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Lebanese Residents Flee Amid Israeli Airstrikes; IDF: Limited Ground Operation begins in Southern Lebanon; China's National Day Marks 75 Years of Communist Rule; Pete Rose, MLB's All-Time Hits Leader has Died. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired October 01, 2024 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Max Foster. These are today's top stories.

At least 130 people are dead in the southeastern U.S. following Hurricane Helene.

U.S. President Joe Biden is set to visit the hard-hit state of North Carolina on Wednesday, where hundreds of thousands of residents are still without power.

Longshore workers at ports from Maine to Texas walked off the job early on Tuesday. Dock workers are striking at 14 major ports in the U.S., east and gulf coasts. The strike could seriously impact the economy by stopping the flow of goods from everything from bananas and clothing to European wine and liquor.

Mexico will inaugurate its first female president today. Claudia Sheinbaum will officially take office in the coming hours in Mexico City. She won an election by a landslide in June, promising to protect Mexico's social safety net and to be a champion for the poor.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Lebanese state media reports severe damage in the southern part of the country from the latest Israeli airstrikes, artillery shelling and heavy machine gun fire. Israel says it has launched what it describes as a limited ground operation into Lebanon involving paratroopers, commandos and armored corps troops. Israeli officials say the goal is to take out Hezbollah assets that threaten residents of northern Israel and there will be, they say, no long-term occupation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANIEL HAGARI, IDF SPOKESMAN: The Israel Defense Forces is conducting limited and targeted raids along Israel's northern border against the threat Hezbollah poses to civilians in northern Israel. These localized ground raids will target Hezbollah strongholds that threaten Israeli towns, kibbutzim and communities along our border.

Hezbollah turned Lebanese villages next to Israeli villages into military bases, all ready for an attack on Israel. Hezbollah had prepared to use those villages as staging grounds for an October 7th- style invasion into Israeli homes.

[04:35:03]

Hezbollah planned to invade Israel, attack Israeli communities and massacre innocent men, women and children. They call this plan Conquer the Galilee.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: It's Israel's offensive that many see as an invasion in Lebanon intensifies. The number of displaced people are likely to rise. This is an airport in Cyprus before Israel's ground incursion began earlier this morning.

Those who were able to leave Lebanon are arriving here to escape Israeli airstrikes. They say conditions in their country are dire.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOHAMMAD SHAABAN, LEBANESE RESIDENT: The situation there is very bad. They are bombing every day in Beirut. It's really hard to do anything, no work, no sleep, no nothing.

For the past two weeks we couldn't sleep from the bombs, from all the news, psychological news that Israel does. It's really bad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Joining me now from Beirut is Michael Young. He's the senior editor at the Carnegie Middle East Center. He's also the author of "The Ghosts of Martyr Square, An Eyewitness Account of Lebanon's Life and Struggle."

You just heard from one man who has escaped Beirut, just describing why he left and what he had been through. Can you just describe the impact of these ongoing airstrikes -- very specifically because you are in Beirut -- on the people of Beirut?

MICHAEL YOUNG, SENIOR EDITOR, CARNEGIE MIDDLE EAST CENTER: Thank you, thank you for having me. I'm currently in the mountains actually, southeast of Beirut, but obviously in the past two weeks there have been, you know, increasing Israeli airstrikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut. I think we should stress that the Israelis are basically focusing all their energies, if I could say, on the southern suburbs of Beirut, which they are systematically now beginning to destroy.

Other parts of Beirut have been spared this, although they have targeted attack. They did have a targeted attack in a more central part of Beirut yesterday.

And so, I mean, of course, in response to your question, of course, it's very difficult for someone who people in Beirut are hearing the explosions and the Israelis are not really saying where they're going, so there is, of course, this fear that they can hit.

ANDERSON: And some reports of as many as 20 percent of the population, a million people displaced in some fashion, across Lebanon at the moment. I want to ask you very specifically, it is not clear how long this incursion into southern Israel and the airstrikes across -- sorry, the incursion into southern Lebanon and the airstrikes across Lebanon by the Israeli military will continue.

It is not clear how far troops on the ground will go, nor for how long. What is the risk to Lebanon and the Lebanese people at this point?

