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Growing Casualties in Gaza from Series of Israeli Strikes; Unclear When Israel Will Get U.S. Missile Defense System; Exclusive Look at Preparations for Pandas' Move to U.S.; Visiting a Georgia County Where 90 Percent of Votes go Republican. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired October 15, 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]
CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN ANCHOR: CNN's Nada Bashir has closely been following the strikes joins me now. Nada I think so many people watched in horror yesterday as these videos emerged from that courtyard outside the Al-Aqsa hospital literally seeing Palestinians burning alive.
The IDF said they were targeting Hamas militants in that area. Is there any evidence to back that up?
NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At this stage we've reached out to the Israeli military. No evidence has been provided to support those claims from the military.
They have said that they used precise weapons, that they had taken efforts to mitigate civilian risk. Clearly, that hasn't been the case, and oftentimes when we do hear this sort of statements from the Israeli military, the civilian death toll is immense, and that is exactly what we've seen here.
As you mentioned, this is the seventh time the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital has been struck by the Israeli military, three times in just the last month, and this is one of the last remaining hospitals still functioning in Gaza. It is somewhere that is every day overrun with patients, it's somewhere where Doctors Without Borders has staff supporting Palestinian medics operating there.
And what we've heard from Doctors Without Borders is that yesterday they were completely overrun with patients wounded from this latest strike and the fire which engulfed these tents. At least 10 children were among those wounded, and in fact the hospital was so overrun that it reached capacity and had to refer a number of patients elsewhere, so you can imagine the chaos and of course the anguish of many who had to experience that.
But of course we have taken a deeper look at that strike. A warning to our viewers, some of the footage in this is deeply distressing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BASHIR (voice-over): What once was a shelter for the displaced, now a blaze after a deadly airstrike by the Israeli military targeting a hospital complex in central Gaza. Desperate attempts to quell the fire, seemingly hopeless.
Some of the footage from this devastating night is simply too harrowing to show. Displaced civilians still alive, engulfed in flames.
These smoldering structures are all that remain of the tents which have occupied the grounds of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital throughout this past year of relentless war. Several people were killed and dozens more badly injured. As dawn breaks, the severity of this latest nightmare becomes clear. Little has been left untouched by the blaze.
Many of those who survived the night were spared only by a matter of meters.
It was extremely difficult. The fire consumed people before it consumed anything else, Abu Yusuf says. There were people in the midst of the fire that we couldn't pull out.
Nearby, Muhammad gathers whatever belongings were not destroyed in the fire. The shoes of her daughter and granddaughter, both injured overnight, she says.
I quickly woke my daughters up. I kept shouting, wake up, wake up. The fire is above us, she says. We ran to the hospital. I saw people injured with shrapnel wounds, people who were completely burnt. My neighbors were killed, all burnt alive while they were sleeping.
The Israeli military has acknowledged responsibility for the strike, saying its forces were targeting a Hamas command and control center they say was embedded within the hospital complex, adding that steps were taken to limit civilian harm. But no evidence has been provided by the Israeli military to support these claims. It was, however, known to the military that civilians had been sheltering on the grounds of the hospital complex for months, at least 5,000 people, according to hospital officials.
Inside the hospital, another gut-wrenching scene. These are the victims of a different strike, which targeted the al-Mufti school in Nuseirat on Sunday. Among the bodies, little Yaman, his grandmother overcome with grief as she cradles her grandchild.
Yaman is one of at least 22 people who were killed after Israeli forces struck the U.N.-run school, which had become a shelter for many. Another sanctuary targeted in a war which has shown no mercy for so-called safe zones. Another name added to the growing list of more than 42,000 killed in just over a year.
Another reminder that it is civilians who continue to pay the highest price in Gaza.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BASHIR (on camera): Of course, this is happening as we continue to see strikes across central Gaza. We're seeing the Israeli military deepening its siege on northern Gaza, where aid workers have said they have been struggling to get any humanitarian aid to civilians there. We've been hearing from civilians on the ground in northern Gaza who said they can't even evacuate for fear of being targeted by the Israeli military. And of course, as all this is happening, the U.N. is also trying to carry out its second phase of the vaccine, the polio vaccine rollout. They're aiming to vaccinate about 590,000 children under the age of 10 in under 10 days.
So there's a huge challenge ahead for the U.N. trying to put out this life-saving vaccine rollout. But of course, as you've seen there, the strikes are continuing, the ground operation is continuing.
