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Trump, Harris use Star Power to Voters as U.S. Elections Begin in 11 Days; SpaceX Crew-8 Splashed Down, Safely Returned to Earth; Trami Devastated Parts of the Philippines, 24 People Killed; Yankees, Dodgers Square Off in the World Series. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired October 25, 2024 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to all of you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is "CNN Newsroom."
In less than two weeks until Election Day, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are making last-minute pitches to voters hitting battleground states using star power.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says ceasefire and hostage talks will resume this weekend. Meanwhile, Israeli strikes on Lebanon and Gaza aren't letting up.
And a SpaceX splashdown is expected this hour, but two astronauts on the space station won't be coming home to Earth aborted.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Kim Brunhuber.
BRUNHUBER: 11 days and counting. Kamala Harris turns on some high voltage star power in her push for new support, and Donald Trump makes a swing through several key battleground states. More than 30 million ballots have already been cast in states allowing early voting. That's about 19 percent of all the votes cast for president in 2020.
At a rally in the battleground state of Georgia on Thursday, Harris was joined on stage by former president Barack Obama for the first time in the campaign. The two were introduced by a face and voice that's beloved by many Americans.
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At that rally, Harris painted a stark difference between what day one in the White House would look like for herself versus Donald Trump. Our Priscilla Alvarez has more.
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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 healthcare, 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.
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS (D), U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: 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 and make that decision.
ALVAREZ: Now the vice president also called 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.
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BRUNHUBER: Now at the rally here in Atlanta, former President Barack Obama told the crowd the time has come to choose a new generation of leadership in the country. He warned about growing accustomed to or dismissing Donald Trump's rhetoric and behavior, and he urged voters to make the right choice. Here he is.
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BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: It will not make things perfect, but it does make a difference to have somebody who is competent, somebody who sees you, somebody who respects you, somebody who cares about you, somebody who understands your dreams.
And you need to remind folks who are still on the sidelines that the election is about more than just policies, it's about values, and it is about character.
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[03:05:01] BRUNHUBER: Donald Trump made campaign stops in two critical battleground states on Thursday. In Arizona, Trump railed against Biden administration immigration policies. He falsely claimed an army of migrant gangs has crossed the border into the U.S. and he warned that migrants will destroy the country's overburdened social security and Medicare programs.
In Las Vegas, Nevada, Trump appeared at a rally aimed at reaching the city's Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities. There, he sang a familiar love song for his plan to save the nation's economy and ensure its safety.
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DONALD TRUMP (R), U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And I say the most beautiful word in the entire dictionary of words is the word tariff, I love tariff. I can make anybody do anything through the use of tariffs. I can keep people out of war. I can keep us out of war.
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BRUNHUBER: Well it's been eight years since Donald Trump first won election to the White House, and there's been a lot of talk recently about how much he's changed since then. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lost that election to Trump and she spoke earlier with CNN. She says she believes Trump is more dangerous now than he was in 2016. I asked Natasha Lindstedt, Professor of Government at the University of Essex, about that assessment.
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NATASHA LINDSTAEDT, PROF. OF GOVERNMENT, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX: He's been involved 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 him 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, say 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 thought. He goes off on tangents all the time. His memory is all over the place. He thought that he had debated in front of a big audience, or 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 it easier for people to manipulate, particularly foreign adversaries.
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've spoken about many times before.
But his support base is just rock solid and on top of that he has these people who are not part of his base necessarily but just 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, not really, doesn't really have to do with 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 who aren't necessarily Trump supporters are going to go to the polls on Election Day.
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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. The Israeli Prime Minister's office says Mossad chief David Barnea will try to Doha to take part.
Meanwhile, Lebanese state media reports three journalists have been killed by an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military told CNN they're looking into the reports. At least 12 people were killed in other strikes across Lebanon on Thursday.
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CNN's Paula Hancocks is following developments and joins us live from Abu Dhabi. So Paula, on the talks this weekend, I imagine expectations must be fairly low. PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They are Kim. They are fairly low
that there will be any kind of significant breakthrough before the U.S. election in less than two weeks. But the fact that they are happening at all, this is the first time we've seen this kind of high level meeting in more than two months.
