Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Israeli Airstrikes Target Beirut and Yemen; President Biden Calling Diplomacy; At Least 95 Dead in the Aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Southeastern U.S.; Trump Escalating Attacks on Harris' Mental State. New Israeli Airstrikes In Eastern, Southern Lebanon; China's Economy: More Stimulus Expected After Disappointing Economic Numbers; Singer-Songwriter Kris Kristofferson Dies At 88 Years Old. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired September 30, 2024 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States, around the world and streaming us on CNN Max. I'm Rosemary Church in Atlanta.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST: I'm Becky Anderson in Tel Aviv in Israel. It is 10:00 a.m. here Monday morning where the region is dealing with news of the first Israeli air strikes inside the city of Beirut.

CHURCH: Here in the U.S. at least 95 people are dead after historic rain and flash floods from Hurricane Helene. How communities are coming together to help.

And Donald Trump is attacking political rival Kamala Harris, falsely questioning her mental state yet again. What some of his Republican allies are saying.

ANDERSON: We begin in the Middle East where Israel says it has launched new airstrikes in eastern and southern Lebanon today. The Israeli military says it targeted Hezbollah strongholds there. Meanwhile, in Beirut, people are on edge after the first Israeli airstrikes overnight within the city limits. You can see the damage in this video from an attack near the city's Kola Bridge, a major intersection.

CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment. Now this follows an intense barrage of strikes in Lebanon that began about a week ago. Lebanon's health ministry says that the attacks on Sunday alone killed more than 100 people and wounded more than 350 others. Israel confirms that it also carried out air strikes more than 2,000 kilometers away in Yemen on Sunday. Video shot after a strike on a power station shows an inferno with emergency crews on the scene.

Houthi-run television says at least four people were killed there and 45 others wounded. Israel's defense minister says the strikes in Yemen show that for Israel, quote, "no place is too far." Well, CNN's Paula Hancocks is live in Abu Dhabi with more on all of this. And Paula, what further detail do we have at this stage, not least on the strike on the Kola intersection as it is known, that is significant.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is, Becky, and it is something that we have not seen since October when these hostilities began. It is the fact that it is within the city limits that is significant. We have been seeing a number of Israeli airstrikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut. This is one of the Hezbollah strongholds. It's where the Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was assassinated. So that is not a surprise at this point.

But the fact that it was within the inner city limits is going to put much of Beirut on edge. Now we have footage from the early hours of this morning showing firefighters trying to put out a fire in one apartment in a multi-story apartment block. You see chaos on the streets and debris and damaged cars.

Now what we have also heard is from the PFLP. This is the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, one of the militant groups that is based in Lebanon. They say that three of their members were killed in this area. So potentially that was the target of that particular airstrike.

But it will put the capital on edge once again, especially when you consider that there are so many people who have moved, and this is civilians that have moved from southern Lebanon where the vast majority of these airstrikes were taking place, to the capital itself, believing they would be safer in that area.

We've heard from the Ministry of Health that some one million people are believed to be displaced at this point. You have hundreds of thousands of them going to the capital itself. So certainly this is going to be a concern. It is a widening of Israel's tactics and Israel's attacks. Now we have also heard that three more senior Hezbollah commanders were killed on Sunday.

[02:04:58]

This has been Israel's strategy all along really for many months, but certainly over the past two weeks they have been targeting those commanders who are in charge of different parts of the Hezbollah group.

Of course they have taken out the leader of the group, Hassan Nasrallah, and within that as well we're also hearing from the Israeli military that they believe they killed about 20 commanders within that one strike itself, appearing to have been some kind of a meeting of the senior commanders within Hezbollah itself.

So from Israel's point of view, the question now is whether or not they will decide to carry out a ground invasion. We've certainly heard reticence on the part of many in the region, concerns that this will be pushing it too far to a widening conflict which will include the whole region. We've heard from the U.S. side as well. Certainly, the U.S. President

Joe Biden has been trying to resist this for months. He's called for a 21-day ceasefire, which appears to have been effectively rejected by both sides at this point.

But he did say on Sunday that he will speak with Benjamin Netanyahu soon, the Israeli prime minister. He says that they do have to do everything they can to avoid all-out war. But of course, the concern at this point is how much influence does President Joe Biden have over the Israeli Prime Minister? At this point, the calls for ceasefire in Gaza and now in Lebanon have been consistent, they have been persistent, and yet they have not been heeded up until this point. Becky?

