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Harris And Trump To Hold Dueling Rallies In Milwaukee; Harris Distances Herself From Biden's Garbage Gaffe; Israeli Airstrikes Hit Lebanese City Of Baalbek; At least 95 Killed And Dozens Missing In Spain's Flash Floods; Baalbek Residents Flee after Israeli Evacuation Orders; N. Korea Hoping to Gain Russian Weapons Technology; Russia Targets U.S. Voters as Presidential Election Nears; Dodgers Win World Series in Wild Game 5; 25 Years of Conflict Makes for Lasting Relationship. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired October 31, 2024 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[01:00:26]
ANNA COREN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome. I'm Anna Coren in Hong Kong. Ahead here on CNN Newsroom, with five days to Election Day, Donald Trump plays up a gaffe by President Biden while Kamala Harris tries to distance herself from the remarks.
Ceasefire negotiations for Lebanon intensify even as Israel carries out another deadly strike.
And the Los Angeles Dodgers are World Champions after staging an amazing comeback from being down five nothing in the fifth to beat the New York Yankees in the World Series.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Hong Kong. This is CNN Newsroom with Anna Coren.
COREN: With Election day in the U.S. now just five days away, the presidential nominees are campaigning hard in the battleground states they that will determine who will win the White House.
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump both spent part of their Wednesday in the Midwestern state of Wisconsin, one of the three so called blue wall states. It turned blue for President Joe Biden four years ago, but went red for Trump back in 2016.
Pennsylvania remains the grand prize with its 19 electors the most of any swing state. And as you can see, CNN's Poll of Polls shows an even split among likely voters.
In Michigan, the third blue wall state, Harris has a slight edge over Trump. And farther south in North Carolina in the Sunbelt, the poll of polls gives Trump a razor thin edge over Harris.
Meanwhile, Harris is trying to distance herself from a remark by the US President that the Trump team is trying to capitalize on. During an event on Tuesday, it sounded like Joe Biden referred to Trump's support as garbage. He and the White House have since try to walk that back, saying President Biden was referring to the hateful rhetoric of a single Trump supporter as garbage and not all Trump supporters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: First of all, he clarified his comments, but let me be clear. I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for. I believe that the work that I do is about representing all the people, whether they support me or not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: But Trump is using Biden's gaffe as a dominant theme at his most recent rallies.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Joe Biden finally said what he and Kamala really think of our supporters. He called them garbage and they mean it, even though without question, my supporters are far higher quality than Crooked Joe or Lion Kamala.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: CNN's Kristen Holmes reports from the Trump event in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
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KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Former President Donald Trump in Green Bay, Wisconsin, continuing to seize on President Joe Biden's remarks, calling his supporters, quote, unquote, garbage. Donald Trump has tried to use this as an opportunity to change the media narrative. Earlier in the evening, even taking questions from sitting in front seat of a garbage truck. He also addressed those comments once again for the third time or more in day while he was at this rally. Take a listen.
TRUMP: Crooked Joe Biden finally said what he and Kamala really think of our supporters. He called them garbage. No way. No way. My response to Joe and Kamala is very simple. You can't lead America if you don't love Americans. That's true. You can't be president if you hate the American people, which I believe they do.
HOLMES: He also, as you can see there, did the entire rally in his vest that he had worn when he was sitting on the garbage truck. They are clearly sticking to this stick. Now, the important thing here that this isn't just because Donald Trump wants to seize on this or change the narrative. It's also because they believe that this playbook has worked before.
Remember in 2016, after Hillary Clinton said that Trump supporters were a basket of deplorables, they tried to use same thing then with supporters. They believe this kind of rhetoric could actually motivate people to go to the polls to back Donald Trump.
Now, whether or not that's going to happen, it's just not something that we're going to know until Election Day. But it is certainly something they are doing to get to really ramp up that enthusiasm. Kristen Holmes, CNN, Green Bay, Wisconsin.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[01:05:08]
COREN: Well, now to the Harris rally in Madison, Wisconsin, where the vice president lived briefly as a child. CNN's Jeff Zeleny was there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Vice President Kamala Harris taking her closing arguments on the road, visiting three battleground states on Wednesday, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and right here in Wisconsin. Along the way, she's making her case to supporters to cast their early.
The deadline for early voting here in battleground Wisconsin is on Sunday. She was imploring students to get out and vote. Some students we talked to said they waited in line 90 minutes or 2 hours to cast their ballot.
But campaigning near a college campus also comes with some risks. And that became clear in the early part of her speech when one protester shouted ceasefire. Now, this is how Harris responded.
HARRIS: Listen, we all want the war in Gaza to end and get the hostages out as soon as possible. And I will do everything in my power to make it heard and known. But and everyone has a right to be heard, but right now I am speaking.
ZELENY: Her supporters roared with applause when she said that. And she went on to continue delivering her closing message. She is seeking to find common ground, she said, with Republicans independence even as she draws a sharp contrast with Donald Trump.
