Faiz Jamil (host)
00:00:01
Hi. From CNN, I'm Faiz Jamil with the 5 things you need to Know for Thursday, October 3rd.
An Israeli airstrike hit central Beirut overnight. Lebanese officials say at least six people were killed in the first Israeli attack on that area of the capital since 2006. CNN's Ben Wedeman was in Beirut when the attack happened.
Ben Wedeman (reporter hit)
00:00:23
This is the heart of Beirut. This is not the southern suburbs. This is the general area where you will find the prime ministry and you will find the fortunately currently empty CNN bureau. And just about 40 minutes before that, we heard three very large explosions from the southern suburbs with smoke just wafting all over the city.
Faiz Jamil (host)
00:00:49
Several countries, including the U.S., are ramping up efforts to evacuate their citizens from Lebanon and urging those remaining to leave as Israel wages a ground offensive in the south of the country. All of this comes as Israel continues to promise retaliation against Iran for a missile barrage earlier this week.
Special counsel Jack Smith has laid out his case against former President Donald Trump in the 2020 election subversion case. A federal judge yesterday released the 165 page document, which includes new details on the evidence in the case. Following the Supreme Court's decision this summer that granted Trump sweeping immunity for official acts. As CNN's Paula Reid tells us, the special counsel is arguing those actions were personal or political, not official.
Paula Reid (reporter hit)
00:01:37
'Prosecutors in this filing emphasizing things that Trump did as an office seeker, not an office holder. This new filing also includes some never before seen evidence, including conversations he had with then-Vice President Mike Pence and his White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows. And after Trump arguing that this was, quote, a political hit job and then the campaign framing it as an effort to interfere with the election. But it is important to note that it was up to the federal judge to release this and not the special counsel.
Faiz Jamil (host)
00:02:08
It's been a week since Hurricane Helene first plowed into the southeast and entire communities are still cut off and unable to receive basic supplies. At least 191 people are now confirmed to have died in the storm. And more than a million homes and businesses have no power. Yesterday, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris visited some of the most affected communities. Speaking from Georgia, Harris said that recovery efforts will take time.
VP Kamala Harris (soundbite)
00:02:35
There's a lot of work that's going to need to happen over the coming days, weeks and months. And the coordination that we have dedicated ourselves to will be long lasting, to get families, to get residents to get neighborhoods back up and running.
Faiz Jamil (host)
00:02:51
Meanwhile, Biden has deployed a thousand troops from Fort Liberty in eastern North Carolina to the ravaged western part of the state.
The Dominican Republic says it's planning to deport up to 10,000 Haitian migrants living in the country illegally each week. Thousands of Haitians have fled the violence in their country. Gangs currently controlling about 80% of the capital, Port au Prince. The Dominican Republic shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, and a government spokesperson says the decision for mass deportations were made after noticing a, quote, excess of migrants in the country. And he says the UNbacked mission in Haiti to fight gang violence is struggling. In the first half of the year, the Dominican Republic government deported at least 67,000 people, it says are Haitians. Activists have long criticized the Dominican president's administration for what they say are ongoing human rights violations of Haitians and those of Haitian descent.
Coming up, an American bomb explodes in Japan.
A buried U.S. bomb from World War Two has exploded at a Japanese airport. Officials say yesterday's blast left a large crater in the taxiway of the Miyazaki airport and the cancellation of more than 80 flights. No one was injured, though. An investigation confirmed the explosion was caused by a decades old 500 pound American bomb. And there was no further damage. But they're trying to find out what caused the bomb to suddenly detonate. Hundreds of tons of unexploded bombs from the war remain buried around Japan and are sometimes dug up at construction sites.
That's all for now. I'll be back with our next episode, which drops at 9 p.m. Eastern.