[04:35:00]
It's putting civilian lives at risk, but also aid workers as well.
MACFARLANE: Yes, one wonders if that can even be as successful as the last round. We'll wait and see. Nada, Bashir, thank you.
MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: New details emerging about U.S. plans to send a prized missile defense system to Israel. Sources tell CNN the so- called THAAD system was requested several weeks ago.
MACFARLANE: Right around the time Israel assassinated the leader of Hezbollah. CNN's Oren Liebermann explains why this highly sought-after equipment is being deployed and how soon it might arrive.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Pentagon won't be specific on how soon this advanced U.S. anti-ballistic missile system will arrive in Israel, but Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin did tell his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, that it would be there in quote, the coming days. The THAAD system, as it's called, Terminal High Altitude Aerial Defense System, is one of the most advanced U.S. systems for intercepting ballistic missiles, short, medium, and long range. It shoots them down in their final dive towards their target, so about 100 or slightly more miles out, but it can detect them more than 10 times as far based on its radar.
And crucially, it can work with not only the Navy destroyers that are operating in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and intercepted ballistic missiles of their own on October 1st and April 13th, but it can also work with Israel's own complex and layered air defense system. There is the shorter Iron Dome, the medium range David Sling, and then the long range Arrow.
So the THAAD system, when it's deployed, when it's set up in Israel with 100 U.S. troops, about 100 or so operating it, it will add not only a quality system, but crucially, it will add quantity, simply more interceptor missiles that are capable of intercepting an Iranian barrage. And that, of course, is what the U.S. is watching for here.
Israel has vowed that it would respond to that Iranian barrage of more than 180 ballistic missiles on October 1st. Iran has in turn said that it too would retaliate for any attack. So it's into this situation that the U.S. has deployed this advanced anti-ballistic missile system to Israel, preparing for the possibility of an Iranian attack. It also adds more defenses in Israel should Hezbollah continue to launch rockets, missiles, perhaps even drones. So again, it adds a quality system to Israel's layered defense, and it also shows the US commitment to Israel's defense.
And that message of support for Israel and a message of deterrence to Iran and its proxies, that's just as important as the military capability itself.
Orrin Liebermann, CNN at the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MACFARLANE: Now, nearly 45 million Americans are under freeze and frost alerts with cold arctic air moving in from southern Canada.
FOSTER: Meanwhile, in the Atlantic, another tropical storm could be brewing in the coming days. Our meteorologist Chad Myers has the forecast.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Some places in the U.S. going straight to winter. Snow in Saranac Lake on Monday. Cold air all the way down to the Gulf Coast cooling things off for sure. And there still will be some very cold rain and a little bit of snow across parts of Quebec over the next couple of hours.
Other than that, very, very chilly air across the upper Midwest. Western Plains, we will see temperatures below 32 for a few hours, and in some spots in the north for many hours.
That will certainly put a damper on your tomatoes, but it will also take the pollen out of the air from all of the ragweed that's out there. Once you get your big first frost, that begins to die off and it's all done.
Nashville, by Thursday morning, temperatures in the middle 30s. Mount Juliet, you could be colder than that. Even the highs in Atlanta will not be above 60, 65. There you go. Almost 68 today, but that's it. That's it for the rest of the year.
And then here, we went on 84 degrees on Saturday in Atlanta, and by tomorrow morning, it will be 43, a difference of 41.
And yet down to the south, where the water is still very warm, we have a 60 percent chance of a storm developing over the next five or so days that could move very close to either Hispaniola or maybe Puerto Rico. Don't know yet. Models don't love it just yet, but we'll see.
Hurricane Center says, yes, there is more than a 50-50 chance of something happening there, and then some 20 percent chance of rain coming in here, some of the heavier rain showers coming into probably Belize, Honduras, and the like. But taking a look at the storm out in the middle of the Atlantic,
where does it go? Models are pretty good agreement this far out. Still staying south here of many of the threats up the East Coast, but certainly any of these islands are going to have to watch for some very heavy rain, gusty winds, and that potential tropical development.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Now, in the coming hours, two Chinese pandas, Bao Li and Qing Bao, are set to arrive at Washington's National Zoo.
MACFARLANE: I love it. They'll spend the next 10 years in the U.S. on loan from China. A renewal of the panda diplomacy, which dates back decades, but comes amid recent tensions between the two countries.
