now across the border to our ben wedeman. ben, what's the sense there?ere a feeling that there is de-escalation as well on that side of the border? >> reporter: george, certainly looking around it does appear to be much calmer and less tense than it was yesterday. yesterday, for instance, these fields behind me which were hit by the -- according to the lebanese army by more than 40 israeli shells were on fire. the fires were put out last night by lebanese -- the lebanese fire brigade. in fact, they were doing it in a very open area. so it appears there have been assurances received on both side that at least for now the hostilities have come to an end. hezbollah had said that it would take revenge for an israeli strike last weekend on a facility outside damascus that resulted in the killing of two hezbollah commanders. also last weekend there was an incident where two drones, it's believed were israeli, crashed into the southern suburbs of beirut where hezbollah has a significant presence. and certainly yesterday what we saw in this spot were local inhab

ben wedeman, let's go to you. as said, you're in southern lebanon.hat's the view from there on what's playing out and is this over, is it lu >> reporter: it's quiet this morning, rosemary. in fact, it does appear that life is getting back to normal. it is a national holiday in lebanon, so the streets are fairly empty. on our way here, we did see what appeared to be an israeli observation balloon hovering over the border area. but in general it does appear to be quiet. the fields behind me, which yesterday were on fire, caused by israeli shelling in this area, the lebanese army saying that at least 40 rounds slammed into the farming -- the agricultural fields behind me where there don't appear to be any military targets. now those fires are out. in fact, last night we watched as fire trucks were putting the fires out. so that indicates at least for now there seems to be enough confidence to send fire trucks into the field without the possibility of them being caught in a gun battle. so it appears that things have calmed down. now, it was expected that

ben wedeman, thank you. thanks for joining us this hour.ics" with john king starts right now. >>> thank you, erica, and welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. thank you for sharing your day with us. >>> a big day ahead for the trump impeachment inquiry. democrats plan to interview several witnesses behind closed doors. plus raw anger from the president himself, tweeting out at the white house whistleblower. the president trying to keep republicans in line that many are having a private nervous about where

joining me now, cnn's senior international correspondent ben wedeman. ben, how devastating is this for the oil industry and for saudi arabia? >> reporter: this is a massive blow not only according to sources familiar with saudi oil operations, saying 5 million barrels per day have been knocked out of production. that's about 5% of the world's oil supply. one of the places that was hit, that's the largest crude oil stabilization plant in the world. so this is a massive blow to the oil industry, certainly in saudi arabia. now, these ten drones claimed by the houthis flew at least 500 miles to hit their targets. this is a level of sophistication from the houthis we have yet to see as far as this war that's been going on between the houthis and the saudi led coalition. now, the coalition has come out with a statement saying that they're describing this attack as a terrorist attack, but interestingly, even though the houthis claimed responsibility, the coalition statement says they're still investigating who might have been behind it. fred? >> ben wedeman, th

. > cnn's senior international correspondent ben wedeman joining me now. ben, what is the latest and what is the reaction coming from that portion of the world? >> reporter: certainly what we've heard is a lot of condemnation from various corridors in the middle east to what happened yesterday morning in saudi arabia. there is concern, in fact, that this attack is going to have a real impact on world oil markets, although saudi officials say they have reserves that might last as much as 40 days. and we just heard that perhaps they may be getting some of their production up and running within the next few days, but to get everything back to normal, it could take weeks. now, as we've heard that there have been allegations that perhaps -- or suggestions that the drones are rockets thor roc these two oil facilities came from iraq. we heard the iraqi prisoner categorically deny to the best of his knowledge that happened, but it does appear that tensions are going to continue to rise as long as this uncertainty continues. fred? >> so, ben, how will saudi arabia t

i want to bring in national correspondent ben wedeman live for us in beirut. ben, you first.since saudi arabia says it hasn't quite determined who is responsible here, how might they learn of that, because as nick paten walsh said, they might be responsible. what would be the one thing to come from saudi arabia? >> as nick pointed out, there is no evidence being provided, backing up this claim by secretary pompeo that iran was behind it. now, it's a fair assumption that the united states for one has the facilities in the gulf area that they would have been able to spot or somehow determine where these drones or missiles came from yemen, that's an awful long way to get toe from iran. what could the saudis do in response? it's difficult to tell. if they're from yemen, they can just carry on with this war that's been going on since march 2015 in which they've used u.s., british and other weapons from western europe to kill more than 70,000 people there. but if it's from iran, that's a whole different magnitude of danger because if you think about it, if it's the houthis firing t

