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Atlantic's Most Powerful Hurricane in Decade Takes Aim at Haiti; Washington Walks Away From Cooperation with Russia in Syria; Donald Trump Plays Defense Amid New Questions About Finances. Aired 3- 4a ET

Aired October 4, 2016 - 03:00   ET

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


[03:00:00] ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN NEWSROOM SHOW HOST: Battered - the Atlantic's most powerful hurricane in a decade takes aim at Haiti putting thousands at risk.

Also ahead, Washington walks away from cooperation with Russia in Syria as the Assad government intensifies its attacks on Aleppo.

And tax genius or exploitation? Donald Trump plays defense amid new questions about his finances.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: As a businessman and real estate developer, I have legally used the tax laws to my benefit.

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's the poster boy for the same rigged system that he would make even worse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Hello. And welcome to our viewers all across the globe. I'm Rosemary Church, and this is CNN Newsroom.

Hurricane Matthew has strengthened in the Caribbean and is inching closer to Haiti's southern coast. Damaging winds and heavy rain are causing problems in Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

The category four storm is just hours from making landfall in Haiti and could be especially devastating there. The infrastructure is still reeling from the deadly earthquake in 2010.

Haitian officials say some towns are now partially flooded, and thousands of people have fled to shelters.

And take a look at this shot from the International Space Station. You really get a sense of how big this storm is.

Now we are joined by Laura Sewell in Port-au-Prince in Haiti. She is the assistant country director of the international relief agency CARE. This is a real concern particularly for people who are still living in tents right now, even since the 2010 earthquake. What is going to happen to those people and of course, other vulnerable people there on the ground? LAURA SEWELL, CARE'S ASSISTANT COUNTRY DIRECTOR FOR HAITI: Thank you

very much for having me. Yes. There's certainly a number of people, around 50,000 people are still living in tent cities, especially in urban parts of Port-au-Prince.

Those countries are prone to flooding. So, this kind of hurricane is going to be very difficult for them. But also extremely difficult for the rural areas in the southern part of the country where people live in houses which are, if that's true, for corrugated iron that cannot withstand the winds that we are talking about here or the kind of rain that we are talking about here.

CHURCH: What about those who have chosen to actually stay in their homes? Because that is the problem, isn't it? Some of the structures are not really designed in any way to protect people, and also compare those to the shelters that they have been told to go to. Just how sturdy are they?

SEWELL: Yes. This is a problem certainly. There's a lot of people living in small houses, which are not ready to withstand hurricane- force winds or rains. We have been working with the government to encourage people to evacuate since yesterday.

There are, as you said, thousands of people now who are in evacuation shelters. Those are generally schools or other buildings and are often buildings made of concrete block and have concrete roof which and more sturdy, but there are some shelters which are still also corrugated iron roof and still not necessarily secure.

CHURCH: And you mention the government there. Talk to us about what the government has been doing to help its people.

SEWELL: The government has been organizing since yesterday. They declared a red alert yesterday, which means they shut down the schools, they shut down the airport and they really started to make an effort to make sure that people are evacuating to the cyclone -- to the cyclone and hurricane shelters.

Basically they have been trying to pass the message any way they can and organizations like CARE have been working on the ground for our field staff and through radio messages. It really cross the message across that is not safe to stay in your house. It's not a normal rainstorm and people need to move to hurricane shelters immediately.

CHURCH: And of course, after this the big worry will be flooding, will be landslides and mudslides. So, talk to us about what your organization can do in the aftermath and what your greatest concern is here.

SEWELL: Yes. This is a country that's very mountainous. We are definitely looking at a chance of landslides and mudslides and flash flooding, as well in rural areas and urban areas. And with a lot of rain always comes the chance of water borne disease.

So it means that -- Haiti is a country that has had cholera since 2010, so there is definitely a chance that we are going to see more cholera, we're going to see people's houses destroyed and possibly kind of lots. And really their way of making a living really is in danger right now from this hurricane.

CHURCH: There are so many concerns here. Laura Sewell talking to us there from Pot-au-Prince in Haiti with the organization CARE. Many thanks to you.

[03:05:06] All right. I want to get the latest now on the storm's track. And our meteorologist Pedram Javaheri joins us now with that. And, Pedram, there are so many worries here. The vulnerability of so many of these people, the structures that just aren't -- they are not capable of really taking care of these people.

Talk to us about that, and also the fact that so many people don't want to evacuate, don't want to go to the shelters. How vulnerable are they?

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Correct. You know, the vulnerabilities are among the highest for any tropical system maing landfall in any place. And of course, if you think about a nation that is the poorest in the western hemisphere, among the poorest on our planet. So, the infrastructure is certainly not in place to support winds that are going to be gusting close to 300 kilometers per hour.

