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CNN Gets Rare Access Into IDF-Occupied Southern Lebanon; Two Men Rescued From Flooded Nepal Tunnels. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired September 04, 2026 - 04:30   ET

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

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SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. We want to bring you up to speed on our breaking news story this hour from Nepal. Two men have been rescued. This is from inside the flooded tunnels of a power plant. Video from the scene, which we're going to show you now, shows one of the men being carried out on the back of rescue workers. This was just a few hours ago.

Now, hundreds of workers are believed to be trapped in these underground tunnels after last week's flash flooding disaster. And rescue crews have been using heavy machinery and even digging by hand to try to reach any survivors. The two rescued men were flown by helicopters to Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, for medical attention at a military hospital there.

Now, Nepal's electrical authorities tell CNN that one is in stable condition. The other is listed as critical and in intensive care. The first man rescued has said that he did help a number of colleagues actually evacuate, but ran out of time to save himself during the disaster. They were trapped in the tunnel for more than nine days.

[04:34:58]

Now, it's not clear how many more people may still be underground, but crews are, of course, continuing to search for survivors. And workers are using heavy machinery along with other tools. They're even digging with their bare hands to gain access to the rest of those tunnels. You have around 900 workers from various energy projects in the region that have been reported missing.

And since last week's flood tore through the region, hopes have been fading, of course, of finding more survivors. Now, CNN obtained this drone video, which shows the scope of the damage caused by the torrent of water that hit the region. So far, around 1,200 people are known to have been killed in Nepal.

CNN's Richard Quest spoke to the rescues and with Nepal's finance minister, and he expressed hope that more survivors might be found. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SWARNIM WAGLE, NEPALI FINANCE MINISTER: There's still some hope that, you know, dozens, if not hundreds of people who might be trapped in the tunnels associated with more than a dozen hydropower plants in this river basin might still be rescued. That effort is ongoing.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR AT LARGE: So there is a serious imperative for you to get things moving, restore power, in a sense. You know, so much of Nepal went to hydropower, which has now been very badly damaged. What can you tell me?

WAGLE: So this is almost more than 15 percent of our cumulative capacity that has been badly hit. This will take a toll on the economy, and this will contribute to the supply, the lessening and the reliability of the supply of electricity. So that's one major channel. Agriculture, tourism, trade disruptions, and of course the hit to the banking and insurance industries is also another major factor. So these five or six channels through which we expect the economy to be adversely hit for this year.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABDELAZIZ: For more information on how you can help the flood victims, go to cnn.com/impact.

Meanwhile, officials in China are warning of flash floods in a southeastern province. This is after Typhoon Saudel made a third landfall. The typhoon regained strength in the South China Sea on Thursday, bringing heavy rainfall to two provinces. More than 2,500 teachers and students were trapped in a school compound on Wednesday after extreme rainfall caused flash floods in one low-lying area of Fujian province. Typhoon Saudel is forecast to move west over neighboring Guangdong province.

CNN has gained very rare access to parts of southern Lebanon. These are areas that are occupied by Israeli troops. Israel has established what it calls a security zone that extends about six miles deep into Lebanon. Villages have become ghost towns as residents fled the fighting.

Our Jeremy Diamond reports much of the area has been turned essentially into a wasteland.

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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From this coastal road to the rubble-strewn countryside, you'd be forgiven for thinking this is Israeli territory, but it's not. This is a rare first-hand look at occupied Lebanon.

DIAMOND: We just passed an Israeli military checkpoint. We're in a convoy of vehicles, dozens of families reaching their homes inside the Israeli zone of control, three Christian villages where many people are still living, the only way in or out of this area for these families.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Israel invaded this area nearly six months ago after Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group that is based here, fired rockets at Israel for the first time since 2024, retaliating for Israeli strikes on Iran. DIAMOND: We're really close to the Israeli border now, and this is all we're seeing, piles of rubble, one home after the other, completely destroyed.

DIAMOND (voice-over): A ceasefire is technically in effect here, yet Israel carries out near-daily strikes. Most of this rubble was caused by bulldozers and controlled demolitions, part of Israel's plan to raze every town and village in this area, with only a few exceptions. A trio of Christian villages have been spared the fate of their Shia Muslim neighbors.

DIAMOND: The contrast really is quite striking. We're now inside one of those Christian villages, and as you can see, there is life here.

DIAMOND (voice-over): But below the surface, life is far from normal. The residents here are surrounded by the ruins of neighboring villages.

DIAMOND: So where is Bint Jbeil?

DIAMOND (voice-over): Even two-year-old Joe recognizes the sounds of jets overhead.

