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Harris and Trump Deadlocked in the Final Stretch of the Campaign; Gaza Hostage and Ceasefire Negotiations to Resume; IDF Using Palestinians as Human Shield; North Korean Soldiers Seen in Russia; Antonio Guterres Attends BRICS Summit; L.A. District Attorney Suggesting Resentencing for Menendez Brothers; Los Angeles County District Attorney To Recommend Resentencing; Two Tropical Storms Slam India And The Philippines; North Carolina Struggles To Recover As Temperatures Drop. Aired 2-2:45a ET

Aired October 25, 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)

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN HOST: Welcome to all you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is "CNN Newsroom." Less than two weeks to go to Election Day, Donald Trump zeroes in on the southwestern battleground states while Kamala Harris holds star-studded events in the final sprint.

Speaking out, an Israeli soldier tells CNN that Palestinians were forced to act as human shields in Gaza and says that the practice was prevalent.

Also, Tropical Cyclone Dana makes landfall in India. Hundreds of thousands of people in its path.

Just 11 days remain for Kamala Harris and Donald Trump to convince voters they're the right person to lead the country. To many people, the choice has already been made. More than 30 million Americans have already cast their ballots in early voting. Harris will spend her Friday in Texas looking for support at a rally focusing on abortion rights. She'll be joined on stage by singer Willie Nelson and superstar Beyonce, who's making her first appearance on the campaign trail.

Trump will also spend part of his day in Texas. He will appear with Senator Ted Cruz before moving on to a rally in the swing state of Michigan. Now this all comes as the latest CNN poll of polls average shows the candidates separated by the thinnest of margins with absolutely no clear leader.

Now at a rally in Georgia on Thursday, Harris was joined by some famous faces. She painted a stark difference between what day one in the White House would look like for herself versus Trump. Our Priscilla Alvarez has more.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Barack Obama using their first joint campaign appearance here in battleground, Georgia to mobilize voters to gin up enthusiasm to get them to go out and vote. Both former President Barack Obama and the vice president warning of a potential second Trump term, casting the former president as consumed by his own troubles.

Now, the vice president outlined her policies on the economy and on health care, but she also used a line that campaign officials tell me that she will reiterate several times over the next several days. Having voters in the crowd, imagine what a Trump in the Oval Office would look like. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Just imagine the Oval Office in three months. Picture it in your mind. It is either. So, but there's a choice that everybody has. So let's imagine it for a moment. It's either Donald Trump in there, stewing, stewing over his enemies list, or me working for you, checking off my to-do list. You have the power to make that decision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: Now the vice president also calls on voters to vote early here in Georgia. Early voting is well underway and into Cobb County. Almost a third of active voters have already cast their ballots. That is going to be a key part of the strategy moving forward where campaign officials tell me that they are trying to mobilize voters and capitalize on early voting in the battleground states.

Now of course this event also a star-studded one with Bruce Springsteen headlining the event. Of course, he has been a frequent appearance in the waning days of the election for Democratic candidates. More stars expected to come out over the next several days, including on Friday, when the vice president will be joined by Beyonce to talk about reproductive freedoms in Houston, Texas. Priscilla Alvarez, CNN, traveling with the Harris-Walz campaign.

BRUNHUBER: Donald Trump made campaign stomps in two critical battleground states on Thursday. He met supporters in Arizona and Nevada. He appeared at a rally in Las Vegas aimed at reaching the city's Asian-American and Pacific-Islander community. He told the crowd to think about what they want out of the next presidency. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This election is a choice between whether we will have four more years of incompetence, failure, and disaster, or whether we will begin the four greatest years in the history of our country. We can do that. It's not too late.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Trump railed against Biden administration immigration policies in Arizona. He falsely claimed an army of migrant gangs has crossed the border into the U.S.