ANDERSON: Paula Hancocks in Abu Dhabi, thank you. It's been some 48 hours now since the world got confirmation that Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, had been assassinated by Israel. It is hard to overstate what a turning point Nasrallah's killing will have on Hezbollah, Lebanon and the wider region.

My next guest writes and I quote, Nasrallah was the machinery, the face and the soul of Hezbollah. His demise means not just the loss of a skilled tactician but the degradation of an entire narrative of resistance that has animated the region for over three decades.

Kareem Shaheen is the Middle East and Newsletters Editor for New Lines Magazine, which is a jolly good read. I urge you to read that. He joins us now from Montreal. It's good to have you. And the piece that I allude to talks about whether this is the beginning of a new era and I'm talking about that not just for Lebanon but for the wider region.

Before we discuss the conceit of your article, I just wonder whether you will describe for us what you see going on at present on Lebanon and its effect on the people there.

KAREEM SHAHEEN, MIDDLE EAST AND NEWSLETTERS EDITOR, NEW LINES MAGAZINE: Absolutely. Thank you for having me. I mean, what's going on is obviously heartbreaking, you know, in addition to the actual death of Hassan Nasrallah. You know, his death occurred as a consequence of 2,000-pound, you know, bunker buster bombs that were dropped on a very crowded residential area in Beirut. There's over a million people who have been displaced since, you know, hostilities, you know, up the ante over the past week or so.

And you know, there's the number of people who've died as inching closer and closer to the total number of deaths, you know, in the 2006 war in its entirety, which took over a month. So, it's been really an outbreak of violence, you know, and it's really terrifying to see it from afar. It's incredibly terrifying for the people over there that we've been talking to. But you know, the overwhelming emotion that I'm hearing is shock.

You know, it's been -- Hassan Nasrallah has been part of Lebanon and part of the regional fabric for decades, since he took over as secretary general of Hezbollah in 1992. He presided over the liberation of Southern Lebanon from Israeli occupation in 2000. And then over the Hezbollah's efforts in the 2006 war, which was, glorified as a divine victory for simply being able to hold Israel to stand still, and has been an enormously important part of the regional dynamics when it comes to the so-called axis of resistance, the pro- Iran bloc in the region that has resisted Israel and American influence in the region.

[02:10:06]

So many people have had their formative years in Lebanon, kind of shaped by Hassan Nasrallah's influence and larger-than-life persona and charisma and brutality, frankly, in Lebanon. So there's enormous shock and still disbelief, I think, that he's gone.

ANDERSON: The U.S. is urging Israel not to get involved in an all-out war. Israel reserving the right to going on the ground with troops in southern Lebanon. What they do next is still an open question. Meantime, let's talk about the influence of Hassan Nasrallah further and the significance and consequence of his demise.

I want to just quote for our viewers a little more of the piece that we started with here, quote, "He provided the ideological and operational template for militia and Islamist groups that stretched far beyond Hezbollah, even extremist groups like Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group have borrowed from his playbook imitating Hezbollah's ability to merge military action with political legitimacy and mass mobilization and even emulating his style and persona."

To your point, his influence has been huge not just on Lebanon and you know, importantly politically on Lebanon as well and Hezbollah very much embedded in the political framework and society in Lebanon, but for what is known as the axis of resistance, Iran-backed groups around the wider region, what is the consequence to your mind of his demise at this point and for a future Middle East?

SHAHEEN: Yeah, I think, you know, people are often tempted to kind of downplay the impact of violence, you know, on politics and on the future of the region, on the future of movements like Hezbollah. Rightly so, because Hezbollah was founded as a grassroots movement in Lebanon to resist Israel's occupation. Israel's invasion in 1982 was the spark that led to the creation of Hezbollah.

And right now we're dealing with the possibility of an Israeli ground invasion and, you know, what could emerge out of the ashes of that? What kind of opposition movement? What kind of liberation movement might emerge as a consequence of a potential Israeli invasion is an open question. But with, you know, Hassan Nasrallah was really a figure that was incomparable to many others.

