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46 People Killed in Latest Israeli Strikes in Central Beirut; Some States Recovering from Hurricane Helene Could Take Months Before Going Back to Normal; Michigan Young Voters Speak Up on their Views Leading Up to Next Month's U.S. Election Day; Wendy's Drops Krabby Patty Meal in Celebration of SpongeBob's 25th Anniversary. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired October 03, 2024 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00]
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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world and to everyone streaming us on CNN Max. I'm Rosemary Church.
Just ahead. The raging fires in the Middle East are fast becoming an inferno. Israeli airstrikes rock central Beirut, sending terrified residents into the streets. We will have a live report on the latest from the region.
Deranged Jack Smith. Donald Trump responds to new explosive evidence just unsealed in his January 6th criminal case.
And no power or water. U.S. officials say Hurricane Helene's recovery and cleanup could take months.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Rosemary Church.
CHURCH: Thanks for joining us. It is 10 a.m. in Beirut where residents are on edge after another night of deadly blasts across the Lebanese capital. And those in central Beirut are saying Israeli attacks for the first time since 2006. The country's health ministry reports at least 46 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes in a 24-hour period.
The attacks by Israel have been pounding Beirut's bustling working- class neighborhoods. One of the explosions was heard close to CNN's Beirut bureau. Ben Wedeman is on the ground and tells us strikes in the southern suburbs came without an Israeli warning to evacuate.
One attack on a multi-story building in central Beirut killed at least six people, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. A neighborhood resident says a Hezbollah affiliate has offices in that building.
Meanwhile, the world is waiting for Israel's answer to an Iranian missile barrage on Tuesday. Israel's U.N. ambassador tells CNN's Kaitlan Collins that cabinet officials are discussing what that response will look like.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANNY DANON, ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: It's not about if there will be a response. It's about what will be the response, what will be the targets. And I think the Iranians are aware of that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: CNN's Paula Hancocks joined us now live from Abu Dhabi. So Paula, what more are you learning about these latest strikes on Central Beirut?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, they happened in the Bashur neighborhood, which is very close to downtown Beirut, and it was just after midnight that the strikes took place. It isn't an area that has been hit this time around.
It was certainly back in 2006 during the previous war between Israel and Hezbollah, but it has put many in central Beirut on edge, even more so than they were already bearing in mind of course that there are up to a million people we understand from authorities that are displaced at this point, many having moved from southern Lebanon, many civilians, trying to find safety, believing that was in central Beirut.
But this is a building which we understand was Hezbollah-affiliated, at least one floor of it was, and that's the strike that took place, killing six and injuring more. Now when it comes to southern Lebanon we have been seeing fighting between Israeli troops and Hezbollah. The Israeli troops say that there has been, quote, "close-range engagements," claiming that they have destroyed more than 150 Hezbollah sites.
Hezbollah, for its side, said that they have carried out more than two dozen attacks against Israeli troops, claiming that they are pushing or have pushed them out of certain villages just along the border. The Lebanese army believes that Israeli troops crossed three times into southern Lebanon on Wednesday, at least that is what they have seen and we know that Hezbollah launched about 300 rockets approximately on Wednesday as well.
So we are seeing some face-to-face battles between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel also saying that they have their first deaths confirmed from this grand incursion, eight Israeli soldiers killed on Wednesday.
[03:04:50]
Now when it comes to waiting for what Israel's response will be to Iran's missile attack. We have to wait a little longer. We heard from the Israeli ambassador to the U.N., Danny Denon, just then. And he also said that the response would be soon, pointing out it'll be a very strong, painful response, but also it'll be a calculated response, according to the Israeli ambassador, saying that Israel doesn't want an all-out war with Iran and doesn't believe that Iran wants an all-out war with Israel either. The U.S. President Joe Biden was asked about this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Would you support an attack on Iran's nuclear sites by Israel?
JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: The answer is no. They have the right to respond (inaudible).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANCOCKS: Now what we saw back in April after the Iranian missile and drone attack at that point was the U.S. trying to persuade Israel to give a restrained response, which it did. According to senior Biden administration officials, that's not the case this time round. There is not this pressure on Israel, at least from the U.S., to restrain themselves in their response. But they do want that the response to be proportionate. Rosemary?
CHURCH: Paula Hancocks in Abu Dhabi, many thanks.
Clara Broekaert is a research fellow at The Soufan Center and she joins me now from New York. Appreciate you being with us.
CLARA BROEKAERT, RESEARCH FELLOW, THE SOUFAN CENTER: Pleasure to be here.
CHURCH: So Iran's attack on Israel represented a much bigger threat than their attack back in April, this time involving nearly 200 ballistic missiles. And now the world waits for a response from Israel, with Prime Minister Netanyahu vowing to make Iran pay. Now some Israeli officials are even calling on Netanyahu to strike at Iranian nuclear sites. What Israeli response are you expecting, given what we know so far?