[02:05:01]

He also warned that migrants are going to destroy the country's overburdened Social Security and Medicare programs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: She deliberately dismantled our border and threw open the gates. We're a dumping ground. We're like a garbage can for the world. That's what's happened. That's what's happened to us. We're like a garbage can. You know, it's the first time I've ever said that. And every time I come up and talk about what they've done to a country, I get angrier and angrier.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Talking with Fox News, Trump responded to Kamala Harris saying in a CNN town hall on Wednesday that she does think Trump is a fascist.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: She did call me a fascist and everyone knows that's not true. They call me everything until, you know, something sticks. He made a statement that I'm like Hitler. It just couldn't be further from the truth. It's just the opposite, actually.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Trump is also vowing to fire special counsel Jack Smith if he's reelected. Trump says he would use presidential powers to end Smith's probe into Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and his alleged mishandling of classified documents. Here's the former president speaking with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

HUGH HEWITT, CONSERVATIVE RADIO HOST: You're either going to have to pardon yourself or you're going to have to fire Jack Smith. Which one will you do?

TRUMP: Oh, it's so easy. It's so easy. It's so easy. I would fire him within two seconds.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Well, the Harris-Walz campaign quickly responded, arguing Trump's need for, quote, "unchecked power." Here's their statement. "Donald Trump thinks he's above the law. And these latest comments are right in line with the warnings made by Trump's former chief of staff that he wants to rule as a dictator with unchecked power. A second Trump term where a more unstable and unhinged Trump has essentially no guardrails and is surrounded by loyalists who will enable his worst instincts is guaranteed to be more dangerous." Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says she thinks Donald Trump is more dangerous than when she ran against him in the 2016 presidential election. Here's what she told CNN in an interview Thursday night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I think he's more unhinged, more unstable. I think you see that all the time in both his rallies and his kind of word salad after word salad speeches. But you also see it in the interviews he does do, which are primarily with friendly outlets, where he can't follow the question, doesn't really answer the question. And then we certainly saw it for what, 39 minutes, when he just froze on stage and just kind of moved to music. So no, he's not the same person.

Part of it is he seems to be totally obsessed by his grievances, his resentments, his getting even with people. And I think when you are living with that much bitterness and that kind of mindset, you are not able to communicate effectively because literally you are thinking all the time about who said something bad about you, who made, you know, kind of a comment that you disagreed with. You can't be president and have that kind of mindset.

So I think that if people are paying attention, even if they voted for him before, once or even twice, they have to be honest enough to admit he is not performing anywhere near how he was, which I think makes him even more dangerous and frankly more manipulable by people around him, and let's be honest his foreign adversaries of our country who are watching what is a deteriorating performance with I think a certain amount of satisfaction. They're looking forward if he were to end up as president to continue to flatter and manipulate him into doing what they want him to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Clinton also said she agrees with Trump's former chief of staff John Kelly who has said that the former president meets the definition of a fascist. All right, for more now I want to bring in Natasha Lindstaedt, Professor of Government at the University of Essex and she joins us from Colchester, England.

Thanks so much for being here with us. Good to see you again. So I want to start with what Hillary Clinton said there about Trump being different, more dangerous than in 2016. So what do you make of that from what you've seen on the campaign trail? Is there actually much of a change in Trump, do you think, between 2016, 2020, and now?

NATASHA LINDSTAEDT, PROFESSOR OF GOVERNMENT, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX: Yeah, I think there is a huge change. I definitely think he's more dangerous because he's been emboldened by Republicans and that they're basically giving him the green light to be as authoritarian as he wants to be.

[02:10:03] And he's been emboldened by the Supreme Court decision which basically gives him immunity while he's president to do whatever he wants to do and completely ignore the rule of law.

I've never seen a democratic candidate basically be so out in the open about how autocratic they're going to be, a dictator on day one, they're going to fire this person or that person, threatening election, people working on the elections, threatening poll workers, threatening anyone that goes against him, journalists. I mean, he's incredibly blatant and obvious that he's going to be an autocrat and the guardrails will be off.

He's not going to be surrounded by the best people. A lot of the best people that worked with him so to speak have come out against it and said I can't work with him. I can't endorse him. His own vice president can't even endorse him. Several generals, high-level generals saying that he's a fascist, most recently General Kelly.

And to Hillary Clinton's point about his mental decline, I mean that's been incredibly evident as well that he just isn't with it half the time. He can't maintain a spot. He goes off on tangent all the time. His memory is all over the place. He thought that he had debated in front of the audience and that's what he was bragging that the audience loved everything he said. There wasn't an audience there at the debate.

