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CNN International: Lebanon: Israeli Strike Halts Traffic Near Syria Border Crossing; Israeli Airstrikes Continuing in Southern Beirut; Obama Planning 27-Day Battleground Blitz for Harris; Israel Says it Killed Hezbollah's Communications Leader; Helene Death Toll Continues to Climb; Garth Brooks Speaks Out Against Sexual Assault Allegations. Aired 8-9a ET
Aired October 04, 2024 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm Jessica Dean in New York. This is CNN Newsroom. Just ahead, Iran's Supreme Leader says his country will attack Israel again quote, if needs be, as he addressed a large crowd in Tehran. We're going to be live in Beirut and Tel Aviv with the latest on the volatile situation there.
And Former President Barack Obama about to hit the campaign trail for Kamala Harris. What could it mean for an historically tight presidential race in the U.S.? And labor breakthrough, U.S. port workers are returning to work as we speak, and a strike that threatened to cripple the economy is over for now.
Iran's Supreme Leader leads a rare prayer sermon in Tehran as Israel continues to weigh its response to Iran's recent missile barrage. We begin this hour in the Middle East, thousands gathered at Tehran's grand mosque as the Ayatollah mourned the death of Hezbollah Leader Hassan Nasrallah, killed by Israel and Beirut a week ago today.
Ali Khamenei saying that Iran would attack Israel again, if necessary. This as Israeli airstrikes pummel Beirut for another day. A source says Israel was targeting a possible successor to Nasrallah. The IDF says one strike killed Hezbollah's Head of Communications Thursday. Israel also bombed an area near Lebanon's main border crossing with Syria, cutting access to an international road.
Tens of thousands of people fleeing the fighting have used that crossing in recent weeks. Israel says it struck an underground tunnel crossing to prevent weapons from being smuggled into Lebanese territories. We have CNN reporters covering this story from all angles. Jeremy Diamond is in Tel Aviv, Israel. Fred Pleitgen, who has traveled to Iran several times, is in Berlin.
Let's begin though with Jomana Karadsheh, who is in Beirut. Jomana, multiple developments in Lebanon catch us all up to date to where things stand right now. JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Jessica, just a few minutes
ago, right before we came up live, we could hear a blast in the distance clay. If we could zoom in there, you could see smoke rising from the southern suburbs of Beirut.
It is unclear what the target of that strike is, but really this has been the situation here over the past couple of days, seeing these intensified Israeli strikes on what they say are Hezbollah targets, Hezbollah weapons storage facilities and sites over the last couple of days.
Last night as well, we saw some large explosions Jessica in the southern suburbs, according to the state news agency, here, they say it was ten consecutive strikes that they described as some of the biggest since the start of the war, and as we understand from Jeremy's reporting, according to an Israeli official, the target of that strike was Hashim Safi al-Din, a potential successor for the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in a strike last week. It's unclear if Safieddine was killed, and this is just in Beirut.
Jessica, you've got also intense Israeli strikes ongoing in the eastern part of the country, in the Beqaa region. The -- what we're hearing from both the Israeli military as well as Lebanese officials, is a strike near the main border crossing between Lebanon and Syria.
The Israeli military says that it was targeting weapons tunnels that were used for smuggling weapons between Iran and Lebanon. It's that main highway, the International Highway from Baghdad to Beirut to Damascus. And but what that has done is it has cut off vehicle access to that main border crossing in both directions, from Lebanon to Syria, and from Syria to Lebanon to the border crossing.
And as we understand it, there are so many people, as we have seen in recent days, who are trying to flee Lebanon into Syria, who are now forced to move on foot to try and get to the border crossing. According to UNHCR, more than 160,000 people have crossed that border fleeing the war in Lebanon into war torn Syria since September the 24th. 130,000 of them, Syrians and Lebanese have used that main border crossing.
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So, this is really going to have a devastating impact on civilians, as well as the continuing strikes on health facilities near health facilities, on medical workers, according to the World Health Organization, they are describing it as the health care system in Lebanon is coming under attack. At least 37 health facilities in Southern Lebanon that are already under a lot of pressure to deal with the large number of casualties.
37 health facilities have had to shut down. Just in the last hour or so, we've received reports as well from another hospital in the south, an air strike close to the hospital, they say, has forced them to shut down and evacuate their staff. So, an absolutely devastating situation, especially for the civilians who are caught up in all of this Jessica. DEAN: All right, just stay with us. I want to go now to Jeremy
Diamond, who is in Tel Aviv. And Jeremy, of course, Israel fighting now on multiple fronts. Where is this headed and as we approach this October 7th anniversary?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is very clear that at this moment, a year into this war, that Israel is fighting a war on multiple fronts. It is not only, of course, fighting Hamas in Gaza, as it has been for the last year, but also now very much engaged in a war with Hezbollah.