You know, if you go back to 2020, you know, when Qasem Soleimani, the commander of Iranian Revolutionary Guards was assassinated by a drone a strike ordered by Donald Trump, you know, people said that this will not have a huge impact. There are many cadres that can replace him. The institutions that Iran has built across the region in terms of the militias and the way it projects its power is going to survive his demise. And yet, you know, we've seen the operations in Syria and Iraq and

other parts of the region suffer as a consequence of Soleimani's assassination. And since then, we've seen Ismail Haniyeh's assassination, the Hamas political leader who was killed in Tehran, and now Hassan Nasrallah. And Hassan Nasrallah really transcends all of these figures. You know, as we said in the essay, Hassan Nasrallah really created the machinery that is Hezbollah. He is the soul of Hezbollah. And he is the soul of this organization that is really the crown jewel or the linchpin of Iran's power projection across the region.

You know, they were involved heavily in Syria. In fact, Hassan Nasrallah is probably the singular most important figure for the survival of the Assad regime in Syria. They were involved in Iraq. They were involved in Yemen. They were involved in training a lot of these militia groups, in addition to modeling what it looks like to be a successful but, you know, counterinsurgent group and operation. And that's, you know, setting aside their immense cultural importance. You know, for a while, up until 2006, Hassan Nasrallah was essentially the most popular Arab leader in the region due to the fact that he was standing up to Israel.

And this popularity continued up until 2011 during the Arab Spring, and a couple years later when he decided to join the war alongside Bashar al-Assad, and that's when there started to be major shift in how the rest of the region saw him. Of course, in Lebanon he was controversial for a long time because of Hezbollah's alleged involvement in a series of political assassinations of their opposition figures in Lebanon.

[02:15:07]

But outside of Lebanon he was widely revered and respected as a figure up until he decided to join the war alongside Bashar al-Assad.

ANDERSON: Yeah.

SHAHEEN: He was seen as a sectarian actor.

ANDERSON: With huge backing of course from Iran which has threatened reprisals and we are yet to see exactly what that might look like if anything at all. Kareem, it's good to have you, a super essay and as I say, I urge our viewers and folks around the world to have a look at the work that you and your colleagues do. Thank you. Kareem Shaheen for you today.

Well, U.S. President Joe Biden plans to visit communities devastated by Hurricane Helene later this week. Let me hand you over to my colleague Rosemary in Atlanta.

CHURCH: All right, thanks so much for that, Becky. We'll get back to you very soon. As Becky was saying, at least 95 people are now confirmed dead after high winds, torrential rain and flash flooding ripped through the southeastern U.S. The highest losses have been reported in North and South Carolina with the severe weather toppled huge trees and flooded roadways. There's growing concern for residents in North Carolina where entire roads have been destroyed by flooding. Access to clean water and other necessities has become extremely limited in some areas and many cities are still underwater.

Jeremy Knighton is assistant chief with the Asheville North Carolina Fire Department. He joins me now from Asheville. Thank you so much for talking with us at this particularly difficult time. So what is the situation on the ground right now in the aftermath of Helene?

JEREMY KNIGHTON, ASSISTANT CHIEF, ASHEVILLE FIRE DEPARTMENT: It's devastation. That's the best way I can put it. We are -- we're disconnected. We've suffered. Our community is suffering. We've suffered impacts that we've never seen. The rate of rise of water, the amount of debris, everything that we're experiencing here is, for instance, our rain gauges couldn't even measure the amount of water that flowed by in our rivers and streams.

So our infrastructure has taken severe impacts. Our roadways are full of mud and debris, but we are out there trying to service our community that is in absolute devastation.

CHURCH: And there are still a number of people missing, aren't there? So how difficult will it be to locate them and what additional resources do you need to get that job done?

KNIGHTON: Yeah, it's going to be extremely difficult. We're still kind of in that life safety mode now where we went through there, did our hasty searches and now we're doing targeted searches. We're also -- we're waiting for the water to recede more. It's still very, very dangerous and lots of spots. The ground is still very unstable.

So we're having to be methodical and making sure that we're covering all of our bases. The resources, you know, we're obviously in collaboration with our county and state partners and federal partners. They've all been here. They're all here. They're on the ground working. We're partnering up with them, sharing resources.

We're giving the institutional knowledge of our area. It looks way different than it did six days ago, but we're out here trying to serve our community and trying to find people and reconnect folks to those resources that are needed so desperately.

CHURCH: And you are doing an incredible job with that. I wanted to ask you about the people who survived this storm, but they're actually stranded now. How difficult has it been to get clean water and food supplies to those people?