So these are two real problems here that he has serious mental decline, but he has greater confidence in himself and his abilities which is going to make him easier for people to manipulate particularly for an adversary.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah. I want to pick up on one of the things you said there. As a campaign strategy, it does seem strange that Donald Trump seems so focused on revenge and actually expressing it at this point in the campaign.

LINDSTAEDT: I mean, it's just been one of the weirdest campaign strategies that he is leaning into authoritarianism. He's leaning into all these grievances that are personal grievances. They're not really necessarily grievances that most Americans would care about. And yet it doesn't seem to matter in the polls. He hasn't seen much of a drop in the polls.

In fact, he's even seen his favorability ratings rise as he's going off on all these weird, you know, grievance-laden speeches about, you know, people having personal vendettas against him or off on weird tangents attacking immigrants and migrants and so forth that we -- you've spoken about many times before. But he's support base is just rock solid. And on top of that, he has these people who are not part of his base necessarily but to simply believe that they were better off economically when he was president.

They are citing inflation and there's been all kinds of focus on inflation. Of course, inflation is affected by many other factors, doesn't really have to do anything that he did. Inflation was lower when Obama was president. But he's really gotten a big win with this and he's been able to maintain about 46 to 48 percent support so it's going to really matter whether or not these people weren't necessarily Trump supporters are going to the polls on Election Day.

BRUNHUBER: We heard there, you know, again with Trump saying America's become a garbage can and so on. He's really been painting a very dark, apocalyptic vision of America. But we also have Kamala Harris issuing more warnings about Trump, saying for the first time the other day that she thinks Trump's a fascist. There's a complaint that we hear sometimes about her campaign that she spends too much time attacking Trump and not enough time talking about what she believes. And the tone of the campaign does seem to be darker on both sides. Do you think that it's true that the more this race is about Donald Trump, the better it is for Kamala Harris?

LINDSTAEDT: So I can see why she's going on the attack. The polls have tightened and I think the Democrats are increasingly worried that he might win. And so in sort of desperation, they're trying to focus on the very real threat that he does pose to democracy. But I think that in the final stretch, she should be focusing on her own strengths, what she's going to offer, what her agenda was. When she started off the campaign, she was more joyful, focusing on this idea that she's this joyful warrior and that she has this big plan to bring America forward, to look towards the future, and a very optimistic vision for the U.S.

Contrasting that with, as you mentioned, Donald Trump's very, like, just dark vision. And this is very similar to most populists. They like to romanticize the past and talk about the present being just absolutely miserable. I think who should be attacking Donald Trump should be her surrogates. And maybe Tim Walz or other Democratic high- level people including Obama.

[02:14:53]

She should focus on what she brings to the table because she doesn't want to lose the enthusiasm that she once had and that's already started to wane a little bit. It's going to be really important that you go to some of the things that she can offer people to bring the vote out.

BRUNHUBER: All right. We'll have to leave it there. We always appreciate getting your insights. Natasha Lindstaedt, thank you so much.

LINDSTAEDT: Thanks for having me.

BRUNHUBER: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Gaza hostage and ceasefire talks will resume this weekend. The top U.S. diplomat made the announcement during a visit to Qatar as part of his latest peace mission to the Middle East. Blinken is scheduled to meet in the coming hours with Jordanian, Emirati and Lebanese officials in London.

Hospital officials in Gaza say at least 17 people, mostly children and the elderly were killed by an Israeli strike on a school housing refugees. Israeli military says Hamas terrorists were the target. Lebanese state media report three journalists have been killed by an Israeli air strike in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military told CNN they were looking into the reports.

Israeli strikes throughout the country killed at least 12 people on Thursday, according to Lebanese authorities. Israel says it's striking Hezbollah targets.

In Gaza, there are troubling new allegations that Israel is forcing Palestinians to act as human shields to avoid putting its troops in harm's way. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They walked through the rubble at gunpoint, into potentially booby-trapped buildings and down darkened tunnels. Some were teenagers, like 17- year-old Mohammed (ph).

