Tuesday morning news: October 1, 2024

Helene aftermath » A crisis has unfolded in Asheville, North Carolina, with authorities pledging to get more water, food and other supplies to flood-stricken areas as the death toll rises. Buncombe County Sheriff Quentin Miller:

MILLER:  We can confirm 35 losses of life in Buncombe County. Devastation does not even begin to describe how we feel, but my teams will be continuing to help in recovery.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper says efforts are underway to locate hundreds of people that loved ones say still have not been heard from.

COOPER:  We're doing door to door welfare checks on people to make sure that they are accounted for. We know there will be more deaths because this was an unprecedented, uh, devastating storm.

At least 125 people are now confirmed dead across six states.

And many throughout the region remain without power days after Hurricane Helene and its remnants ripped across the southeastern US.

Harris/Trump on storm/VP debate » The destruction from Hurricane Helene is scrambling the campaign schedules of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris this week.

Vice President Harris cut short a campaign visit to Las Vegas to return to Washington for briefings. She spoke Monday at FEMA headquarters.

HARRIS:  Our nation is with you and President Biden and I and all of the folks behind me are with you. We will continue to do everything we can to help you recover and to help you rebuild.

Former President Trump, meantime, traveled to south Georgia to meet with storm victims.

TRUMP: We're here today to stand in complete solidarity with the people of Georgia and with all of those suffering in the terrible aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

Meantime, their running mates have been preparing for tonight’s one and only vice presidential debate.

Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will face off against GOP Sen. JD Vance tonight in New York. CBS News will host the debate at 9pm Eastern Time.

SOUND: [Iranian demonstrators]

Israel » Iranian demonstrators gathered in Tehran Monday to mourn the death of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Nasrallah died Friday during an Israeli airstrike on Hezbollah's headquarters in Beirut.

All of this comes as the Biden administration says Israel has begun limited ground incursions in Lebanon near the Israeli border. Israel says the goal is to neutralize Hezbollah infrastructure.

President Biden was asked yesterday if he was aware of any potential ground invasion by Israel and if he was comfortable with that.

BIDEN: I'm more aware than you might know, and I'm comfortable with them stopping. We should have a cease-fire now!

Hours later, U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller reiterated that while the president hasn't given up on diplomatic efforts to de-escalate tension in the region…

MILLER: This conflict started because it was Hezbollah on the day after October 7th that started launching rocket attacks across the border that had not stopped until this day. And Israel has a right to defend itself against those attacks.

Biden has said that an all-out war in the Middle East must be avoided, and that he plans to speak to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But he has not said when that will be.

Georgia abortion ruling » A Georgia judge has struck down protections for the unborn after 6 weeks of pregnancy. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote in his order Monday seemingly borrowed language from pro-abortion activists. He stated that “liberty in Georgia” means protecting—his words—“the power of a woman to control her own body, to decide what happens to it and in it.”

The judge ruled that the law is unconstitutional.

But Kara Murray, a spokesperson for Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, said he would immediately appeal to the state supreme court. The state high court earlier reversed a separate ruling by Judge McBurney that had struck down the law on different grounds.

Claire Bartlett with the Georgia Life Alliance called it ironic that the judge based his ruling on Georgia’s constitutional protection against a person being deprived of life, liberty, or property.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Kristofferson obit » Singer, songwriter, and actor, Kris Kristofferson has died.

AUDIO: Well I woke up Sunday morning with no way to hold my head that didn’t hurt …

His country music albums sold more than 8 million copies over several decades. As an actor, he played the leading man opposite Barbra Streisand and also starred in shoot-out Westerns.

A family spokeswoman says Kristofferson died at his home in Hawaii at the age of 88.

Pete Rose obit » And baseball icon Pete Rose has died. Major League Baseball’s all-time hits leader was banished from the sport in 1989 amid a gambling scandal. With that, he was barred from baseball’s Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. But he was inducted into the Cincinnati Reds’ Hall of Fame in 2016.

ROSE: I can honestly tell you that to date, this is the biggest thing ever to happen to me in Major League Baseball.

His 4,256 hits broke his hero Ty Cobb’s long-standing record.

Pete Rose was 83 years old.

Mutombo obit » And the NBA is mourning the loss of 4-time Defensive Player of the Year Dikembe Mutombo at the age of just 58.

He’s heard here at his basketball Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 20-15.

MUTOMBO:  I'm fortunate and blessed to be able to play 18 years and see my name being called today in Springfield, Massachusetts.

The league announced that he died Monday from brain cancer.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: clean-up efforts are underway across the Southeast. Plus, the town of Plains, Georgia, prepares for life after former president Jimmy Carter.

This is The World and Everything in It.

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