Harris is heading west to campaign in Nevada and Arizona on Thursday before coming back to these critical blue wall states Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Madison, Wisconsin.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein is a senior editor at the Atlantic and he joins us now from Los Angeles. Ron, as always, good to see you.
Let's start with Biden's gaffe and I guess the phony outrage by Donald Trump and his campaign. Let me ask you, does this help Trump? Does it hurt Harris?
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I think it is not going to be a huge factor. You know, Donald Trump calls people he disagrees with vermin and the enemy from within. I mean, he calls Harris a fascist, you know, eight days a week, you know, as the Beatles would have said.
So, you know, what Biden meant, as is often the case is a little murky. You know, his syntax is often garbled. He has a history of gaffes. You can make a plausible case that he was talking about Trump supporters in general or that he was talking specifically about the comedian who made the offensive remarks about Puerto Rico. But ultimately, you know, the Trump side of this electorate is pretty well engaged, as is the Democratic side of this electorate.
And what you've got is, you know, those last few points of voters who aren't sure either who they're going to vote for or whether they're going to vote. And I think we've got bigger, you know, bigger factors that are driving them.
COREN: And no doubt, you know, Trump playing this up, looking at this as an opportunity to distract the electorate from the fallout of the rally at Madison Square Garden. But look, part of Donald Trump's shtick, as we know, is disparaging Kamala Harris and her supporters. Let's have a listen to what he said over the past week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We're like a garbage can for the world, the United States of America and dumped. Like we're like -- we're a garbage can. Like we're a garbage can for their people. I said we're the garbage can for the world. We are. We're a garbage can. We're like a garbage can and they dump. The press gave me a hard time on this one. They said it was very, I don't think it's dis -- it's like we're a giant garbage can.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: He's quite fond of that saying. I mean, he can't have it both ways, can he?
BROWNSTEIN: No, no. But, and look, he's not really trying to outside of the world of the kind of the conservative ecosystem, the kind of the bubble the conservative media bubble. You know, he said, again, you know, I will be women's protector whether they want it or not, which is something he originally said without the wanted or not in Wisconsin.
Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, said in Pennsylvania that if they win, they're going to take another run at repealing the Affordable Care Act. One of his chief transition advisors was on with Kaitlan Collins tonight on CNN saying they're going to let Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. question the safety and legality of vaccines.
So, yes, Biden, as is often the case, kind of stepped in it and caused a problem for Harris. No question about that. It was a reminder of the communications problems that, you know, one reason why he's not the nominee again.
[01:10:05] But there's a lot else going on. And honestly at this point, I mean, it doesn't feel like, you know, we're within the last week. It doesn't feel like any of these statements are likely to really move the needle. What's going to move the needle is kind of the execution of each party trying to turn out as many voters sympathetic to them as they can. And that battle of execution really is where we are in a race that remains incredibly close across the battleground states.
COREN: Well, let's talk about that because CNN's Poll of Polls shows Harris ahead in two of the three blue wall states, Michigan and Wisconsin. But it's a dead heat in Pennsylvania. That must win state. Are you concerned?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, I think I -- look, I felt, by the way, you know, I am the person who coined the blue wall back in 2009. And to kind of watch the phrase live is really kind of striking credit to you.
COREN: Credit to you.
BROWNSTEIN: CNN poll today had Harris ahead in Michigan. A Fox poll today had her ahead in Michigan. CNN poll today had her ahead in Wisconsin. A Marquette Law school poll, Marquette is in Wisconsin had her ahead in Wisconsin. And it kind of takes us back to where I have thought we would be all year, that one of them is very likely to win Pennsylvania by 50,000 votes or so and almost certainly become the president as a result.
I mean, Pennsylvania is the battle of the bulge in this election. The amount of money, the amount of time that each candidate has spent there is enormous.
As you point out, unlike Michigan and Wisconsin, it has been a dead heat in polling. In fact, the four polls out today either had it as a dead heat or Trump up one. I've always felt that Harris will regret at the very end not picking Josh Shapiro, the Pennsylvania governor.
But Anna, it is important to note two facts, which is one, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin tend to move together. They're demographically, economically and culturally similar. They voted the same way in every presidential election since 1980 except one. They've even voted for the same party for governor in every election since 1994 except one.
And if you're looking only at Pennsylvania and Michigan, they've diverged exactly three times since the U.S. Civil War in who they have backed for president and only once in the last 84 years.
So I kind of feel like in the end it is more, you know, as I say on Wall Street, past performance is no guarantee of future results. But I still think that in the end it is more likely than not, they all tilt slightly in the same direction. But PA absolutely looks like the state, the tipping point state in this election.
COREN: Ron, when you speak, people listen. Ron Brownstein, as always, a pleasure. Thank you.
BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.
COREN: We're learning more about a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile launched by North Korea. Japan's Defense Ministry says it flew for nearly an hour and a half, the longest test flight time yet from a North Korean missile. Officials believe it fell outside Japan's exclusive economic zone.