UNKNOWN (through translation): I was handcuffed and wearing nothing but my boxers.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Others like Abu Ali Azin (ph) were grandparents.

UNKNOWN (through translation): They placed me in areas where I could be exposed to gunfire.

DIAMOND (voice-over): These five Palestinians, all civilians, say the Israeli military detained them and used them as human shields in Gaza.

UNKNOWN (through translation): We were forced to enter homes. Each time, our lives were at risk. We feared death. Were afraid something might happen. They would ask us to do thing like, move this carpet, saying there were looking for tunnels.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Now, for the first time on camera, an Israeli soldier is coming forward with his own account, describing how his infantry unit used two Palestinians as human shields.

UNKNOWN: We told them to enter the building before us. If there are any booby traps, they will explode and not us.

DIAMOND (voice-over): We've blurred his face and changed his voice because he risks reprisals for speaking out. Breaking the silence, a watchdog group which verifies soldiers' testimonials provided photographs and facilitated the interview. The soldier says a 16-year- old boy and 20-year-old man were brought to his unit this spring.

UNKNOWN: Their hands were tied behind their back and they had a cloth over their eyes.

DIAMOND (voice-over): The instructions from the intelligence officer who delivered them were clear.

UNKNOWN: He told me to take them. In the next attack, use them as a human shield. He told me that they have a connection to Hamas.

DIAMOND (voice-over): For two days, his unit followed those orders. This haunting photo captures the scene, the silhouette of a Palestinian man, flanked by two soldiers ordering him forward.

UNKNOWN: When we went to the attack, before they enter a building, we took the cloth up so they could see. In my company, one of the soldiers knew Arabic. He just shouted in Arabic, open the door, walk to this building or the other.

DIAMOND (on camera): You're using them because you think this building might be booby trapped.

UNKNOWN: Yes, my soldiers didn't like that at all and they refused to do this anymore.

DIAMOND (voice-over): The soldiers decided to take their concerns to their senior commander, telling him they believed they were violating international law.

UNKNOWN: The commander told this fellow, a simple soldier doesn't need to think about international law.

DIAMOND (on camera): He didn't say, you guys shouldn't be doing this, this shouldn't be happening.

UNKNOWN: He said that we need to do this. He said that our lives are more important.

DIAMOND (on camera): So he didn't just tell you, don't worry about it. He said, keep doing it.

UNKNOWN: Yes, yes.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Eventually, the commander relented, telling his soldiers they could release the two Palestinians.

(On camera): Suddenly you're allowed to release.

UNKNOWN: Yeah. It made it sure to us that they are not terrorists.

DIAMOND (voice-over): In a statement, the Israeli military said the IDF's directives and guidelines strictly prohibit the use of detained Gaza civilians for military operations. The relevant protocols and instructions are routinely clarified to soldiers in the field during the conflict. But the Israeli military's use of human shields in Gaza appears to have been widespread, so common it even had a name, "Mosquito Protocol."

Both Israeli and international law ban the use of civilians in combat. Israel also accuses Hamas of using civilians as human shields. There is ample evidence for it. Tunnels dug beneath homes and rockets fired from residential neighborhoods.

UNKNOWN: For me, it's more painful with my own army. Hamas is a terrorist organization. The IDF shouldn't use terrorist organization practices.

[02:19:56]

DIAMOND (on camera): And so when you hear, you know, spokespeople for the Israeli military, Israeli government officials saying, you know, the Israeli military is the most moral army in the world.

UNKNOWN: That's bull (BLEEP). Of course I don't believe that.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Dr. Yahya Al-Kayali (ph), who worked at Al- Shifa Hospital, knows that all too well. Months after he says Israeli soldiers forced him to risk his life, he cannot shake this terrifying experience.

UNKNOWN: The soldier asked me to come. He was talking to me in English. Told me, I will kill you if you didn't enter there. I was thinking that I will be killed or die within minutes.

DIAMOND (voice-over): His brush with death and the day he feared he would never again see his family. Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: All right, coming up ahead, North Korean troops could be closer than ever to fighting for Russia in Ukraine. We'll explain exactly where they responded.

