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Four Israeli Soldiers Killed in an Unexpected Drone Attack at Home Turf; Harris, Trump in a Close Fight in Surveys Three Weeks Before the Polls. Man Attempts to Assassinate Former U.S. President Donald Trump Arrested in a Rally in California; Taiwan condemns War Games in China as a Unreasonable Provocation. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired October 14, 2024 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States and all around the world. You are watching the CNN Newsroom and I'm Rosemary Church. Just ahead.

At least four Israeli soldiers are killed by a drone attack on Israeli soil. Officials are looking into how the attack happened without setting off an alarm.

The United States is sending troops to Israel to operate an anti- missile system. The risks involved as fears mount that the war could expand.

And as the U.S. presidential election gets closer, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are neck and neck in the polls. How they're spending the week ahead.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Rosemary Church.

CHURCH: We appreciate you joining us, and we begin in the Middle East where Israel is grappling with one of the bloodiest attacks on its soil since the war broke out last year. Israeli officials say Hezbollah launched a drone attack on Sunday, killing at least four soldiers and wounding more than 60 people.

The drones targeted an army base in Israel about 40 miles from the Lebanese border. The IDF says it will investigate why the attack didn't trigger an alarm. Hezbollah called it retaliation for Israeli strikes in Lebanon on Thursday.

The U.S. announced Sunday it will send an advanced anti-missile system to Israel to help bolster the country's air defenses, along with about 100 U.S. troops to operate it. It comes as the aerospace commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps says his country is ready to respond to any action or quote "misstep" by Israel.

CNN military analyst Cedric Leighton explains why this could be a risky move for the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: What it does, it does, you know, it signify a presence in the Middle East and certainly an effort to protect Israel. It is a defensive effort on the part of the United States. However, if those troops are harmed in any way, that could then result in the U.S. being dragged into the war. And that could of course have significant consequences beyond what we would like to imagine at this point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: An Israeli airstrike on a hospital in central Gaza killed four people and wounded dozens of others early Monday. This was the scene inside the Al-Aqsa hospital courtyard. Several tents were in flames with people trying unsuccessfully to put out the fires. The Israeli military says it conducted a precise strike on a Hamas command center inside the compound and a warning what follows is disturbing video of the aftermath of another strike.

On Sunday, more than 40 people, at least 13 of them children, were killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza, according to hospital officials. At least 22 of the dead were killed when the al-Mufti school located in the Nuseirat refugee camp was hit. Gaza's civil defense says more than 5,000 displaced people are sheltering there.

And joining us now live from London is CNN's Nada Bashir. So Nada, what more can you tell us about this deadly drone attack on Israel?

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. According to official information at this stage, at least four Israeli soldiers have reportedly been killed, 60 others said to have been injured in this drone attack targeting the town of Binyamina, a military base there in the Haifa area, just about 40 miles from the border with Lebanon. Of course, we have seen those tensions mounting.

There has been growing concern that Hezbollah may continue to target deeper into Israeli territory and of course focusing on these military targets in particular, but there was a devastating scene around this particular base yesterday. Emergency services responding quickly, but of course there has been real concern over the preparedness of both the Israeli military and Israel as a whole, given the fact that no warning sirens were sounded ahead of this attack.

[03:04:58]

Now, as you mentioned, Hezbollah has claimed this attack. They say they launched a swarm of attack drones, in their words, in response to the bombing of Beirut that we have seen over the last few days, in particular over the weekend. We have of course seen Israel deepening its ground incursion as well in southern Lebanon. But this has led the Israeli military to bring into question how prepared they are for any possible further attacks. Take a listen to this statement from the IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari.

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REAR ADM. DANIEL HAGARI, IDF SPOKESPERSON (through translator): We are now busy contacting their families. All of the soldiers at the base were instructed to call home and update their families that they are OK. We are managing the incident. We will learn from and investigate the incident how a UAV entered without an alert at the base. The threat of UAVs is a threat we are dealing with since the beginning of the war. We need an improvement to our defense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASHIR: In addition to these drones that we're seeing launched by Hezbollah, we continue to see rockets as well being fired by the militant group from parts of southern Lebanon into Israeli territory. More than two weeks now since Israel launched its grand incursion into Lebanon.