BROEKAERT: First of all, I will say Israel is absolutely going to retaliate. Today at the U.N. there were calls for diplomatic resolutions. Netanyahu has vowed for a powerful and swift response to Iran's attack. It's facing significant pressure on different fronts to respond. Israel had built successful momentum in the region, and Iran successfully disrupted the momentum Israel had building in the days after it successfully assassinated Nasrallah.
Currently, Iran is attacking Israel, while Israel is attacking targets in Lebanon, Damascus, Yemen, and Israel will now attempt to gain the pre-Iran attack momentum. And I suspect they will keep betting on the esca strategy, which they have been following in the previous weeks.
The fact we saw eight Israeli soldiers killed in southern Lebanon in the past two days will put extra pressure on Netanyahu to act against Iran by the Israeli general public. I think there are a couple of different options available to Israel at this point.
CHURCH: Now, U.S. President Joe Biden has given a hard no to Israel targeting Iran's nuclear sites, but Netanyahu has been ignoring U.S. calls to avoid expanding this war and has made it very clear that he has no intention of accepting that 21-day ceasefire that's still on the table. What happens if Netanyahu goes ahead and strikes Iran's nuclear sites?
BROEKAERT: Well, first of all, let's take a look at what Iran is saying at this point. In a lot of Iran-aligned Telegram groups and outlets today, there was talk about what would happen if Israel retaliates and strikes any of its refineries, oil refineries or nuclear facilities.
And they're saying, well, if that's done, we're going to strike back and we're going to target oil refineries throughout the Middle East that are in U.S. partner countries, such as Saudi Arabia, such as Bahrain. So what we're seeing is Iran knows Israel is going to retaliate and they're already preemptively putting a message out. We are going to respond.
CHURCH: And given the U.S. has been making it very clear that an escalation of this war is not acceptable, but Netanyahu is ignoring those calls, isn't he? Why isn't President Biden, do you think, using his considerable leverage to rein in Netanyahu?
BROEKAERT: Well, I think Biden has, for example, like he stated today, alongside the other G7 countries said, you know, we understand Israel need to respond to this, but only proportionally so. What we cannot have is Israel starting to target nuclear facilities, oil refineries. Imagine oil refineries are being hit. What the impact would be on the global energy market just weeks before a really important U.S. presidential election.
So I think, you know, what we have seen in the past months as well of the war is Netanyahu knows that the U.S. at this point is kind of a lame duck. It's hard to say, but it is that way.
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Netanyahu has a cabinet that has repeatedly kind of gone against exactly the recommendations made by the Biden administration here in the United States.
CHURCH: And as you point out, Iran is saying that if Israel responds militarily, it will hit back even harder with a stronger response. And we already know that Iran has some 3,000 ballistic missiles in its arsenal. So where will all this likely go, this cycle of violence and this tit-for-tat strikes?
BROEKAERT: Well, that's a really good question. I think what you're seeing is we're moving away from a tit-for-tat kind of dynamic tune on potentially an all-out war with Israeli boots on the ground in Lebanon. I'm really concerned about that possibility. Unfortunately from kind of my perspective here, I think Israel is acting in a little bit of a self-defeating manner.
Of course, it had every right to respond to the horrific attacks of October 7th, but for example a recent analysis found that public perceptions of Hassan Nasrallah the Hezbollah leader that Israel killed a couple of days ago have grown more positive across the Middle East since his death, even among Sunni Muslim communities.
So while Israel may have some tactical wins, you know, they took out Haniyeh, they took out Nasrallah, strategically they might be losing the plot if people, even, you know, Sunni Muslim communities throughout the Middle East are becoming more sympathetic towards a character like Hassan Nasrallah.
CHURCH: Clara Broekaert, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it.
BROEKAERT: Thank you.
CHURCH: The fighting in Lebanon has not stopped Israeli airstrikes on Gaza. The Ministry of Health reports at least 90 people have been killed in the latest attacks. The death toll is expected to rise from an incursion into Khan Younis, where a number of victims are believed to be buried under the rubble. CNN has reached out to the Israeli military for comment.
A member of the Gaza civil defense says Israeli forces hit an area where hundreds of displaced people were taking shelter. Hospital officials say at least eight people were killed in an Israeli strike on an UNWRA school building in Nazareth. The IDF says Hamas was using the facility as a command and control center where it was planning attacks on Israel and IDF troops.
Well, meanwhile, Hamas has claimed responsibility for a deadly shooting and stabbing spree in Tel Aviv. The militant group says two of its fighters carried out Tuesday's attack, killing at least seven people and wounding 16 others. Israeli police say the attackers were stopped by both security forces and armed civilians.