So that's certainly something that the Biden administration is pointing to. They want to try and renew momentum when it comes to these ceasefire hostage talks after the killing of the head of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar. And certainly we have heard that from the U.S. Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken. He has been in the region on his 11th trip since October 7th. Let's listen to what he said in Doha.
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ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We talked about options to capitalize on this moment and next steps to move the process forward. And I anticipate that our negotiators will be getting together in the coming days. This is a moment to work to end this war, to make sure all the hostages are home, and to build a better future for people in Gaza.
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HANCOCKS: So there will be the security chiefs of Israel and the United States, along with the heads of Doha, the prime minister and foreign minister, who will be discussing these talks. We have heard that Doha and Egypt have been in touch with the Hamas delegation as well.
So even though there hasn't been an official announcement of who has taken over from Sinwar, there are members, senior leaders of the political side of Hamas, the political bureau who are based in Doha. So there are people that they can negotiate with.
We have heard, though, privately from the U.S. officials believing that there won't be a decision from the Israeli side before the U.S. election. We heard just yesterday from the former U.S. president, Donald Trump, saying that he has been talking to the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and there is a sense that Netanyahu would believe he has more of a friend in Donald Trump, shall we say, a more sympathetic ear to his aims and his goals in the region.
So there's certainly a sense that there won't be any definitive decision made on the Israeli side until Netanyahu knows exactly who he will be dealing with in the White House. But we have been seeing some activity we have seen that's, for example, the Egyptian security delegation meeting with a Hamas delegation in Cairo, so there are talks ongoing. But as I say, the expectations are low for any kind of breakthrough, at least before the U.S. election. Kim?
BRUNHUBER: Yeah. Unfortunately for so many people. Paula Hancocks in Abu Dhabi, thanks so much.
Now those diplomatic efforts haven't eased the suffering in Gaza. Now we just want to warn you the video of the latest incident is graphic. Hospital officials report at least 17 people were killed by an Israeli strike on a school housing refugees. More than 40 others were wounded.
Authorities say most of the casualties were children and the elderly. The Israeli military says the Hamas Command and Control Center was embedded inside the compound where terrorists were planning and executing attacks on IDF troops.
Also 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.
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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They walked through the rubble at gunpoint, into potentially booby-trapped buildings and downed, darkened tunnels. Some were teenagers, like 17-year-old Mohammed.
MOHAMMED, PALESTINIAN SURVIVOR (translated): I was handcuffed and wearing nothing but my boxers.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Others, like Abu Ali Yassin, were grandparents.
ABU ALI YASSIN, PALESTINIAN SURVIVOR (translated): 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 (translated): We were forced to enter homes. Each time, our lives were at risk. We feared death. We were afraid something might happen. They would ask us to do things like, move this carpet, saying they 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.
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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, used 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: 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: 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: 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.
DIAMOND: 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 banned 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.
DIAMOND: 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 (expletive). Of course, I don't believe that.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Dr. Yahya Al-Kayali, 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.
DR. YAHYA AL-KAYALI, WORKED AT AL SHIFA HOSPITAL: A 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.
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BRUNHUBER: Efforts to vaccinate Gaza's children against polio may fall short if the UN warns time is running out to distribute the much- needed second doses, as fighting causes delays. We'll have details next. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Well time is running out to vaccinate Gaza's children against a resurgent polio virus. UNICEF says there are only days left to distribute the critical second dose within the necessary time frame.
The U.N. agency says there are nearly 120,000 children in northern Gaza still vulnerable to contracting and spreading the virus. The latest immunization drive was set to begin on Wednesday, but world health officials were forced to delay those plans due to escalating violence, intense bombardment, mass displacement orders and a lack of assured humanitarian pauses in the fighting.
I'm going to go live now to Gaza and Rosalia Bollen with UNICEF. Thank you so much for being here with us. So in a war with no positives, no bright side, the first rounds of vaccinations were a rare bit of good news. Did you anticipate you'd be facing the problems you are now?
ROSALIA BOLLEN, UNICEF COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST: The first round of the campaign indeed was successful despite tremendous challenges already back then. Gaza's infrastructure is destroyed, including cold chain, which is necessary for the distribution of the vaccines, which need to be kept cold.