And of course, there is mounting concern for the potential for this to escalate further. We heard yesterday warnings from the Israeli prime minister targeting directly U.N. peacekeeping missions on the southern border. So certainly concern there on how this could continue to escalate and fall out across Lebanon and Israel.

CHURCH: And Nada, what is the latest on Israeli airstrikes in Gaza?

BASHIR: Well, we've seen devastating scenes yesterday around the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. Important to underscore, this is one of the last few remaining hospitals still functioning in Gaza. It is somewhere where Doctors Without Borders continues to work to support Palestinian medics there and it is somewhere where thousands of civilians have taken shelter in these makeshift encampments around the hospital compound.

Now we have seen over the last week the hospital compound itself being struck as well as nearby schools and mosques. Yesterday this was the particular area where civilians had been sheltering their tents that was struck by an Israeli air strike.

The Israeli military has acknowledged this. They say they were targeting Hamas militants operating in the area, once again accusing Hamas of using Palestinian civilian as human shields, but this is an area that was known to be and has long been known to be housing over 5,000 displaced civilians sheltering in these tents in around the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital area.

And lots of the footage that we have been getting in from the aftermath of the strike is simply too graphic to show on air. These tents completely engulfed in flames with civilians still inside at least four people killed, at least 40 others are said to have been wounded, but again that death toll could continue to rise.

CHURCH: All right, our thanks to Nada Bashir joining us live from London with that report.

Just over three weeks left until the U.S. presidential election, and there's still no clear front runner, according to new polling. CNN's latest poll of polls shows an average of 50 percent of likely voters will support Vice President Kamala Harris, while 47 percent will back former President Donald Trump.

The deadlock extends to key battleground states, where even smaller percentages separate the nominees in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Both candidates will focus largely on the battleground states in the coming weeks.

And Donald Trump is hoping his anti-immigration rhetoric will resonate with voters as he doubles down on his false narrative that the Biden- Harris administration has opened the floodgates to a wave of violent migrant criminals, while studies generally find no evidence that immigrants commit crimes at a higher rate than people born in the United States. Trump continues to make fear of outsiders a central theme of his campaign speeches.

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DONALD TRUMP (R), U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: For four straight years, she's imported an army of illegal alien gang members and migrant criminals from the dungeons all over the world. Not South America, all over the world they come. From prisons and jails and (inaudible) Asylums, mental institutions. From Venezuela, from the Congo, all over, and she's resettled them into your communities to prey upon innocent American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Campaigning in North Carolina on Sunday, Kamala Harris took aim at Trump, criticizing him for not releasing his medical reports, refusing to do a second debate and opting out of the customary candidate interview with the CBS News program "60 Minutes."

Eva McKend has our report.

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EVA MCKEND, CNN U.S. NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Vice President Harris using her remarks at a rally in Greenville to argue that the former president is not being transparent enough with voters when it comes to sitting for that "60 Minutes" interview, a long honored tradition, when it comes to going up against her for another debate or even on releasing his medical records. Take a listen.

VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS (D), U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And here's the thing. Here's the thing. It makes you wonder, it makes you wonder, why does his staff want him to hide away? One must question, are they afraid that people will see that he is too weak and unstable to make America?

MCKEND: And a clear goal of the vice president in her two-day swing here in North Carolina was to try to recreate President Biden's winning multiracial coalition that he relied in part on in 2020 with intentional outreach to black voters. She met with black farmers. She met with community leaders and faith leaders in Raleigh. And she also spoke at a black church. But what we're also hearing from North Carolina Democrats is a big push for voters to get and vote early. Early voting begins in this state in just a few days.

Eva McKend, CNN, Greenville, North Carolina.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: One of the top black leaders in the Democratic Party is downplaying recent polls that show Kamala Harris lagging in support from black men when compared to Joe Biden's numbers when he ran for president. Congressman James Clyburn says he has had frank and direct conversations with black men out on the campaign trail and that he does not feel the polls are an accurate reflection of what he's seeing and hearing during those discussions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC): Yes I am concerned about black men staying home or voting for Trump, but my concerns don't tend to keep me from being energetic about this campaign. Yes, black men like everybody else want to know exactly what I can expect from a Harris administration. And I've been very direct with them. And I've also contrasted that with what they can expect from a Trump administration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: The death toll from Hurricane Milton in Florida now stands at 23, according to the latest tally from law enforcement. And for the second time in just two weeks, U.S. President Joe Biden was back in Florida surveying the damage from another major storm.