Among those civilians was a man who survived the Hamas attack at the Nova Music Festival on October 7th last year. Lev Kreitman says he had a gun on him and fired at one of the attackers. Kreitman, who served as a military reservist in Gaza, was later praised as a hero by Israel's national security minister.
The judge in Donald Trump's 2020 elections aversion case has unsealed a court filing detailing the government's evidence. And it offers the fullest picture yet of the prosecution's case against the former president. The document was previously filed under seal and only made public with some information redacted. Trump reacted to the release with a string of insults and false claims about the investigation.
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DONALD TRUMP (R), U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's a deranged person. I call him deranged Jack Smith. He works for Kamala and he works for Joe. This was a weaponization of government and that's why it was released 30 days before the election.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: CNN's chief legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid has more.
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PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: This filing is the first time the public is getting to see special counsel Jack Smith's full argument for why he believes former President Trump was acting in his private capacity when he allegedly tried to undermine the 2020 election. Now this is important because the Supreme Court ruled in July that Trump cannot be prosecuted for things he did in his official capacity or for official acts.
So prosecutors in this filing emphasizing things that Trump did as an office seeker, not an office holder, saying, quote, "at its core, the defendant's scheme was a private one. He extensively used private actors and his campaign infrastructure to attempt to overturn the election results and operated in a private capacity as a candidate for office."
This new filing also includes some never before seen evidence, including conversations he had with then Vice President Mike Pence and his White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows. It's unclear, though, if the prosecutors will be successful in using that, because the Supreme Court also said, you can't use anything you do in your official capacity as evidence. And those are, of course, two of the president's top advisors.
[03:15:08]
Now, this is all coming out, because the judge overseeing this case, Judge Tanya Chutkan, is allowing this to be released. The special counsel submitted nearly 200 pages detailing his argument, but it was up to the judge to allow this to be released. Lawyers for former President Trump have objected to the release of this evidence, especially so close to the election.
And after it was disclosed today, they started shifting to political arguments, Trump arguing that this was, quote, "a political hit job, and then the campaign, framing it as an effort to interfere with the election." Now they write in a statement, quote, "the release of the falsehood-ridden unconstitutional January 6th brief immediately following. Tim Walz's disastrous debate performance is another obvious attempt by the Harris-Biden regime to undermine American democracy and interfere in this election."
Now this is similar to the arguments we've heard across all of Trump's four criminal cases. They have repeatedly argued that he is somehow the target of some effort to interfere with the November election. But it is important to note that it was up to the federal judge to release this, not the special counsel.
Paula Reid, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Donald Trump praised J.D. Vance for his performance at Tuesday's vice presidential debate. Trump told Fox News that Vance's performance reconfirmed his decision to choose the Ohio senator as his running mate. At a campaign rally in the swing state of Michigan Wednesday, Vance was asked about a key moment during Tuesday's debate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Why didn't you answer the question last night during the debate about who won the 2020 presidential election?
SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), U.S. VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, look, here's the simple reason. The media is obsessed with talking about the election of four years ago. I'm focused on the election of 33 days from now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Vance said he believes this will be the safest and most secure election yet, though his running mate continues to tell election lies and has been laying the groundwork to dispute the results should he lose.
Meanwhile, Tim Walz visited Battleground, Pennsylvania on Wednesday. The Democratic vice presidential nominee criticized Vance for dodging his question about Trump's 2020 election loss.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN), U.S. VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Mike Pence did his duty. He honored his oath and he chose the Constitution over Donald Trump. Understand in that 88th minute last night, with that damning non-answer, Senator Vance made it clear he will always make a different choice than Mike Pence made. And as I said then and I will say now, that should be absolutely disqualifying if you're asking to be the Vice President of the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Still to come, the U.S. President and Vice President tour areas hit by Hurricane Helene as the death toll continues to rise. We'll have the latest on how communities are coping with the disaster.
Plus, the U.S. port strike leads to crowds of people panic buying toilet paper. But it's totally unnecessary and we'll explain why. Back in just a moment.
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BIDEN: The United States, the nation, has your back. The nation has your back. We're not leaving your back on your feet completely. My heart goes out to everyone who has experienced the unthinkable loss, but we're here for you.
(END VIDEO CLIP) CHURCH: U.S. President Joe Biden speaking to residents of North and South Carolina on Wednesday. He and Vice President Kamala Harris both visited states impacted by Hurricane Helene and now facing monumental recovery. The president took an aerial tour of the devastation in the Carolinas while the vice president visited Georgia.
Officials confirmed the death toll from Hurricane Helene has now risen to at least 191. But the search for survivors continues as new areas are uncovered by rescue crews. More than one million homes and businesses across the southeastern U.S. are still without electricity according to poweroutage.us.
