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Israel Acknowledges Second Hit on U.N. Base in Lebanon; Iranians Warn of Strong Response to Any Israeli Attacks; Deadly Israeli Strike on Gaza School Turned Shelter; Harris Campaigns in Arizona; Spanish Olive Growers Planting Northern Roots. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired October 12, 2024 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ANNA COREN, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): -- Coren. Ahead on NEWSROOM, waiting on retaliation. Iran braces for a military response by Israel. We will have a live report from Tehran.
The death toll from Hurricane Milton continues to rise, even as survivors try to pick up the pieces and rebuild their lives.
And how climate change is allowing olive trees to be grown in some unexpected places.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from Hong Kong, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Anna Coren.
COREN: Israel admits it struck a United Nations peacekeeping base in Lebanon for the second time in two days.
Several European leaders, including France, Italy and Spain are calling the attacks unacceptable.
And human rights groups accused Israel of violating international law. Two peacekeepers were injured in the incident on Thursday and two more on Friday. The Israeli military said that on Friday its soldiers identified an immediate threat and responded with fire toward the threat.
Speaking to CNN, the U.N. peacekeeper spokesperson says the attack was intentional.
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ANDREA TENENTI, SPOKESPERSON, U.N. INTERIM FORCE IN LEBANON: Three yesterday, three positions were hit by the IDF yesterday.
Today one position inside our main headquarters in Naqoura was hit by -- and two peacekeepers were injured, one more seriously.
(END VIDEO CLIP) On Friday the Lebanese army says an Israeli strike killed two of its soldiers and wounded three.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military says 180 projectiles were fired into Israel from Lebanon on Friday. Israel says some of them were intercepted.
Israel's security cabinet is still weighing its response to Iran's missile attack. Iran launched about 200 ballistic missiles into Israel on October 1 in what was the largest ever attack on the country.
Israel's security cabinet met on Thursday but did not reach a decision on retaliation. The U.S. has been talking with Israel about its plans to respond. U.S. President Joe Biden says the response should be proportional.
Iran is said to be bracing for that retaliation. CNN's Fred Pleitgen joins us now live from Tehran.
And Fred, what are people that you're speaking to saying about these presumed imminent retaliatory strikes?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think people are quite concerned about the current situation.
I think less so about these possible Israeli strikes and more so about the general situation here in the greater Middle East, which, of course, does bring with it the possibility and the threat that all of this could billow out of control into some wider conflict that, in the end, people fear could pit the United States and Iran directly against one another.
Certainly there seemed, do seem to be efforts in the region underway to try and stop that. You've had the Iranian foreign minister touring the region. He met with Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia a couple of days ago.
Once again, of course, trying to bring the Saudis on side with the Iranians and to going against the Israelis. It's unclear what exactly was achieved in all of that.
What the Iranians are saying is they say that if Israel strikes their territory, that there will be a crushing response on the part of the Iranians. They've also said that if Israel strikes, for instance oil and gas facilities, energy facilities, that the Iranians in the future might then strike energy facilities inside Israel.
As far as the people are concerned, yesterday, we went to the main Friday prayers here in Tehran. Obviously, a lot of conservatives, a lot of hardliners there. And they had some pretty choice words for both Israelis and the U.S. Here's what we heard.
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PLEITGEN (voice-over): Death to America and death to Israel chants at the main Friday prayers in Tehran as Iran awaits possible Israeli retaliation for their recent missile strike against military installations inside Israel.
(on camera): Iran's hardliners are trying to send a very clear message to both the U.S. and Israel. Iran doesn't want escalation but if escalation
happens, they're ready for a big fight.
(voice-over): Hezbollah flags in the crowd and a giant poster of the slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah recently killed in an Israeli airstrike
overlooking the prayers. Many here warning Israel to back off. They will see a very harsh response from the IRGC, the army and the people of Iran,
this man says.
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Be sure that this will happen. And he says, Israel has experienced this before and if they repeat this experience, they will definitely be
destroyed.
PLEITGEN: Iran hit Israel with around 200 ballistic missiles last week after Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, using several
bunker-busting bombs and wounded thousands of Hezbollah members by making their pagers explode. Iran has vowed to stand by their long- time allies,
Hezbollah, providing medical help to many of those wounded in the pager attacks and even bringing some to one of Iran's holiest sites, the Imam
Reza Shrine in the city of Mashhad.
As a major military confrontation with Israel looms, Iran's new President on a diplomatic mission, trying to drum up support among Tehran's allies.
Meeting Russian leader Vladimir Putin as ties between the two U.S. adversaries are increasingly growing stronger.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT, RUSSIA (through translator): We are actively working together on the international arena and our views of events in the
world are often very close.
MASOUD PEZESHKIAN, PRESIDENT, IRAN (through translator): The situation in the region is difficult now and the U.S. and Europe do not want the
situation here to subside.