And later in the show, L.A. County's district attorney is asking for re-sentencing for the Menendez brothers nearly 30 years after their trial gripped the U.S. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRUNHUBER: According to Ukraine's intelligence service, North Korean troops have been spotted near the Ukrainian border. It's believed thousands of soldiers from the North have been training in far eastern Russia, but this is the first time they've reportedly been seen near the front lines. We're told they're now in Russia's Kursk region, marked in orange there on the map, where Ukraine has maintained a foothold since launching an incursion in August.

The Russian president was questioned about the North Korean deployment on Thursday and said his country is in contact with Pyongyang, but little less. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA (through translation): As for our relations with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, as you know, our strategic partnership treaty was ratified only today. There is Article IV, and Russia never doubted that the DPRK is serious about Russian cooperation. But what we will do, and how we will do it, is our business.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BRUNHUBER: President Putin's remarks came during the BRICS economic summit that he's been hosting in Russia. The final day's events included remarks from the U.N. secretary general, who also met with the Russian president. CNN's Marc Stewart has details.

MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At a time when the West is trying to isolate Vladimir Putin, the BRICS summit that we've been watching in Russia shows that he has supporters who are coming to his home turf in the midst of the Ukraine war. Among the many events on Thursday, an address by the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. His invite to the BRIC Summit drew criticism from Ukraine's government.

Its foreign ministry posted the statement to X, reading, "the U.N. Secretary-General declined Ukraine's invitation to the first Global Peace Summit in Switzerland. He did, however, accept the invitation to Kazan from war criminal Putin. This is a wrong choice that does not advance the cause of peace. It only damages the U.N.'s reputation."

[02:25:01]

Broadly speaking, a U.N. spokesperson said this visit comes after last year's BRICS gathering in South Africa, adding its standard to attend meetings where there are large numbers of important member states like G7 and G20. Guterres did address the war in Ukraine and the violence in the Middle East, but the remarks very general. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONIO GUTERRES, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: We need peace in Gaza with an immediate ceasefire. We need peace in Lebanon with an immediate cessation of hostilities, moving to the full implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701. We need peace in Ukraine, a just peace in line with the U.N. Charter, international law and General Assembly resolutions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEWART: A big part of this gathering was for Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to promote a message that there are other worldviews besides the United States and its allies. Putin has touted BRICS as part of a, quote, "new world order," but denies it is an anti-Western alliance. Marc Stewart, CNN, Beijing.

BRUNHUBER: And fresh off the BRIC Summit, India's prime minister is expected to meet with the German chancellor in the hours ahead. Olaf Scholz is visiting India right now at the invitation of Narendra Modi for the seventh round of negotiations over a free trade deal. Germany, now facing a second year of economic contraction, has been trying to reduce its dependence on China.

All right, we're keeping an eye on two tropical storm systems lashing India and the Philippines. We've got the forecast after the break. Stay with us.

(COMMERLCIAL BREAK) BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber and this is "CNN Newsroom." The Los Angeles County District Attorney says he will recommend resentencing for the Menendez brothers at a hearing in the coming hours. He says the move would make them eligible for immediate parole. The trial of Lyle and Eric Menendez gripped the U.S. in the 1990s. They're currently serving life sentences without parole for killing their parents in 1989, but recently there's been new attention on the case.

CNN's Jean Casarez has more.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon is recommending a resentencing for Eric and Lyle Menendez. They of course are the brothers that were sentenced in 1996 for premeditated murder of their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez in 1989. At the time of the commission of their crimes, Eric was 18, Lyle was 21.

[02:29:59]

The District Attorney says they have served and been in custody about 35 years at this point. And because of their rehabilitation, which it appears he's going to focus in on, he believes that a re-sentencing is appropriate.

Here are the exact words of the district attorney of Los Angeles, George Gascon.

GEORGE GASCON, LOS ANGELES COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: After very careful review of all the arguments that were made for people on both sides of this equation, I came to a place where I believe under the law, resentencing is appropriate and I am going to recommend that to a court tomorrow.