Not only in terms of the ground operation there that is clearly expanding with now two divisions of Israeli troops now involved in this combat effort in Southern Lebanon that could be as many as 20,000 troops, not necessarily all of them in southern Lebanon, but clearly involved in combat operations there, as dozens of Lebanese villages as far as 18 miles away from Israel's border with Lebanon are being urged to evacuate.
And so even as Israel is calling this a limited operation, there clearly is the potential for this to grow and become very significant. And as Jomana has been laying out there, it is already clearly having a far more than just a limited effect on the Lebanese civilian population there, and also, of course, on Hezbollah.
We have seen the Israeli military engaged in some of the heaviest bombardment of Lebanon that we have seen in decades now. And very much almost at pace with its bombardment of Gaza in the early days and weeks of that war. And then, of course, at the same time, we now have this escalating conflict directly between Israel and Iran, after Iran fired for the second time ever, now directly on Israel using ballistic missiles.
And Israeli leaders are now considering how exactly they will respond to that attack by Iran. Will they strike nuclear facilities? Will they strike oil facilities? Will they simply target military infrastructure inside of Iran? What is clear, though, is that they will retaliate, and with that retaliation will come the potential for the situation to escalate even further.
And so, there's no question that Israel is in a multi front war right now. What its strategy is, is less clear. Clearly it is to remove the threats that it believes it faces and to deter Iran from taking additional action in the future. But at the moment, it seems like the fighting that it is engaged in, whether it is in Gaza with Hezbollah or with Iran, is only leading to further escalation of this situation with no clear end in sight for this region to stabilize Jessica.
DEAN: All right. Jeremy Diamond in Tel Aviv, thank you so much for that reporting. And now we go to Fred Pleitgen. Fred, I know you have traveled to Iran a number of times. Iran's Supreme Leader calling the actions against Israel, quote, legal and legitimate. What more is he saying today? And how would you categorize the current state of affairs at this moment?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Jessica. Well, first of all, he led the Friday prayers today in the -- compound, which is where that Grand Mosque is that you were talking about earlier. And that in itself, is a pretty big thing, because the last time that the Iran Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei did that was actually almost five years ago, after the assassination of the Head of the Revolutionary Guards, Quds force Qasem Soleimani, who of course, was a very big ticket general in Iran who was killed by a U.S. drone strike back then.
Now, there were huge crowds that were on hand today as the Supreme Leader gave his speech, and there certainly were some pretty interesting points that he made. On the one hand, he called for unity, as he put it, among Muslim nations, first and foremost, as he put it, against Israel.
One of the things that he was talking about was the Palestinians right to self defense against Israel. Of course, so far, one of the things that we've seen as a lot of this has unfolded also that Jeremy was talking about, like, for instance, that ballistic missile attack by the Iranians on Israeli territory, is that, for instance, Jordan intercepted some of those Iranian missiles saying that they will not allow their airspace to be used for attack on other nations.
So that is certainly something where the Supreme Leader was urging unity among Muslim nations, essentially for the Palestinian cause, but of course, also for Hezbollah as well.
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He said that Iran stands firmly on the side of Hezbollah. One of the things that we also have to keep in mind with that is that there were very close ties between Iran's Supreme Leader and the killed head of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah for a very long time, we know that they had very close ties to one another, at least since the last incursion of Israel into Lebanese territory in 2006.
And then he did get to that Iranian missile strike on to Israeli territory, and he called that legitimate. But he also said that if Israel retaliates that, then the Iranians will strike once again. One of the interesting caveats in all of that is that the Iranian force that conducted that missile strike is the revolutionary guard aerospace forces.
They are in charge of the missile program. They're also in charge of Iran's air defenses, which right now, of course, are on high alert, anticipating that the Israelis most likely are going to strike back, as Jeremy was reporting, there, possibly against Iran's nuclear facilities, but then possibly also against oil and gas facilities as well.
Some of those are in the Persian Gulf. Some of those are also on the border between Iran and Iraq. So certainly, the Iranians right now very much on high alert for that. But today in itself, the fact that the Supreme Leader came out and gave that sermon at that Mosala compound for the Friday prayers, that's a pretty big event in Iran.
You could certainly see the crowds out there, many of them waving Palestinian flags and waving Hezbollah flags as well Jessica.