But this certainly it could be a humanitarian crisis. And I want to show you why I think it could certainly be a manmade crisis in the works, as well, when the heavy rainfall that is expected with the storm system moves ashore in the next couple of hours.

Here's the landscape. Laying the land, we're talking about mountains, which about 75 percent of the island of Haiti is actually elevated terrain. The mountains across the interior portion rise to over 2600 meters high.

And of course you go in closer perspective and you know what we are talking about with storm surge potential that often is very high with land falling storms. And in this particularly base it would be upwards of two to three meters high, or 7 to 10 feet across the region.

But the rainfall, again, going to be extensive with the storm coming in. It could see upwards of a half meter to one meter of rainfall moving the shore across this region. And I want to show you the satellite imagery of the landscape, as well.

Here's the Dominican Republic, the island is actually divided by a river right here. You notice the portion of Haiti here, almost completely deforested. And in fact, 98 percent of its terrain there have been deforested.

But we know being that it's among the poorest countries in our planet, much of its energy has actually come over the several decades with people taking trees down, burning the trees and creating charcoal. And about 85 percent of its energy to be precised (ph) are coming in from charcoal from burned trees.

And of course, when you put that in place you bring in the extensive rainfall that is expected with a category four system, all of that becomes instantaneous flash flooding. The landslide threat very high. And the last such storm across this region, Rosemary was Hazel, hurricane Hazel back in 1954. It was a category three. It was weaker than Matthew. Made landfall almost in the exact same spot we expect to landfall around 8 in the morning, local time, across this region.

It took about 2,000 lives. Of course, we are now recovering from a major earthquake from six years ago. So, a lot of people still living in properties that certainly will not be able to withstand such storms.

And you notice this, hurricane Allen came across this region and did not even make landfall, took with it 200 lives. So, it doesn't take much here, whether it is a land falling storm, a tropical storm, let alone a category for hurricane making direct landfall for this to be a major, major issue for millions of people, about 1.5 million people live in the path of the storm when it does make landfall, Rosemary.

So, again, going to be a very, very tough situation for a lot of people in the next several hours.

CHURCH: Most definitely. Let's hope people try to get to those sturdier structures, those shelters that are available. Many thanks to you, Pedram Javaheri.

JAVAHERI: Thank you.

CHURCH: And we are getting word that Afghan forces have taken control of the center of Kunduz from the Taliban. A police spokesman says fighting continues in other areas of the city. The Taliban stormed Kunduz early Monday. They held it for a short time last year.

Well, the U.S. is suspending talks with Russia amid escalating violence in Syria.

These pictures show some of the damage from Monday. Activists in Syria say bunker buster bombs destroyed another hospital in rebel-held eastern Aleppo.

The U.S. officials say Russia has failed on its part to uphold the agreed upon ceasefire accusing Moscow and the Syrian regime allies of trying to, quote, "bomb civilians into submission."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think everybody's patience with Russia has run out. They've also spent a great deal of credibility in making a series of commitments without any clear indication that they were committed to following them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Now at the same time Russia is suspending an arms reduction deal with the United States.

And joining me now to discuss this is CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson who is in Istanbul, Turkey and senior international correspondent, Matthew Chance who is live in Moscow, Russia.

Thanks to both of you for being with us. Nic, let's go to you first. The U.S. is suspending talks with Russia, as we said. This is a last resort. So, what happens next given the suspension of talks will mean nothing gets done and the war gets worse.

[03:10:02] NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had invested a lot of faith in his talks with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov believing, you know, if we go back to the Munich talks this year which brought about a ceasefire and humanitarian aid delivery.

You know, the United setting up -- the United States and Russia working together closely on ceasefire and humanitarian delivery in Syria, this was going to be the background that created the conditions for peace talks where at large across Syria.

So, all of that essentially is thrown in the air. The United States now, the toughest language possible. Running out of patience and saying that Russia is failing under its international and humanitarian legal obligations in Syria.

But it's either unable or unwilling to pressure President Bashar al- Assad in to keeping to the commitments of the ceasefire and humanitarian agreements and saying that Russia and Syria are intentionally targeting not just civilian areas but civilian infrastructure. I mean, in the terms of hospitals since this is breaking international norms and laws of war.

This is -- this is something the State Department says a decision they haven't taken lightly. But the reality is that all through this process it's all been left to Russia in terms of the deals to use their influence on the Syrian government.

And now the United States is saying we've given up on that. It's quite clear that Russia has no intention of going for a political solution at this time.