South Korea's intelligence agency had warned that Pyongyang might attempt a missile test around the time of the U.S. Election. The U.S. has already responded to the launch, calling it a flagrant violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
Lebanon's health ministry says at least 19 people were killed in Israeli strikes near the city of Baalbek. The Israeli military says its forces were targeting command and control centers and terrorist infrastructure in its fight against Hezbollah and took steps to mitigate civilian harm, including putting out evacuation orders.
Residents of Baalbek could be seen fleeing after the Israeli army ordered evacuation of the entire city, which was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1984. Hezbollah's newly appointed leader is speaking out amid the fighting, saying in his inaugural speech as leader of the Iran-backed militant group that they are now involved in a global war.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NAIM QASSEM, HEZBOLLAH SECRETARY-GENERAL (voice-over): Today in Gaza, Lebanon and the region, we are facing a major project. This is not an Israeli war on Lebanon and Gaza. This is an Israeli, American, European, global war. It has all the capabilities on a global level to eliminate the resistance and eliminate our peoples in the region.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: Despite the ongoing fighting, Lebanon's caretaker prime minister says he's optimistic a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel could be reached soon. That word as we learn, Israeli, American and Lebanese officials are pursuing a short term ceasefire deal that would stop the fighting for at least a month. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has the details from Jerusalem.
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[01:15:06]
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Israeli, American and Lebanese officials are now stepping up their discussions to try and reach a cease fire agreement that would end the war between Israel and Hezbollah. Two top advisers to President Biden set to arrive in Israel on Thursday to meet with Israeli officials to discuss the state of those ceasefire negotiations.
And it comes as we're learning of one of the options on the table here which would involve getting to a ceasefire agreement perhaps at least a month between these two sides in order to give more space for longer term negotiations to reach a permanent solution to this conflict between Israel and Hezbollah as well as the enforcement of Resolution 1701 which resolved the 2006 war between those two parties that would see Hezbollah withdraw its forces some 30 km north of the Israel Lebanon border.
Israeli officials believe that now is the right time to pursue this kind of a ceasefire agreement. They've achieved enormous in their fight against Hezbollah in recent months. That ground operation has now been going on for about a month as well. And there is now the option, they believe, of the military pressure and the internal Lebanese pressure bringing Hezbollah to the table in a way that the Israelis would see as favorable.
That being said, it is still early days in terms of these negotiations and Israel is also making clear that for the time being at least, they are going to continue to negotiate under fire, as one Israeli official told me. And that is to say we've seen the Israeli military stepping up its strikes inside of Lebanon.
On Wednesday we saw the Baalbek, the city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon was ordered to evacuate by the Israeli military. And hours later we saw some very intense airstrikes happening within that very city.
Now, as we are seeing these cease fire negotiations seemingly advancing or at least taking place regarding the conflict in Lebanon, Iran is now separately vowing a new wave of retaliation against Israel for Israel's strikes, retaliatory strikes in Iran last weekend.
A high level Iranian source now telling my colleague Fred Pleitgen that the response of the Islamic Republic of Iran will be, quote, definitive and painful. That comes after Iranian officials had seemed to downplay that Israeli retaliation. So some uncertainty still about the scale and the scope of Iran's retaliation and when it might come. Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: Spain is observing three days of mourning after severe flash floods killed dozens of people and left a trail of destruction. Also ahead, a possible repeat of 2016. How Russia is conducting a new disinformation campaign targeting the U.S. Election, apparently with a preferred candidate in mind.
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[01:20:00]
COREN: The biggest storm to hit Taiwan in nearly 30 years is expected to make landfall soon on the island's southeastern coast. Kong-Rey has weakened slightly from super typhoon strength, but it's still the equivalent of a Category 3 Atlantic hurricane with winds around 200 kilometers per hour.
The powerful winds and torrential rain could impact almost the entire island. All cities and counties in Taiwan are shutting down for the day. Financial markets are closed and flights have been canceled.
Well, now to Spain, where people are cleaning up the widespread destruction caused by severe flash floods. The Spanish government has decreed three days official mourning for victims. Weather officials say it was the worst rainfall in 28 years. At least 95 people were killed after the high waters swamped the southern and eastern parts of the country on Tuesday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ENCARNA, TEACHER, RESIDENT OF UTIEL, SPAIN (through translator): The sorrow is the people who have died and there have been many. There were many people who lost their lives.
AMANDEO IBANEZ, GROCER, RESIDENT OF UTIEL, SPAIN (through translator): Powerless, really, that you see that in half an hour because the river rose for half an hour. We have lost almost everything. Also a tremendous scare because my family, my wife, my son, my wife had to carry my daughter in her arms when the water was almost chest high to escape to a hotel. It's a helplessness.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: More now from journalist Atika Shubert in Valencia, Spain.
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ATIKA SHUBERT, JOURNALIST (voice-over): Muddy waters gush through the streets of Spain, ripping through homes, leaving a trail of destruction behind. Rescue services are working tirelessly trying to save residents from flash flood that have struck parts of southern and eastern Spain since Tuesday. The severity of the weather has killed dozens of people, according to authorities, with torrential rain in many cities and the death toll is only expected to rise.