And incredible new video coming into CNN showing the extent of the damage in North Carolina. Chris Faber captured this video from his third-storey apartment in Asheville, North Carolina. He says he saw trees, shipping containers, and complete buildings washed by, including what appears to be the exterior wall of a building seen here.
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That debris was confirmed to be at least part of a local tea business, which lost everything to Helene. The owner tells CNN she thought moving everything at least three feet off the ground would be enough to avoid floodwaters. She had no idea her entire building would be swept away.
CNN's Isabel Rosales and her team gained access to some of the hardest hit parts of North Carolina. Following a FEMA team, they were able to see damage previously unseen since Helene passed through. And here's their exclusive report.
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ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Rare and exclusive access. CNN guided up the Blue Ridge Mountains by one of FEMA's 24- deployed urban search and rescue teams. We're deep in hard hit Avery County, North Carolina.
ROSALES: It just collapsed all the (inaudible).
ROSALES (voice-over): Portions of Beach Mountain, a remote ski resort town, left unrecognizable by Helene's wrath.
ROSALES: The sides of the road just like washed off there.
ROSALES (voice-over): These winding mountain roads made further difficult to navigate by obstacles.
ROSALES: We are entering an area that's closed off to regular people. Only first responders are allowed. And it is because it's so treacherous. We're seeing it for ourselves thick mud all over the place, trees that are down, portions of the road has crumbled down. So I'm really concentrating here. This is difficult to drive.
ROSALES (voice-over): And even when debris and fallen trees are cleared by chainsaw and manpower to make way for rescuers, another major barrier.
ROSALES: This FEMA supervisor who's been on his cell phone trying to get in touch with his team to figure out where they're at.
ROSALES (voice-over): Division group supervisor Colin Burress pulls us over.
ROSALES: Can't get a signal? We're seeing for ourselves everything that the governor has been talking about, the issues I've been talking about, how big of a challenge communication is, not just for civilians, but you guys trying to do the rescue operations.
COLIN BURRESS, FEMA DIVISION GROUP SUPERVISOR: It is. You know when you don't have cell service, email, text, all of that becomes a challenge and the cow slows things down.
ROSALES (voice-over): Then by pure luck, a few of his men spot us.
ROSALES: They found him just out of the blue. So this is great. We're being reunited. And here's the command post right here.
ROSALES (voice-over): This 80-member FEMA team assisting the North Carolina National Guard, now on day six of rescuing survivors, stranded and cut off from help.
UNKNOWN: So it has trained to find live people and FRUSH is trained to find human remains.
ROSALES (voice-over): They huddle over maps.
UNKNOWN: Each mountain in seven days we'll just have a priority.
ROSALES (voice-over): Working out the next day's urgent search.
ROSALES: How does this work? You guys are doing grids? I see this black line right here.
UNKNOWN: Yeah, it's just easier for us to keep up. So we'll send squads, we'll say, you know. Good grid one, grid two, grid three, grid four.
ROSALES (voice-over): Before sunset we roll out.
ROSALES: We came up about three miles, but honestly it feels like 10
ROSALES (voice-over): Back down the mountain, a second look at what Helene laid to waste.
[03:25:01]
Before we can make it down, another danger getting through these torn and treacherous roads.
JASON STUART, TASK FORCE LEADER, TENNESSEE TASK FORCE 1: This is a special case. Typically the roads washed out in a mountain atmosphere like this. Hurricanes usually happen towards the coast. But this is definitely more challenges for us that we haven't faced before.
ROSALES (voice-over): Regardless, first responders across the state push on. More than 400 people rescued so far, says the governor's office. But the work nowhere near done until all the missing are found.
Isabel Rosales, Avery County, North Carolina, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Craig Fugate is a former FEMA administrator, and he joins me now from Gainesville in Florida. Thank you so much for being with us.
CRAIG FUGATE, FORMER FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: Thanks for having me.
CHURCH: Now the death toll from Hurricane Helene is approaching 200 now, and officials fear that count could rise, with hundreds still missing and hard-hit towns still dealing with the scarcity of food and water and a lack of cell phone service. How would you assess the preparations and the response to Helene?
FUGATE: But I'd really like to start with the forecast from the National Weather Service. They were indicating before Helene even became a hurricane that we were going to see widespread impacts and impacts well inland as well as the potential for heavy rain. So from the standpoint of the weather forecast, I thought it gave us a lot of warning.
But unfortunately, these areas, especially inland, I don't think they realized how devastating this storm was going to be. And you hear a lot of people talking about they've lived there all their lives, this never been this bad. And unfortunately, what we're seeing with these hurricanes, it's not just the coastal areas that are getting hit, it's the inland areas as well.