So already back in September, when we carried out this first round with the Palestinian Ministry of Health, we were facing considerable challenges. For the second round, which started on the 14th of October, we did manage to reach over 94 percent of eligible children under age 10 and below in the south and the center of Gaza, despite these continued challenges.
But in the north, as you highlighted, the continued bombardments, the continued siege, the -- the displacement orders make that the conditions are not there for us to roll out the second round.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, and the fact that the IDF has killed more than 200 UNRWA workers, even hit U.N. troops in Lebanon, I mean, these types of things must make workers feel even less safe than they might ordinarily in a war zone.
BOLLEN: There is no safe space in Gaza, and unfortunately that is also valid for humanitarian workers. So in northern Gaza, because of the continued bombardments there, it's not just about the U.N.'s access there.
The way that we implement these campaigns is that we work with hundreds of social mobilizers on the ground who in the center and in the south over the past couple of days have been going from tent to tent to remind people, remind families and parents of this second round and the importance to get a second shot to protect your child and then to guide them towards the vaccination point.
You can imagine that under the current conditions that is not something that is possible and equally the health workers that have participated in this campaign to administer the polio vaccine right now in the north they are completely overwhelmed and they would not be able to join this effort.
BRUNHUBER: Is there a ticking clock here? Do you have a certain window of time to give this third dose?
BOLLEN: Yes, we do have a timeline. That is something that is valid globally. So, ideally, the second dose of the polio vaccination campaign is administered around four weeks after the first dose. Children need two doses to reach full immunity, to be fully protected.
In the event we're not able to do it within four weeks, we can do it up to eight weeks approximately after the child has received the first dose. If we don't do this, it means that the children's immunity significantly declines, but equally important, it means that the virus is able to continue circulating.
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So what it means is that we are not interrupting the transmission of the virus. And that's what we want to do, not just for the children in Gaza, but for children in the region really, because the polio virus does not know any boundaries, it doesn't respect geographic borders.
The virus that is currently circulating in Gaza, and Gaza was polio free for 25 years, polio virus had been eradicated here. The virus that is circulating here is likely introduced from Egypt, which underlines, like highlights this point that viruses, they don't respect boundaries.
And that's why we are racing against the clock. That's why we have this timeline that we need to adhere to make sure that the remaining 119,000 children in Northern Gaza are protected, but also to stop the spread of the virus for the benefit of children really across the region.
BRUNHUBER: Well, listen, we wish you the best of luck with this vital campaign. Rosalia Bollen with UNICEF in Gaza. Thank you so much.
BOLLEN: Thank you for having me.
BRUNHUBER: Astronauts on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft are expected to splash down off the coast of Florida at any moment. So we want to show you live pictures coming in from NASA. The crew-8 mission 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 spent 232 days docked to the International Space Station, making it the longest mission Dragon has ever been on orbit. Boeing Starliner astronauts, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who were stranded on the ISS earlier this year, are expected to return by February.
All right. I want to bring in Miles O'Brien, who's a CNN aerospace analyst and a science correspondent at PBS NewsHour, and he joins me from Falmouth, Massachusetts. Thanks so much for being here with us. So we're seeing these live pictures right now as a splashdown is set to happen any minute. Now just talk us through what we're seeing right now.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AEROSPACE ANALYST AND PBS NEWSHOUR SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT: Well it's almost like looking like at a photographic negative for those who remember what so much like. But what you're seeing here are infrared images which pick up heat and that big white blob in the center there that is actually the dragon capsule which is just endured the heat of re-entry which is upwards of 16,000 degrees Celsius, 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
And inside are four members of the Crew-8 mission. Underneath four parachutes, that's always a good sign when you see those four fully inflated parachutes descending at a relatively slow pace toward the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola.
The weather there is good. It's been delayed because of some concerns about the weather in Florida. And of course, the issues related to the Boeing Starliner and the other crew. But right now, what you're seeing there, Kim, is another routine end of a SpaceX mission to the International Space Station. This is the 13th crew mission that SpaceX has successfully flown to and from the space station proving tremendous reliability for SpaceX and putting it in stark contrast to the myriad of problems faced by that Boeing Starliner which as we know came home without its crew on board not too long ago.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah that's right I want to ask you more about that later but just to focus on what we're seeing right now again as we're waiting for splashdown. I mean, you said the word routine. I mean it's just amazing that something like this would be considered routine, given how amazing the feats of engineering and everything else to try and bring these astronauts home safely really are.