SHUBERT: Now, this is the Turia riverbed in Valencia. Normally it's a dry riverbed with hardly any water in it, but as of this morning, the water was nearly to the top and that's because, according to meteorologist, a year's worth of rain, about 20 inches or 500 millimeters, was dropped here in an eight hour period that ended on Tuesday.
SHUBERT (voice-over): In Valencia, Spain's emergency military unit were deployed to help save locals, wading through the destruction to reach them and bringing them to safety. One local resident witnessed the severity of the water destroying his neighborhood.
ANTONIO CARMONA, RESIDENT (through translator): We saw everything going down. The floods took cars, took down half the house of one of our neighbors and we had to come in. Look how we have our torn clothes because were saving dogs.
SHUBERT (voice-over): In other areas of southern Spain, a different kind of catastrophe took place with locals being hit by a severe hailstorm. Look at the size of this ball, this person says, it's completely
round. Leaving drivers to battle through extreme weather. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the storms were the worst the country has experienced in the last century and advised citizens to proceed with caution.
PEDRO SANCHEZ, SPANISH PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Our absolute priority is to help you. We are going to provide all the necessary means today and tomorrow and for as long as it takes so that we can recover from this tragedy. We are not going to leave you alone.
SHUBERT (voice-over): Scientists say a human caused climate crisis is making extreme weather more frequent and more severe. And as the world warms more intense and more frequent catastrophes are on the horizon. Atika Shubert, CNN, Valencia, Spain.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: With us now is Abrahm Lustgarten, senior reporter at ProPublica, writer for the New York Times Magazine. Good to see you. Also author, I should say, "On The Move: The Overheating Earth and the Uprooting of America." Abrahm, thank you for joining us.
Let's start with the deadly flooding in Spain, obviously the most recent of extreme weather events that we've seen of late in Europe.
ABRAHM LUSTGARTEN, SENIOR REPORTER PROPUBLICA: Yes. This is unfortunately, you know, a sign of the way that the warming crisis is inflicting more fires, more heat waves and more floods. We've seen floods across Europe from France and Italy and the Czech Republic and now to Spain just this fall. And it's absolutely driven by the rising temperatures in both the Mediterranean Sea and in the atmosphere.
COREN: Yes. Let's talk a bit more about that because obviously last month we saw Storm Boris. I think it dropped a month's worth of rain in 24 hours, affected numerous countries. Talk to us about the impact and I guess the direct correlation that all of this erratic weather has to climate change.
[01:25:03]
LUSTGARTEN: Well, the hotter the atmosphere is getting, the more water it is storing. Scientists estimate that it's about 10 percent more water for the 1.3 degrees Celsius that our atmosphere has already warmed. And so that water is literally held over our heads ready to drop which doesn't mean that every place is going to get wetter, but means in the case of, you know, storms like this, that some kind of triggering event has the potential to dump it all at once.
And at the same time, we have, you know, Mediterranean waters that are as hot as they have ever been before. And the hotter that those waters get, the more that water is evaporating, just further loading that storage system up in the sky.
And so what appears to have happened in Spain this week is that extraordinary storage of water combined with what scientists describe as basically a wobbly jet stream. And the warmer the climate is getting, the less propulsion the jet stream weather system has.
And in this case in Spain, we had what they're calling a cut off system, which is basically a low pressure system that just fell off the track of the jet stream and just holds in one place, holds over eastern Spain, and keeps dumping its deluge of water all at once, an incredible amount of moisture in a very short amount of time.
COREN: And Abrahm, climate scientists, they're saying that the violent weather battering the Mediterranean, this is only the beginning. And I guess it's not just floods, but also droughts. Talk to us about that.
LUSTGARTEN: Yes, so southern Europe and the Mediterranean region and North Africa for that part, for that matter, are, you know, part of a region that's forecasted to see extreme drought and get significantly hotter and basically to slide, you know, outside of this ideal range of human habitability. Scientists talk about this climate niche and this is the part of the world that's slipping outside of it. And we can't attribute 100 percent, the kind of weather events and disasters that we've been seeing, to this climate change. But the climate change is influencing each of them.
And we're seeing these wildfires or the extraordinary heat wave of 2022 that killed tens of thousands of people across Europe, or these flooding events, and those are all kind of symptoms of this larger disease and this larger projection for the region that makes it a more uncertain place to live in a warming future. And, you know, where these kinds of extremes and unpredictability will increasingly become the norm.
COREN: Abrahm, you've obviously just written a book "On The Move: The Overheating Earth and the Uprooting of America." I know that we're focusing on Europe. But in your research, have you found that when people are personally impacted that then there is a surge in support for climate action?
LUSTGARTEN: Yes, there is. I mean, my book focuses on the United States, but also globally, and it focuses on the way that people are moving and migrating mostly northward in response to this kind of climate action. And so that decision to migrate is a decision to take personal action. It's a recognition of the way that climate change is affecting all of us. And that kind of effect it absolutely is manifesting in terms of political opinions as well.