You know, until now, the United States has used essentially a reverse logic.

I was talking to one of the people who was inside those meetings between Russia and U.S. officials and the logic was, you know, Russia doesn't appear to have committed to a military-only solution. Therefore, we believe it's committed to a political solution.

Well, now they are saying completely the opposite. So, where does it leave the situation on the ground that essentially is a situation on the ground where Russia and Syria can continue with trying to take strategic gains on the ground which very much the United States is realizing that appears to have been the intention all along, and hence, this massive break down.

And in the light of what we have heard about the nuclear -- about the arms reduction agreement, the plutonium agreement, it casts an even bigger shadow over the future of Syria, as well.

CHURCH: So, Nic, given that, doesn't suspension of these talks by the United States simply play right into what Russia and Syria want?

ROBERTSON: Essentially yes. It shows the paucity and the weak position of the U.S. hand in these negotiations. It shows you how much faith it appears now wrongly placed by Secretary of State John Kerry that he could achieve something.

He always said this was -- this was the only plan, that the only solution for Syria ultimately was a political deal. And of course that can be said about any war that ultimately the war ends and there's a political deal. Of course that's true.

Ultimately, we're not at that ultimate point right now, and that -- and that really appears to be, you know, for the United States, the difficulty of the situation whatever cards do they have to play at the moment. They seem to have put down their hand and not walked away from the table.

But look at it this way. You know, the peace talks that began early this year in Geneva have been suspended for two years to try to bring about conditions again from 2014 talks and from before that, 2013, 2012.

We're especially essentially in a position where the battlefield will play out before anyone is going to be back in a mood or a position of strategic strength and leverage to get in to talks again. Rosemary?

CHURCH: All right. Let's go to Matthew Chance now to get reaction from Russia. You are there in Moscow. And of course, at the same time Russia is suspending an arms reduction deal with the United States. So, it's hard to see a path forward from here.

What's being said in Moscow about the stalemate, and presumably Russia is thrilled with the outcome with the United States removing itself from talks here.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, they certainly have said that thrilled, they called it unfortunate. They said that they are still open to talks and they blame the United States for not upholding its side of the bargain.

Of course, the two sides have been trading accusations as to who's responsible for the breakdown of the ceasefire. The Russians for their part say, look, the Americans committed to, first of all, improving the humanitarian situation around Aleppo, which they failed to do, and mostly, and most importantly of separating the Jihadists from what the U.S. calls the moderate rebels which they also failed to do, making it -- making impossible for the Russians, they say, to distinguish between the various factions.

And so, the Kremlin very much blames Washington for this breakdown. But I think it's important to remember what's going on behind the outrage, behind the concern about the dire humanitarian situation, which is that Russia is yet again, getting its way in Syria. [03:15:07] It is pursuing a military solution for the time being. It's

objective seems to be to gain as much territory as possible and to bolster the regime of Bashar al-Assad, its ally in Syria as much as possible ahead of a future peace deal which inevitably will bring an end to this conflict.

But it would leave the Assad regime in a bolstered position, in a much stronger position that it was, of course, before the Russians came in. And that's Russia's objective to make sure its interest embodied in the regime of Bashar al-Assad are protected in any future Syria.

And obviously if Aleppo as it looks likely will soon fall under the control of the Syrian government, backed by the Russians, that's going to be a big boost for the government side.

CHURCH: Yes. Very difficult times there. Many thanks to Matthew Chance joining us from Moscow, and our Nic Robertson there in Istanbul, Turkey.

And while most 7-year-olds are just learning how to read, a young Syrian girl is telling the world about the horrors of war in Aleppo. And you will hear her story right here on CNN Newsroom.

And Donald Trump's tax returns moved to the top of the talking points. What both candidates are saying about a new report on his finances. We're back with that in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON RIDDELL, CNN WORLD SPORT ANCHOR: I'm Don Riddell with your CNN world sport headlines.

Maria Sharapova is now just hours away from learning whether or not she can return to playing tennis on the WTA Tour. The Russian star as oppose from Meldonum with the Australian Open in January, and was banned for two years.

Sharapova admitted taking the drug but said she didn't know that it had recently been added to the banned list.

On Tuesday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport will announce the verdict of her appeal.

It is only the first few days of October, but already we had our managerial casualty in the English Premier League after a poor start to the new campaign Swansea's Francesco Guidolin was fired on his birthday as it happens and replaced by Bob Bradley, the American, he has coach mainly in the United States, but more recently he was in charge of the Egyptian national team.

Also fired on Monday was Aston Villa's manager Roberto Di Matteo chopped after barely three months.

