The Headlines - Israel Attacks on Multiple Fronts, and Helene’s Trail of Destruction

Episode Date: September 30, 2024

Plus, the plain-spoken poetry of Kris Kristofferson.   Tune in every weekday morning. To get our full audio journalism and storytelling experience, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.Tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. On Today’s Episode:Israel Strikes Multiple Fronts, Including Long-Distance Attack on Yemen, by Christopher Maag, Euan Ward and Adam RasgonIn North Carolina, Remnants of Helene Become an ‘Unprecedented Tragedy,’ by Eduardo Medina and Tim ArangoRepublicans Criticize Trump Over His Insults of Harris, by Simon J. LevienCalifornia Governor Vetoes Sweeping A.I. Legislation, by Cecilia KangKris Kristofferson, Country Singer, Songwriter and Actor, Dies at 88, by Bill Friskics-Warren

From The New York Times, it's The Headlines. I'm Traci Mumford. Today's Monday, September 30th. Here's what we're covering. The Israeli military launched attacks on multiple fronts this weekend, striking targets in Lebanon, Gaza, and Yemen. The strikes come as violence ramps up between Israel and Iran-backed groups across the Middle East, threatening to push all the parties involved into all-out war. In Yemen, Israeli warplanes flew over a thousand miles to strike power plants and a seaport after Houthi militants, who are based there, fired missiles at Israel.

And in Lebanon, Israel launched a wave of deadly attacks this weekend on the heels of its heavy bombing campaign Friday that killed Hezbollah's longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah. Nasrallah was considered by many to be the most important militia leader in Iran's so-called Axis of Resistance against Israel. He led Hezbollah for over 30 years, pushing the message that Israel needed to be eliminated. To kill Nasrallah, Israel dropped bombs that flattened three apartment buildings near Beirut that it said were sheltering the group's underground headquarters.

The prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Sunday that this was all part of a strategy to create a new balance of power in the Middle East in which Israel's status isn't questioned. Adam Rasgon covers Israel for The Times. In other words, the prime minister was saying that he wants these groups, the Iranian-backed groups, to think twice before they attack Israel. And he said, our foes and friends view Israel, again, for what it is, a strong, determined, and powerful state. For the Israeli government, this is a bold strategy going after the most senior leaders of Hezbollah. But it's also a risky one in the eyes of some Israeli officials who say that Hezbollah is battered. It is sort of shocked by

everything that's happened over the past two weeks, especially Nasrallah's killing. But no one should make a mistake about their capacity to fire hundreds of rockets simultaneously at big Israeli cities in a way that will overwhelm Israel's air defenses and could cause immense damage. The escalating violence between Israel and Hezbollah is adding to what's already been a massive amount of upheaval. Tens of thousands of Israelis and hundreds of thousands of Lebanese have been displaced from their homes because of the fighting. According to the UN, as many as 100,000 people have now fled from Lebanon to Syria because of the most recent airstrikes. Across the southeastern U.S., rescue and recovery efforts are still underway this morning,

after Hurricane Helene tore through the region. At least 90 people have been confirmed dead across five states, but officials expect that number to rise as rescuers make their way deeper into the Appalachian Mountains, where whole towns have been decimated by flooding and landslides. This is an unprecedented tragedy that requires an unprecedented response. The highest death toll has been in North Carolina, where the state's governor, Roy Cooper, says they're racing to deliver supplies to communities that have been cut off.

Hundreds of roads there have been closed, forcing authorities to use helicopters to airdrop in food and supplies. Even as the rain and the winds have subsided, the challenge for people there increases. People are desperate for help, and we are pushing to get it to them. What I can see around me, there's lots of downed trees,

there's debris all over the streets, there see around me, there's lots of downed trees, there's debris all over the streets, there is no electricity, there's no water, and there's no cell service. Times reporter Eduardo Medina has been reporting from Asheville, one of the North Carolina cities hit hard by the storm. Lots of people have been huddling around the few hotels or libraries that still have a Wi-Fi signal. And what they're trying to do, what they've been trying to do, these residents, is one, tell their loved ones they're okay, and two, check with those who they haven't been able to connect with yet. And it's sort of been this anxiety-inducing storm because of that, because of the lack of cell service here