DEAN: All right. Fred Pleitgen, and thank you so much. Jeremy Diamond, thank you to you as well. Jomana, I do want to go back to you for just one more update, because I know you've also, obviously, you are on the ground there in Beirut as this is happening. What is the humanitarian situation you were mentioning of course, the civilians and how they're being impacted by all of this? How are they -- are they being able to get the assistance that they need? Where are these displaced people going?
KARADSHEH: You know, Jessica, it is a humanitarian situation that is growing more dire by the day, and it's all happening so fast. You've got a government here, a country that is pretty much bankrupt. It is struggling to deal with multiple crises that are unfolding as a result of this war, whether it is the number of people, the casualties that they -- their health care sector that was already weakened by years of crises and wars has had to deal with.
And we're talking about thousands and thousands of people. And as we mentioned earlier, the World Health Organization saying that there have been many attacks on health care workers and on health facilities. So, you've got that part of the crisis. Then you also have the internal displacement.
This is the biggest internal displacement crisis in the history of Lebanon, according to the government, more than a million people displaced in a matter of days. And you are seeing this happening in Southern Lebanon, and you're seeing this happening here in Beirut from the southern suburbs, and also in the eastern part of the country.
These areas that have been under Israeli bombardment. And I mean, and the numbers are increasing by the day. You've had in the last three days, a total of 100 more than 100 villages ordered to evacuate by the Israeli military. That's just in the south. Same thing here in the southern suburbs, every day almost you are hearing these evacuation orders for certain neighborhoods.
And these shelters that the government have set up are overcrowded. There aren't enough shelters. There isn't enough room in these shelters to accommodate this huge number of people who have been displaced so fast. And so, you end up in a situation where you have people out on the streets with nowhere to go for days, with no access to facilities, to toilets, to showers, to hot meals.
I mean, it is absolutely devastating. And then you have people with no other choice but to cross the border into Syria, and that really says a lot about the situation right now.
DEAN: Yeah, it does. All right, Jomana, thank you so much for that reporting. We really appreciate it. Joining us now to talk further about this Aaron David Miller, a Former Middle East Negotiator for the State Department and Current Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Aron, great to see you. Thanks for being with us.
ARON DAVID MILLER, FORMER STATE DEPARTMENT MIDDLE EAST NEGOTIATOR: Thanks for having me.
DEAN: We are seeing all of this rapidly intensify. We're nearly one year from the October 7th attacks. Is this where you thought this conflict would be? And how -- how do you see it all from, where you're sitting right now?
MILLER: You know, Jessica, nobody ever lost money betting against escalations in the Middle East or peace agreements to be concluded. My frame on this, I think, is pretty sober. You've got three ongoing wars of attrition between Israel and Hamas on one hand, Israel and Hezbollah on the other.
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And of course, the main event between Israel and Iran. These wars of attrition currently, the power balance has shifted, I think, decisively in Israel's favor. But the reality is, the wars are going to continue because none of these three are amenable, in my judgment, to transformative diplomatic fixes.
Maybe they can be contained through deterrence, through interim agreements and informal understandings. But the reality is there no there are no stable end states here, and I think the Israelis demonstrated escalation dominance on all three of these fronts, still will have the challenge of trying to figure out whether or not their tactical brilliance and military power can be tethered to a set of arrangements that will create a measure of security and stability.
Right now, I think the odds of that happening are slim to none. We stand on the cusp of something the Middle East has never experienced before, a multi front Middle East war fought not with hundreds of thousands of troops being deployed, but with AI, cyber drones, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, and potentially the -- of the United States.
DEAN: Yeah. And I thought it was interesting that you posted on X shooting not talking has taken over in the Middle East. And it sounds, based on what you just described there, that you're quite pessimistic on any sort of diplomatic resolution at this point.
MILLER: I mean -- you know if the Iranians are counting on American restraint with respect to the Netanyahu government around Israel in the wake of the ballistic missile attack, I think they've sorely and sadly miscalculated. The Israelis are going to respond. I think it'll be much more severe than the response in mid-April, where they did one standoff strike against a radar installation near -- protecting a nuclear facility.
I think they'll go after IRGC Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Command and Control ballistic missile launchers, military depots. Then the question becomes, what will Iranians do? And if the nature of that response is akin to what we saw the other day, or larger. I think the Israelis may add to their target sets, nuclear sites and perhaps oil exporting facilities.
So, the region, all of us, but the Lebanese people, the Israeli people, Palestinians, the Iranian people are in some are in for some very, very bad days ahead.
DEAN: And at what point -- at this point, what type of leverage do you think the U.S. does have here, if much at all?
