pushing again for a hostage ceasefire deal. We heard from the Israeli military though as well saying that they simply didn't have the intelligence to be able to launch a rescue mission for those six, that they didn't have the details of the exact location of the six hostages before they found them dead, so it was impossible for them to try and launch any kind of rescue operation -- Christina.

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Paula Hancocks for us there live, thanks Paula.

Now the United Nations is condemning an Israeli airstrike on a safe zone for displaced people in southern Gaza which killed and injured dozens of people.

The U.N. spokesperson says: The Secretary-General strongly condemns Tuesday's Israeli airstrikes in a densely populated Israeli-designated zone in Khan Younis and the killing of civilians including women and children. The use of heavy weapons in densely populated areas is unconscionable.

Gaza officials say at least 19 people were killed and 60 others injured in the strike. The IDF says it was targeting a number of senior Hamas terrorists in the area.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID MENCER, ISRAELI GOVERNMENT SPOKESPERSON: Following IDF intelligence, the Israeli Air Force conducted a precise strike on senior Hamas terrorists. Now these terrorists were operating within a command and control center embedded inside the humanitarian area in Khan Younis. All three were targeted and all three were hit during this operation.

The government can confirm these terrorists were directly involved, directly involved in the October 7th massacre, not indirectly connected, they were directly involved.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Well more on the U.S. presidential debate just ahead. Including where the candidates stand on China. We're live in Hong Kong with reaction.

Plus millions of people are under storm warnings as Hurricane Francine barrels towards the U.S. Gulf Coast. We'll have the very latest on the storm's path.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACFARLANE: Hi, welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Christina Macfarlane. Here's some of the top stories we're following today.

Shortly after last night's U.S. presidential debate, Taylor Swift posted on Instagram that she was endorsing Kamala Harris. She made reference to a fake AI images recently reposted by Donald Trump, saying she needs to, quote, be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter. And she signed the post, childless cat lady.

[04:35:00]

Typhoon Yagi has killed at least 141 people in Vietnam, and dozens more are missing. That's according to the country's disaster management agency. Thousands of soldiers have been deployed to help evacuate residents from flooded areas.

And the U.S. is imposing new sanctions on Iran's main airline after Tehran transferred a supply of ballistic missiles to Russia. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called it a dramatic escalation in Russia's war on Ukraine. The U.K., France and Germany also condemned the transfer as a direct threat to European security.

Now, with their first historic debate in the books, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is challenging her opponent Donald Trump to round two. For his part, though, former President Donald Trump was noncommittal when asked if he'd agree to another debate. He received the lion's share of the speaking time in Philadelphia on Tuesday, as the moderators repeatedly allowed him to interject despite the agreed upon rules.

But CNN's tally, the former president was granted roughly five minutes more speaking time than Vice President Harris. The economy is at the top of voters' minds. And one of the key moments in the debate was about U.S. trade with China.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I took in billions and billions of dollars, as you know, from China. In fact, they never took the tariff off because it was so much money they can't.

Let me just tell you, they lost 10,000 manufacturing jobs this last month. It's going, they're all leaving. They're building big auto plants in Mexico, in many cases owned by China. They're building these massive plants, and they think they're going to sell their cars into the United States because of these people.

What they have given to China is unbelievable. But we're not going to let that. We'll put tariffs on those cars so they can't come into our country.

You know, Biden doesn't go after people because supposedly China paid him millions of dollars. He's afraid to do it.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. (D) AND U.S. PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Under Donald Trump's presidency, he ended up selling American chips to China to help them improve and modernize their military, basically sold us out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Let's go live to Hong Kong and CNN's Kristie Lu Stout for more about those comments. And Kristie, if you could just fact check those comments for us, because there were quite a few comments made about China.

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Christina. Kamala Harris slammed her political rival Donald Trump for his handling of trade with China and his praise for the Chinese leader Xi Jinping. This was their first presidential debate, and she said Trump, quote, sold us out to China to, quote, improve and modernize their military.

OK, let's dig into this. Now, Trump, when he was president, he launched the tech war and the trade war with China. In 2020, the Trump administration added China's top chipmaker, SMIC, and dozens of other Chinese tech companies like DJI and Huawei onto an entity list, effectively cutting them off from U.S. suppliers in tech.