During his visit on Sunday, President Biden announced more than $600 million in projects to help states like Florida bolster their power grids. Fuel and power shortages continue to hamper recovery efforts across western and central Florida. Nearly 450,000 customers are still without power and almost 30 percent of the state's gas stations were without fuel as of early Sunday.

President Biden's visit to Florida comes one day after he approved a major disaster declaration for the state's impacted counties. CNN White House correspondent Arlette Saenz has the latest.

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ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Biden saw the devastation wrought by Hurricane Milton firsthand when he toured St. Petersburg, Florida. On Sunday, the president said that this hurricane was not as cataclysmic as many had predicted, but he did acknowledge how personally it could feel cataclysmic for people as individuals are still reeling after the disaster wrecked their community.

Now, President Biden, while he was on the ground, touted the federal response while also saying the federal government is working hand in hand with state officials to try to get the resources needed to those individuals most impacted. Take a listen.

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: This is a whole government effort, from state and local to FEMA, to the U.S. Coast Guard, Army Corps of Engineers, the Energy Department, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Defense, just to name a few. FEMA has delivered 1.2 million meals, over 300,000 liters of water, 2 million gallons of fuel, and so far we've installed 100 satellite terminals to restore communications in impacted areas.

SAENZ: Now Biden was joined for part of his appearance by a Republican congresswoman from the area, Anna Paulina Luna. He was not joined by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, though President Biden and DeSantis spoke twice on the phone in the last week and Biden has said that they have had a cooperative working relationship in response not just to Hurricane Milton but also Hurricane Helene.

[03:15:08]

Now at the same time, the president has stressed that getting additional funding for disaster relief should be a top priority for Congress. But so far, House Speaker Mike Johnson has reiterated that he is not going to bring the house back early to deal with additional disaster relief.

Now, officials have said that they have enough disaster relief funding to deal with FEMA's immediate needs in the wake of Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene, but they have warned that they could need more funding down the road especially as they are trying to anticipate any further natural disasters that could be around the corner.

Arlette Saenz, CNN, Traveling with the President in Wilmington, Delaware.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Coming up, phase two of a critical public health campaign gets underway in Gaza as the U.N. tries to keep polio from spreading. Back with that and more in just a moment.

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CHURCH: Welcome back everyone. The U.N. is set to begin the second phase of its emergency polio vaccination campaign in Gaza today.

[03:20:03]

The World Health Organization hopes to give more than half a million children a second dose of the vaccine. The WHO says the first round of vaccinations was successful with 95 percent of eligible children inoculated in September. UNICEF says it's critical that respect the area-specific humanitarian pauses so that aid workers can reach as many children as possible.

Dr. Hamid Jafri is the World Health Organization's Director of Polio Eradication in the Eastern Mediterranean region and he joins me now from Doha in Qatar. Thank you Dr. Jafri for talking with us. DR. HAMID JAFRI, WHO DIRECTOR OF POLIO ERADICATION, EASTERN

MEDITERRANEAN REGION: Happy to be with you. Thank you.

CHURCH: So what are your main concerns as this second phase of the polio vaccination campaign gets underway in Gaza? And how confident are you that all sides will observe humanitarian pauses so that this can be done as safely as possible?

JAFRI: So I think the first campaign round gave us and particularly the health worker and families confidence that children can be vaccinated safely when all parties respected and adhered to the humanitarian causes. And that's the most important element. The other important element, of course, is the enthusiasm with which these communities in Gaza seek a vaccination. These are highly health literate communities.

So we learned a lot about planning and logistics and a lot of improvements have been made to even further improve the quality and coverage of vaccination. But the most important element for success remains safety of families and safety of health workers. So the adherence to the humanitarian positive and access to all children, no matter which part of Gaza they are in, is going to be absolutely critical.

CHURCH: And I did want to talk to you about how successful the first round of vaccinations were, most of the, what were the challenges faced perhaps? And also too, have you used some of those experiences to refine this second round so that it runs more smoothly and more efficiently and safely, of course?