The new NBA season is just over three weeks away. And as the team plays their warm up games it's a chance for the league to grow its brand overseas. The Oklahoma City Thunder took on Real Madrid's basketball team.

And if you thought this was going to be a stroll in the park for the NBA team, think again. Thunder were winning but then Madrid's Sergio Llull made a cut three pointer to put it in overtime.

[03:19:59] Real Madrid beat them 142 to 137 the final score.

And that is a quick look at your sports headlines. I'm Don Riddell.

CHURCH: A week after the first U.S. presidential debate Hillary Clinton is pulling ahead in the polls. A new CNN/ORC poll shows the democratic nominee leading Donald Trump by five percentage points among likely voters.

And you can see it is a sizable gain from her numbers in CNN's last poll in early September while her republican rival dropped three points.

One issue that's hurting Trump is income taxes. Seventy three percent of those polled think he should release his tax returns.

Now that poll was taken before a New York Times report on Trump's 1995 return.

Jason Carroll has details of that and both candidates' response to it.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Donald Trump trying to turn the tables on the tax issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: My understanding of the tax code gave me a tremendous advantage over those who didn't have a clue about it including many competitors who lost everything they had, never to be heard from again. Never -- they were never heard from again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: Trump's $916 million loss on his 1995 returns detailed in the New York Times means he could have avoided paying income tax for nearly two decades. Hillary Clinton seized on it today campaigning in Ohio.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: While millions of American families, including mine and yours were working hard, paying our fair share, it seems he was contributing nothing to our nation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: Trump and his campaign not disputing the authenticity of the tax returns. Instead, the GOP nominee says he took advantage of the laws to make his company stronger.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: As a businessman and real estate developer, I have legally used the tax laws to my benefit and to the benefit of my company, my investors and my employers. I mean, honestly, I have brilliantly -- I have brilliantly used those laws.

I have often said on the campaign trail that I have a fiduciary responsibility to pay no more tax than is legally required.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: Trump also accusing Clinton of getting rich by selling favors and access.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: While I made my money as a very successful private business person following the law all the way, Hillary Clinton made her money as a corrupt public official breaking the law and putting her government office up for sale.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: Trump surrogates rushing to his defense over the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CHRISTIE, NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR: The genius of Donald Trump has been to make sure that he follows the law, which is exactly what he's done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: Amid the fallout over his tax returns, Trump today is facing new criticism after appearing to suggest that some veterans with PTSD lack strength.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: When people come back from war and combat and they see things that maybe a lot of these folks in this room have seen many times over and you are strong and you can handle it, but a lot of people can't handle it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: The Trump campaign says the remark was taken out of context and insist Trump respects the service and sacrifice of military veterans.

CHURCH: So, let's talk more about this with CNN senior political analyst and senior editor for The Atlantic, Ron Brownstein. Great to have you on as always.

So, let's take a look at the battleground states to see where things stand after the first presidential debate. A number of polls came out on Monday, of course. Here's one from Quinnipiac University showing a bounce for Clinton in

Florida, North Carolina and Pennsylvania while Trump is up in Ohio. Is this the trend in other polls? What do these numbers tell you?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, it's a very consistent story coming out of the post-debate polls and that is Hillary Clinton reestablishing a lead, national lead somewhere in the four to six-point range generally in the polls CNN put her at five, another today put her at six, another at four, so basically five points.

And the -- and the subgroups are very consistent across the polls. Donald Trump continues as we talked about before to be dominant among white voters without a college education, it was working class whites, probably the best performance anyone has put up among them since Ronald Reagan in 1984.

But he is facing enormous deficits among minority voters and the key, really the pivot of this election is he is underperforming any republican nominee ever in the history of polling among college educated whites. That's critical in states like North Carolina and Pennsylvania where the Quinnipiac poll shows her even or ahead among them.

And nationally, both the CBS and the CNN polls show her reaching to about 50 percent now post-debate among college-educated whites.

[03:25:05] If she stays in that ballpark mathematically I don't think it's possible for Donald Trump to win.

CHURCH: Interesting. And of course we have seen a number of October surprises already and we are only a few days in to the month. How do you think voters will respond to Trump's leaked tax documents and news that he may not have paid income taxes for 18 years?

And of course, controversy surrounding his foundation. How will undecided voters particularly likely respond to all of this new information?

BROWNSTEIN: There is sensory overload. Isn't there? I mean, every day there are stories that come out that in a normal campaign would be the biggest story of the campaign, the tax story. The foundation questions, that the feud with the former Miss Universe. The Cuba embargo. It's almost like you can't process it all.