MILLER: I mean, the good news is that the Israelis have chosen to wait, I think, largely because of there were no civilian casualties. Tragically, a Palestinian from -- in the West Bank was killed by a falling debris, either from a missile or interceptor, the treatise. They've chosen to wait. And they are talking, as the president suggested yesterday, they're coordinating, or at least consulting, and he's advising to use his words, not whether or not we can allow the Israelis, we're advising them.
So, I think the administration's views will be considered. And I think the Israelis, I don't think the Israelis are interested in a major, multi front war. Others believe they are. So, I think at this point, the impact of the U.S. is going to be minimal. Israel needs the United States resupply. They need the United States for defensive and protective measures.
Should the Iranians open up with a saturation attack of ballistic missiles. So, there is a sense of dependency. But Netanyahu government has acted unilaterally and most often, without consulting, certainly without coordinating with the United States.
DEAN: All right. Aaron David Miller, always great to get your analysis. Thank you so much.
MILLER: Thanks, Jessica. I appreciate it.
DEAN: Let's turn now to U.S. politics. Former President Donald Trump is headed to Georgia to see the recovery effort from Hurricane Helene. Trump and Georgia's Republican Governor Brian Kemp will be briefed together on storm damage in a hard-hit area of the state. It's going to be the first time the two have appeared together since 2020.
Trump has criticized Kemp for years after Joe Biden won Georgia and Trump tried unsuccessfully to pressure local officials to help overturn the legitimate election results. CNN's Alayna Treene is joining us now from Washington with more on this. Alayna, what are you learning about all of this?
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well Jessica, the two will be in Evans, Georgia today for a hurricane recovering briefing with local officials. I'm told there will be some sort of press availability as well. I was also told according to a source familiar with the planning of this that both Trump and Kemp were invited separately by the Columbia County.
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But of course, they will be appearing together. We've seen the former president's campaign tout this, but I can't emphasize enough, Jessica, how remarkable it is that these two men are going to be at the same event, appearing at the same time, and also kind of on the same page. I mean, I know you've covered this too. I've covered Donald Trump for
years. I was on the Hill during the January 6th House hearings. I would have never believed that we would see these two men together, and that's because Kemp was one of the Republicans who really got under Donald Trump's skin for refusing to kind of cow to the efforts to overturn the election results in Georgia in 2020.
And Donald Trump has not hidden his criticism of Kemp over the past four years, even as recently as August, Donald Trump was saying that Kemp was not a true Republican. He called him a bad guy. He criticized his wife. But the reason Donald Trump has been changing his tune over the last few months is because one Kemp is a very popular Republican Governor in the State of Georgia. That's something that Donald Trump and his allies recognize.
They also recognize that Georgia is a crucial state to both the Trump campaign, but also the Harris campaign. Both of those campaigns have spent significant amounts of resources in Georgia, really thinking of it as a crucial state on their pathway to 270 electoral votes come November.
So that's why we've seen Donald Trump change his tune. Now Kemp, for his part, I will say did not endorse in the Republican Primary. However, he was always clear that he would eventually support the ultimate Republican Presidential Nominee. In recent months or weeks, I should say he has been supporting Donald Trump.
He's done some fundraisers with her, but it's very notable that the two men will be appearing together for the first time since four years ago.
DEAN: Yeah, no love lost between those two. I also wanted to ask you about the former president's response to his wife's abortion rights stance.
TREENE: I mean, this has been pretty remarkable as well to hear, particularly because Melania Trump has been very much trying to keep herself private. She's not been on the campaign trail much, if at all really, over the last two years that Donald Trump has been running, and I will say, from covering her as closely as I do, she is very conservative.
However, in her book that is set to do to be published next week, she makes clear that she disagrees with Donald Trump when it comes to abortion. She says that she believes she's -- you know a woman has the right to protect her own body. She has individual freedom, and also that she is pro-choice. Now, Donald Trump did respond to that yesterday in an interview with Fox. I want you to take a listen.
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DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We spoke about it, and I said, you have to write what you believe. I'm not going to tell you what to do. You have to write what you believe. She's very beloved. People love our Former First Lady; I can tell you that. But I said you have to stick with your heart. I've said that to
everybody. You have to go with your heart. There are some people that are very, very far right on the issue, meaning, without exceptions. And then there are other people that view it a little bit differently.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TREENE: All right, so a few things on this Jessica. One is that when you talk to some of Donald Trump's advisers, his allies, they argue that, look, they're a normal couple. And sometimes you don't always agree. But I have -- I mean, the timing of this, just weeks before the election. They are not a normal couple.
Donald Trump was a former president. He could be president again. She was the former first lady. She could be the next former the next First Lady. And the fact that she's coming out on such a sensitive issue, one of the most crucial issues this election cycle, and in opposition to her husband, is pretty remarkable Jessica.