YOUNG: Well, obviously, you know, on the one hand, the Israelis have said that it's limited to essentially the border areas to, as they put it, to dismantle Hezbollah's infrastructure. But at the same time, you had this very noticeable statement this morning on Twitter by the Israeli Arabic language spokesman, a military spokesman, who told people not to go south of the Litani River. A few days ago, in fact, an Israeli spokesman declared that the Litani River was Israel's northern border.

So I'm not at all convinced that this is a limited operation, as the Israelis say. It could be that, on the other hand, it could be that they have negotiated something with the United States that is more limited.

But, you know, I remember 1982. I was here at the time. The Israelis entered in what was also supposed to be a limited operation. And, of course, they, you know, eventually ended up in Beirut.

I don't think they're going to end up in Beirut this time, that's it.

ANDERSON: Of course, at the time, it was described as a limited operation. It was three years before most of those Israeli troops had withdrawn south of the Litani River.

I do want to talk about the wider picture here. I mean, obviously, people in Lebanon are suffering under this onslaught at present. The Israelis have said that they have a stated goal of returning their citizens, some 65,000 of whom have been displaced from the northern border, as a goal of this war.

[04:40:00]

There are obviously many, many hundreds of thousands of people in Lebanon who are displaced. As I say, we don't know how long this goes on. And Israel has a history of little success with regard to invasions into Lebanon.

The wider story here, as I talk to people around the region, is twofold, really. There is the risk of further destabilization to Lebanon, a country already in a real mess, and with people leaving for, for example, Syria, which itself is unstable. That is one real concern.

The wider story, perhaps, and you hear this in some parts of the Arab region, is that the degradation, if not complete sort of destruction of Hezbollah, on the one hand, and Hamas in Gaza, but very specifically Hezbollah, who have waged such a malign campaign against so many countries around this region, would be an opportunity -- potentially a good thing going forward. Where do you land as some parts of this region look to a future Middle East which has a very different architecture going forward?

YOUNG: Well, I mean you know, it's certain that Hezbollah has not been good for the authority of the Lebanese state, but let's be serious. If there is today an assumption that you're going to get rid of Hezbollah so easily because of a few assassinations or a few bomb attacks, this is an illusion. I mean, Hezbollah is anchored in one of Lebanon's largest communities. It's backed by, of course, a major regional power called Iran.

Definitely, I can understand that in the Arab world there is a great deal of hostility towards Hezbollah, but you know, this is not going to be resolved militarily by Israeli military action in Lebanon, I'm afraid. This is a much bigger issue of Iran emerging as a regional power with its networks of alliances.

You know, it's at this level that you need to address the problem. All that's happening today is that effectively you have over a million Lebanese, according to the Lebanese government, most of them from the Shia community, who have become essentially refugees in their own country. It's a major humanitarian problem.

It will have a definite impact on Hezbollah afterwards because they will have to resolve this problem. So, at best, what you can do in Lebanon today is to sort of erode, to a certain extent, Hezbollah's aura in the country. But you're certainly not going to get rid of Hezbollah. I think that's an illusion. And in the meantime, there is major destruction taking place and enormous loss of life.

ANDERSON: Michael Young, it's good to have you. Thank you very much indeed for joining us.

YOUNG: Thank you.

FOSTER: Becky, thank you.

China now celebrating a major anniversary. The People's Republic was founded 75 years ago, on 1 October 1949, and all sorts of events have been getting over there in Beijing.

Despite China's persistent economic downturn, President Xi Jinping said the country is moving forwards and he used the week-long national holiday to bring up the tense topic of Taiwan, Marc.

MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Max, and the timing of this comes as the Chinese Communist Party celebrates its 75th anniversary. So, this is a time for reflection on the past, looking ahead to the future, really a chance for Beijing to give itself a pat on the back.

And we have seen a lot of symbolism over the last 48 hours. In fact, it was just today, not too far from my location here in Beijing, at Tiananmen Square, we saw a Chinese flag raised up the flagpole as part of a ceremony. There were balloons. And Xi Jinping really talked about the importance of national achievements, about modernization, about moving to the future.