YORGOS MITRI, LIVING IN ISRAELI-OCCUPIED LEBANON: (through text translation): What's in the sky?

UNIDENTIFIED BOY (through text translation): Jets.

[04:40:02]

DIAMOND (voice-over): Like many in this Christian village, Yorgos blames Hezbollah, which embedded in the surrounding Shia villages, for bringing war to his doorstep.

MITRI: We're living in peace. Nothing happening here. Why we did all of this? And you can see the results.

DIAMOND: Do you feel like they deserve this? Do you feel like --

MITRI: Nobody deserves like this. Nobody. We need our government to be here and to take responsibility.

DIAMOND (voice-over): The Lebanese government says it's now trying to do just that, deploying the army to reclaim sovereignty over southern Lebanon, both Israel and Hezbollah, a task it's trying to accomplish without coming into conflict with either one.

COL. RAJA AMER, SOUTH LITANI SECTOR, LEBANESE ARMED FORCES: We need the world to see that we are working in a very dangerous situation, in a very harsh situation.

DIAMOND (voice-over): That danger comes into focus as soon as this soldier begins telling the story of the Israeli strike that killed his comrade.

DIAMOND: When you were first deployed to the south -- and that was some kind of Israeli strike close by. This is at least the fourth Israeli artillery strike that we have heard in this area since we've been here. And we've only been here for about 20 minutes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's continuous in all the area of operation. As I told you, since the 27th of June framework agreement, we had no more than 5,000 attacks. This is the ceasefire from their side.

DIAMOND (voice-over): The Lebanese army says 34 of its soldiers have been killed so far this year. Some died in Israeli strikes. Others were killed by unexploded ordnance. As part of the ceasefire agreement with Israel, Lebanon is working to clear the south of weapons held by non-state actors like Hezbollah. This fiber-optic drone is just one example.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are finding munitions deployed by the Israeli enemy forces, and we are finding munitions dropped by armed groups from Lebanon.

DIAMOND (voice-over): The scale of the challenge comes into view as we drive through the south, a bastion of Hezbollah support, where the group's flags and martyrs' posters line the roads, before arriving in the town of Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh. This is a pilot zone under the U.S.- backed framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel. Soldiers now patrol the town, man checkpoints at its entrances, and monitor military activity from observation posts like this one.

DIAMOND: This is really quite striking. You have a Lebanese army observation post right here, and just a few hundred meters away on the opposite hilltop, an Israeli military position.

DIAMOND (voice-over): The pilot zone means some families have been able to return to their homes, or whatever is left of them.

MAHMOUD DARWISH, ZAWTAR AL-GHARBIYEH RESIDENT: People from Israel and America.

DIAMOND (voice-over): And peace is impossible to imagine.

DARWISH (through text translation): They killed out people, they killed out loved ones, they killed our friends, they destroyed our homes. How do thye think they'll ever make peace with us? We fled, we left the village. I wished, during that period, just for 10, 15 minutes, to return to my home, to smell the land. Because this is my land. My land loves me, and I love her. I won't leave her, and she won't allow me to leave her.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Darwish barely flinches at the sound of a nearby airstrike.

DARWISH (through text translation): We are here, and we will remain here.

DIAMOND (voice-over): It is here, amid displays of defiance, that Lebanon is probing one potential path forward.

AMER: The final objective is clear. It's the Lebanese state authority inside the pilot zone, strictly.

DIAMOND: But why is the Lebanese army not going and kicking in doors and confiscating weapons?

AMER: Doing things in violence against our own people. It will be also with others sequences.

DIAMOND: Lebanon is a country with a history of civil war. Is that one of the reasons why, you know, the Lebanese army is not being aggressive against Hezbollah?

AMER: I'm saying that we will do this slowly. We will do this in a reasonable way. Who will fight the children of this country? But at the same time, we are not going to accept something illegal.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Southern Lebanon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[04:44:17]

ABDELAZIZ: We have much more news ahead on CNN. Please stay with us.

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ABDELAZIZ: Dozens of people are feared dead. This is following the discovery of a migrant boat near Spain's Canary Islands. Officials say that 44 people were rescued on Wednesday after spending 27 days at sea. But survivors reported that more than 100 people were on board when the vessel left the African nation of The Gambia. They ran out of food and water along the way, and the remains of those who died were tossed overboard reportedly.