Now, look, condemning China has become an exercise in bipartisan unity in Washington, with both sides out to prove that they are tough on China, which is, of course, the world's second largest economy. And despite starting a trade war with China, Trump, he has showed an appreciation for Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Like, after he was a few years ago, you know, given this red carpet treatment during a visit to Beijing, Trump called Xi the, quote, king of China.

He also praised China for becoming president for life and consolidating power. And during this debate, Harris took issue with that, slamming Trump for his affinity for Xi. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Let's talk about this. With COVID, that he actually thanked President Xi for what he did during COVID. Look at his tweet. Thank you President Xi, exclamation point. When we know that Xi was responsible for lacking and not giving us transparency about the origins of COVID.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STOUT: And it's true. In January 2020, Trump wrote this in a tweet. Let's bring it up for you.

Quote: China has been working very hard to contain the coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American people, I want to thank President Xi.

Now the debate was a powerful platform for both candidates to showcase their policies, especially for Harris, who only recently stepped forward as a Democratic candidate. Back to you.

MACFARLANE: And Kristie, do we know how closely people in China were following this debate and whether there has been any sort of reaction to it?

STOUT: Absolutely. China is watching and watching very closely. In fact, on Chinese social media, the debate went viral and it generated a host of comments like this one.

We've collected them for our viewers, like this one, quote: Trump and Harris's first match is full of gunpowder.

And then there was that moment in the debate when Donald Trump called Kamala Harris a Marxist.

[04:40:00]

And that was the precise moment when China's socials just lit up with memes and hot takes like this one.

One netizen saying, quote: Is this a competition of who's more loyal to the party? Lol.

Now the Harris-Trump debate was the leading, it was in fact the number one trending topic on the Chinese social media platform Weibo this morning -- Christina.

MACFARLANE: Very interesting indeed. Kristie, thank you so much for rounding that up for us.

Now let's move on. Less than a day after the launch, the civilian crew of SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission has already made history, reaching the highest ever orbit around Earth, surpassing a record set during the earliest days of NASA in 1966. The crew hit a peak altitude of just over 1,400 kilometers above Earth a few hours ago. But there's much more on their to-do list, including the first commercial spacewalk set for Thursday.

A retired NASA astronaut told CNN about the dangers of this mission.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEROY CHIAO, RETIRED NASA ASTRONAUT: I do have to admit it raised my eyebrows a bit the first time I heard that we're going to have a non- professional crew, if you will, go out and not only do a spacewalk, but also to do one in new suits that have never been tested in the actual environment before. And also having to depressurize the whole cabin of the spacecraft in order to do that because there is no separate airlock.

And but, you know, after I considered it a little bit, I do know several senior folks at SpaceX. I know that they take safety very seriously. They're technically excellent. And so I have confidence that it's going to go OK.

But it's still, as you say, it's risky to put a suit on, go outside and even more so with a brand new one while your crewmates, fellow crewmates are in a depressurized capsule.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Well, the only thing protecting the full person crew are the new spacesuits developed in less than three years, specifically for this mission. Polaris Dawn also marks the furthest any woman has ever ventured into space.

Now federal authorities are investigating after a scary moment for passengers aboard a Delta flight in Atlanta. The planes collided while taking off, while taxiing for takeoff at Hartsville Jackson International Airport on Tuesday. Delta Airlines say the wingtip of an Airbus A350 came into contact with a regional jet. Nobody was injured, but images posted on social media show the vertical tail of the regional flight separated from the rest of the airplane.

Well, the incident caused the impacted runway and several taxiways at the world's busiest passenger airport to close temporarily.

Still ahead. Australia aims to tackle concerns over how much children are spending online with an age limit for using social media.

Plus, Pope Francis is on the last leg of his tour of Southeast Asia. What's planned for the pontiff's stop in Singapore? Just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:45:00]

MACFARLANE: Now, if Pope Francis has arrived in Singapore just a short time ago, it's the last stop of his marathon tour of Southeast Asia and the Pacific. The pontiff left East Timor earlier in the day after celebrating Mass Tuesday attended by massive crowds with some of the attendees waiting in line since before dawn. And we will hope to bring you a live report on that just coming up.