Just give us a sense of who the astronauts and the cosmonauts who are on board there, take us through who they are and what they've been doing.
O'BRIEN: So it's a four-person crew they've been in space for in excess of 235 days now. Matthew Dominic is the commander of this mission. He is a first-time space flier and comes out of the U.S. Navy, having flown FAA-18 Hornets as a test pilot. He sits beside Michael Barrett, who is the pilot who is on his third space flight, and he's got, prior to this, about 211 days in space. Also aboard is Mission Specialist Jeanette Epps on her first space flight, who is a NASA astronaut.
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And by the way, we just had splashed down there.
And finally, a Russian cosmonaut, Alexander Grebenkin, joins the crew. And now they are back safe and sound on Earth, or at least in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. And this begins the process now of safely getting them to dry land.
KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah, and I think there might've been a little bit of a delay in your signal on ours, because we just saw that splashdown happening moments ago as you said the four parachutes deployed successfully. Everything to you looks routine as you say. What happens next?
O'BRIEN: Well you know, when I say routine to, we have to agree that (inaudible) there right? It is.
BRUNHUBER: Exactly.
O'BRIEN: Routine in the context of something that is that very on the edge of what we can do. There is -- there's a period time here now where the vessel comes toward the dragon capsule and their divers that are present in the water to make sure everything is safe on the outside.
They checked for off-gassing of some of the volatile gasses which fire those rockets. And then the capsule, as it gets taken right on board the recovery vessel, unlike the old days of NASA Apollo missions where the crew would get out onto a raft and be evacuated a helicopter to a vessel.
The vessel comes to the capsule capsules gets put on the vessel and then the crew comes out so it takes a little bit of time for all this to happen once they're on the vessel in a quick transfer onto a helicopter and a flight to Pensacola and they won't be will be too long before they're back with their loved ones after eight months in space.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah. Gosh, it was such a -- such a long journey for them. Speaking of long journeys as we, sort of, watched the live pictures there of the -- of the capsule as it made splashdown. I want to ask you about Suni and Butch who are still stuck in space. So you know just a lay person's question here. Why couldn't they just hitch a ride back on this capsule?
O'BRIEN: Yeah, it's a lot of people ask that question. It seemed like the logical thing. A dragon capsule in theory is designed to hold as many as seven human beings but this particular capsule was configured for four so that were four seats and they were four spacesuits designed for this crew specifically and just putting two additional people on wouldn't have been a very safe way to go back to earth.
Now, if there had been an emergency up there and NASA of course did not have confidence in the Boeing Starliner capsule if there had been some kind of drastic emergency, Butch and Suni probably would have done that. They would have, you know, gone and hung on as tight as they could, I suppose, for lack of a better term.
But in this case instead of doing any further reshuffling of crews, they were essentially drafted to join the next crew which came up and docked last month as we saw on the SpaceX Dragon. And that crew left two crew members behind that would have normally been on board, but they had to stay home in order to make space for Butch and Suni.
So there's a bit of a leapfrogging here and Butch and Sunny are now a part of this permanent station crew which will be up there for some time.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, so it still has a ripple effect that will affect all of these different astronauts here. In the meantime, take us through what Butch and Suni have been doing in the meantime? How are they how are they spending their time?
O'BRIEN: They pretty much dove right into the process of doing what space station astronauts do. Suni is the commander. She's been named the commander of the space station. She got right into it. They're both season space fairs with a lot of time on the International Space Station.
So they surely know the ropes and so there's plenty of, there's always a fairly crowded out a tempo of scientific experiments underway on the space station and so they were called into service pretty quickly.
And you know a lot of people have used the term stranded but for an astronaut like Butch and Suni while I'm sure they're going to miss their families and events that they have to attend, being stuck in space is kind of actually part of what they signed up for and really part of their dream.
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And so, I think, you know, the way Butch described it in his news conference, he had an almost instantaneous transition when as he thought about it and decided to there's no point bemoaning it time to become a part of the crew and so there they are that's sort of part of the drill.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah. And we're just looking at live pictures here of the SpaceX capsule as boats are heading out to, I guess, retrieve the astronauts are load that's onto the -- onto the boats make sure, as you said, there are divers who are making sure that they're all okay here.