CHURCH: And President Joe Biden took an aerial tour of Helene's devastation Wednesday. Vice President Kamala Harris was also in the Southeast. But there have been criticisms about the slow federal and local relief efforts. What do you say to that?
FUGATE: Well again, FEMA's job is to support the governors. And when people are asking the governors, is there anything you're not getting? Their answer is we're getting what we need. It's the challenge of getting into these areas when the roads are cut off.
That's why you're seeing a lot of helicopters, especially from the National Guard and other groups, flying supplies into these areas. But the big issue was the devastation to the road networks and the fact that these areas were cut off.
CHURCH: I mean, one of the biggest problems is getting clean water to a lot of these people. I mean, and it's just tragic when you're thinking people in this day and age are waiting to get access to water. Could there be maybe more air drops to some of these people?
FUGATE: Well, again, you're looking at it from the standpoint of, you know, what's being pushed in the area, what's being handed out and getting to those folks. But this is something that we also don't usually see is the entire water supply for Asheville being damaged and not working. So this is a huge undertaking.
And again, FEMA's job supporting the governors, governors working with local officials and getting it to that last mile, to that last driveway is the challenge because even where you can use helicopters, they have to have a place to land and they're not able to get to each individual home. In some of these areas, the homes are not close together, so that makes it even more difficult to get aid to those households.
CHURCH: So what is the solution in this sort of situation? Because, I mean, you don't want to see people actually suffering, perhaps even dying, because they're not getting access to water.
FUGATE: Well, this is a disaster. I mean, that's, I think we got to remember this is not something that you would just drive in and hand things out. This is a disaster area where they are still doing search and rescue operations. They're still trying to get to people that may be cut off and isolated, and they're still trying to get enough supplies in there to keep people going.
So it's not going to get back to normal anytime soon. And the emphasis is still on search and rescue and lifesaving activities and getting those supplies in there and getting them distributed.
CHURCH: And Helene is the second deadliest hurricane to hit the US in the last 50 years. Katrina was, of course, the deadliest. Due to climate change, we can expect more of these types of powerful hurricanes and storm systems. What needs to be done to prepare better for these weather systems, with FEMA warning now that it could be weeks before critical infrastructure is restored.
FUGATE: Well, I think what we have to do is realize that the climate's changed. These storms have become more intense, especially the extreme rainfall events. And if you think about it, we have built almost all of our infrastructure based upon past weather, past history. And as we see record setting events, and it's not just in the U S this is globally.
[03:30:00]
You're covering stories across the globe of record setting, extreme rainfall events and flood that's literally killing hundreds of people across the globe in each one of these events.
And we need to build for the future risk. The one thing we cannot do is rebuild communities back the way they were only to be destroyed in the next storm. We really need to think about how we're building going forward to make sure that communities are resilient from these extreme weather events.
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: That is an important point. Craig Fugate, thank you so much for talking with us. We appreciate it.
FUGATE: Thanks for having me.
CHURCH: President Biden is urging striking U.S. port workers and shipping executives to come to an agreement soon to avoid significant damage to the economy. The dock workers' strike at ports along the eastern Gulf Coast began on Tuesday. They're demanding higher wages and assurances that they won't be replaced by robots such as driverless trucks that move goods from ships. The president addressed the strike before touring the damage from Hurricane Helene.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: This natural disaster is incredibly consequential. The last thing we need on top of that is a man-made disaster that's going on at the ports. We're getting pushback already and we're hearing from the folks recently that they're having trouble getting product they need because of the port strike.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: One impact already being felt, stores are running out of toilet paper, even though there's no need to panic. People are buying in bulk, fearing a potential shortage. But the strike will have no impact at all on toilet paper because the vast majority is made in U.S. factories and the rest comes from Canada and Mexico, either by train or truck.
Still to come, Israel's war on Hezbollah is causing a humanitarian crisis as hundreds of thousands of people struggle to find safety. We will discuss their plight just ahead.
Plus, the U.S. presidential election could be decided by younger voters if they turn out to the polls. Later this hour, CNN visits swing state Michigan to find out the issues at the top of minds for many people under 30. Do stay with us for that and more.
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CHURCH: Welcome back to CNN Newsroom. I'm Rosemary Church. Want to check the top stories for you right now?
The judge in Donald Trump's 2020 election subversion case has unsealed special counsel Jack Smith's motion on immunity. The filing details the government's evidence against the former president. The 165-page document was made public with some information redacted.
[03:35:08]
At least 191 deaths have been reported in the wake of Hurricane Helene, the second deadliest hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland in the last 50 years. Rescue efforts continue across the southeastern United States, where U.S. President Joe Biden predicts it will take billions of dollars in recovery efforts.
These are live pictures out of Beirut smoke continuing to rise over the city after Israeli airstrikes shook the center of the city overnight. Israel is taking aim at central Beirut for the first time in 18 years. Airstrikes in the Lebanese capital killed at least six people late Wednesday.