JAFRI: Absolutely. The first round, you know, Gaza had not implemented a mass vaccination campaign for, you know, multiple decades. So this in some ways was new for Gaza. So the health workers had to be trained and obviously the logistics, the transportation and movement in a war- torn area was extremely difficult. The logistical planning and the movement of supplies, fuel, cash, everything had to be planned to the T.

So a number of different things are being done. Better logistic pre- positioning of vaccines and cold chain equipment, finger markers, further training and redistribution of teams, how many in fixed sites, how many mobile teams, but more importantly, decentralized decision making so that each governorate will have its own emergency operation center so they can make decisions locally.

And this time, as you may have heard, that vitamin A is going to be administered to all children from two years up to 10 years of age in this round. So that has required additional human resources and their training to administer vitamin A.

CHURCH: And doctor, how difficult will it be to eradicate polio in Gaza and how many children would you estimate suffering from the effects of this debilitating disease at this time?

JAFRI: So far, one case of polio in a 10 month old child has been confirmed. But we know that the virus, the last time we tested samples again, that were collected in September, early September, are still positive. That's when just the vaccination campaign was getting started. That's the timing of the last samples that are positive.

We know that we have to administer at least two doses of this vaccine to more than 90 percent of the children to have a high probability of stopping this outbreak and preventing its international, international spread. So we have to reach a very, very high level of coverage in all of these children.

CHURCH: Dr. Hamid Jafari, thank you so much for joining us in Doha. We appreciate talking with you.

JAFRI: Thank you very much.

CHURCH: With 22 days to go, the U.S. presidential election is closer than ever. Now the two candidates are approaching the final days. That's next here on CNN.

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CHURCH: We are closing in on the final weeks before the U.S. presidential election, but so far neither Vice President Kamala Harris nor Donald Trump have pulled ahead. This week their teams will visit those all-important battleground states in the industrial heartland and the sunbelt. Republicans Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are set to speak at events in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Georgia.

Meantime, Democrats Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are visiting those states and more here at events in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Washington, D.C., with former President Barack Obama stumping for Harris in Nevada and Arizona.

Larry Sabato is the director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics and editor of "A Return to Normalcy, The 2020 Election that (Almost) Broke America." And he joins me now from Charlottesville. Appreciate you being with us.

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA-CENTER FOR POLITICS: Thank you so much, Rosemary.

CHURCH: So just 22 days to election day in America, and both candidates are campaigning hard in critical battleground states. But CNN's poll of polls shows Donald Trump and Kamala Harris deadlocked in three of those states, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

And even though Harris is slightly ahead in that poll nationally at 50 percent compared to Trump's 47 percent, it is within the margin of error. And that is creating panic within the Democratic Party. How bad is that panic, do you think?

SABATO: I've been through a lot of panics in the Democratic Party.

[03:30:00] They have them regularly, usually with each major election. So they know how to react, and those of us who observe them know how to react. And they will, this is an intense panic. There's no question about it.

They had fooled themselves into believing that Kamala Harris' euphoric rise, and it was euphoric because Democrats were happy that President Bush had stepped up, President Bush, President Biden had stepped aside, and they were thrilled to have a candidate who wasn't as damaged as Biden had been.

But the problem is those things never last forever. And she had a great convention and then she won the debate with Trump, but nothing really moved the needle very much. It did move a little in her favor. And she was generally leading in the polls by three or four percent nationally.

Well, inevitably, that fades with time. And 22 days is a long time. We could see this become a roller coaster and both candidates could go up and down again. But somehow Republicans seem better at dealing with those ups and downs than Democrats do.

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: The latest "New York Times" and Siena College poll shows support for Trump growing among Hispanic voters, although Kamala Harris has more support at 56 percent compared to Trump's 37 percent. But given what Trump has been saying about immigrants, I mean, some appalling things. How is it even possible that Hispanic support for him is growing and what's behind Trump making inroads as well with black men?

SABATO: Yes. And notice it's the link here is men. Trump is doing better with Latino men. He's doing better with white men. He's doing better with black men. And there's a tremendous gender gap. And Kamala Harris has done very well in just about every category of women.

Now, women outvote men and they're a larger portion of the population. But the edge for Trump among men has been growing to the point where it can easily outweigh Kamala Harris' advantage among women, plus the electoral college and the fact that we're down to just seven states mattering. And in those states, the essential campaign is tied. You can't really find a big edge for either candidate in any of those states. That's consistent.