Before we go, I just want to quickly ask you again, this is a successful, another successful mission for SpaceX really positioning them as the dominant force here in private space flight.
O'BRIEN: To say the least, Kim, and if you had asked me at, you know, a decade or so ago when this whole endeavor first began, this commercial crew program as it is called, if you'd ask me whether Boeing or SpaceX would lead the way, I probably would have given you the opposite answer to be honest with you.
And SpaceX has proven itself time and again and has delivered for NASA. NASA wanted to have two separate ways to get to the International Space Station.
And that, the Boeing problem has proven the value of having that. Were it not for SpaceX, NASA would have to rely on Russian Soyuz rockets to get back and forth. And that's a complicated and expensive way for NASA astronauts to get to the International Space Station, plus all kinds of geopolitical concerns, given what's going on in Ukraine, of course.
And so, now, you know Boeing has not made it clear what's next for Starliner and when if ever there will be another flight of Starliner, leaving NASA with one way to get to the space station. There are other potential contractors out there that might want to get in this game.
But at this stage of the game, the International Space Station may be deorbited before an alternative, a second path is fully developed. So the fact that SpaceX has provided this reliable delivery to and from the space station has been crucial for NASA.
BRUNHUBER: All right. Well, listen. We'll leave it there as we're seeing pictures of the SpaceX Crew-8 astronauts seemingly making a successful splash down off the coast of Florida.
Miles O'Brien, thank you so much for joining us for this moment. I really appreciate it.
O'BRIEN: You're welcome.
BRUNHUBER: All right. More now on one of our top stories. The U.S. presidential election is just 11 days away. And according to data from 47 states and Washington, D.C., about 30 million people have already cast their ballots in early voting.
Both of the nominees are scheduled to campaign in Texas today. Democrat Kamala Harris will be in Houston, where she's expected to focus on reproductive rights. And Republican Donald Trump is set to deliver remarks in Austin, Texas. In an event on Thursday, Trump talked about how he plans to end Russia's war on Ukraine if he wins. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: On the evening of November 5th, I will call Putin, I will call Zelenskyy, I said, we got to stop, and I'm going to try and get it done as president-elect. As president-elect, that'll give me plenty of credibility. I don't have to wait until January 20th. I'm going to try and get it done sooner than that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: And as Election Day nears, celebrities are making the case and taking the stage for the candidates. Superstar Beyonce is expected to perform and appear alongside Kamala Harris at a campaign rally in Houston today. And speculation continues over whether pop star Taylor Swift will join Harris on the campaign trail.
CNN's Brian Todd has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Her Grammy-nominated ballad "Freedom" is already a staple at Kamala Harris' rallies. But on Friday, pop superstar Beyonce will up the ante, appearing on stage with the vice president at a rally in Houston.
LEIGH ANN CALDWELL, ANCHOR, "WASHINGTON POST LIVE": This is a huge, huge get for Kamala Harris. It generates excitement, it generates buzz, and that's what Kamala Harris' team wants in these final days.
TODD (voice-over): The celebrity buzz for Harris also ramped up on Thursday night. With an appearance by rock star Bruce Springsteen, who took the stage with the Vice President and former President Barack Obama at a Get Out to Vote rally in Atlanta. Harris said she was honored by it.
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS (D), U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think it just shows the breadth and depth of the support that we have and also the enthusiasm.
TODD (voice-over): The sheer star power that's been brought to the 2024 race is palpable.
Harris has also scored the endorsement of musical icon Taylor Swift, who brings more than 280 million Instagram followers and a proven record of being able to inspire young people to register to vote. [03:40:05]
BRYAN WEST, TAYLOR SWIFT REPORTER, "USA TODAY": With Taylor, it's not just about her influence, it's her power, it's her ability to speak to a massive fandom.
TODD (voice-over): Harris has won endorsements from musician Lizzo, Pop and RnB star Usher, actor George Clooney, Oprah Winfrey who spoke at the Democratic National Convention.
OPRAH WINFREY, TALK SHOW HOST: Values and character matter most of all.
TODD (voice-over): And from rapper Megan Thee Stallion, who also appeared with the vice president at a rally.