for many residents. In the 2024 presidential race, Kamala Harris started her weekend with a campaign stop at the U.S.-Mexico border, where she delivered one of the Democratic Party's most hard-line speeches on immigration in a generation. I will protect our nation's sovereignty, secure our border, and work to fix our broken system of immigration. She vowed to continue the crackdown on asylum that President Biden began. She then held a rally in Las Vegas, where she continued her effort to try and bait Donald Trump into debating her again, telling crowds that she was all in while Trump was, quote, ready to fold. It was a lucrative weekend for Harris. Her campaign says she pulled in $55 million. Meanwhile, Joe Biden became mentally impaired. Kamala was born that way. Trump criticized Harris' speech at the border and unleashed a string of personal attacks against the vice president. And if you think about it, only a mentally disabled person could have allowed this to happen to our country.

Anybody would know this. Trump repeated some of the insults at a rally on Sunday, sparking criticism from the American Association of People with Disabilities and driving several Republican lawmakers to try and distance themselves from Trump's remarks. What do you think about that, Rutter? I just think the better course to take is to prosecute the case that her policies are destroying the country. They're crazy liberal. Senator Lindsey Graham and Congressman Tom Emmer, who have both supported Trump, said in separate interviews that they felt he should focus on policy issues.

With five weeks to go until the election, polls show an exceedingly close race between Harris and Trump. At the moment, Harris is ahead by three percentage points in the Times average of national polls. Their VP candidates, Tim Walz and J.D. Vance, will debate tomorrow night in New York City. The most ambitious effort yet in the U.S. to regulate artificial intelligence has been vetoed by California's governor. The proposed law would have required

that large AI systems like ChatGPT are tested for safety before being released to the public. It would have also required that they have kill switches in case the systems get out of control. Because there are no federal laws limiting AI, the California bill would have served as a model for the country. The legislation had nearly unanimous support from state lawmakers, but many of the biggest players in tech, like Google, Meta, and OpenAI, opposed it,

saying it would have stifled innovation. Governor Gavin Newsom faced an intense lobbying effort in recent weeks from opponents and supporters of the proposed guardrails. Ultimately, he said the bill focused too much on regulating the biggest AI systems and said lawmakers should send him a new, rewritten bill next year. And finally... What have I ever done To deserve even one of the pleasures I've known?

Chris Christopherson, the actor and country singer, has died at 88 years old. He was arguably most influential because of the songs he wrote for other people. Hundreds of artists, from The Grateful Dead to Gladys Knight to Janis Joplin, performed his music. Christofferson's literary talent was noticed long before he became famous in Nashville. As a college student, he won a Rhodes Scholarship to study English literature at Oxford University. While he was in the UK, he took up the pseudonym Chris Carson and tried to make it in the British pop scene. That went nowhere. but his big break came a few years later at the Newport Folk Festival when June Carter Cash, Johnny Cash's wife, basically dragged the struggling and very nervous singer-songwriter on stage with the duo.

That introduced Christofferson to a national audience, and Johnny Cash's performance of Sunday Morning Coming Down, which Christofferson wrote, went on to top the country charts. Well, I woke up Sunday morning With no way to hold my head That didn't hurt And the beer I had for breakfast Wasn't bad, so I had one more for dessert

Christofferson also had a decades-long career in Hollywood. He acted in more than 50 movies, including the 1970s version of A Star is Born with Barbra Streisand. You and I will make each night a first. Christofferson won a Golden Globe for his performance, but he always thought of writing as the key to his success. In an interview with the magazine Country Standard Time, he said, quote, I never would have gotten to make records if I didn't write.

I wouldn't have gotten to tour without it. And I never would have been asked to act in a movie if I hadn't been known as a writer. Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily, a look at Donald Trump and Kamala Harris' positions on foreign policy, from the war in Ukraine to how they would handle the crisis in the Middle East. That's next in the New York Times audio app, or you can listen wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Traci Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.