Earlier in the day, Spain's prime minister had defended his handling over the crisis in Soweto. That's where some 72,000 migrants forced their way across the border with Morocco back in July.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PEDRO SANCHEZ, SPANISH PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Our dilemma was to either allow the people to pass through momentarily or to try to stop them in force of the breakwater and also in the sea, something which would have triggered an even worse catastrophe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[04:50:02]

ABDELAZIZ: Next to Cuba, where the Trump administration is slapping new sanctions, including on a grandson of former President Raul Castro. The restrictions also target the Foreign Bank of Cuba and four other entities, which Washington accuses of exploiting the country's natural resources and energy reserves. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says that these new sanctions reflect President Trump's vision for a free Cuba. Meanwhile, the government in Havana is looking to counter the U.S. pressure by attracting foreign investment, trade and tourism. New regulations are aimed at making the country's beaches, workforce and real estate more accessible.

We have an update for you now on our breaking news story. Of course, those rescue efforts in Nepal. Look at these images. They show rescue workers, rescue crews, reaching two survivors who spent nine days trapped in tunnels blocked by flooding. There were two men that were pulled out of the tunnel.

This was only a few hours ago and have now been transferred to a hospital in the capital. The first man rescued has said that he did try to help a number of colleagues evacuate, but then ran out of time to save himself in this disaster. But search and rescue efforts are far from over, of course.

CNN has images from the scene which show emergency crews searching for more survivors who could still be trapped in those tunnels. We're going to keep an eye on the story and bring you the latest as it develops.

But right now, I want to bring in CNN's Hanako Montgomery. She joins us live from Nepal. And Hanako, you have just been to the scene of this hydropower tunnel where two people were pulled out alive. Tell us what that was like, what you witnessed.

HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Salma, we were just at the Trishuli 3A tunnel, as you mentioned, where moments earlier two workers were pulled out alive. And, of course, I mean, just that moment is absolutely amazing to hear about because it's been nine days now since that dreadful and, of course, that disastrous flash flood hit Nepal, killing over 1,000 people and left more than thousands of others missing.

Now, we've heard from the family of one of the survivors, the father, who said that he didn't believe his son was going to be found alive. And, of course, when he did learn, he was absolutely joyous and was celebrating that moment. Now, Salma, you know, of course, at the tunnel, we saw dozens of workers surrounding a hole where they were trying to get more people out. We saw people handing down oxygen tanks into the tunnel.

We also saw stretchers standing by in case they did find more survivors. And we did see some of the rescuers tugging at a rope. And, of course, on the other end of that rope, they were hoping that there were survivors who were still alive.

Now, the people we were speaking to on the ground there, the Nepali police and the armed forces, they couldn't confirm whether the people they had found in the tunnels were alive or not, but they did say they believe around 40 people remained trapped inside that tunnel. And, again, these rescue operations have been extremely difficult.

We've heard from the major general, the man who's in charge of these military operations, that inside Trishuli 3A tunnel, there is a conduit that is 26 meters deep. I mean, that is an extremely huge conduit that's very, very deep. And he's told us that that conduit isn't filled with mud. It is filled with water.

And that has allowed them to inflate rafters that you would use for whitewater rafting inside the tunnel, and that has helped them get inside, deeper inside, to see if there are any other remaining survivors. But, again, Salma, about 40 more people remain stuck, according to Nepali authorities, and they are hoping that in the coming hours, if not days, they'll be able to get to more people alive. Salma?

ABDELAZIZ: Twenty-six meters deep. I mean, these are extraordinary recovery efforts, more than nine days after this disaster, Hanako. I can't imagine what the atmosphere, the feeling must have been like now that two people have been found alive, and there's that sense of hope. Just talk to me about that sense around you of those rescue workers. Were there family members there? Did you feel an atmosphere of positivity, of hope?

MONTGOMERY: Yes, Salma. It's really hard to get to these areas right now. There aren't really any roads that rescuers can get to. So right now, it's primarily been helicopters. So what that means is, you know, families might not be waiting right by the mouth of the tunnel to see their family members getting pulled out, but some of them are in Kathmandu, they're in the capital, waiting for their family members to be flown back and, of course, get medical treatment.

[04:55:00]

We know that the two workers who were pulled out alive earlier on Friday are now receiving treatment at the military hospital, and, again, one of the survivors we spoke to his father and we also spoke to his sister who are overjoyed to hear that their loved one was alive. But, you know, the sense on the ground is extremely, I mean, tense, of course. People are waiting with bated breath to see if any more people will be found alive, especially, again, as you mentioned, Salma, nine days after this disaster.

ABDELAZIZ: CNN's Hanako Montgomery bringing us reporting from the scene where two people were found alive in a hydropower tunnel.

Thank you so much for your time, and thank you for watching. I'm Salma Abdelaziz. CNN Headline Express is coming up right after a quick break.

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