FOSTER: CNN's David Culver got an exclusive look at preparations for the panda's long overseas journey.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[04:40:00]
DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We've traveled here to Sichuan, China, for a rare look at preparing these pandas for their very long journey.
CULVER (voice-over): We're in and around the city of Chengdu. It's known for spicy hotpot, its mountainous landscape, and giant pandas.
CULVER: We're actually going to go meet now with some of the folks from the Smithsonian National Zoo from DC who have flown here and are part of the transition team to bring Bao Li and Qing Bao back to the U.S.
We can't go back there, but that's where Bao Li and Qing Bao are. They're in quarantine. Those you saw there were the zookeepers from the National Zoo, as well as some caretakers from China.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So they both have pretty different personalities. Bao Li has a huge personality, so he's very vocal, he's very energetic, and he's always kind of like up doing something. Qing Bao is his polar opposite. She can be almost always found in a tree or sleeping on her climbing structure.
CULVER (voice-over): The panda pair will fill a void at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, DC. For the past 11 months, the panda exhibit has sat empty. Now as part of the terms of the Smithsonian's exchange program with China, late last year the zoo's three pandas were sent back here to Chengdu.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think people realize how attached you get.
CULVER: When you're here, I mean in this setting, what has stood out to you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Here are the sheer number of pandas.
CULVER: It's crazy, right?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's crazy.
CULVER: You turn here and you're like, oh wait, you can go there, you can go there. Nowhere else do we have something like this.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nowhere else, and the scenery is obviously beautiful and the commitment.
CULVER: Pandas were on the brink of extinction, but in recent years they've moved from endangered to vulnerable, but there's still more work to go. The Panda Exchange, also called Panda Diplomacy, dates back more than 50 years now, when China gifted two pandas to the U.S. following President Nixon's historic visit. Today they're given on loan, and they are a strategic diplomatic tool, serving as ambassadors of hope and spreading global goodwill.
Somehow pandas were able to unite nations, something we could use about right now.
David Culver, CNN, Chengdu, China.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Just ahead, CNN's Elle Reeve talk politics in what may be the most pro-Trump county in all of the 2024 swing states.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FOSTER: Now CNN's Elle Reeve travels all over the U.S., of course, and is known for engaging people in conversations about their politics and beliefs and how they see our world.
MACFARLANE: In her latest report, she takes us to rural southeast Georgia, to what may be the most pro-Trump county in all of this year's battleground states. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHY HENDRIX, BRANTLEY COUNTY RESIDENT: Miss Barbara, I promise you this not a trick question. Where are you at? Gosh, all right.
[04:45:00]
I have the CNN reporters here and they want to talk to a Democrat. I'm serious as a heart attack, who's here in town that would talk to them? That's sad when you have to hunt a Democrat.
ELLE REEVE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It's hard to find an open Democrat in Brantley County, Georgia, where Trump won more than 90 percent of votes in 2020. Of all the counties in all the 2024 swing states, it is the most pro-Trump and we wanted to know why.
RONALD HAM, BRANTLEY COUNTY, GEORGIA GOP CHAIR: We vote 92 percent Republican, not because anything Ronald Ham does. OK, let's get that on the board. This ain't about me.
We're a small rural county. Lot of folks here live paycheck to paycheck and when there is too much month at the end of the money, people vote with their wallet.
At one point in time, the Democratic Party was for the working man and the Republican Party was for all the elites and somewhere that got switched around.
HENDRIX: This is some of that stuff --
Everybody here calls him President Trump. As far as the people around here is concerned, he's still the president.
REEVE (voice over): Democrats didn't used to be rare here. Almost everyone we spoke to said their grandfather had been one, but those days are gone.
HENDRIX Numbers do not lie. Watching people five and six years ago, they had successful businesses. They were thriving. They were doing well. Every time somebody comes and says, OK, I'm going to have to close, it honestly hurts.
REEVE (voice over): Hendrix got a heat press to make custom t-shirts and it turned out that one kind of design really helps pay the bills.
HENDRIX: I've learned how to put it on my computer and kind of change things. As long as it can still sell Donald Trump stuff, we're doing good.
They're just $5.
REEVE (voice-over): One of her customers was Sherri Rowell. We met her while she was buying a Trump sign, and she said we could come see her put it up. Her grandson Talan died in an accident this summer, before he could vote in his first election.
SHERRI ROWELL, BRANTLEY COUNTY RESIDENT: He did loving some Trump. Couldn't wait to get 18 so he could vote. Yes. He wouldn't vote for Trump.