CHURCH: How big a motivator for voters will the issue of reproductive rights and abortion likely be, do you think?

SABATO: It's still at the top of the list for Democrats. And it's the best chance that Harris has of outperforming the polls, just as abortion permitted Democrats to outperform the polls in '22, in the midterm elections. So we have a recent precedent.

There's every reason to believe that the feelings are just as strong, maybe even stronger in many states, about reproductive rights and reproductive care. So that may be Harris' best shot, other than a change in strategy, which basically is this. She needs to go after Trump and so do all of her surrogates. They have not done so to the extent that they should, and the material there is endless. There are nine years of Trump's outrages and crazy sayings, and we all know he's deteriorated a bit. So they're getting even worse. You have to use that. You can't just assume people have seen it.

CHURCH: Trump is already claiming there will be problems on election day, saying it will be due to the enemy from within, his words, trying to undermine the election results and saying the military should be involved. What does this signal to you?

SABATO: Well, if there's anybody out there who isn't scared, isn't worried, then they really ought to be. They ought to think about this because this is the sign of an authoritarian in gestation. Some would say he's been an authoritarian all along. This second term, he's been very clear, is going to be about revenge and retribution.

Well, if you have the military on your side because you make the appointments to the Joint Chiefs and other senior military positions, so they're kind of likely to be on your side, this is what can result a militaristic term. And you have as well those detention camps for immigrants. And now he's talking about the death penalty for some.

And he's talked about putting the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, in the electorate chair. You know, you ought to focus on this. This is kind of important. And what I have learned, unfortunately, as an educator, is that increasingly people don't read. And what they read is very tarnished because it's in social media.

[03:34:58]

It's inaccurate, you can't believe most of what you see there, but people love congregating with people who agree with them and who reinforce the views, however inaccurate, that they already have.

CHURCH: Yeah, people are not sourcing their information. They need to go back to that to stick with the old ways. Larry Sabato, many thanks for joining us. I appreciate your analysis, as always.

SABATO: Thank you, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Federal officials say Donald Trump was not in any danger at a campaign rally in California on Saturday. A man was arrested for violating state gun laws, but as Camila Bernal reports, Secret Service officers had the suspect in custody before the rally started.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Two federal officials telling CNN that there is no evidence at this time to indicate that the man who was arrested on Saturday was attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump.

Now, authorities confirming that they arrested Vem Miller, a 49-year- old man from Las Vegas near former President Trump's rally in Coachella. He was arrested for illegally possessing a shotgun and a loaded handgun, and these are state charges. We also know that he had multiple boxes of ammunition for both guns.

And the Riverside County Sheriff today confirming he also had multiple passports and driver's licenses with different names. He was driving an unregistered car with a fake license plate and he told authorities that he was a journalist and that he had a VIP pass for the rally, which authorities said they were not able to verify.

Now, the sheriff's department says that Miller was allowed through an outside perimeter but was then stopped at an inside perimeter, which was more thorough. And that's where the deputies found the fake license plate, the guns, the multiple I.D.s.

This was still a distance away from the event's entrance where the U.S. Secret Service does their checks. And it was before the former president arrived. Here is what the sheriff said.

SHERIFF CHAD BLANCO, RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA: Obviously, this was before the former president arrived. The person was taken into custody. He was eventually booked into jail on those charges. And eventually he was -- he was released.

BERNAL: Now Miller was released on a $5,000 bail and the Riverside County Sheriff's Office says it's actively engaged with the FBI and Secret Service and a United States Attorney's Office statement said that the US Attorney's Office the U.S. Secret Service and FBI are aware of the arrest and went on to say that the incident did not impact protective operations and former President Trump was not in any danger. The statement did say that this is an ongoing investigation.

Camila Bernal, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Authorities in the state of Michigan are investigating the brutal murder of an elderly man. They say the suspect's dressed up like utility workers and looked official based on doorbell camera video.

CNN's Gloria Pazmino has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, one suspect is in custody and a second remains at large. And the way in which police say that this happened is what is so disturbing.

Police in Rochester Hills, Michigan say that two suspects showed up to a home claiming to be utility workers for the local energy company that were checking for a gas leak. Now they did this once, but they were not allowed into the house, but then they returned a day later.