I mean, we're seeing, I think, a real turning point. It doesn't mean that everybody agrees about what we need to do about climate change. But increasingly, whether we're talking about, you know, liberals or conservatives, I am hearing a real acknowledgment of the fact that the present doesn't match the history, that past data can't guide us into what we're facing in the future.
And that's alarming to people on all sorts of levels and is absolutely leading to greater, I think, political action and recognition of this crisis.
COREN: Globally, we know that countries are falling way short of their climate pledges. Obviously, you've got COP29 coming up next month, Azerbaijan, obviously, the U.S. election in a matter of days. That will also, I guess, determine the way that the world reacts. As we know, Donald Trump, being a climate denier, Harris is very much for taking action. Are you hoping that there will be some concrete measures come out of COP29?
LUSTGARTEN: I mean, I think that there has to be. I'm a little cynical about their, you know, their ability to actually reach those sorts of agreements. But, you know, we are blowing past the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal for warming that scientists have suggested, said outright, that we need to adhere to keep the kinds of events that we're seeing now in check.
And we're really nowhere near hitting those goals. And if we implement a plan to reduce emissions now, you know, the researchers I talked to put us on a pathway of, you know, two and a half degrees Celsius warming for the world.
And that doesn't sound like much until you really consider that the changes that we're already seeing today and the kinds of floods and the kinds of wildfires that we're talking about are the result of less than half of that amount of warming so, you know, on some kind of, you know, exponential ramp of change.
[01:30:10]
We're on a political track without an agreement at COP, you know, to live in a world where the kinds of disasters we're seeing are going to be an absolute daily occurrence in some part of the world.
ANNA COREN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. It's a frightening prospect. Abrahm Lustgarten, thank you for sharing your analysis. Appreciate your time.
LUSTGARTEN: Thanks. Thank you for having me.
COREN: Amid a diplomatic push for a ceasefire in Lebanon, more Israeli strikes target Hezbollah. Details on the situation there and a live interview from Beirut.
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COREN: Two U.S. envoys are expected in Israel in the coming hours to discuss the situation in Lebanon. An official says Israeli, American and Lebanese officials are pursuing a short-term ceasefire deal. It would stop the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah for at least a month.
But for now, the Israeli strikes continue. Lebanon's health ministry says at least 19 people were killed Wednesday near the city of Baalbek. The Israeli military says its forces were targeting command and control centers and terrorist infrastructure in its fight against Hezbollah and took steps to mitigate civilian harm.
Residents of Baalbek could be seen fleeing after the Israeli army ordered the evacuation of the city.
Well, joining me now from Beirut is Nabih Bulos, Middle East bureau chief with the "Los Angeles Times". Nabih, good to see you tell us about these latest strikes in the city of Baalbek as the IDF expands its campaign inside Lebanon.
NABIH BULOUS, MIDDLE EAST BUREAU CHIEF, "LOS ANGELES TIMES": Well, as you say, this is actually part of (INAUDIBLE) campaign throughout Lebanon and we've already seen strikes, really quite heavy strikes in the south and across the Beqaa Valley and, of course, in the Dahiyeh (ph) which (INAUDIBLE) Hezbollah-dominated suburbs of the capital.
And I mean -- I mean, obviously these are areas where Hezbollah does hold sway or Hezbollah dominates, but you also have many, many civilians. I mean, I'm just giving an example, a Baalbek at its -- in its normal times has about 93,000 people, roughly speaking.
And as you can imagine, I mean, some of them have left the area because of continued bombardment in its environment, having this violence (ph). But this was the first time we've seen a citywide evacuation order from the Israeli military and it caused widespread panic.
[01:34:50]
BULOS: And after that, of course, we saw a really awful footage of just huge strikes, striking various parts of the city. And in fact, I'm actually about to go to the city today to have a closer look at the damage.
COREN: It looks like they've hit fuel depots, those black columns of smoke rising into the air. And then, you know, we're looking at images of these cars.
Obviously tens of thousands of people fled in response to those evacuation orders. I mean, you've got mass displacement occurring.
BULOS: Yes, indeed, they are merely adding to the flood of around 1.2 million people. It's like yesterday -- like yesterday, the prime minister of Lebanon said that they had 1.7 -- I believe 1.7 million people displaced.
And of course that just merely adds to it right now and at the same time, the country really is unable to deal with this deluge of displaced. I mean shelters are already full and the fact of the matter is you have about 20 percent of the country now that's been abandoned because of Israeli bombardment. So really there just is no space in many ways.
COREN: Nabih, I want to get your views on this draft of this U.S. proposal to end the war in Lebanon. It's clearly doing the rounds, there's now talk of these two U.S. envoys expected in Israel to discuss the ceasefire.
Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, we've heard from him, he seems quite optimistic. But what are you hearing?