Donald Trump has scored a high-profile endorsement from X-owner Elon Musk, who's also contributed tens of millions of dollars to boost Trump's campaign.
ELON MUSK, OWNER OF X, SPACEX AND TESLA: Donald Trump has to win this election. He really does.
TODD (voice-over): Trump's also won the endorsement of country rock star Kid Rock, who performed at the Republican National Convention, an endorsement from actor Dennis Quaid, who's campaigned for Trump, and from icons of combat sports like UFC head Dana White and pro wrestler Hulk Hogan.
MICHAEL WARREN, SR. EDITOR, "THE DISPATCH": These may not be the most popular with Gen Z college girls, but men, that's a big part of Donald Trump's coalition. And that's who he's trying to tap into with those celebrities. He does need those celebrities to validate him.
TODD (voice-over): On Harris' side, the suspense now lies with one tantalizing possibility.
CALDWELL: I'm sure that they would love for Taylor Swift to appear alongside Kamala Harris.
TODD: A Harris campaign official declined to answer a question on whether Taylor Swift would appear with the vice president on the campaign trail, only saying quote "wouldn't that be great." When Swift endorsed Harris in September, Donald Trump said at the time that she would probably pay a price for that in the marketplace, and a Trump campaign spokesman said it was more evidence that the Democrats have become the party of the wealthy elite.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: People trapped on roofs cars swept away. When we come back, a tropical storm causes chaos in the Philippines.
Plus takeaways from the BRICS summit in Russia and the message it's sent to the West. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: A Colorado man is suing McDonald's restaurants in the U.S. over an E. coli outbreak linked to his quarter pounder hamburgers. The outbreak has caused 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.
The plaintiff's lawyer says the man ate at a McDonald's before experiencing gastrointestinal symptoms and tested positive for E. coli a few days later. Regulators say the onions or beef on the sandwich are the likely culprits. McDonald's has taken quarter pounders off the menu in about a fifth of its U.S. stores.
[03:44:58]
And some other major fast food chains have proactively removed fresh onions from their menus in response to the McDonald's outbreak. 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 four onion products due to 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.
Tropical storm Trami has left 24 people dead in the Philippines due to flooding and landslides. Authorities in the northeast have been scrambling to rescue villagers trapped on roofs. The government shut down schools and offices except those needed for disaster response.
Floodwaters were seen sweeping away cars. Officials say the death toll is expected to rise as more areas manage to send out reports. Now Trami is now moving away from the Philippines. The country is still being pounded by heavy rain. Here's CNN meteorologist Chad Myers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right, Tropical Storm Trami. Now if you're in the Philippines watching, been calling 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 was it.
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, it ran off into valleys, and right through some of these spots with 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 comes 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 of the name, 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 denying 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 kind of 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 a while, 120 kilometers per hour.
Going to die off as it makes landfall and starts to lose its water 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: The Ukrainian intelligence service warns North Korean troops have been spotted near the war zone for the first time. They were reportedly detected in the Russian region of Kursk, seen here in orange. That's where Ukraine staged a surprise incursion several months ago.
Ukraine and the U.S. as thousands of North Korean troops have been in training in Russia. President Vladimir Putin didn't confirm or deny the soldiers' presence when questioned by reporters on Thursday that the Kremlin recently struck a military assistance pact with Pyongyang. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): 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 4, 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: The Russian president's comments came during the BRICS summit of major emerging economies. The event was held in southwestern Russia against the backdrop of war next door and was attended by the U.N. secretary general. CNN's Marc Stewart picks up the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
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 BRICS Summit drew criticism from Ukraine's government. Its foreign ministry posted the statement ex-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.
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.
[03:50:00]
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 UN Security Council Resolution 1701. We need peace in Ukraine, a just peace in line with U.N. Charter, international law and General Assembly resolutions.
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.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: Alright, still to come, Shohei Ohtani's Los Angeles Dodgers will take on Aaron Judge's New York Yankees at the World Series, kicking off later today. We've got a preview of the legendary matchup next. Stay with us.
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(VIDEO PLAYING)
BRUNHUBER: There you see it, astronauts on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft have just splashed down safely off the coast of Florida. Crew-8 mission's return was delayed after weeks of bad weather in Florida, but they were finally given the go-ahead beginning their journey home on Wednesday. Crew includes NASA's Matthew Dominic, Michael Barrett, Jeanette Epps, and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin.