That's when police say that Hussein Murray, 72 years old, allowed them into the house and down into the basement where they were going to check for this supposed leak. That's where police say the suspects killed Murray. Now, his wife who was also in the home at the time was duct taped. She

was eventually able to dial 911 and she initially believed that her husband had been kidnapped.

Now, in this video captured by the ring camera that is installed at the door, you can see that there are two men that approach and one appears to be flashing the logo of the company on a clipboard that he is holding you can see that he is wearing a mask and he is dressed like what an average utility worker might be wearing.

Now, police have apprehended Carlos Hernandez. They arrested him on Saturday. He was pulled over while driving south in Louisiana many miles from the site of where this incident took place. Local sheriff's deputies were able to stop him after they spotted a car that matched the description of his vehicle.

He has been booked on several charges, including the homicide charge from Michigan. Now, police are asking for the public's help in helping to locate that second suspect. They are asking people to review their videos in the event that they might have some images from the incident that took place on Friday.

[03:39:47]

They have also said that they are still looking for this person and they have not yet released information about the first suspect as they continue the investigation. Now, we also received a statement from the energy company in Michigan.

DTE said that their hearts go out to the victims of this horrific and tragic event. And we hope that the perpetrators are quickly apprehended and brought to justice. Before DTE makes a routine visit to your home, we will make every effort to contact you in advance.

And that is a very important reminder that police are asking residents to think about that they can always call the local utility company if someone is at the door just to confirm that whoever is there was in fact, dispatched by the company.

It is not yet clear if anything was taken from the home. That part of the investigation is ongoing as police continue to search for the second suspect.

Gloria Pazmino, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Still to come, escalating tensions in East Asia as China launches a new round of war games around Taiwan. We will have the latest details from Taipei.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Welcome back everyone. Beijing is sending a warning to Taiwan with the launch of a new round of war games on Monday. It comes on the heels of a speech from Taiwan's president last week asserting China has no right to represent the island. Taiwan has condemned the new exercises calling them an unreasonable provocation.

CNN Senior International Correspondent Will Ripley joins us now from Taipei. So Will, what more are you learning about this?

[03:44:58]

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey Rosemary, within the last hour we got some new video I want to show you of China's aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, which is believed to be participating in these exercises. In fact, the PLA, People's Liberation Army, has confirmed that this is now taking part in these drills. This aircraft carrier to the east of Taiwan.

But if you look at the map that China put out earlier of the drills, you can see there are actually six red blocks. These are all areas where drills are reportedly taking place, potentially blockade locations, you know one of the precursors to an invasion of Taiwan. And a lot of analysts say something that is pretty likely if there were to be escalating tensions that we would see a Naval and air blockade of this island which relies like all islands very heavily on imports.

So a blockade could cut off the supply of things like fuel and certain food supplies, and not to mention energy. Taiwan imports a lot of coal to keep the lights on, and actually, energy is a challenge here. And so a blockade could very quickly make life pretty uncomfortable here, if not downright miserable.

And of course, that's exactly the signal, experts say, that China's trying to send by simulating this blockade, even though we checked with maritime authorities and air transport authorities and everything is running smoothly. But Beijing's message essentially is, this is rehearsal now, but you provoke us and this might be the real deal tomorrow.

Now the excuse some might say that Beijing is using for launching these drills is a speech last week by Taiwan's President Lai Qingdao, where he actually dialed down some of the rhetoric compared to what might have been expected ahead of his speech, but he did, as he has repeatedly, reject Beijing's territorial claim over this self- governing democracy.

In language that was, again, pretty muted compared to what some experts were predicting. But nonetheless, as expected, Beijing, you know, basically pointed to his speech as the reason why they launched these drills. But these drills, Rosemary, they can't just be, you know, spontaneously launched. You're talking about massive logistical and massive expense as well.

The Taiwan military actually briefed us about what they think these drills cost. There were drills earlier this year in May, right around the time of Taiwan's presidential inauguration. They cost millions of dollars when you add up all of the flight hours and the warships, the dozens of warships that were sailing earlier this year.