PLEITGEN: The situation that could soon escalate even more as Iran has vowed a crushing response to any attacks by Israel.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PLEITGEN: All of that diplomacy obviously very important right now for the Iranians.
And one of the other things that we heard from Masoud Pezeshkian after that meeting with Vladimir Putin is he said that he believed that Iran and Russia are currently on the way to possibly signing a larger strategic agreement between these two countries, which obviously would bring greater cooperation in many spheres.
Possibly also the military sphere as well. One of the --
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COREN: OK, we seem to have lost contact with Fred Pleitgen. But Fred was reporting from Tehran.
Well, as tensions with Iran escalate, Israel's war on Hamas continues to rage on and it's taking a devastating toll on the people of Gaza.
The group Doctors without Borders says thousands of people are trapped in the Jabalya refugee camp, despite the Israeli military's orders to evacuate. The group says gunfire and bombings along evacuation routes are preventing people from leaving.
Five members of the group are among those trapped. Meanwhile, the World Food Programme says no food has entered northern Gaza since October 1st. The agency says 1 million people are at risk of starving. CNN has reached out to the Israeli military about the lack of food and aid entering the strip.
Well, Palestinian health officials say an Israeli airstrike killed at least 28 people in the central part of Gaza on Thursday. Our Nic Robertson has more and we want to warn you some of the images in his report are disturbing.
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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): Across a hospital floor, a Gazan hellscape. Leyan Hamadin (ph), a 13- year-old girl has third degree burns, is in shock. She tells the medic her name, asked for his, then reaches out to hug him, asking, will I die?
You won't die, you'll be fine, he reassures her. What happened, she asks, there is nothing wrong with you, he says. What happened, she asks again. He tells her, there's nothing wrong with your body, except a few wounds and then you'll heal. Leyan is one of the lucky ones. A survivor from an Israeli strike Thursday on a school turned shelter to thousands, which according to Gazan health officials, killed at least 28 people. This day, those same officials announcing more than 42,000 Palestinians killed since October 7th last year. The IDF said they were targeting a terrorist command and control center at the school compound.
Displaced like the school they were sheltering in reduced, mentally broken. This man with an angry message for Hamas. We don't want them and we don't want their solutions. They sold us out long ago. Let their leaders come and watch us as we search for bodies with our bare hands.
The unlucky this day, disgorged from overstuffed ambulances. This death cycle, repeated beyond anyone's wildest nightmare day by day, sometimes hour by hour.
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"My husband's name is Ahmed Abdel Hamouda (ph). Show me where he is. They killed him. He was my support, the support of his disabled daughters. God is great. God is great. Her final goodbye here at the hospital, a starting point for a pain and suffering already dreaded and endured for more than a year -- Nic Robertson, CNN, Tel Aviv.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: Remnants of Hurricane Kirk have left whole communities in parts of France underwater. The Atlantic storm churned across Western Europe, dumping heavy rain. Residents say the flooding has left them without water and electricity. One power company reported tens of thousands without electricity at one point.
French officials warned of a high risk of flooding like this in more than 30 areas. Off southern France, a storm swell in the Mediterranean purportedly killed one sailor and critically injured another.
Well, many people in Florida have lost everything after the deadly impact of Hurricane Milton. Residents who evacuated, are returning to find utter devastation. Their homes and businesses destroyed.
The storm, claimed at least 17 lives. Some places like Tampa are dealing with fuel and electricity shortages. Well, meanwhile, residents in other areas are being rescued or evacuating now as water levels continue to rise. The threat of flooding will continue in the hours and days ahead.
As the state's many rivers and lakes are expected to crest through the weekend, CNN's Brian Todd has the latest.
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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As rescue efforts continue across Florida, survivors still reeling from the destruction left by powerful Hurricane Milton. In hardhit St. Lucie County, Shane Ostrander his wife Nicole and their dog, had to scramble into a closet when a tornado hit them near Fort Pierce on Wednesday. He describes when the twisters slammed into their house.
SHANE OSTRANDER, St. LUCIE COUNTY RESIDENT, LOST HOME IN TORNADO: Heard two bombs, boom, boom, hears ringing, insulation everywhere. It felt to me about like 10 seconds, probably longer.
TODD: Shane says when he opened his closet door, he realized he had lost everything.
OSTRANDER: I walked the dog this morning and that's when it hits me like when I see the neighbors with terrible damage, this whole neighborhood has been devastated and I haven't even left the street yet.
TODD: Robin Longtin lives in the Spanish Lakes country club village neighborhood where at least six people died. She hunkered down and held on as a tornado tore off the roof of her mobile home.