I don't think that this is going to undermine what Donald Trump has. But what it does is reinforce the biggest problem that he's facing. You know, consistently in polling out -- going back over a year and certainly in the new wave of polls out today post-debate.

Roughly 60 percent of the country said they doubt that he has the qualifications to succeed as president. Roughly 60 percent say they don't believe he has the temperament to success as president. And nearly 60 percent say that he is biased against women and minorities.

And if you look at these polls he's struggling to get much above 40 percent in support. It basically adds up that, you know, you have roughly three fifths of the country doubt that he can do the job, and roughly two-fifths of the country are willing to go to north.

All of these stories do is make the climb harder to get beyond where he is. Hillary Clinton is facing a lot of doubts of her own. She hasn't pulled away. She has a long ride to get to the majority of the vote but she's in the mid-40s and he's stuck in the low 40s and that's the difference in the race right now.

CHURCH: Yes. We'll see. And Ron, just finally, you know, we mentioned the topic about October surprises, there is an expectation that WikiLeaks will release revelations on Tuesday or perhaps Wednesday that are planned to embarrass both Clinton and Trump.

But what is left to surprise voters? Anything that you can think of that could prove perhaps to be a game changer here?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, I don't know if there is a game changer given how much information has already been absorbed about these two candidates and have deeply the negative opinions about them seem to be held.

But I do think that probably the biggest vulnerability of anything that was a long and explicit play-for-pay regarding the foundation. The Clinton Foundation on the one hand and her actions as Secretary of State in there has no evidence that any like this time.

But I do think that is where Trump can make the most, you know, headway. He essentially is making an argument that now, you know, his core -- his closing argument is there is a bipartisan globalist elite that is not -- is interested in perpetually their own interest not your interests.

And I think anything that kind of shows, you know, allows -- you know, gives him ammunition to make that case is really the strongest round that he is on in the final week of this campaign.

[00:02:23] CHURCH: Ron Brownstein, always great to talk with you. Thank you so much.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks you for having me.

CHURCH: And just this programming note. CNN is carrying the only debate between the vice presidential candidates. It is Wednesday at 2 a.m. in London if you are up and 9 a.m. in Hong Kong.

We are tracking Hurricane Matthew. Haiti is braced for the deadly storm which may well hammer that small country. A live report from the Haitian capital, coming up.

And a Syrian girl tells the world what life is like from inside of the war-torn city of Aleppo. Just ahead, how she is using Twitter to share her story with the world.

[03:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: A warm welcome back to our viewers all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church. Time to update you now on the stories we have been following this hour.

Hurricane Matthew has gained strength in the Caribbean and is inching closer to Haiti. It is a category four storm with winds around 230 kilometers per hour. At least two people have been killed over the past week. Jamaica has already seen heavy flooding. It's the strongest storm to hit there in decades.

The U.S. is suspending talks with Russia over the crisis in Syria. Officials accused Moscow of failing to uphold a ceasefire. The U.S. is bringing back personnel from Switzerland who was supposed to work for the Russian on targeting ISIS in Syria.

Donald Trump said he's used the American tax laws brilliantly, his word. The New York Times reports he claimed a nearly $1 billion loss on his 1995 return. That could have allowed him to avoid paying federal income taxes for the next 18 years.

Hillary Clinton says Trump lives a billionaire lifestyle while contributing nothing to the country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Thank you, everybody. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: All right. Let's return to our top story. Hurricane Matthew now heading for Haiti. I want to go live to our journalist Ibto Garwen (Ph), he joins us from Port-au-Prince in Haiti. Thank you so much for talking with us.

Now, Hurricane Matthew is bearing down on Haiti right now. How bad is it? And what preparations have been made to try to ease the impact on people's lives and of course flooding and mudslides that will likely come next?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Those are the biggest concerns. You know, obviously the flooding and the mudslides. It's 2 a.m., 2.30 a.m. here. And it's dark and so there's not a lot we can do. So, if you are hunkered down, you are hunkered down, if not, be really you shouldn't have been out there.

I think in a couple of hours, you know, daybreak we'll get a sense of the damage and aftermath.

CHURCH: And of course people have been told to go to shelters. Not everyone is doing that. Not everyone can. The big concern is for those people still living in tents since the 2010 earthquake. Talk to us about what is going to happen to those people and whether any effort was made to ensure that they got to shelters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There were about a thousand facilities identified as temporary shelters. And the government had been pushing for most people to evacuate, you know, especially coastal plain areas to get to these shelters. And so, we are hoping most people heeded the warning. And so, it's

kind of hard to say at this point what's happening out there. It's just very windy and, yes, that has become this one.