KNIGHTON: It's difficult. It's difficult because we're disconnected. You know, the things that we depend on, on a daily basis, the basic infrastructure is what we're trying to reconnect now. We don't have cell coverage, we don't have power, we don't have water currently. So we're trying to come up with contingencies to restore that and reconnect our community to those resources.

CHURCH: And how long do you think it will take to reconnect, to reconnect the power and the cell phones and all of the communication systems? KNIGHTON: We're still in the assessment phase to be honest with you.

When they -- and this is not a -- there's going to be a new normal here, and I think we have to make sure that we're communicating, collaborating, making sure that our community sticks together.

[02:20:04]

And we were just trying to build, you know, that -- our resilience is being tested right now and we -- as far as a timeline, and there's no way to determine that right now.

CHURCH: And what is your biggest concern at this juncture?

KNIGHTON: Yeah, I think the biggest concern is just life safety, getting to people that are out there in need of us and getting them connected, whether that's the appropriate care, getting family members connected with ones that are lost, just trying those -- it's basically a life safety mission at this point.

CHURCH: You and all of your crews are doing incredible work there. Jeremy Knighton in Asheville, North Carolina. Thank you so much for talking with us. Appreciate it.

KNIGHTON: You're welcome. Thanks for having me.

CHURCH: And coming up, Donald Trump is questioning Kamala Harris' mental state again. We will have the latest on the U.S. presidential race after a short break. Just stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:25:01]

CHURCH: In the coming hours, Donald Trump is expected to visit South Georgia, where he will be briefed on Hurricane Helene's devastation. The former president sent his condolences to those affected while at a campaign rally in the key swing state of Pennsylvania. He also launched into his political opponent over her weekend fundraising and insulted Kamala Harris yet again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Joe Biden became mentally impaired, sad. But lying Kamala Harris, honestly, I believe she was born that way. There's something wrong with Kamala. And I just don't know what it is, but there is definitely something missing. And you know what? Everybody knows it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Trump spent much of his campaign speech on Sunday railing against the U.S. Vice President on immigration issues. He says Harris should be impeached for failing to secure the border. Well, meanwhile, Kamala Harris is trying to strengthen support among Latino voters in the state of Nevada. The visit comes on the heels of new polling from NBC News, Telemundo and CNBC that shows Harris ahead of former U.S. President Donald Trump among Latino voters. CNN's Priscilla Alvarez has more in Las Vegas.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Vice President Kamala Harris making a stop at the critical swing state of Nevada. Now in her remarks at her rally today, she spoke about the two different visions that she presents compared to that of her Republican rival, Donald Trump. Now she has been trying to shore up support among Latinos, a growing electorate and one where she has a lead over her Republican rival Trump, but also one where when the numbers are broken down, she has an advantage with women, Hispanic women, but it is even with Hispanic men.

So the Vice President tweaking her message here in Nevada to also speak to Latino voters, going through issues like the economy, where she mentioned Latina small business owners, also housing affordability, health care and immigration, especially underscoring an approach that is both border security and comprehensive immigration reform, and also talking about reproductive rights. The Vice President, when she was concluding her remarks, also talking about early voting and mobilizing voters to make sure that they get their ballots in as soon as they can.

The vice president also looking ahead this week to that vice presidential debate with her vice presidential nominee Tim Walz as well as J.D. Vance. And there she said, quote, "their debate should not be the last word again, needling former President Donald Trump, to debate again, something that Trump has not yet committed to. But the vice president saying that she would cheer on who she calls Coach Walz. Priscilla Alvarez, CNN, Las Vegas.

CHURCH: And with the election just weeks away, a CNN poll of polls shows Harris and Trump in a close race in the key battleground states of Wisconsin and Michigan. Earlier I spoke with the director for the Center for Politics with the University of Virginia, Larry Sabato, about how he's reading these numbers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: The only thing these battleground polls are telling us, Rosemary, is that it's very close in all of them, closer in some than others, absolutely dead tied in a couple of them, but it's close everywhere. And I think something is going to happen. I wish I knew what. That will end up adding a couple of points to one side or the other, and that will push maybe five or six of the seven swing states into one candidate's column. What that is, as I say, I don't know exactly when it happens. I don't know, but it better be soon, since we only have five weeks to go.

CHURCH: And the big problem too is that Pennsylvania, Georgia, and some other battleground states, they won't know the results on the night of the election. This is going to drag on. And what could happen in that time? What worries you?