But for now, let's move on to the EU's top court that says Apple must pay more than $14 billion in back taxes to Ireland. It dates back to 2016 when Brussels accused Apple of getting illegal tax benefits. After the ruling, Apple said the European Commission is trying to retroactively change the rules and that the company's income was already taxed in the U.S.

Chinese tech giant Huawei has revealed a competitor to the newly announced Apple iPhone 16. Meet the Mate XT, a model the company claims is the world's first tri-fold smartphone. The phone boasts a screen just over 10 inches long with three panels that can be folded up to three times.

Do we need three times? Nearly 4 million of the phones have already been pre-ordered since Saturday, but it costs about $2,800 and that's just for the base model.

Now, Australia is the latest country trying to rein in children's social media use -- talking about phones. It plans to introduce a minimum age limit likely between 14 and 16 years old, fighting concerns over children's mental and physical health. The government says it will first work on technology to verify the age of social media users before any laws go into effect. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he wants to see kids spending more time outdoors.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY ALBANESE, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: Well, we're listening to parents and listening to the community and I want to see kids off their devices and onto the footy fields and the swimming pools and the tennis courts. We want them to have real experiences with real people because we know that social media is causing social harm. So, what we've done is put money in the budget in May for a trial.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Now, we can go back to the Pope. Let's go live out to CNN's Christopher Lamb, who's been travelling with Pope Francis, joins us now as touchdown in Singapore. Christopher, this final, I think this is the final trip or place that the Pope will be visiting on his 11-day tour. Tell us what's on the agenda for Singapore.

CHRISTOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Christina. The Pope has arrived for the final part of his marathon tour of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, landing in Singapore on Wednesday. Francis, I think in this trip will be looking to focus on inter-religious dialogue once again, something he focused on earlier in his tour in Indonesia.

In Singapore, there's a long history of religious coexistence and religious tolerance. The Pope will be meeting with young people for a discussion about inter-religious dialogue too.

Also in the background to this trip is China. The Vatican, of course, seeking to rebuild its diplomatic relationship with China. It signed a controversial deal with Beijing in 2018 over the appointment of bishops. And I imagine that when he's in Singapore, the Pope will have a chance to swap notes with Singapore's leaders.

Of course, Singapore has a good relationship or has historically had a good relationship with China. Both the Vatican and Singapore, small city-states with global interests. So the Pope will have an opportunity to try and improve the Vatican and the Holy See's geopolitical influence --

MACFARLANE: Unfortunately, as you can see, we've lost Christopher just there. So let's move on. Now, Francine has strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane. More than

2 million people are under hurricane warnings and watches in coastal areas of Louisiana, including New Orleans. Some communities are evacuating and closing their floodgates ahead of landfall. Federal emergency officials say the storm poses a serious threat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have about 7,500 additional crewmen, including linemen and vegetation management personnel, ready and waiting to assess the storm damage and then respond as soon as they are safely able to do so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Well, CNA meteorologist Allison Chinchar is joining us now. Tell us what the latest is. Right.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: So the latest is still showing this is a Hurricane Francine at 90 miles per hour sustained winds movement to the northeast at about 10 miles per hour. The question and concern really becomes at this point is whether or not this further intensifies as we go through the day.

[04:50:00]

It could potentially get up to 95, perhaps even 100 miles per hour as we go through the rest of the day.

But there's not much time left before it's expected to make landfall later on this afternoon or possibly early this evening in portions of the central coast there of Louisiana. And that's why you've got a lot of those watches and warnings already in effect.

Now, the storm has not yet made landfall, but it's already dumping significant amounts of rainfall so far. Brownsville, Texas, over seven inches, several other areas here picking up a few inches, and they're likely to see a little bit more now.

Now Brownsville specifically is a pretty important statistic here because the seven inches they got, that's more than they would normally see for the entire month of September, getting it in just a few days.