(CROSSTALK)

CHURCH: And how well prepared -- how well prepared has the government been in this, in getting people to where they need to go and making sure that people are as safe as they possibly can be?

[03:35:02] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were doing the best they could, you know, or the best we can. It's either we learned of the storm over the weekend. And so, between Sunday and Monday, yesterday, a lot of effort was being made to get the information out to people and identify the shelters and communicate that by the radio stations here which is primarily what people use to communicate in terms of getting information from the government.

So, we are hoping most people heeded the warning as of yesterday afternoon.

CHURCH: All right. Ibto Garwen (Ph), thank you so much for talking to us. We appreciate it. Joining us there from Port-au-Prince.

All right. Let's get the latest on the storm's track. And our meteorologist Pedram Javaheri is keeping a very close eye on this. So many things to worried about here. And of course, we talked just a short time ago, you and I, about the vulnerability of people in Haiti particularly.

JAVAHERI: Correct. Yes, you know, very explosive course of the elements. You think about the mountains of this region, the communities high atop the mountains where the flash floods potential are going to be extreme. Well, the storm that's going to bring an upwards of a meter of rainfall just through tomorrow night from now until tomorrow night.

Category four storm. You notice the area in blue, that is Jamaica. Now the government of Jamaica has removed a threat for a hurricane warning saying the main threat now remains in place for Haiti, for parts of Cuba and to parts of the Bahamas certainly over the next couple of days.

But as you take a look at the landscape across this region, one thing worth noting when you go up for a close perspective is of course the mountains are going to be really heavily impacted here with heavy rainfall, but you notice Port-au-Prince is actually on the backside of the mountains across this region.

They are going to be protected from the heaviest rainfall, certainly going to be protected from the storm surge. So, yes, the flash flood potential is still very high with the amount of rainfall that is expected. But it is the southern portion of the Island of Haiti that's really going to be hardest hit over the next couple of days.

And I just want to show you exactly what we are dealing with at this hour with the storm system. Because winds still sitting there at 230 kilometers per hour. The gusts almost at 300 kilometers per hour.

Beautiful structure is not going to be able to withstand such winds. Of course, we are talking about tent cities, we're talking about communities that are not -- not only going to get devastated with the rainfall potential but the track of the storm system are going to be very slow over the next couple of days.

As it meanders up portions of Haiti over the next 24 to 48 hours. The storm system will slowly makes its way towards Guantanamo by later on in to the evening hours. We are talking about getting in close to the Bahamas and then beyond that the storm actually could impact portions of North America and into eastern United States.

So, we are going to watch exactly how this plays out, Rosemary. We always say the water element of such storms is exactly what is the most concerning.

And when you see the area indicated in white that is always the top of our charts in the rainfall department. That is more than two feet, almost two feet I should say of rainfall across some of these areas. That would be devastating for an area that is heavily deforested like Haiti. Rosemary?

CHURCH: Yes. Exactly. The flooding, the mudslides, the landslides the big concerns there. Thank you so much, Pedram for keeping an eye on that. I appreciate it.

Well, German Unity Day saw a country sharply divided over the government's open door migrant policy. Hundreds of protesters turned out on Monday in Dresden's rainy streets. Demonstrators from the far right anti-Islam group known as Pegida said Chancellor Angela Merkel must step down. Mrs. Merkel called for mutual respect in the debate over immigration.

And Italy's coast guard said more than 6,000 migrants trying to reach Europe were plucked from the sea Monday. The bodies of nine migrants also were recovered. The rescue operation was the largest in a single day. Most of the rescues like this one in August happened roughly 50 kilometers off the coast of Libya.

And meantime, back in Syria, a 7-year-old girl is tweeting from inside of Aleppo as bombs continue to ravage her city.

CNN's Jomana Karadsheh spoke to this little girl and her family, and Jomana joins me now live from Amman, Jordan. And, Jomana, this is just such a harrowing story. A look inside the life of this little girl. She lives in war-torn Aleppo. What -- what all did this little girl tell you and her family and how they are dealing with what is going on there?

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Rosemary, with no access to so many parts of Syria, like eastern Aleppo, it's really difficult for us to try to tell the story of ordinary Syrians and their suffering, but Bana's family, this one family in Aleppo with the help of social media is getting their story out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BANA AL-ABED, SYRIAN RESIDENT: My God, help us finish war.

KARADSHEH: Seven-year-old Bana lives in Aleppo. She and her mother have become an internet sensation after they set up a Twitter account tweeting daily about the horrors of their life.

AL-ABED: Hello world, do you hear that?

[03:40:00] KARADSHEH: This video was posted just moments before we talked to the family via Skype. But this being Syria it was a sporadic internet connection.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The person you are trying to reach is currently unavailable.