BULOS: Well, as you said, the draft that we have seen disseminate on social media, its already been in many ways disavowed by various members of Israel's security establishment. And it should also be said that it does have some caveats that would I think give pause to various negotiators. For example, it guarantees Israel the right to act (INAUDIBLE) in the country I mean against Hezbollah and other non- state actors.
And of course, as you can imagine, that would be an issue and it also allows Israel to continue overflights across Lebanon to basically be able to survey and really scout out different threats.
Now, at the same time, it does it seem to establish some sort of U.S.- led mechanism that would involve dealing with threats immediately before Israel would have to deal with them. And yet at the same time, that would I believe be an issue for sovereignty when it comes to these politicians.
And it should be said also that Hezbollah -- I mean yesterday we heard from its newly-minted general secretary and he himself was saying that right now, there is no intention to follow through with a ceasefire on both sides.
And so where we are at this is that we are actually -- I mean we hear noises about ceasefires as we have seen in Gaza throughout and yet at the same time, seems to be no real political will to follow through.
And I would be hard pressed to believe that any wannabe politician would step the notion of continued overflights and also for Israel to be able to act completely with freedom, you know, across Lebanon.
And at the same time, I can't imagine that digital would accept the situation to say or to go back to status quo ante before all this kicked off.
COREN: I think I'm also curious as to Hezbollah's role in all of this, particularly its new leader Naim Qassem. You know, in his inaugural speech, he said that Hezbollah is now involved in a global war. Why would he now enter into a ceasefire?
BULOS: Exactly so. And Naim Qassem actually was saying that the group has been able to reconstitute itself. That yes, it has -- that yes, it sustained a painful blow, but this has been able to bounce back.
And at the same time, he also said that right now there is no, I guess there's no will to go for a ceasefire because they are still fighting and they're still willing to fight.
And although they seem to have been weakened in some fashion, he said, nevertheless, we are still able to fight and able to respond powerfully to the Israeli military and will continue to do so.
In fact, he said that if they expand their invasion or if they deepen their incursion into Lebanon, that Hezbollah will actually welcome it because then they would be given the chance to fight on the ground with Israeli military as opposed to fighting really war planes where it has no true deterrent.
So yes, I really do not see a political will, at least from Hezbollah's part to go for a ceasefire. Other parts of Lebanon's political class are very much willing to do so. And yes, there is perhaps some vague promise by Hezbollah to go for a ceasefire.
And yet I do not see on both sides of Israel nor Hezbollah right now are truly engaged in a ceasefire.
COREN: Well, we certainly look forward to talking to you after your reporting trip to Baalbek.
Stay safe. Nabih Bulos, thank you for your time.
BULOS: Thank you.
COREN: Well South Korea is laying out what it believes is the strongest threat of North Korea's troop deployment to Russia. That Pyongyang could gain access to more advanced weapons technologies, including nuclear.
CNN's Oren Liebermann has details from the Pentagon.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: One of the big questions we've had about North Korean troops going to train in Russia and then perhaps to fight on behalf of Russia and Ukraine is what does North Korea get in return?
[01:39:50]
LIEBERMANN: This is an area where the U.S. has simply said they're very much watching this space, but they have nothing to say yet. They won't speculate here, but they have made clear that they're looking to see if there's some sort of quid pro quo between Russia and North Korea in terms of what does North Korea get in return.
Now the U.S. hasn't gone that far yet, but South Korea did. The South Korean Defense minister speaking alongside Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday at the Pentagon said it is quote, "very likely" that North Korea will receive help in critical technology areas including perhaps nuclear weapons, specifically tactical nuclear weapons, intercontinental ballistic missiles, satellite technology, all of the areas we have seen North Korea trying to push forward with some successes and some failures.
Of course that is technology that Russia already has at its disposal here and a space that the U.S. was watching in South Korea to see if that's what they would give in return.
Now South Korea didn't say definitively, but they said that's effectively what their indications are showing what's very likely to happen.
Now that would effectively mirror arrangement that Iran has with Russia where Iran provides drones and ballistic missiles and in exchange, Russia provides technology in the nuclear realm on ballistic missiles, on drones, as that relationship grows. Now this is an area where South Korea and the U.S. will expand their
intelligence-sharing to see how this relationship grows. And in what direction it goes, what sort of steps and advancements is North Korea able to make in these critical technology and crucially weapons areas so you're likely to see an expansion of that cooperation and intelligence sharing.
This, of course, all happen as western intelligence officials tell CNN that a small number of those North Korean troops and Russia are already on the battlefield in Ukraine, a situation U.S. President Joe Biden called, quote, "dangerous".
Oren Liebermann, CNN -- in the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: Far from the front lines in Ukraine, Russia appears to be waging another war, one of disinformation targeting U.S. voters ahead of next week's presidential election.
It's reminiscent of what we saw back in 2016 as U.S. intelligence agencies believed the Russians are again trying to tip the scales in favor of Donald Trump.
Will CNN's Alex Marquardt reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: It's from this 23-story building in Russia's St. Petersburg that some of the most effective Russian disinformation of the 2024 U.S. election has been cooked up.