And then Taiwan's military says if you add up all of the drills that China basically staged around Taiwan during the year 2023, so all of last year, you're looking at a bill for the Navy of almost $13 billion and more than $3.5 billion bill for the Air Force. Thousands of flights, thousands of warships sailings not just for propaganda value, Rosemary.

The experts say Beijing actually learns a lot when they are engaging in these real-time Military exercises even though they've been happening so frequently lately that a lot of people are desensitized to them. Even here in the Taiwanese capital where life goes on as usual despite all the activity happening around the island.

CHURCH: Alright. Our thanks to Will Ripley for that live report from Taipei. I Appreciate it.

And still to come, the World Motor Show is about to kick off in Paris. But behind all the glitz and glamor, tensions are brewing between Chinese and European carmakers. We'll have details just ahead.

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[03:50:00]

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CHURCH: SpaceX adds another feather to its cap with the successful launch and landing of the most powerful rocket system ever built. Starship's latest test was in line with SpaceX's mission to recover and reuse their equipment with the goal of making space travel cheaper.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

Starship had no crew and was remotely piloted during the test. SpaceX attempted an ambitious move, trying to catch the super-heavy rocket booster in mid-air on reentry with a pair of massive metal pincers they call chopsticks. If tests continue to go according to plan, SpaceX hopes Starship will one day put the first humans on Mars.

Well, it's almost time to start your engines. The 90th edition of the World Motor Show kicks off today in Paris. Leading automotive brands will put their latest innovations on display, but as they do, European carmakers are facing a crisis, as CNN's Anna Stewart explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Driverless cars, monster trucks and electric vehicles.

This year's Paris Auto Show promises to be a return to former glory.

Fresh from launching its new robotaxi, Tesla returns for the first time in six years. But the main focus will be competition between China and Europe.

STEFAN BRATZEL, DIRECTOR, CENTER OF AUTOMOTIVE MANAGEMENT: There are a few Chinese manufacturers in this motor show and so I'm quite interested in what their innovations are.

STEWART (voice-over): Europe's car industry is in crisis. Stellantis, BMW, Mercedes and Volkswagen all recently issued profit warnings.

CARLOS TAVARES, CEO, STELLANTIS: We are going to be challenged, and I would say brutally challenged, by the Chinese offensive on the European market.

STEWART (voice-over): The European Union says China is flooding the market with low-cost electric vehicles. They recently voted to impose tariffs up to 45 percent on E.V.s made in China.

BRATZEL: I think it's not a really good idea because of course we will have a kind of chain reaction on the very important Chinese market.

STEWART (voice-over): China has already hit back, targeting French brandy and threatening tariffs on imports of pork products and large engine vehicles.

[03:55:06]

OLA KALLENIUS, MERCEDES CEO: Yes, this is a very tough market environment.

OLIVER ZIPSE, BMW CEO: Growing regulation to protectionist measures.

OLIVER BLUME, VOLKSWAGEN GROUP CEO: Our environment is challenging.

STEWART (voice-over): For Volkswagen, that could mean closing factories in Germany for the first time in the company's history.

BRATZEL: We in Germany won't be cheaper, but we have to be as much more innovative as we are more expensive.

STEWART (voice-over): This week in Paris, it's all glitz and glamor for Europe's carmakers, but under the bonnet, the struggles may be just beginning.

Anna Stewart, CNN, London.

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CHURCH: In the NFL, the Cincinnati Bengals got a badly needed win on the road over the New York Giants on Sunday night football. Perhaps the biggest highlight, the longest touchdown run ever for Bengals quarterback Joe Borough.

He went 47 yards on this play in the first quarter giving Cincinnati a 7-0 lead. And the Bengals didn't need much more than that, holding the Giants to just one touchdown for a 17-7 victory. It's Cincinnati's second win of the season as they move to 2-4.

The WNBA finals are heating up on Sunday. After losing game one of the series, the New York Liberty bounced back, defeating the Minnesota Lynx and tying the series 1-1. Two-time MVP Brianna Stewart scored 21 points for the Liberty, leading them to victory 80-66. Game three of the best of five series is set for Wednesday. The Lynx are trying to win a record-breaking fifth WNBA championship. The Liberty are hoping to win their first title.

Thank you so much for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. Have yourselves a wonderful day. "CNN Newsroom" with Max Foster and Christina Macfarlane in London, coming up next.

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