So, this idea, this notion of reunifying Taiwan to the motherland, some of Xi Jinping's phrasing, really is not that much of a surprise. It very much falls into these themes that we've heard during this National Day holiday. Let's listen to Xi Jinping and his remarks from last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

XI JINPING, CHINESE PRESIDENT (through translator): Taiwan is China's sacred territory. People on both sides of the straits are related by blood, and blood is thicker than water.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[04:45:00]

STEWART: And Xi Jinping saying that no one can stop the march of history. These are phrases that we have heard before, or in the spirit of before, from Beijing. Taiwan also responding, again, declaring its sovereignty.

We have seen some tension in recent weeks, increased tension. There have been more military drills. We have seen the U.S. lend its support to this region further. But China -- or Taiwan, I should say, standing very resolute on its independence, as China asserts itself as a global power map.

FOSTER: OK, Marc Stewart in Beijing, thank you so much. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: A defiant Julian Assange has issued his first public remarks since being freed from British jail. The WikiLeaks founder became infamous for his involvement in a massive breach of U.S.-classified military and diplomatic documents. CNN's Clare Sebastian has been watching what he said, because we're sort of looking at how he's going to take this forward, aren't we?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think that's the big question, and we don't have an answer to that yet. But I think what is abundantly clear from his appearance today is that he does not plan to stay silent or fade into oblivion. That is not part of the plan. That's why he's emerged now only three months after his release in this plea deal with the U.S., despite claiming that his sort of health and mental state has been severely impacted by this, that it has taken a massive toll, which has made this appearance extremely difficult.

And for the first time, he has now addressed that plea deal, which was the real sting in the tail of his freedom after 14 years, he claims, of incarceration, the fact that he still had to plead guilty to one felony count under the U.S. Espionage Act, and this has led to a real sense for him of unfinished business. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JULIAN ASSANGE, WIKILEAKS FOUNDER: Justice for me is now precluded as the U.S. government insisted in writing into its plea agreement that I cannot file a case at the European Court of Human Rights or even a Freedom of Information Act request over what it did to me as a result of its expedition request.

[04:50:05]

I want to be totally clear. I am not free today because the system worked. I am free today after years of incarceration because I pled guilty to journalism.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: So he claims his motive for appearing is to try to make sure that this doesn't happen to anyone else. He says that he thinks that a lot of time has been lost since he's been in prison. He sees more impunities, there's more secrecy, more retaliation. He's called this a dark crossroads for freedom of expression.

So it was, in a sense, a rallying cry, but he also did detail at length the various sort of abuses and mistreatment that he himself faced. And interestingly, given the timing of this in the context of the U.S. political calendar, he was very critical in particular of the Trump administration. Interestingly, since, of course, we had Trump in the 2016 election claiming that he loves WikiLeaks, he claims the Trump administration ran a campaign of retribution against him, that the CIA was pursuing him.

Obviously, this, you know, could perhaps serve as a warning, given that we might see Trump re-elected in November. But as I said, this clearly is a man who feels his own recovery from those 14 years is incomplete.

He at one point in the hearing said he was tired and the head of WikiLeaks at the moment had to take over. So it'll be interesting to watch his next steps. We didn't get a clear answer on what his plan is moving forward, but clearly it is not to stay silent.

FOSTER: No, absolutely. Clare, thank you so much.

Next, Major League Baseball bids farewell to its all-time hits leader, the life and troubled times of Pete Rose.

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Baseball's all-time hits leader, Pete Rose, has died at the age of 83. His gritty play and headfirst slide earned him the nickname Charlie Hustle. Rose played for three World Series champions in his career, twice with the Cincinnati Reds.

He was named National League Rookie of the Year in 1963 and Most Valuable Player in 1973. But Rose was banned for life from baseball in 1989 after an investigation found he gambled on games, including his own team. That's also kept him out of the Hall of Fame.

Major League Baseball posted on social media deepest condolences to Pete Rose's family, his friends across the game, and the fans of his hometown of Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Montreal, and beyond, who admired his greatness, grit, and determination on the field of play. May he rest in peace.

Jimmy Carter may not be the current U.S. president, but he is still making history. Carter is 100 years old today, becoming the first American president to reach the milestone. He's also the only president to win a Nobel Peace Prize after leaving office and has the most Grammy Award wins of any president. The 39th president's hometown, Plains, Georgia, will celebrate his birthday with a military flyover.

Jimmy Carter has been receiving hospice care at his home since February 2023.

Thanks for joining me here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster in London. CNN "THIS MORNING" is up after the break.

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