DEAN: Yeah, and on an issue where Republicans continue to struggle to attract voters to come to their side on it, the timing is quite interesting. Alayna Treene, thank you so much for your reporting there. We appreciate it. And the final weeks leading up to Election Day here in the U.S., Kamala Harris is teaming up with someone familiar Former President Barack Obama, planning to kick off a battleground blitz next week in Pennsylvania, rallying support for Harris.
Democratic advisers are hoping his star power among Democrats can help propel her to hold the office he once held. CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is joining us with the latest. Priscilla, what more are we learning about this -- push from Obama?
PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly a notable push from not only a familiar figure, but also one of the most popular figures in the Democratic Party. So, this is going to kick off next Thursday in Pittsburgh. It's going to be the former president's first campaign appearance, first public campaign appearance since the Democratic National Convention.
Now what does it look like? It's rallies across battleground states over the next 20 plus days, recording ads and also lending his name to campaign emails to collect cash. So, this is certainly going to be a blitz, by all accounts, by the former president trying to mobilize voters.
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Aides close to him say that this is an all-hands-on deck moment. And in a statement, Obama Senior Adviser Eric Schultz said this quote, now that voting has begun, our focus is on persuading and mobilizing voters, especially in states with key races.
He goes on to say many of these races are likely going -- likely to go down to the wire, and nothing should be taken for granted. That's also what you hear from Harris campaign officials. And so certainly, this has been a welcome news for the Harris campaign, who understands the next few weeks are going to be difficult.
It is a tight race, and it is going to be names like Former President Barack Obama that will help mobilize voters, or at least get them to the polls and to cast their votes early over the next several weeks. Now the vice president today, she's going to be in Michigan. She's going to have a rally there after her event alongside Liz Cheney just yesterday, that too gives us a glimpse into the strategy by the Harris campaign over the next several weeks.
Is that not only will they be trying to mobilize their own Democratic base, but they are also trying to close the margins in some of these Republican counties. And that was something that we saw yesterday in Ripon, Wisconsin. We'll see more of that over the weeks to come, as one aide tells me they're trying to compete everywhere, and in those red rural counties, try to lose by less that they think could really make the difference in this race Jessica.
DEAN: All right. Priscilla Alvarez from Washington, thank you so much for that. Still to come, striking U.S. port workers are back on the job after union negotiators reached a tentative deal on wages. We've got details of that deal straight ahead. And trying to survive a massacre in Burkina Faso by the French government says an August attack was worse than previously thought.
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DEAN: That massive strike by U.S. dock workers at ports from Maine to Texas has ended after just three days, union negotiators reached a tentative deal with shipping executives yesterday over wages. It will extend the workers contract until January 15th, but gets members back to work today, as that deal is being ratified.
The agreement offers a $4 an hour raise each year until 2030. The strike threatened to disrupt U.S. exports and imports which have just recovered from pandemic related supply chain issues. CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich is joining us now with details of this tentative grief agreement. Vanessa, how were they able to get to this deal?
VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: There was a lot of economic pressure. There were starting to be consumer pressure, and there was a lot of political pressure to get this deal done. Just yesterday, our colleague Kayla Tausche reports that President Biden really asked his administration officials to put the pressure on USMX, that's the group that represents the ship lines, to come up with a better offer for the union, and that is ultimately what ended up happening.
A deal was struck yesterday just on wages alone they're going to work out some of the other details as work head back to work, but this is a win, particularly for President Biden right now, take a listen to how he reacted yesterday after the news broke.
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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Dockworkers are going back to work. The next 90 days are going to settle everything.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
YURKEVICH: And the Biden Administration did some analysis, and they found that if this strike dragged on for about two weeks, it could have serious implications for the election, for the race for the White House. You could have seen a jobs report that was really lackluster. You could have seen Americans dealing with high inflation again, if there were some shortages.
So, the president really wanting to get this deal done, and Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su was in New Jersey at both headquarters yesterday, USMX and the union helping to broker this deal. And just to show you some of the elements, here it is a $4 an hour wage increases every year over six years of the deal.
Initially, USMX, the ship lines, wanted to offer $3 the union wanted $5 they met in the middle. So, they reached this deal on wages, and they also agreed to send their workers back to work today and extend the current contract through January 15, as they worked out other details, like automation, et cetera, because these rank-and-file members also Jessica, they weren't getting paid as they were on strike.
So, there were wages lost to those workers. And ultimately, they do have the final say, Jessica, they will vote on whatever full deal the two sides agreed to in January. They could vote it down. We saw this with Boeing on the West Coast. Their union leadership recommended a deal, but the rank-and-file voted it down.