One of its occupants in recent years is believed to be the so-called Russian Foundation to Battle Injustice or RFBI.
DARREN LINVILL, CO-DIRECTOR, CLEMSON MEDIA FORENSICS HUB: That's good, but not perfect.
MARQUARDT: CNN teamed up with researchers at Clemson University to investigate RFBI's long tentacles and its impact.
PATRICK WARREN, CO-DIRECTOR, CLEMSON MEDIA FORENSICS HUB: The connection between Prigozhin and the RFBI is cut and dry.
MARQUARDT: RFBI's origins can be traced back to Yevgeny Prigozhin, longtime ally of Vladimir Putin and the founder of the Wagner Mercenary Group, who after launching an audacious revolt on Moscow last year, was killed in a mysterious midair explosion.
But Darren Linvill and Patrick Warren say that the story of RFBI makes it clear that Prigozhin's legacy persists beyond the grave.
LINVILL: They're pretending to be this really positive force of good in Russia. In reality, they're really an arm of the Russian state.
MARQUARDT: One recent viral post baselessly accuses Governor Tim Walz of sexually assaulting a minor.
WARREN: I mean, that thing flew across the Internet in days, millions and millions of views.
MARQUARDT: Senator J.D. Vance and Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene even pushed a fake Russian story that Ukrainian officials used American aid dollars to buy yachts.
There was one that Kamala Harris carried out a hit and run, and also that she killed an endangered rhinoceros while on safari. Both wildly false.
But both pushed with the help of another shady Russian network, which researchers have dubbed STORM-1516, which Linvill and Warren believe works hand in glove with RFBI.
When you look at all of the efforts that the Russians are undertaking in this space, where does the RFBI rank?
LINVILL: In terms of disinformation, as opposed to just propaganda, I think that the RFBI and STORM-1516 are probably the single most important actors in Russia right now.
MARQUARDT: RFBI is now led by Mira Terada, who spent two years in American prison for money laundering connected to cocaine smuggling.
(And she kind of took the effort and ran with it?
WARREN: It really kicked off upon her return.
MARQUARDT: From there, she has joined forces with foreigners, including American John Mark Dougan, a former Florida sheriff's deputy who fled to Russia following felony charges.
Dougan denied to CNN that he's acting on behalf of Russia.
WARREN: His face is there for a reason.
MARQUARDT: He's a useful idiot?
LINVILL: He's a useful idiot without question.
[01:44:47]
MARQUARDT: How much of a win is it for the Russians to be able to get an American like this to essentially launder their narratives?
LINVILL: I think that it's incredibly important, and you see the importance in how hard they've worked to recruit Americans like him.
MARQUARDT: And what they're seeing this year is a much bigger impact on the social media conversation than in the past.
LINVILL: We know they work for the Russian state, but you know, they're still allowed to spread these messages, these completely false narratives with -- without, you know, any mitigation whatsoever. MARQUARDT: How well do you think we're doing in this war against Russian disinformation more broadly?
LINVILL: Extremely poorly.
MARQUARDT: Do you see that changing anytime soon?
LINVILL: No.
MARQUARDT: Just moments after our interview, the Clemson researchers identified yet another piece of disinformation coming from these same Russian channels. A video claiming to show mail-in ballots for Trump being destroyed in critical Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
Darren Linvill said it was immediately shared tens of thousands of times. And as he says, it's going to be a rough few weeks.
Neither Senator Vance nor Congresswoman Greene responded about their roles in spreading that story about Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the Harris campaign tells CNN that Putin wants Trump to win this election and condemned the Russian interference efforts.
Alex Marquardt, CNN -- Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: Still to come the Dodgers are World Series champions after staging a remarkable comeback in Game 5 against New York. We have the highlights after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COREN: Members of baseball's L.A. Dodgers had a wild reaction in their locker room to their big win in the World Series just a little while ago. Fireworks lit up the sky as fans gathered outside Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
And in Las Vegas, the Sphere Entertainment Venue marked the win by taking on the appearance of a giant spinning baseball with the team's logo.
Well, the Yankees jumped out to an early 5-0 lead in Game 5, but L.A. mounted an impressive comeback to win the game by seven to six.
CNN's Omar Jimenez reports from inside the Dodgers locker room.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The winning (INAUDIBLE) looks exactly like what you think it would look like, right now -- celebration. I can barely even see the camera right now. My goggles have gotten so soaked over the course of this.
Whether its champagne, whether its beer if you question how the Dodgers are going to celebrate, I don't think you need to question much longer as they brought home their 8th championship in this World Series when here in New York, deflating the crowd that at the beginning of this game felt like they probably were going to send this back to Los Angeles.
It's going back to Los Angeles but in the form of a parade, not a continuation of this World Series. And as you see, the trophy up top there, this is a moment they have been working for this entire season.
[01:49:45]
JIMENEZ: And really if you go back to their last one in 2020 because of the pandemic, this will be their first chance to fully celebrate in the way that I believe they've wanted to for years now.