The United Nations says about one million people in Lebanon have been displaced in recent weeks and the country is appealing for $427 million in aid to provide humanitarian relief.
CNN's Ben Wedeman has more from Beirut and its southern suburbs.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Smoke rises from the ruins after another night of Israeli airstrikes. Atop the rubble, a man first salutes, then embraces a photograph of the assassinated Hezbollah leader.
WEDEMAN: This is just one of the latest buildings struck by Israel in the southern suburbs of Beirut for the last ten days. The southern suburbs as well as south Lebanon, the Beqaa Valley, have been pummeled by Israeli airstrikes and now, according to news from Israel, an additional division is being deployed to the northern border in anticipation of what could be a full-scale Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
WEDEMAN (voice-over): Wednesday Hezbollah organized a mob of media for a tour around the southern suburbs to show perhaps they're still in control.
I asked spokesman Mohammed Afif how Hezbollah will deal with Israel's repeated blows, a question he didn't like. I won't allow for that expression, he replied. Your Arabic language is not correct.
His aides chant loyalty to their assassinated leader. We haven't taken blows. I completely reject that, he says. The resistance has recovered. The leadership is well. The command and control is well. The arsenal of rockets is well. Thousands of the heroic men of the resistance on the fronts are well.
Most inhabitants of the southern suburbs have fled elsewhere. Yet some, like Mohsen Abbas, insist on staying put.
My family left, but I'm staying here, he says. They're bombing. Normal. What else could happen?
Wednesday, Hezbollah fighting on its own rugged turf in south Lebanon, inflicted heavy casualties on Israeli forces that crossed the border. Hours after its ally, Iran, rained down missiles on Israel. A war that started in Gaza has spread to Lebanon. In the last week Israel has bombed Yemen and Syria. If this isn't a regional war, what is?
Ben Wedeman, CNN, Beirut.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Imran Riza is the United Nations resident coordinator and humanitarian coordinator in Lebanon. And he joins me now from Beirut. Thank you so much for being with us.
IMRAN RIZA, U.N. RESIDENT COORDINATOR AND HUMANITARIAN COORDINATOR IN LEBANON: I'm pleased to join you, not in these circumstances.
CHURCH: Yes indeed and I wanted to ask you about this because of course Israel has been bombarding Lebanon with airstrikes hitting densely populated areas including the capital Beirut right in the center there. What has been the humanitarian impact of these airstrikes?
RIZA: First, before getting to that, I mean, actually where I'm sitting, a few hundred meters behind our office over here, is exactly what was hit when you're talking about the center of Beirut yesterday. I think what we've seen over the last two weeks is a dramatic, dramatic escalation that's happening.
I mean, of course, this has been going on for almost a year. And if you look at the impact, in a sense, of the last two weeks, it's been unbelievable in a way. We've had 1,700 people killed since the beginning of this, and 1,000 of them have been over the last two weeks.
There was a massive number of airstrikes that you reported yourselves on the 23rd, two weeks ago on Monday. And what has happened because of that is prior to that, two weeks ago we had about 110,000 displaced throughout and mostly in the south and in the Beqaa.
[03:40:00]
Now we have a million displaced and affected people. We're labeling that. At the moment we know quite certainly that there are over 350,000 displaced but we're still counting so we need to understand that. What's happening is that people don't really know where to go.
And that's what we're coordinating on, together with the government. We're working a lot with the government response, trying to help them as well. It has been remarkable how people have been helping each other.
And of course, all the humanitarians that have, most of all our staff are Lebanese, most of our staff are Lebanese, many, many of them have had family members, their loved ones affected. They have been trying to find shelter for them and themselves.
We've had staff displaced as well. So that's sort of the overall situation right now. Trying to launch a big response. You have mentioned the flash appeal that we put out a couple of days ago for $426 million.
We are in need of funds. We have a lot of donors that have already been telling us that they are coming up and going to help us. So that is one big issue. And the other that I really, really want to emphasize, and it's what we're seeing right now, is the impact on civilians.
It's been the impact on civilians since the -- scale up in that sense, which means a massive sort of level of impact on civilians and civilian infrastructure and frontline workers, health workers, civil defense humanitarian workers. We've lost some of our own colleagues and NGO colleagues. Over to you.
CHURCH: And of course in addition to these airstrikes and the impact of those, Israel is now carrying out a limited and targeted ground operation, its explanation of that, inside southern Lebanon. And as a result, civilians are being told to evacuate the area. What impact is that having on people's lives?
RIZA: Well, I mean, this has been building up, as we know, for quite some time. And as I was saying in the last two weeks, this escalation, the trauma, the fear. People are terrified and people are confused. They don't know where to go because a lot of people did move from one area to another, and then that area was sheltered or targeted.