Hopefully we don't get to that point in January, hopefully there's enough time to negotiate a robust deal that all of these rank-and-file members will agree to, Jessica.
DEAN: All right, Vanessa Yurkevich for us. Thank you so much for that reporting. And still to come, Israel orders more residents living in Southern Lebanon to move north as it escalates its air campaign. Still ahead, the very latest on the rapidly deteriorates -- deteriorating, situation in the Middle East.
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DEAN: Israel is intensifying its Arab bombardment on Lebanon with new waves of strikes in Beirut and its southern suburbs. A short time ago, our team in Beirut saw more strikes in the capital. A large blast was heard, followed by rising smoke. You see there, the target is unclear at this time.
The IDF saying Hezbollah's Communications Leader was killed in one attack. So far, Hezbollah has not announced any casualties. It comes as Israel is once again ordering residents in dozens of villages to leave their homes and move north. Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes have cut off a key border crossing between Lebanon and Syria, that's according to a Lebanese official.
[08:35:00] It's a main crossing point for tens of thousands of people fleeing the Israeli strikes. The IDF says it struck the tunnel crossing to prevent weapon smuggling from Syria into Lebanon. To talk further, we have CNN Global Affairs Analyst Kimberly Dozier, who joins us now live from Washington. Kim, nice to see you this morning. Thanks so much for being here with us.
KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Good to be here.
DEAN: Israel has continued to strike Lebanon as it weighs its response to Iran. I'm curious if you can kind of give us a state of play of where you think things stand right now, especially as we come up on this one-year anniversary of the October 7th attacks.
DOZIER: Well, it is a near certainty that Israel is going to respond to Iran's ballistic missile barrage, probably in the coming days, perhaps early next week. Of course, we have that solar Geostorm that's expected to hit this weekend that can play havoc with satellites and communications with the kind of missiles that they would surely be launching at Iran.
They do seem to be ahead of the October 7th anniversary, hitting anything that they think might harm Israelis. We're talking using a jet, apparently, to hit in the West Bank in the neighborhood of Tulkarm at Hamas, alleged Hamas terrorist target there. And also continuing to hit targets across Southern Lebanon and the outskirts of Beirut.
So, you have the Lebanese saying they don't know which way to run. It feels like the gloves are sort of off in this situation, and they're trying to take as many targets off the board as possible. We don't know what they're planning, though, to hit in Iran.
DEAN: Yeah, and that is what that was kind of brings me to our next question, which is, as we await this response, we heard President Biden being asked yesterday if he would support Israel hitting Iranian oil reserves, he kind of said -- he kind of answered around it. Didn't give a definitive answer. But what do you make of that back and forth and the potential for Israel hitting maybe those oil reserves?
DOZIER: Yeah, but President Biden did hint enough at it, that it sure messed up the oil markets for a little bit. When you look at what Israel has hit in other targets. It hit the Houthis in Yemen this week to punish them for launching missiles from there, and it hit three power stations and the oil facility at the port.
That's the kind of thing that possibly is being considered as a target in Iran, something that would cause the country economic pain and be visible to the outside world without causing too many civilian casualties, because these things are usually in more remote locations and ports, though you never know what sort of explosion is going to happen if they hit something stored at a port.
They could also hit ballistic missile sites. They could also hit nuclear facilities that are under construction, as opposed to some of the deeper facilities that we don't think they have the bunker buster technology to reach in any event. But you know, it's how much hurt do they want to cause, and how much do they want to humiliate the regime without triggering a counter response?
Or maybe Israel thinks that, you know, Iran has used 10 percent roughly of its 3000 ballistic missiles. They're daring Iran to try again, because Israel only has to launch a few missiles, and Iran has to launch a whole barrage to cause damage because of Israel's air defense capabilities.
DEAN: All right, Kimberly Dozier, thank you so much for that analysis. We appreciate it. A massacre in Burkina Faso has left 600 people dead, far more than previously thought. That is according to a French government's assessment of August's jihadi attack in the West African country.
CNN's Nick Paton Walsh has details, and we do want to warn you that this report contains danger, disturbing sounds and images.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You're driving to the site of one of the worst massacres in years filmed by one of the killers. First report said jihadist shot dead 300 people here in rural Burkina Faso in August. But CNN has obtained a French government security report that says up to 600 were murdered slowly here, echoing survivor accounts.
Civilians, women and children, all told by the military to dig a trench like this to protect their town Barsalogho from jihadists, and then shot dead for doing so by those same jihadists. The shovels laid down. You can see here as civilians then lay face down in the dirt themselves, suggesting they surrendered before being shot.