SABATO: It's very worrisome. It's very worrisome. And I call 2020 the election that almost broke America. I think all of us are nervous that potentially, if things aren't done right, this could be the election that does break this republic, or at least break the system that we've had for elections. It will drag on, as you said.

There are almost 90 lawsuits that have been filed mainly by the Trump people in one variety or another, sometimes state parties, sometimes national, prior to the election.

[02:29:59]

I mean, we're not even at the election, but they're preparing the way for challenges if Trump should lose a close election.

CHURCH: And Larry, we mentioned that immigration as one of the top issues for likely voters and that, of course, is one of the reasons we just saw Harris visit to the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump claims he can end the trouble there at the border, but of course, a bipartisan and bill could have done that, right, and he torpedoed that this year because he wanted to run on the issue. Why don't most voters know about that? They don't appear to understand that particular detail. Why is that?

SABATO: Well, because they don't pay attention and fortunately we do have five weeks and maybe people will learn a bit more as the election approaches or as the day that they're going to vote approaches, they do tend to do a little research. They pay attention a little bit more carefully.

I don't know whether this can be solved on Trumps first day, should he get back in? Because as you know, he can end the war in Ukraine in one day. So I just don't know which comes first. There are a lot of days early in the term and he talked about one day of chaos, one day of domineering leadership, dictatorship. So there are a lot of things coming in the beginning of the Trump term. If there is a second Trump term.

CHURCH: Let's hit back to Becky Anderson now, who's standing by in Tel Aviv.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST: Thank you very much indeed.

Well, still to come, fears of a wider war in the Middle East grow as Beirut suffers a direct hit, but Hezbollah vows going to continue its fight against Israel. More on that after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:35:26]

ANDERSON: Well, Israel continues to escalate in its attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon, saying it's launched new airstrikes in the east and southern parts of the country today. It comes off these Israeli airstrikes hit within the city limits of Beirut for the first time since the war with Hamas began last year. Video shows the chaos and fear unfolding for Lebanese civilians in the capital following the attack on Monday morning. The Israeli military says it also struck power plants and a seaport used by the Houthis in Yemen. On Sunday, at least four people were killed and dozens more wounded according to Houthi run television. Well, joining us now is Nabih Bulos, the Middle East bureau chief for "The Los Angeles Times", and Miri Eisin, a retired Israel Defense Forces colonel, and a senior fellow at the International Institute for Counterterrorism.

To both of you, thank you very much indeed, for joining us.

Nabih, you are on the ground in Lebanon. Just describe where you are and what you are witnessing.

NABIH BULOS, MIDDLE EAST BUREAU CHIEF, LOS ANGELES TIMES: Well, myself at this point, I'm at the Christian quarter of Beirut called the Sfeir. Over here, it's quite calm at the moment, but we are only a few kilometers away from Lahia, which is the Hezbollah-dominated suburb here, and how many you can imagine the situation is becoming very, very depressing in Beirut right now. I mean, if you go to the downtown area or the seaside promenade area, you'll find hundreds of families just sleeping on sidewalks, sleeping in public spaces and parks wherever they can find.

As because so many people have actually now been displaced, they've got to flee the violence that they've seen in Lahia and other places. So this is where we are right now. It's actually a very dire situation in Beirut.

ANDERSON: And the acting prime minister speaking about the humanitarian situation with as many as a million civilians displaced in some way by what is going on.

And, Miri, it's good to have you again. You and I spoke at this time yesterday. Since then, we have seen more Israeli strikes on southern and eastern Lebanon. And, of course, importantly, the first strike on Beirut within the city confines.

And here is what former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said just a couple of days ago about why the assassination of Nasrallah and many of his commanders is so important, and why he believes it is important to continue the assault. Standby.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NAFTALI BENNETT, FORMER ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Hezbollah right now is temporarily badly harmed and injured, but if we let go of them now, they'll just recover and hit us back in two or three or five years. That's something none of us want to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Given what we are seeing on the ground you and I talked yesterday about Israel reserving the right to go in on the ground. Of course, in southern Lebanon as well, they reserve the right, but not necessarily an option that they will use at this point, I wonder with your experience seeing what is going on at present, whether you believe we are in or headed for full-scale war at this point?