CASAREZ: The district attorney says that continuous rehabilitative efforts of the brothers during their incarceration is going to be front and center in this, but also of immense importance is, he says, quote, our office has gained a deeper understanding of the complexities surrounding sexual violence. The defense of these brothers was that their father sexually assaulted them for years and they committed these killings because of the fear that they had inside of them.

Now, the district attorney says that they have done a meticulous review of the filings. They have spoken with Emily members who are supportive of this. They are really looking at the rehabilitation and the focus has been that prison is where you serve out your sentence. That is your punishment. And this is according to California statute and that the prison sentence itself that you have endured is rehabilitative. It is the rehabilitation. Next step will be it will go before a judge. We'll see if anyone contests this and the date for a hearing is yet to be determined.

Jean Casarez, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE) KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Millions of people in eastern India are dealing with the impact of tropical cyclone Dana. The storm is lashing parts of the country with heavy rain and high winds, prompting more than 300,000 people to evacuate schools to close and flights and trains have been canceled. Indian officials, issued highest rainfall warning for the parts of the state and West Bengal.

The storm is expected to weaken as it drifts west through the weekend. And there are no reports of deaths in India from that cyclone.

But that's not the case with tropical cyclone Trami in the Philippines. At least two dozen people were killed in widespread flooding and landslides to northeast.

CNN meteorologist Chad Myers has more on these extreme storms.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right, Tropical Storm Trami. Now, if you're in the Philippines watching, they're killing it Kristine there, two different naming associations there. One from the Philippines and one from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.

It was always going to be a rainmaker and, boy, it wasn't. More than a half a meter, more than 20 inches of rainfall fell in places and then, all of a sudden, it ran off and it ran off into cities, that ran off into valleys. And right through some of these spots where mudslides coming down the hills with all of those deaths already being reported.

So you can see what's happening here. People just trying to get out of the way when the mud come sliding down. One big problem I think here is if you look at the end of the forecast, it does try to make a run, at Da Nang, but then it turns around and heads back. We certainly don't want this to head back and put more millimeters of rainfall along the coast of the Philippines.

So Da Nang, you're going to get some significant rain, at least 250, maybe even 400 millimeters of rain before it finally stops. The problem is when it stops and it sits there, it could just rain for a day or two.

Now, taking a look at the Indian Ocean because we had landfall here, here's Dana coming on shore. So many people in the way of this right now. So many people in the way of 150 to 250 millimeters of rainfall.

It was a fairly big storm for awhile, 120 kilometers per hour going to die off as it makes landfall and starts to lose its water, and energy. But you are going to see significant rain in places that yes, they can use the rain. This is kind of in-between their seasons.

But when you get 150 to 250 millimeters of rain in just 24 hours, that's an awful lot for anywhere on the globe.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: A month on from the deadliest, most devastating hurricane in North Carolina history, the state is still struggling to bounce back.

CNN's Meena Duerson is falling the recovery effort in one mountain town where residents are helping one another racing against plummeting temperatures as winter approaches.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JON COUNCIL, RELIEF ORGANIZER: Yes, like I said, they actually got flooded out the Wednesday.

MEENA DUERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's been a month since Hurricane Helene hit.

COUNCIL: If it's dry and it's warm, he's probably got no choice but to stay there right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There we go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

DUERSON: And here in the mountains of western North Carolina, volunteers are still working to help their neighbors recover.

[02:35:01]

COUNCIL: The last few nights have been below freezing. They got hit pretty hard.

DUERSON: Jon Council has been organizing relief and making home visits since the storm.

COUNCIL: It takes a certain type of person to carve out an existence here.

DUERSON: Council is checking on people like Ruthie Baker, whose mobile home was parked by the riverbank the night of the floods.

RUTHIE BAKER, NORTH CAROLINA STORM VICTIM: We moved when we saw campers, tiny homes and cars floating away. It did tear up the bottom of the camper. So right now it's largely fix the insulation in the bottom so that we can try to stay warm.

I'm really worried about winter. Everybody's kind of on the same lane of we don't know what's going to happen, but we're scared.

DUERSON: Staying warm is the challenge on everyone's minds. Immediate recovery efforts were focused on getting power and water back and clearing the roads.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you find everything else you need?