At the moment, I mean, a couple of days ago we helped about a thousand people, over a thousand people from a place called Ain Ibil in the south, to evacuate, to move towards Beirut together with the Order of Malta. The Order of Malta sort of arranged this urgent evacuation.
Otscha, from our side, was very involved with it. We are working together with UNIFIL. We're working together with the LAF. We're working together with all partners to try to address exactly what you're saying. How are people going to deal with things, an escalation on the ground in the South?
And there it's also going to be about how do we access people that are still there. And that all comes back down to international humanitarian law, respecting international humanitarian law, allowing us access and allowing people access, safe access.
CHURCH: Right, and of course the concern now too is that this war might expand, might widen with Israel now poised to respond to Iran's Tuesday ballistic missile attack and Iran in turn threatening to retaliate with stronger force if Israel does that. How concerned are you that this will escalate to all-out war in the region and what will that mean for people there?
RIZA: Well, we're already seeing what the escalation has meant in this particular aspect of the whole regional conflagration that seems to be going on. What we need is a ceasefire. What we need is the opposite direction. And there are calls for that. These calls need to be worked on, implemented, something done. And I know yesterday the Prime Minister, the Speaker and Uli Drumlaat, all of them together came out with a call again for a ceasefire on this. That's what we need. That's what we need.
CHURCH: And on the ground with the need, of course, for people there, what is the greatest need for them right now?
RIZA: Right now, yesterday I was having a meeting together with our humanitarian team and the government on this to see what we do about shelter. We still have a lot of people who don't know where to go, who are on the streets.
A lot of schools have been made available by the Ministry of Education here. We are looking at public buildings. We're looking at different spaces. We're trying to make sure that people are not being left out, unassisted, unsheltered.
[03:45:08]
So the one huge priority is that funding. Well, that's the reason why the flash appeal the other day. I think we have systems in place. We have good coordination together with the government on the response. We've got fantastic, strong local NGOs, Lebanese NGOs that are partners that we know well that we've worked with. We've got international NGOs also very present.
So we've got a good setup to do this, we need the resources to do it, and we need member states to help with ensuring that we have access, that there is some respect to international humanitarian law as we go ahead.
CHURCH: Imran Riza, we thank you so much for joining us and do stay safe. I Appreciate it.
RIZA: Thank you. Thanks.
CHURCH: And still to come.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JADE GRAY, FORMER CO-PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN COLLEGE DEMOCRATS: You are not getting to the White House unless you get Michigan, and you're certainly not getting to the White House unless you get Gen Z.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: The young people hoping to get out the vote in swing state Michigan, why their political support is not to be taken for granted, that is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: Young voters in Michigan could decide the presidency this November. Voters under age 30 are a key part of the Democratic coalition in the state. But cracks have emerged over how the Biden administration has handled the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
CNN's John King went to Ann Arbor, home of the University of Michigan, to check in with young voters in the run-up to election day.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ball on campus means football. In Ann Arbor, that means go blue. Whatever your politics. Fall on campus also means election crunch time. And here, the push to vote and vote early is just about everywhere you look.
GRAY: You are not getting to the White House unless you get Michigan. And you're certainly not getting to the White House unless you get Gen Z. KING (voice-over): Jay Gray and Anushka Jalitsagi are former
presidents of the College Democrats. Jalitsagi is now a first-year law student. Born in Missouri, but this time voting in Michigan.
ANUSHKA JALITSAGI, FORMER CO-PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN COLLEGE DEMOCRATS: A lot of my out-of-state friends are switching their registration to Michigan because they know it's a battleground state.
KING (voice-over): The University Art Museum doubles as a voting hub. Outside, this registration desk stands out, as does this school day concert.
That very spot on our last visit in May, was home to a student encampment protesting Israel's response to the Hamas terrorist attack and Biden administration weapon shipments to Israel. The university won't allow another encampment, so it's harder to judge the depth of student anger.
Gray now works in digital organizing and sees a dramatic shift.
[03:49:59]
GRAY: Huge is an understatement. I think there's a drastic difference in support amongst young people for Vice President Harris versus President Biden.
KING (voice-over): Attendance at college Democrats' meetings is strong. This night, spent phone banking. After a little pep talk from Michigan's Democratic governor. But resentment lingers. The October 7th anniversary is at hand. The election, just a month away now. This is a meeting of the Syrian Students Association at Wayne State in Detroit.
KING: How many are hesitant having a hard time voting for Harris because of these policies? That's just about everybody.
KING (voice-over): Trouble for Harris is also easy to find in majority Arab-American Dearborn. Wahbeh Nuseibeh is Palestinian, a 26-year-old Wayne State student who voted for Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden.