COL. MIRI EISEN (RET.), SENIOR FELLOW, INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR COUNTER-TERRORISM: Becky, I actually think we're in a full-scale war, but that's my interpretation. We keep talking about what more -- there's the air assaults, there's Israel attack on Yemen yesterday. We're talking about such a broad arena.

Is this not what a war looks like? The terminology is challenging me. When it comes to Israel taking additional steps against Hezbollah in Lebanon, and I want to add in, against Hamas in Lebanon and the attack because inside Beirut, that was said before, four civilians killed, at least the PFLP put out little posters of the three PFLP terror fighters that were killed in Beirut.

So what we're talking about is targeting these different terrorist groups, first and foremost, Hezbollah. And in the south, I say again this is about letting Israeli civilians who have not lived in their homes for the last 11-1/2 months to go home for that, you still need to physically dislodge the Hezbollah capabilities that are adjacent to the border. And yes, that would be a much more all-out war.

[02:40:03]

ANDERSON: And, Nabih, if that is the case, if we are looking at a broader full scale war, what will be consequence of that be to your mind?

BULOS: Well, I mean, the fact of the matter is we're talking about an invasion or an occupation, oh, sorry. Sorry. Is this for me or for the other panelist?

ANDERSON: Nabih.

BULOS: Yes. And then it's for me, that I can say that we can expect to see some kind of an incursion into southern Lebanon. We've already seen the Israeli -- it hasn't formed communities in the south, including places like Shebaa, and other places to evacuate and leave because they can expect large-scale bombardments.

It should be noticed. Some of those areas are in the high ground. So I mean, if past is prelude, we can expect to see Israeli military taking over these areas and trying to create some kind of a buffer zone. Although I imagine -- I mean, I think it would not be difficult to go into be clear, but holding that territory will certainly be an issue, as it has been in the past for Israel.

ANDERSON: And, Miri, if indeed that invasion happens and again, Israel reserving the right to use that as an operational option, can you just for our viewers sake, explain what it is that will be the goal in southern Lebanon the threat that a Hezbollah infrastructure provides against Israel there? And what sort of scope you think that would entail with regard Israeli forces?

EISEN: If it's possible now for somebody somewhere to pull up the different photographs of the Radwan forces practicing on doing an October 7 style attack, that would show the viewers what Israel would be going after. Hezbollah, like Hamas are built themselves underground, subterranean. We've seen what that has done in the Gaza Strip. So it's to go into an area where you have underground tunnels in those tunnels.

And Hezbollah puts out different types of clips all the time showing them firing rockets, firing missiles, launching suicide drones, but also they keep showing the clips of the pickup trucks and the motorcycles with the Radwan forces to come in to Israel, to kidnap, to kill, to murder, to go back, and we all know what hostages do.

So, what Israel will be doing would be going into get to those Radwan forces that are deployed in Lebanon, they are Lebanese. They are Hezbollah, Shiite, Arabic speaking Lebanese to go in and to take care of that. But that's not a buffer zone. That's to go into take care of that.

At the end, there is an international force there, UNIFIL. There is a Lebanese army. You have options to not stay there, not be in a buffer zone, but none of those forces are going to now disarm Hezbollah. They have not done so since 2006 and it's up to Israel to be able to do so again, to allow our citizens to go back into their homes after 11-1/2 months.

ANDERSON: That is, of course --

BULOS: If I may say, I think --

ANDERSON: -- the goal of the Israeli government at this point.

Go, Nabih.

BULOS: Well, if I say, I mean, I think your guess somewhat simplifies the situation. The fact of the matter is that even if there is some kind of a dislodging of one forces, which is the special forces unit of Hezbollah, from that area, in theory, Hezbollah possesses actually longer-range missiles elsewhere. And the fact of the matter is that even if they do go in and assess some kind of a surely perimeter in south, then go out -- I mean, in fact, the matter is there's little that can prevent people from returning to that area and restarting again.

Indeed, I mean, I would argue its some of the best situation that the sort of most stable situation Israel had enjoyed before October, it was largely a function of having some kind of a deterrence situation between the two. And they managed to have a fragile truce that lasted for 17 years. Now, admittedly in the short term, we can expect to see some change with Hezbollah. Yes.

But I think in the long term this will come back to being what it was now and we'll have this enmity going on that border by that time.

EISEN: Can I step in a second, Becky?

ANDERSON: Thank you. We'll have you back.

Miri, I'm sorry. I'm going to have to take a break at this point, but I will have you back. We spoke yesterday and well certainly have you back on. For the time being though, I'm going to have to take a break.