MICHAEL TANNER, BRANTLEY COUNTY, GEORGIA RESIDENT: He had just got his first job and he was like, I make, you know, $9 an hour and I work this many hours. Why do I only make this much money? And I told him, I said, son, it's politics. You got to pay taxes.
Talan became really intrigued with it and started doing some more research and he said, you know, dad, looking at what me and you talked about, we need Donald Trump in office. And he just became a huge Trump supporter.
REEVE (voice-over): His parents said he would want people to know he was for Trump, and so they put the sign up because he's not here to say it himself.
ROWELL: Things changed pretty fast when we went from, you know, Trump to Biden. Even they could see the difference.
REEVE: Even the kids?
ROWELL: Yes. I could take you to the Piggly Wiggly there hon, you just look at the prices. I don't know where you all come from, but compared to what we've had four years ago, it's triple.
REEVE: There's some statistics that show that younger women are more likely to be for Harris. Do you see any evidence of that here in this county?
ROWELL: I don't really in this county, but I do know some younger females that are very much a Harris person. And I'm, I mean, I'm not against her. If I thought she was going to do different than what was already in there, you know what I'm saying? Like, she should have come out and run an independent that I might have listened to her a little more.
REEVE (voice-over): Ron Ham invited us to breakfast the next day at a diner where regulars talk politics.
BUTTON LEE, BRANTLEY COUNTY RESIDENT: When Biden claims that he had more jobs and created more jobs, that's only because of corona, because everything shut down. That was not Trump's fault.
REEVE: Now the jobs report numbers weren't really good for September. That just came out this week.
DAVID HERRIN, BRANTLEY COUNTY RESIDENT: The American people --
LEE: Right, right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But the government issued numbers.
HERRIN: But hold on though. You can't take that and give credit to Washington, D.C. You give credit to that, to the American people that go to work every day, even when they're down, even when it's against them, even when it's been when it's going uphill, we get up and we continue to work. We continue to fight and we've made this country better. Nobody in Washington got a right to take credit for what the American people have done.
REEVE (voice-over): But we didn't want to leave town without hearing a different point of view. So they called some old friends to come by.
HERRIN: And selling them breakfast.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
HERRIN: Some folks up here we want to talk to you.
LEE: Tell him to hurry up, I want to go fishing.
HERRIN: Yes. He made me do it. This is a real live CNN reporter and she wants to meet a Democrat in Brantley County.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There were a few and far between where they're looking.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We called you and Donald both.
CORBERT WILSON, BRANTLEY COUNTY RESIDENT: Hey, I ain't a Democrat but I'm an independent.
REEVE: OK. What are your views on the election?
WILSON: I ain't going to look for a criminal. Well, what he did in January six and you know, and the way he could have done something there, you know, they was beating on them cops down there.
HERRIN: Where's the other -- there's your other Democrat.
REEVE: Hi, come join us.
HERRIN: She's a CNN reporter and she wants some Democrats in Brantley County. She can't find one. I told her I knew a couple. She said, please call, please. And she wouldn't quit until I said --
REEVE: Thank you.
WILSON: I have voted Republican, you know?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes.
WILSON: I vote for the man. I don't vote for the party.
[04:50:00]
REEVE: So what are your thoughts on the election?
DONALD LEWIS, BRANTLEY COUNTY, GEORGIA RESIDENT: What are my thoughts on the what?
REEVE: On the election.
LEWIS: Ain't much to think about it.
REEVE: Well, who are you going to vote for?
LEWIS: The right person.
REEVE: Well, who do you think the right person is?
LEWIS: It won't be Donald Trump.
REEVE: OK, tell me why.
LEWIS: Last time you saw him talking, did you watch his lips? Were they moving? He's lying.
REEVE: All right. Well, so Mr. Wilson here was telling us that January 6th was a big disqualifier for him.
LEWIS: It should have been. REEVE: How do you feel about that?
LEWIS: I feel about it like he's anti-American. He's trying to overthrow our government.
REEVE: And, so are you thinking about voting for Harris?
LEWIS: Yes, I have to, or not vote.
WILSON: He's the only (INAUDIBLE) other than Trump.
REEVE: Yes.
LEWIS: It's (INAUDIBLE) run, I vote for him.
REEVE (voice-over): Elle Reeve, CNN, Nahunta, Georgia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Now, Europa Clipper lifted off Monday and headed to one of Jupiter's moons. The mission to see if it could support life as we know it.