Teams on the SpaceX recovery ship, including two fast boats, are securing Dragon and ensuring the spacecraft is safe for recovery and the crew will then be taken out of the spacecraft and undergo medical checks before a short helicopter ride to land. They spent 232 days docked to the International Space Station, making it the longest mission Dragon has ever been on orbit.
Archaeologists in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii have announced a new discovery, a small home richly decorated with elaborate frescoes. They say the wall decorations are similar in quality to those found in more opulent houses, but unlike most homes at the time, it wasn't built around a traditional Roman atrium.
The dwelling is called the House of Phaedra after the mythical Queen of Athens. Pompeii was buried by an eruption from nearby Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. and was rediscovered in the 18th century.
The New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers are preparing for an epic showdown when the World Series kicks off on Friday. Ticket prices have reached record highs as fans scrambled to see the two teams face off for the first time since 1981. CNN's Natasha Chen has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NATASHA CHEN, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): East versus West, Shohei Ohtani versus Aaron Judge. It's the dream matchup 43 years in the making.
MIGUEL JIMENEZ, TICKET RESELLER: Because it's Yankees versus Tigers. You know, nobody want to miss this game.
CHEN (voice-over): Miguel Jimenez is a ticket reseller in Los Angeles.
With high rolling clients hoping to score seats.
JIMENEZ: What kind of ticket you're looking for? OK, you know the cheapest tickets, 1,100.
CHEN (voice-over): Seats closer to the action are going for thousands, the most expensive tickets to a World Series ever. Jimenez says that's partly because prices in general have jumped since the pandemic, but also because of who's playing.
[03:55:01]
CHEN: The interest in this epic World Series matchup between an East and West Coast team from the two largest metro areas in the U. S. really extends beyond our borders to countries where fans may have historically rooted for the Yankees.
JIMENEZ: Just to let you know, in Mexico, 80 percent of the population go for Yankees. A lot of people, the north side of Mexico, they go for Dyers.
CHEN (voice-over): Gary Lee, founder of the Dodgers Nation fansite, says similarly in Japan after World War II, there had been a tradition of rooting for the Yankees, but now Shohei Ohtani is their nation's superstar.
GARY LEE, FOUNDER, DODGERS NATION: Shohei turning into a Dodger right now. And then having to face the Yankees, this is going to be, this is going to be some discussions between grandpa and his grandkids at the dinner table.
CHEN (voice-over): Fans from Japan poured into L.A. during the regular season to see Ohtani play, staying in L.A.'s Little Tokyo where businesses have seen way more customers this season.
UNKNOWN: We thought we ordered enough, but then people got, you know, the word got out and all of a sudden they're here all the time. When he hit the like 50-50, when he broke the record, tons of people just swarmed downtown just to like celebrate.
CHEN (voice-over): Very different dynamic than the last Dodgers World Series appearance in 2020 when the pandemic prevented most fans from attending any of the games played in Texas rather than at the teams home stadiums.
LEE: That feeling we didn't get a parade. Nothing you know it was more of like a. Yay we won, you know, stay home. You know you keep your mask on.
CHEN (voice-over): This time, the series starts in Los Angeles and people are seizing the moment even if many can't afford a seat.
UNKNOWN: It's the classic clown face, you know, a little bit of pin striping, bring car culture into it.
CHEN (voice-over): They're buying merchandise and treats with cultural touches, the way only a melting pot of a city can do.
DEANNA DUCTOC, OWNER, LOS ANGELITOS BAKERY: It's even more meaningful because we're bringing our culture and what we love and part of our city together.
CHEN (voice-over): Natasha Chen, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: Months of searing heat and drought in Greece are hurting the country's production of chestnuts. Greece is one of the world's largest producers of chestnuts. One expert says the country's output is expected to shrink to half the average of the past five years.
The drought comes after Greece's warmest winter and summer on record and is the latest sign of the impact of climate change on crops across Europe. Greece's economy relies heavily on agriculture.
All right, thanks so much for joining us. I'm Kim Brunhuber, in Atlanta. "CNN Newsroom" with Max Foster and Christina Macfarlane in London, is next.
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