You've got some of those outer bands starting to spread some moisture in here across portions of Louisiana, but it's not just the heavy rain that's going to be a concern. Tornadoes, waterspouts and damaging winds are going to be a concern, not just for New Orleans, but stretching all the way over into Panama City, Florida, where we could see some of those outer bands.

Rainfall is going to be widespread, not just along the coast, but even pretty far inland. Cities like Memphis, Nashville, Montgomery and Birmingham, Alabama, all expected to see at least maybe four inches of rain. Some could top out as high as six inches of rain total before the system finally begins to spread away. Storm surge is also going to be a big concern along the coast here. You can see this red shaded area just south of Morgan City, five to ten feet of storm surge possible there. Just to the east of that, you're looking at four to seven feet.

Now a little bit further north and east, especially including New Orleans area, we're looking at two to four feet of storm surge there. And then as you start to spread back on the westward edge, even say as far west as Galveston, Texas, still looking at about one to three feet of storm surge there.

Winds are going to really start to steadily pick up as we go through the rest of the day today. You can see here once we get towards say about midday Wednesday local time for Louisiana, those winds will start to get up around that 40 to 50 mile per hour range. Then by the time we get to late afternoon, now we're seeing the 60 to 70 mile per hour range.

And then take a look at this again once you get towards say like that five to seven p.m. in the evening time frame local time here. Now you're starting to see those winds get up around the 70, 80, even perhaps 90 mile per hour range. And then once we get gradually towards the latter end of the day tomorrow, those winds should start to come down rather quickly.

One thing we've talked about is how warm the sea surface temperatures are here in the Gulf of Mexico. And that's really going to come into play these last say 12 hours before the system makes landfall of how much of an impact does that have on this particular storm to determine whether or not it can say intensify even more into a category two. This area right here around the middle 80s for temperatures. So very, very warm there.

Certainly, something we'll have to keep a close eye on, like I said, in the next 12 hours before this storm makes landfall.

MACFARLANE: All right, Allison Chinchar, thank you very much.

And wildfires in California are forcing people to flee from their homes as firefighters work on the ground and in the air to contain them in Orange County. The airport fire has prompted mandatory evacuations for roughly 1,400 homes.

A fire official says the blaze was sparked accidentally from equipment being used to place barriers on a road. The fast moving bridge fire spread quickly Tuesday through a national forest in Los Angeles County. CAL FIRE says the blaze was zero percent contained. High winds and low humidity in the area aiding the spread of the fire. Forest officials say several roads in the area are closed.

Now she may have been mocked for her Olympics performance, but Australian breaker Ray Gunn is getting the last laugh. We'll explain how after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:55:08]

MACFARLANE: Welcome back. Now, after weeks of rumors, U.S. Soccer confirms the official hiring of former Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino as the new head coach of the men's national team. U.S. Soccer has praised his passion for player development and team building. The 52-year-old Argentine most recently led Chelsea to a sixth place finish last season in the Premier League. He also previously managed Tottenham Hotspur and French powerhouse Paris Saint-Germain. He will be tasked with guiding the U.S. team at the 2026 World Cup on home soil in North America.

And staying in America, women's basketball star Caitlin Clark is the front winner to win the WNBA's annual Rookie of the Year award, and rightly so. She's leading the league in assists and is on pace to break the single-season record in that category.

Now, take a look at this. It's not an award, but it is a tribute to the Indiana Fever star. A corn maze created in an orchard in northwest Indiana featured a likeness of Clark holding a basketball with the design reading, We love Caitlin Clark. How cool is that?

Apparently, corn mazes are quite a big thing, my producer tells me, so very nice.

And Australian breakdancer Raygun, remember her from the Olympics? She is now ranked the number one breaker in the world. What a turnaround. That's despite failing to score any points in her Paris Olympic battles and going viral with an unconventional performance that was widely mocked or enjoyed and loved by some of us. The World Dance Sport Federation explained Raygun's rise to the top spot, noting that she won gold at a championship event in 2023 and that the rankings are based on an athlete's top four performances within the last 12 months.

How nice to see her get a golden moment after all of that controversy at the Olympics.

That's it for us here at CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Christina Macfarlane. Stay with us for CNN "THIS MORNING" up after this quick break.

[05:00:00]