MACFARLANE: Stay tuned for this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FOSTER: We were hoping to see a rocket, weren't we.
MACFARLANE: We were hoping to see a rocket. There it is. An exciting start to an ambitious journey. This is NASA's Europa Clipper launching on a SpaceX rocket Monday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
FOSTER: The Clipper is on its way to an ice-covered moon orbiting Jupiter.
MACFARLANE: Reporter Michael Yoshida has more on what the mission means for space travel and potentially finding life beyond our world.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL YOSHIDA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The long-anticipated launch originally scheduled for last Thursday was delayed because of Hurricane Milton. But after getting checked out and cleared by crew, the spacecraft now on its way to study an ice-covered ocean world.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lift off.
YOSHIDA (voice-over): NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft is heading towards its namesake Jupiter's moon Europa. Launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the spacecraft is NASA's first to be dedicated to studying an ice-covered ocean world in our solar system.
GINA DIBRACCIO, ACTING DIRECTOR, NASA PLANETARY SCIENCE DIVISION: Given everything that we've really learned about necessary conditions for life, Clipper is going to tell us if Europa has all of these ingredients for life.
YOSHIDA (voice-over): Clipper will look at the ocean beneath Europa's thick ice shell. The moon's ocean is estimated to have two times as much liquid water as the Earth's oceans.
LAURIE LESHIN, DIRECTOR, NASA JET PROPULSION LAB: We have 10 science investigations that are designed to examine Europa, this incredible icy ocean moon, from every different perspective and to give us great insights into whether this could be a habitable world.
YOSHIDA (voice-over): The mission has several big challenges. One, just getting to Jupiter with the spacecraft traveling some 1.8 billion miles. Once there, the planet's complex gravity fields and powerful radiation have to be dealt with as the Clipper does flybys of the moon.
JORDAN EVANS, PROJECT MANAGER, EUROPA CLIPPER: Another challenge is having a solar-powered mission at Jupiter. We had to build these giant solar panels to capture the small amount of sunlight at Jupiter to power the spacecraft.
YOSHIDA (voice-over): The 5.2 billion dollar mission began in 2013.
DIBRACCIO: What we learned with Clipper and the habitability of Europa, this is going to pave the way for the future, for future missions to Europa and elsewhere in our solar system where we can search more directly for life.
[04:55:00]
YOSHIDA: And on its way to Jupiter, the spacecraft will do flybys of both Earth and Mars using the gravity of each to help it use less fuel and also gain speed on its way to Jupiter, where it's expected to arrive in 2030.
In Washington, I'm Michael Yoshida reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MACFARLANE: Pretty cool isn't it?
Now a quick turn to sports in the NFL and a scrappy divisional matchup between the New York Jets and the Buffalo Bills. Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers threw for 294 yards, including this touchdown to Garrett Wilson. Officials on the field ruled him out of bounds, but the call was overturned. Bills quarterback Josh Allen ran for one touchdown and threw for two more, hitting Matt Collins here in the second quarter. Final score, Bills 23, Jets 20.
FOSTER: The Game of Thrones fan is now the proud owner of the show's famous Iron Throne, and it only cost him $1.5 million.
MACFARLANE: The piece was one of many sold at auction from the show, which ran for eight seasons on HBO, part of CNN's parent company. Appropriately, it went to the winner of an intense back-and-forth bidding war. More than 900 pieces of the show memorabilia sold for more than $21 million in all.
$21 million! It's insane!
Heritage Auctions says most of those buys were first-time bidders, and items up for sale included a sword used by Kit Harington's Jon Snow, see how did the accent there, character, and several outfits worn during the series.
The question is though, Max, where would you put that?
FOSTER: By the fireplace, obviously.
MACFARLANE: In the bathroom?
FOSTER: Yes, low-key furniture. Finally this hour, it's the case of the attack-o-lantern, a gourd gone wild.
MACFARLANE: Whatever you want to call it. Just know that no officers were harmed when they were dispatched for this runaway pumpkin decoration in Ohio.
FOSTER: It does appear the officer was squashed though, when this big inflatable blew across the road, but thankfully backup did arrive. The problematic pumpkin was returned to its home in time --
MACFARLANE: Got to be honest --
FOSTER: -- for Halloween.
MACFARLANE: -- I didn't know where that story was going, but there we are. Thank you for joining us here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Christina Macfarlane.
FOSTER: I'm Max Foster. CNN "THIS MORNING", up next after a break.