KARADSHEH: we managed to connect again, just on audio this time.

You are a mother of --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hear, hear, hear! Hear the bombing?

KARADSHEH: Bana explains this was a barrel bomb very close by.

FATERMAH AL-ABED, BANA'S MOTHER: We don't have any safety place. Because all the bombing is so big.

KARADSHEH: Throughout the call we could hear blasts in the background.

F. AL-ABED: It is a horrible night. We -- we always in this situation. Day and night.

KARADSHEH: Fatermah says her three children have known nothing but war. The situation in Aleppo, this giant kill box, deteriorated to unprecedented levels after the collapse of the short ceasefire last month.

More than 100 children were killed in just a few days. And with the siege eastern Aleppo is running low on just about everything.

F. AL-ABED: Their bodies are weak because there's not enough food for them. Here no vegetables, no fruit, no milk, no eggs, no any meat. We just eat pasta and rice.

KARADSHEH: Bana, what is life like for you as a child in Aleppo?

B. AL-ABED: It's like a monster. I don't go out because there is always bombing.

KARADSHEH: Bana spends her days reading, playing with her younger brothers who are five and three, and learning English from her mother who is a teacher.

As bad as things are now, Fatermah fears the worst is yet to come with the reports regime troops are preparing for a ground offensive into eastern Aleppo.

F. AL-ABED: I'm afraid about that day is coming. But I hope it is not coming because they will kill us all.

KARADSHEH: For now, Fatermah continues to tweet, desperate for the world to see her children.

B. AL-ABED: Morning from Aleppo. We are still alive.

KARADSHEH: And hear their voices.

B. AL-ABED: We will live forever together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KARADSHEH: And, Rosemary, to give you an idea of how viral Bana's Twitter account has gone, when we first found her account about a week ago she had a couple of hundred followers. Now she has more than 24,000 followers.

And this morning, we've been monitoring her Twitter account and it would seem at this point this 7-year-old girl is gaining about a 1,000 followers an hour.

CHURCH: That's extraordinary. Her story is, as well. And of course, the backdrop to this, the suspension by the U.S. with talks with Russia to find some sort of solution here. We hope that that can happen.

Jomana Karadsheh joining us there from Amman, Jordan.

And if you are interested in following Bana, I have done so, and you can follow her notes on what's happening in Aleppo. You can find her on Twitter @alabedbana. And she currently has about 24,000 followers.

Well, Shia-led militias are among the pro-government forces in Iraq gearing up for the fight to reclaim the key city of Mosul from ISIS.

But as Ben Wedeman reports there is one last ISIS stronghold they need to clear first.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The occasional mortar round keeps the enemy at bay. As do a few blasts of heavy machine gun fire.

In the open, sparsely populated plains of central Iraq, pro-government paramilitaries with the Shia-led Hashed Al-Shabi or popular mobilization units rage twilight skirmishes with invisible ISIS fighters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

"At night, we always see flash lights and laser," says fighter Haider Seyhoud (Ph). "They shoot at us from that area, as soon as they come in range, we deal with them." This is an area which by day Iraqi forces control, but at night, ISIS

take an advantage of the darkness comes in and the Iraqi forces have to pull back from their isolated positions.

"Where is Daesh," I asked Abesh (Ph), the Hashed commander, "over there," he says, "and we'll boil them if they come here."

The Hashed is preparing to lead an offensive from these remote areas against the town of Hawija, an ISIS stronghold that is featured in many propaganda videos.

[03:45:01] Hawija is perilously close to the main highway linking Baghdad with Mosul, a critical supply line, as preparations accelerate for the larger battle to liberate Iraq's second largest city under ISIS occupation since June of 2014.

(FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

"God willing when we get the order to move forward we'll eliminate them," says Haider, referring to ISIS, "and then only Mosul will be left."

The Hashed Al-Shabi's role in Mosul operation is unclear. There are concerns about a Shia-led force entering the predominantly Sunni city. Last month, Haeder Lamiri (Ph), Hashed leader, insisted his force will play a key role in that battle, as well.

(FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

"We will participate in the operation to liberate Mosul, like it or not," said Lamiri (Ph) at a recent parade by his troops. "No one can stop us."

More battles to come in the land of seemingly endless war.

Ben Wedeman, CNN, central Iraq.

CHURCH: And we will take a very short break here. But still to come, Kim Kardashian-West forced to beg for her life in Paris. How one of the world's biggest celebrities ended up being robbed at gun point.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Reality TV star Kim Kardashian-West is back in New York after a traumatic night in Paris. Officials say five men, disguised as police officers, robbed her at gun point in a luxury apartment.