ROBIN LONGTIN, SPANISH LAKES COUNTRY CLUB VILLAGE RESIDENT, LOST HOME IN TORNADO: I literally felt that lift up off the ground and jerked back down. And when I opened the door from the safe room, my roof was gone.
TODD: Robin was able to save her cats and to parakeets but is still coming to grips with the loss of her home.
LONGTIN: Devastating, scary definitely life-changing.
TODD: Others in the same senior community could not escape.
Sixty-six-year-old Alejandro Alonzo's grandson tells CNN that Alejandro and his girlfriend were killed. The grandson describes Alejandro as an amazing grandfather and a motorcycle lover.
CRYSTAL COLEMAN, St. LUCIE COUNTY RESIDENT, HOME DAMAGED BY TORNADO: It was literally a tornado was in my house.
TODD: For those who survived, it's still surreal. This woman hid in her bathroom as a tornado tore off her roof.
COLEMAN: It was very life-threatening. I feel like I was about to die.
TODD: Even the county sheriff's building was not spared.
SHERIFF KEITH PEARSON, St. LUCIE COUNTY, FLORIDA: As you can see here, it destroyed this building, crumbled the red iron metal, destroyed lots of for vehicles.
TODD: St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson told us the focus now is on rescues.
PEARSON: We're not going to stop until we're able to, you know, rescue or recover as many people as we can.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where's everybody at?
TODD: East of Tampa, rescuers wade through knee-high waters to evacuate people inside homes in Dover, guiding them with a rope one- by-one to safety.
A 91-year-old woman carried out of floodwaters in Lithia. This 77- year-old rode out the hurricane in his mobile home in St. Petersburg.
JERALD GILCHRIST, St. PETERSBURG RESIDENT, RODE OUT HURRICANE MILTON AT HOME: For a few years that I got left, I'd like to stay here.
TODD: And others slowly picking up the pieces.
RALPH GENITO, VALRICO RESIDENT: I mean, I know it's terrible things but I got start all over again. Yes. I just everything I had there is no good.
TODD: Our CNN teams on the west coast of Florida and here on the east coast of the state, have spoken to several residents who say that they're seriously rethinking the idea of still living in Florida, given the severity of the storms here.
Two residents in this area have told us they would like to come back and rebuild in their current locations but only if they can do it with stronger building materials -- Brian Todd, CNN, Fort Pierce, Florida.
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COREN: Well, still to come, Donald Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric was on full display as he campaigned on Friday, heading to Nevada and Colorado in the final stretch to the election.
And in Arizona, Kamala Harris asked whether her opponent could be trusted with the Oath of Office. Those details after the break.
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COREN: We are now 24 days away from the U.S. election. Former president Donald Trump hit the campaign trail in Colorado Friday. He falsely claimed that migrant gang members are taking over parts of the state before heading to another rally in Nevada. CNN's Alayna Treene has more.
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ALAYNA TREENE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fresh off his visit to Aurora, Colorado, on Friday, former president Donald Trump escalated his anti- immigrant and dark rhetoric during remarks in Reno, Nevada, where he repeated and amplified false claims about undocumented immigrants that have been refuted by Republican officials on the ground.
But during this rally, this speech really was billed by his campaign team as being focused on the economy. However, Donald Trump himself said that, while his campaign keeps telling him the economy is the number one issue, he actually believes that immigration takes precedent.
Then he delved into the visit on Friday to Aurora, where he claimed that the city had been invaded and conquered by Venezuela gangs and again called for the death penalty for any migrant in the country that kills an American citizen or a law enforcement officer.
Take a listen to what he said.
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DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: But I will round up the illegal alien gang members and they will be put in jail or thrown out of our country until not a single one is left. If they come back, it's an automatic 10 years in jail with no possibility of parole. Because we don't want them to come back.
They got to stay out. And I'm hereby calling for the death penalty for any migrant that kills an American citizen or a law enforcement officer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TREENE: Now Donald Trump's rhetoric regarding the blue state and really the blue city of Aurora, Colorado, has become such a focal point of his campaign that he not only went to that blue state on Friday but then brought that messaging to Reno, where he really made it a central theme of his remarks in the battleground state of Nevada.
And now, this type of fearmongering isn't exactly new to Donald Trump or his rhetoric. He also used that language in the leadup to the 2016 election.
However, I can tell you from being at many of his rallies, this type of stoking fears about immigrants and undocumented migrants in America has only ramped up in the final stretch of this campaign -- Alayna Treene, CNN, Reno, Nevada.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: Donald Trump's running mate, JD Vance, refused to admit that Trump lost the 2020 election five times in a row. He was repeatedly asked the question during an hour-long interview with "The New York Times" after dodging it during his debate with Tim Walz last week.
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LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Do you believe he lost the 2020 election? J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think that Donald Trump and I have both raised a number of issues with the 2020 election. But we're focused on the future.