[08:40:00]
Al-Qaeda linked JNIM, a raging unchecked across this area of Africa for Sahel, where the French military were kicked out after military coups. Here before the attack, locals were filmed being told to take charge of their own security and dig the trench network. You can see on these satellite images how vast it is. One survivor talked to CNN.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I started to crawl into the trench to escape, but it seemed that the attackers were following the trenches. So, I crawled out and came across the first bloodied victim. There was screaming everywhere. I got down on my stomach, under a bush, until later in the afternoon, hiding.
How can you cry if there are no tears to shed? We, the survivors, are no longer normal. I see my late friends when I'm asleep. It's more than 300 dead. Anyone who denies it, should come and see me.
WALSH (voice-over): The French government report as the president coup leader, Captain Ibrahim Traore is recently himself hard to spot in public. His personal bodyguards, supplied by the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, the report says, was shipped off to Russia to stop the Ukrainian advance in Kursk, leaving him yet more isolated. Traore launched the trench digging program here in June.
CAPTAIN IBRAHIM TRAORE, INTERIM PRESIDENT OF BURKINA FASO: All the villagers need to dig the trenches. We don't have machines to do that, so everyone needs to work together.
WALSH (voice-over): And the army, they fled the massacre, the report adds. Suffering already a huge credibility gap after their soldiers were filmed engaged in cannibalism, here apparently of a dead jihadist's body parts. Across the region, horror is unimaginable yet commonplace enough. They sink into obscurity, fast deepening the spiral. Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, London.
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DEAN: Still to come, we are getting the latest snapshot of how workers in the world's biggest economy are faring up next the U.S. September jobs report. And how it could affect the Fed's rate cut decision? Plus, dozens of elephants caught up in flash floods in Thailand.
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DEAN: In the U.S., the death toll from Hurricane Helene has risen to at least 213 people across six states. More than 200 people in North Carolina remain unaccounted for, and many areas such as Chimney Rock, entire parts of towns, including bridges and roads, buildings, were all just wiped away.
The area around Asheville was particularly hard hit. It is struggling to meet basic needs for residents as the search for the missing continues and residents face up to the destruction. Here's North Carolina's Governor.
[08:45:00]
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GOV. ROY COOPER (D-NC): To wake up one morning and everything that you own be gone is a tragic situation. This is an unprecedented situation that is going to require an unprecedented response. We are working to turn on every avenue of resources that we can to help people.
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DEAN: FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, says it has enough funding for now, but the White House has warned that disaster funds for small businesses are depleting quickly. Hurricane Helene cut an 800-kilometer path of destruction across the U S southeast. And the national weather service calls it a once in 1000-year rainfall event.
President Biden surveying devastated areas in the southeast again Thursday, first in Florida alongside Republican Senator Rick Scott, and later in Georgia, where he said it's time to come together and break down the quote, rabid partisanship in U.S. politics. Ryan Young reports from the president's stop in Valdosta, Georgia.
RYAN YOUNG, CNN U.S. CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, all throughout Lowndes County, which is 500 square miles, you see destruction like what's behind me. You see this house right here with a tree across its roof, and the house next door has a tree across its roof. We've seen this repeat itself over and over again.
Crews have been working their way to clear streets to make things safe for residents, but that's why the president showed up here. We know that this has been such a powerful storm that they need federal assistance in this area. President went through to see the areas that were damaged. We knew agriculture has been greatly impacted. Small businesses have been impacted, and they need federal assistance.
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BIDEN: Almost like this. It's time to put politics aside. Again, it's not one state versus the United States. Our job is of as many people as we can, as many as we can. And also, by the way, when you do that, I hope again to break down this rabid partisanship as exists. I mean this sincerely. There's no rationale for it.
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YOUNG: We saw Senator Warnock here. We also saw the Mayor of Valdosta with the president. You see that tarp back there on that roof. Tarps are being handed out to citizens all throughout this county because they know more rain can be coming, and trying to protect homes throughout this area.
They're also giving out ice and water, but more than 70 percent of those areas without power, there are power crews that are working from all across the United States here. We saw a crew from Mississippi that's trying to get lines back up, get critical power back on. It's still very hot here.
The residents here are suffering more than one way, because without power at several small businesses, people are getting paid. They're not able to go out and get food. So, these are things they want to see restored very quickly, and something that will continue to watch. Ryan Young, CNN, Valdosta.
DEAN: Thank you, Ryan. The U.S. jobs report has just come out for September, and it is much stronger than was expected. 254,000 jobs created last month. Economists had been expecting 140,000, it's kind of the last piece of big economic data before the U.S. elections in just about a month.