And of course, another significant moment. This is the first year that Shohei Ohtani was on the Dodgers brings home a World Series.
Freddie Freeman set a record in this world series for consecutive home runs in game, becomes World Series MVP. This is a team that came in, setting a lot of records, had high expectations, and delivered.
This is the manifestation of all that work. We've got the celebration. We've got to be here to report on it and most importantly, you get the World Series trophy. Back to you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: Omar, certainly will prepared with those goggles.
Well, still to come a chance encounter backpacking through Europe leads to a 25-year relationship, but not without its ups-and-downs. A couple shares how arguing has actually helped to build a healthy marriage.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COREN: Welcome back.
The Berlin Zoo is inviting the world to witness something spectacular. Well this little pygmy hippopotamus taking her very first dip in the pool. Despite it being her first time, Toni knows exactly what to do, according to the zoo's director. Hippos don't actually swim. He says they sort of run underwater.
Well, Toni is just five months old and her life is full of adventures.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDREAS KNIERIEM, HEAD OF ZOO, BERLIN (through translator): What do you do every day as a little hippopotamus. You drink an incredible amount of milk, high in fat, high in protein. And then you eat a little bit too.
And then it's off into the water. You splash around and do things. Probably after an hour, you're a bit tired. Then you sleep a bit at the waterline here and that's the daily routine. (END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: That sounds bliss.
Will Toni is in good company with Moo Deng the baby pygmy hippo in Thailand, who has become the absolute darling of the Internet these past few months.
But the Berlin Zoo could also learn a lesson from Moo Deng' fame. Zookeepers in Thailand are having to limit public viewings because of overcrowding.
And some visitors, they've been throwing things into her enclosure.
Well, it turns out the secret to a healthy marriage is conflict, at least for one couple who met while backpacking across Europe. After more than 25 years together, they're sharing how arguing and working through conflict in front of their family has made their relationship stronger.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KIM LATKOVIC, WIFE: Marriage is a lot of work. I've never met a married couple that could say (INAUDIBLE).
TOM LATKOVIC, HUSBAND: Right. We now have all the essentials, We can survive for months in the wilderness or at least for two hours.
To love someone is a gift. To try to take care of them, try to meet their needs. Loving to me as action and so it's a choice which means you can choose to do it. It means you can choose not to do.
K. LATKOVIC: We love to travel, so we both share that. It was in Munich where I met Tommy. We met in a hostel at the elevator.
I was just fresh out of college, backpacking through Europe. He was doing the same thing.
T. LATKOVIC: and I just saw this beautiful person with this energy that I can almost feel.
K. LATKOVIC: And we started talking and really got to know each other on a deep level right off the bat. The night that we met and we had beers at the Hopper Haus (ph) that first night was when I thought something's here.
We lost each other the next day because we didn't share any information.
[01:54:51]
T. LATKOVIC: We go there.
K. LATKOVIC: OK. So be there.
T. LATKOVIC: You're there. K. LATKOVIC: All right.
T. LATKOVIC: All right.
K. LATKOVIC: Let's do it.
T. LATKOVIC: Marriage is like a hike. You're either going up or you're going down.
K. LATKOVIC: The pastor that married us counseled us and he was like, you guys are two dominant, strong-willed people.
T. LATKOVIC: He said (INAUDIBLE) was you're doomed.
K. LATKOVIC: He's like, is there a lot of rub, a lot of conflict and we're like, oh, yes.
T. LATKOVIC: Look, cacti.
K. LATKOVIC: You're easily distracted. When we were newly married, Tommy hated onions, like hated them. I made dinner and I was like, ok, I make my spaghetti with onions. I'm going to be married to him for a long time. He will learn to like it.
So I diced them up really small, put them in the spaghetti sauce. He takes one bit and he starts -- he looks to me is like you put onions in this. It turned into a big fight.
T. LATKOVIC: For like a decade. It was not about the onions.
K. LATKOVIC: I know. The next day when you lost me, I saw him on you know, Marion Plots (ph) assisting the street performer.
He did this because he said he was hoping I might be in the crowd and I was. And that was 26 years ago.
We still fight but we do it better. You could ask -- you could ask our kids. They would say no, they still fight.
We don't hide. We fight in front of our kids. We keep it respectful, but we will argue in front of them and then they'll see us work it out and love each other again.
We could go higher.
T. LATKOVIC: You go higher. Photo has been taken. We may move. Most of the time when fights are a bigger deal, it's not really about the fight, it's about the bigger thing. It's about fear.
Ok, look exasperated. If I don't win this fight, the person's eye could change.
K. LATKOVIC: I think as long as you're willing to take a look at yourself and say, what's my part in this? And own it and humble yourself, then if you got two people willing to do that, then you can make it work. You want to 360 here.
T. LATKOVIC: We're going to die.
K. LATKOVIC: We're not going to die.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: That certainly looks like a great partnership.
Well, thank you for your company. I'm Anna Coren in Hong Kong.
CNN NEWSROOM continues with my friend Rosemary Church after this short break.
[01:57:01]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