DUERSON: But last week, the area got its first snow and temperatures below freezing.

ASHLEY GALLEHER, OWNER, ZIONVILLE RAMP COMPANY: These are incredible right now.

DUERSON: What are you hearing from people at the resource desk when they come in?

GALLEHER: Heat is a big one because it got cold really early this year.

DUERSON: Ashley Galleher turned her skate shop into this massive relief operation.

DUERSON: We heard just while we were there, two people come in looking for heaters.

GALLEHER: Yes, it gets really cold. We've had frost the last couple of mornings.

DUERSON: How are you seeing this fit together with like federal relief efforts?

GALLEHER: That's been a challenge. I'll say social media, misinformation, lack of trust.

DUERSON: That lack of trust has led some of the neediest to lean on local efforts, while deeply skeptical of FEMA.

GALLEHER: We had over 300 people visit our site and they had nine people visit their site.

DUERSON: Nine?

GALLEHER: Yes.

DUERSON: And you built this barn?

RONALD WISE: I built this barn.

DUERSON: Ronald Wise is 96 years old.

DUERSON: And I'm guessing it didn't always look like this.

WISE: No, it never did look like that.

DUERSON: And has lived here for almost 80 years in a house heated by a wood stove.

The storm unleashed mudslides that destroyed his barn, wood splitter, and firewood he's been stockpiling for the last decade.

DUERSON: You had enough wood to last you till you're over 100?

WISE: Yes.

DUERSON: And now what do you have? WISE: I have one winter, maybe.

DUERSON: This area was already squeezed by a housing crisis. Many who were flooded can't find or afford other options and are living with mold or sleeping in tents.

DUERSON: What are you most concerned about?

SHERRYE TRICE, VOLUNTEER: We have people in unlivable homes. The biggest needs this winter are honestly going to be surviving it.

DUERSON: For volunteers like Sherrye Trice, the first frost of the year was a warning sign of the danger to her community as the storm slips out of the headlines.

TRICE: People need heat. People need money. And people need our nation to pay attention and not forget about Appalachia.

DUERSON: Meena Duerson, CNN, Boone, North Carolina.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: After more than 230 days in space, astronauts with NASA SpaceX crew-8 mission are coming home or falling there returned live as they prepare to splash down and about an hour. Stay with us.

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[02:40:03]

BRUNHUBER: A Colorado man is suing McDonald's in the U.S. over an E. coli outbreak linked to quarter pounder hamburgers at some of its restaurants. It's been linked to at least 49 illnesses across 10 states, including one death. The suit comes a day after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a food safety alert. It warned that dozens of people who eat from the quarter pounder sandwich reported becoming ill.

Regulators say the onions or beef on the sandwich are the likely culprits, in response to the outbreak. Other major fast-food chains have removed fresh onions from their menus.

Burger King, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC say they've pulled fresh onions from select restaurants, quote, out of an abundance of caution. Also, the distributor U.S. Foods has recalled for onion products who potential contamination and a supplier to McDonald's and Burger King followed suit despite finding no traces of E. coli in tests of its onions.

Boeing machinists are still pounding the picket line after they rejected their employers' latest contract offer. Strike is now in its sixth week and has brought the companies commercial airplane production to a near halt. It's costing Boeing around $1 billion a month according to an estimate from Standard & Poor's. The new CEO says ending the strike is a top priority and a key to fixing the plane maker's financial problems. But with 64 percent union members voting no on a new agreement, getting the company back on track now appears harder than ever. Boeing said Wednesday, it has no comments on the union's vote results.

Astronauts on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft are expected to splash down off the coast of Florida in less than an hour. The crews -- the crew-8 return was delayed after weeks of bad weather in Florida, but they were finally given the go-ahead beginning their journey home on Wednesday. The crew includes NASA's Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt Jeanette Epps, and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin. They spent 232 days docked at the International Space Station, making it the longest mission. Dragon has ever been on orbit. And you can stay with us for live coverage of the splashdown next hour.

All right. That wraps this hour of CNN's NEWSROOM.

I'm Kim Brunhuber. I'll be back in 15 minutes with more news.

"WORLD SPORT" is next.

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