Still to come, sexual assault allegations against Garth Brooks, what the country music star is saying about it.
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DEAN: In Thailand, around 100 elephants have been evacuated from popular nature park to escape flash flooding there. The founder of the park telling CNN, it's the biggest evacuation they've ever had to do. Anna Coren has details.
[08:50:00] (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One by one against rising floodwaters, these giants of the land push for higher ground. Come, come this way, keep going quick -- but it's a slow and arduous process, especially for the elephants trapped in their enclosures waiting to be rescued.
For days now, heavy rains have been falling across Northern Thailand, causing flush flooding and landslides. But for the Mae Taeng Valley just outside Chiang Mai, home to the Elephant Nature Park, it is now completely underwater, threatening the lives of the animals it provides century, four.
100 elephants who live here, along with a menagerie of thousands of other animals, have all been rescued from injury and abuse, with this natural disaster only adding to their trauma. As these three elephants quickly move through the flood waters, another follows a distance behind.
Her name is Ploy Tom (ph), and she is blind, an injury from her former days in the logging industry. Unable to see. She's caught in the fence. The other elephants calling out, the sound of distress, but Ploy Tom (ph), who's endured too much in her life, manages to break free and rejoins for her.
Thailand's Department of National Parks and Wildlife has sent teams to help with the rescue operation. But so far, they're unable to reach the valley that has been cut off. It's calling on volunteers to help with the evacuation of the 100 stranded elephants and thousands of other sick and disabled animals.
And fear they are working against time and mother nature with more rain on the imminent horizon. Anna Coren, CNN.
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DEAN: Country Music Star Garth Brooks is responding to sexual assault allegations made it in a new lawsuit against him, a hair and makeup artist who says she used to work for Brooks claims he raped her during a 2019, work trip to Los Angeles. She also claims he groped her on various occasions.
In a statement to CNN, Brooks said he has been quoted, hassled to no end with threats, lies and tragic tales of what might happen to him if he did not write a check for millions of dollars. CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister is joining us now live from Los Angeles. Elizabeth, what more are you learning about this?
ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Jessica, so this lawsuit filed yesterday, really a shock to the country music world, the first sorts of accusations of this kind at all against Garth Brooks throughout his long, storied career. As you said, this is a hair and makeup artist who formally worked for Garth Brooks.
That is what she claims in her lawsuit. She said that she met him all the way back in 1999 because she was actually first hired to work for his wife, country superstar, Trisha Yearwood, then she began working for Garth Brooks decades after that, and she claims that after she began working for him in 2017.
Two years later in 2019 is when this alleged assault and abuse started to occur. She is claiming in her suit, sexual battery and sexual assault. She claims that she was raped in 2019 in a Los Angeles hotel room when they were traveling for business for him to film a Grammy tribute performance.
The details in this lawsuit, Jessica, all allegations, of course, but they are very detailed, very vulgar. She says that one incident he allegedly walked out of the shower in his own home where she was to do his hair and makeup. He walked out of the shower completely naked, and she alleges that he forced her hands on to him.
Some of the other allegations, he sent sexually explicit text. He regularly changed in front of her, regularly exposed himself, regularly shared his sexual fantasies, but Jessica, Garth Brooks is denying this, and last night, I obtained a statement from his publicist. I want to read part of that to you.
He says, quote, I have been hassled to no end with threats, lies, and tragic tales of what my future would be if I did not write a check for many millions of dollars. It has been like having a loaded gun waved in my face. I trust the system, I do not fear the truth, and I am not the man they have painted me to be.
So, he is coming out strong, completely denying this, Jessica, and I have to tell you, it gets even more interesting, because yesterday, before this lawsuit was filed, I had reported on a separate filing that was filed last month in mid-September in Mississippi. It came from an anonymous celebrity plaintiff who filed as a John Doe.
Now we know that John Doe was, and is, in fact, Garth Brooks that filing, he said that he was being defamed.
[08:55:00]
He was being extorted by a sexual assault accuser who he said was not telling the truth, and he was trying to get the court to prevent this lawsuit from ever coming out. Obviously, that did not happen, and now these claims are public.
DEAN: All right. Elizabeth Wagmeister, thank you so much for walking us through that we appreciate it. King Charles got his moves on Wednesday at a reception celebrating the Commonwealth diaspora. The king is traveling to Samoa later this month for the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, where delegates from 56 nations will gather.
And to give him a taste of what to expect, guests at the Samoan reception, including Former Rugby Player Freddie Tuilagi, cheered him on as they taught him a traditional dance. Thanks so much for joining me here on CNN "Newsroom". I'm Jessica Dean. "Connect the World" with Becky Anderson is up next.
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