Miri Eisin and Nabih Bulos, thank you very much, indeed.

Rosemary, I'll be back from Tel Aviv at the top of the next hour.

CHURCH: All right. You'll see you in about 15 minutes. Thanks for that, Becky.

So new economic data in China shows the country has more work ahead if it wants to hit critical goals. We will break down the numbers in a live report. Back with that in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:48:06]

CHURCH: Floods and landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains have killed at least 192 people in Nepal. And as rescue workers reached more remote areas, officials warn the death toll will likely rise, 96 people have been injured since Friday and dozens more are missing. Images of flood watch what a sweeping over parts of the capital city of Kathmandu. Other videos show entire buildings collapsing as the land below gives out.

Meanwhile, rescue workers are searching for survivors and a digging them out by hand, including this two-year-old boy who was saved after two hours of grueling work.

In China, more economic stimulus is expected after disappointing measures of factory activity and services expansion in September. It comes amid moves from China's central bank and government officials reverse the trend. But the question remains whether Beijing can hit its economic growth targets with the end of the year approaching fast.

And CNN's Kristie Lu Stout is following this story for us from Hong Kong. She joins us now.

Good to see you, Kristie.

So, after an explosive market rally on Friday how are investors taking in the latest data about China's economy?

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, markets across China are rallying. They're rallying over China's stimulus blitz, even as more week and painful data comes out of China, the world's second largest economy. In fact, data released earlier today on Monday shows Chinas manufacturing activity contracted for the fifth consecutive month in September.

But on Sunday, big moves are made to help revive the property market in China. We learned that China's Central Bank said it would start cutting existing mortgage rates before the end of October and you have three Chinese mega-cities, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenzhen lifting curbs for homebuyers.

[02:50:02]

On Friday, that was when there was that explosive stock market rally after China unveiled a major stimulus package.

And on Monday, as you can see on your screen, the markets have been on the rise with the Shanghai composite gaining eight and three quarters of a percent. The Hong Kong Hang Seng up almost 3 percent, and Shenzhen, the index there, gaining almost 10 percent. Chinese markets I should add will be closed tomorrow for the golden week holiday.

Now, look, China as you've been reporting here on CNN, has been facing a number of economic challenges, including weak consumer spending, including an ongoing property slump and rising local government debt for quite some time now, a Congress have been asking Beijing to do more and Beijing seems to be heating that call. Last week that was when we learned that the politburo, this is the very top decision- making body in China. The politburo vowed more stimulus to reach Chinas and will grow target of around 5 percent. And investors welcomed news, economists as well.

In fact, this is what we heard from Bruce Peng, he is the chief economist China, Jones Lang LaSalle, bring it up for you. He says this quote: A pick-up in government spending will probably be sufficient to drive a turnaround and business confidence, market sentiment, and economic activities. Helping China to catch up with potential trend growth.

Now, the pledge that we heard from the politburo came days after China's central bank unveiled this major stimulus package, its most aggressive stimulus package since the COVID-19 pandemic, and the markets are rejoicing, but experts point out this is not going to be a quick or easy fix. It will take time for the stimulus measures to filter through.

So the markets have to embrace for more painful data ahead -- Rosemary.

CHURCH: All right. Our thanks to Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong for that live report.

STOUT: Thank you.

CHURCH: And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:55:46]

CHURCH: Starring in the 1976 remake of "A Star is Born" with Barbra Streisand, was just one of the highlights of Kris Kristofferson's life. The singer/songwriter died Saturday at the age of 88. Kristofferson wrote several hit songs, including "Me and Bobby McGee" and "Help Me Make It Through the Night". His family says the father of eight died peacefully at his home in Hawaii.

Well, two Boeing Starliner astronauts stranded on the International Space Station, are one step closer to coming home. The SpaceX crew Dragon spacecraft arrived at the station on Sunday, and will bring Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore back to earth next year. It launched from Florida on Saturday, carrying a NASA astronauts and Russian cosmonaut, but not without a hitch. SpaceX revealed that the upper portion of the Falcon nine rocket ran into some trouble after a broke away from the capsule, prompting the company to pause flights until it can figure out what went wrong.

I want to thank you so much for your company this hour. I'm Rosemary Church. Becky Anderson will be back with me for more CNN NEWSROOM after a short break. Do stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)