I think there's an obsession here, with focusing on 2020. I'm much more worried about what happened after 2020, which is a wide open border, groceries that are unaffordable. And look--
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Senator, yes or no?
VANCE: OK.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Did Donald Trump lose the 2020 election?
VANCE: Let me ask you a question. Is it OK that big technology companies censored the Hunter Biden laptop story, which independent analysis have said it cost Donald Trump millions of votes?
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Senator Vance, I'm going to ask you again. Did Donald Trump lose the 2020 election?
VANCE: Did big technology companies censor a story?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: Well, Trump, of course, did lose the election to President Biden.
And Democrats have criticized Vance's refusal to admit it, saying that he would enable the former president's worst impulses.
Well, the Democratic nominee campaigned in Arizona on Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris was in Scottsdale, where she spoke of representing the United States internationally among world leaders. And she expressed doubt about whether Trump and Vance would uphold their Oaths of Office if they win the election.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We should actually be concerned and have a question, a legitimate question in an election for President of the United States the commander in chief of whether they will abide by the oath.
(APPLAUSE)
HARRIS: Imagine. Imagine. That's a legitimate question we are asking. It's not rhetorical.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: The stock markets hit fresh highs on Friday in the U.S.
The three major indexes, the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite, all finished up for the week with investors sending the Dow and the S&P to record levels.
The market surge came on the back of strong bank earnings, both JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo beat third quarter expectations.
Well, some 40 percent of the world's olive oil comes from Spain. But due to climate change that is changing. Just ahead, where European farmers are moving to make sure their crops can thrive.
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COREN: If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, take a look at the night sky for a wonder that might have fascinated the Neanderthals 80,000 years ago. This photo from the International Space Station shows a newly discovered comet now making its closest approach on a return voyage to our planet.
It's about 71 million kilometers away. People in the Southern Hemisphere have already been able to take in this once in a lifetime event. Scientists say the next few weeks you should look in the western night sky just after sunset to catch a glimpse. Don't miss this. If you do, you'll have to wait another 80,000 years to see it.
As Europe gets warmer, olive groves in Spain are producing less of their prized cooking oil and farmers are looking for cooler options. That means heading north, where rich soil and plenty of rain can help olive trees grow and thrive. CNN's Eleni Giokos has the details.
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ELENI GIOKOS, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Farther and farther north in Europe, olive trees are taking root. Around 40 percent of the world's olive oil typically comes from Spain.
But for two years, heat waves and prolonged drought in the country have hurt harvests and doubled olive oil prices, one glaring effect of climate change on the world's fastest-warming continent.
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JOAN SALA, ACCIO ECOLOGISTA-AGRO (through translator): Last year, in liters, we have less than half the average rainfall of a normal year. This year, we barely have 10 percent precipitation. If with climate change, it's going to get worse, hotter, less rain, then we are already entering a climate emergency.
GIOKOS (voice-over): Farther north, this farmer is planting the seed for alternative olive growing. The 55-year old finding a home for his trees and the southern slopes of Hungary. There, the winters are mild, the soil is rich and the rain is plenty for his 200 or so Spanish olive trees.
CSABA TOROK, WINEMAKER AND OLIVE GROWER (through translator): We increasingly tend to belong to a climate where the trees can find a home on better slopes. For me, it's not about wanting a decorative tree. I see the trees as the integral part of the landscape here in the future.
GIOKOS (voice-over): As the climate warms up and olive groves seem to shift northward, some farmers have planted their feet in Austria and Croatia and Slovakia. Homeowners are buying their own Spanish olive trees, looking to get that Mediterranean feeling all the way in central Europe.
ISTVAN VASS, GARDEN CENTER OWNER (through translator): We are seeing it in practice that there are lots of olive trees planted outside in the gardens and they cope really well. So no need to worry about them.
GIOKOS (voice-over): Things are looking up for Spain's olive industry for now. The Spanish foreign ministry says it estimates a recovery in olive oil production in the country this year.
But as climate change elicits more heat waves and droughts farther south, olive farmers must continue to adapt to Europe's changing climate -- Eleni Giokos, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: A rare Monet painting that the Nazis stole from a Jewish family decades ago is back in the hands of that family's descendants. "Bord de Mer" -- "Seaside" in English -- is one of Monet's early works. Officials say the original owners left everything behind, fleeing the Nazis.
The painting disappeared in 1941 only to resurface more than 70 years later in France, where a New Orleans-based antiquities dealer bought it and sold it to a couple in Washington state. That couple surrendered the painting to the FBI, which returned it to two descendants of the Jewish family.
The painting is valued at over $500,000.
Well, thank you so much for your company. I'm Anna Coren in Hong Kong, "INSIDE AFRICA" is coming up next and then my colleague, Kim Brunhuber, will be back in 30 minutes' time with more of CNN NEWSROOM.