They stole an estimated $10 million in jewelry and her cell phone. Sources say she begged for her life and was bound and gagged and forced in to a bathtub.

[03:50:00] Our Melissa Bell reports from Paris.

MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT: For now investigators are remaining extremely tight lipped about where the investigation is in front. Clearly there is a massive sense of embarrassment that this should have been allowed to happen at all.

That five men would have been able to overpowered a single security guard and find themselves in the room of Kim Kardashian and able to rob her of $10 million worth of her jewelry.

French authorities are trying to lure tourists back to Paris after months of bad publicity, terror attacks. And a huge drop in the numbers of people were actually making their way to the French capital. This is a terrible news story and one that they'll be very keen to see the back of as quickly as they can.

Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.

CHURCH: Earlier, jewel heist expert and author Scott Selby explained how the thieves could manage to sell the stolen stones. He says they could be already long gone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT SELBY, "FLAWLESS: INSIDE THE LARGEST DIAMOND HEIST" AUTHOR: I think that it's quite easy to move on to melt down the precious metals, to sell on the small, medium stones toward Antwerp Belgium, like I wrote about it in my book "Flawless" they will just come to America will keep changing hands and the bit stones will be change also.

ISHA SESAY, CNN NEWSROOM HOST: And is there an established system for moving something like this through?

SELBY: Yes. So, the will have a fence ticket through sell 10 cents on the dollars and that fence will then have people that he'll sell it on to. And it will be so easy.

But the second and third buyer on will have no idea there's anything wrong with it. The only hard thing is there are amazing, beautiful huge stones involved and those will have to first be transformed before they can be sold on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Now the entire Kardashian family, usually a prolific force on social media has been silent since that incident.

Well, next here on CNN Newsroom, you have a chance to hang out and sleep in the Beatles musical inner sanctum, if you enter a special contest in time. We'll explain.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: A popular music producer has teamed up with Airbnb to create an experience that is sure to be on the bucket list of any die-hard Beatles fan. It's a competition and the winner gets to spend the night in London's iconic Abbey Road Studios.

CNN's Nina dos Santos has the story. NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The fab four may have famously

sung "We all live in a yellow submarine" but for one night only, four people will be able to live in Abbey Road Studios where that Beatles track was recorded, courtesy of a competition hosted by Airbnb and D.J. Mark Ronson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK RONSON, MUSIC PRODUCER: Abbey Road quite a bit for recording, yes, most of my life is spent in rooms like this and I don't know why but I love it.

[03:55:03] JAMES MCCLURE, AIRBNB U.K. DIRECTOR: You think of places in the U.K. that you wouldn't be otherwise able to stay, you probably have Buckingham Palace, 10 Downing Street and Abbey Road Studios.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOS SANTOS: On the 15th of October, studio will have a bed installed for the first time since Yoko Ono and John Lennon slept over in 1969. And even the house rules in Airbnb fixture are musically inspired.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCCLURE: So, it all inspired from the people who recorded here. So, in a first final top being able to inspire to turn out for a living. Where in a recording studio you can be as noisy as you like. If anyone calls you on the phone then I think you can go with an Adele "Hello, it's me."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOS SANTOS: The event highly Airbnb's for a fast growing end of the travel market. That of offering experiences, not just accommodation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCCLURE: So, Airbnb providing unique experiences to people. Places like the catacombs in Paris, sports stadiums. Even for a glass bubble above the Barrier Reef.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOS SANTOS: Experiences like these also detract from the negative experiences the site has had in some cities where Airbnb faces restrictions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW TUCK, MONOCLE'S EDITOR IN CHIEF: It's become so professionalized that Airbnb stay that you often go to a room that is rather empty and boring. There is no one else staying there. It's actually worse than staying in a cheap hotel.

So, now, I think Airbnb are realizing, OK, what do we do to go back to that initial instinct, that initial flavor and these experiences help them do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOS SANTOS: To win a night's stay, entrants must write to Airbnb to tell them about their favorite Abbey Road track. To Ronson, well, that's a tough question to answer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RONSON: My favorite personal moment was when we were rehearsing with the BBC concert orchestra for the Proms and a hearing '80s musicians playing in harmony and the way that that sounds swims in that room of studio, one with these enormous ceilings. It was one of the most moving, most emotional experiences I ever had.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOS SANTOS: Entries close on October 6th. But for those who don't get a place, as the Beatles would say "Let it Be."

Nina dos Santos, CNN Money, London.

CHURCH: Let it be indeed. What it looked it. I'm Rosemary Church. The news continues after this short break.

[04:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)