WAHBEH NUISEBEH, WAYNE STATE STUDENT: I'm not voting for Kamala Harris. Not in good conscience. I cannot vote for someone that uses my hard-earned tax dollars to kill my friends and families overseas.
KING (voice-over): Nuseibeh plans to vote third party.
NUSEIBEH: Donald Trump is a threat to our democracy and threat to our society.
KING (voice-over): The campus divide goes well beyond picking a president. At both Ann Arbor and Wayne State, anger at school officials for how protests have been handled and among students, a divide over how we got here.
NUSEIBEH: Yes, there were atrocities on October 7th, but again, these people are fighting for their land and for their families. KING: So on October 7th they weren't fighting on their land. They
crossed into Israel.
NUSEIBEH: Yeah. So even though again we go back to this didn't start on October 7th. It really didn't.
KING (voice-over): Maya Siegmann is a Wayne State junior, active in the campus Hillel chapter, just back from a summer in Israel.
MAYA SIEGMANN, WAYNE STATE STUDENT: The propaganda war, the social media war, the news war that Hamas and Israel are fighting, Hamas is winning. It is hard because when people talk about being on the right side of history and then they don't educate themselves enough to figure out which one is the right side, it's a bandwagon effect.
KING (voice-over): Siegmann will vote Harris, though she wishes the vice president would give more details.
SIEGMANN: The debate was hard. Because she didn't directly answer most of the questions. And when the topic of the Israel-Hamas war came up, then there wasn't really a solid response as to how she would solve it.
KING (voice-over): There are a few signs of Trump's support on either campus. His green light to Israel isn't what most students want to hear.
KING: So if you, in a perfect world, wanted to recruit some of those disaffected Democrats, he's not helping you?
MAX SCHESKE, MEMBER, COLLEGE REPUBLICANS AT UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: No, probably not.
KING (voice-over): Max Scheske is a member of the Michigan College Republicans. He will vote for Trump, but he is hardly a fan.
SCHESKE: He's a bit of a grifter (ph). You know, you can kind of get him to say you believe anything as long as he thinks that's what the votes like.
KING (voice-over): Scheske says GOP energy is up a bit as the election draws near, but that many students planning to vote Trump just can't wait to move on.
SCHESKE: We certainly do kind of have kind of our, you know, Trump is, you know, Trump is basically Jesus' wing of the club, but we also, we do actually have a very sizable, you know. Very critical of Trump.
KING (voice-over): There's no doubt Harris is running strong here. Strong enough is the question.
GRAY: If she comes up short in Michigan, I don't think it's because of young voters. I think it's probably because we waited too long to make a switch. I sure hope she doesn't come up short in Michigan because I don't really want to be talking to people about how young people should have done more when I feel like we're doing a lot. KING (voice-over): Game time in a state Harris needs to keep blue.
John King, CNN, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Much more ahead here on CNN. Do stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:55:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: One of two doctors charged in connection with actor Matthew Perry's death has entered a guilty plea in a Los Angeles court. Perry died a year ago at age 54 due to the effects of the anesthetic ketamine and subsequent drowning, according to a coroner's report. Dr. Marc Chavez pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine as part of a plea agreement. He faces up to 10 years in prison.
A U.S. bomb from World War II that had been buried at a Japanese airport exploded Wednesday. The blast created a large crater and a runway at an airport in southwestern Japan. More than 80 flights were canceled but no injuries reported. Officials are trying to determine what caused the bomb to suddenly detonate after so many decades.
A painting, discovered decades ago by an Italian junk dealer, is likely the work of Picasso. And experts say it's probably worth more than $6.6 million. The painting was discovered in 1962 on the Italian island of Capri in the basement of a villa.
It signed Pablo Picasso, but the junk dealer who found it didn't realize for years it was valuable and hung it in the family's home. But since they realized it might be of value in the 1980s, they've been on a decades-long journey to authenticate the signature on the artwork.
And finally, if you're craving a fast food burger and are also a die- hard fan of "SpongeBob SquarePants," Wendy's has the thing for you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS, FICTIONAL CHARACTER: -- together like that?
SQUIDWARD TENTACLES, FICTIONAL CHARACTER: I've never had a Krabby Patty. I've never had a Krabby Patty. I've never had a Krabby Patty.
SPONGEBOB: Never had a Krabby Patty? Well, you got to have one right now! No wonder you're always so miserable. Here, try this --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: The U.S. fast food chain is releasing a special meal in honor of the 25th anniversary of the animated TV show with its very own Krabby Patty. It is the same as its regular cheese burger but has an extra slice of cheese and something called a Krabby Kohlab sauce. Of course, the recipe for that is top secret.
I'm Rosemary Church. Have yourselves a wonderful day. "CNN Newsroom" with Max Foster is next.
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