ben wedeman, cnn, beirut. >>> ben, thank you. now to the atlantic and tropical storm humberto moving away from the bahamas after it passed by the same islands hit so hard by hurricane dorian. the current storm slowed down recovery efforts of dorian as the new system brought rain and wind to the area. you see it here. now that the storm is leaving, relief teams will resume its work of delivering aid, help and supplies to thousands of people who need them. let's get the latest on tropical storm humberto. >> they have been spared the worst of this tropical storm. it was definitely not something that was welcomed by the tourists or the residents living there. because no one wants to be st r staring down another tropical threat. this is the latest from the national hurricane center as of 11:00 p.m. last night. we are waiting for the 5:00 a.m. official update from them. 60-mile-per-hour sustained winds. we noticed yesterday that a lot of the convection and thunderstorms was developing to the north and to the east of the center of circu

. >> our senior international correspondent ben wedeman has been following the crown prince's commentsnd he joins us live in beirut, lebanon. what does it mean for bin salman to come out and say he is responsible but didn't order the murder? >> reporter: well, certainly in the sense that he is the crown prince of saudi arabia and he also says in that interview it's a country with 20 million people, 3 million civil servants, as and the crown prince basically de facto head of the government, he is responsible for whatever he has done by his civil servants. but beyond that, really this interview doesn't advance the story really because saudi government long ago conceded that, in their words, it was a rogue element that killed jamal khashoggi and dismembered him on the 2nd of october in the saudi consulate in istanbul and some members of the hit team are, indeed, on trial but that is not a public trial to which the public or journalists have access to, but i would refer you back to comments by president donald trump who said that this is the worst cover-up ever. we have heard the cia say t

ben wedeman, cnn, beirut. >>> thank you for sharing with the world that report.now to talk more about what's happening, let's bring in fred rico, the international organization for organization with that group, the director of the coordination office for the mediterranean. thank you for being with us. >> good morning. >> that report really sticks with you. you know, i think for people around the world who don't think about what's happening there, who really don't know, it lays the conundrum that continues to play out with dire consequences for people caught in the middle of it. from your view, is there a sense that something's got to give here? >> well, you know, you're right. this story is jarring. we've been in this situation for a number of years now. one of the risks, one of the issues of course is that a lot of the detention centers that ben mentioned are in the proximity of tripoli. there is tripoli and the surrounding area is extremely dangerous for everyone. but especially for migrants and people without proper legal status. there's really no control or s

cnn's senior international correspondent ben wedeman joins us. also, cnn's white house reporter jere jeremy diamond. ben, give us the details on these attacks. >> reporter: what we understand is there were no casualties in the attacks, but as you mentioned, half of saudi arabia's oil output has been put out of operation. that's about 5% of the world's oil production. now, what happened was -- and this was claimed by a spokesman for the houthi rebels in yemen. they fired ten drones towards these two oil facilities, but keep in mind, yemen is 500 miles away from those facilities. so it would indicate that somehow the houthis, perhaps from iran r getting a kind of sophisticated technology that nobody thought they would have, that would be so precise as to hit these facilities. the pictures coming out of saudi arabia are breathtaking in terms of the size of the fires that are going on. now, saudi officials say the fires are now under control. officials say they hope to get production back to normal in the coming days. but certainly this has raised ten

ben wedeman, thank you. thanks for joining us this hour. "inside politics" with john king starts right now. >>> thank you, erica, and welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. thank you for sharing your day with us. >>> a big day ahead for the trump impeachment inquiry. democrats plan to interview several witnesses behind closed doors. plus raw anger from the president himself, tweeting out at the white house whistleblower. the president trying to keep republicans in line that many are having a private nervous about where this is heading. > >>>. >>> the former white house aide painting trump clueless about north korea's paranoia. >> it remains unacceptable for north korea to have deliverable nuclear weapons. >> so is so-called romance diplomacy the best way to get to that point? >> i'm not going to comment on that. >> okay. then -- >> nice try. >> okay. >> back to that story a little bit later, but president trump today very much aware it is a big week ahead in the house impeachment inquiry. on twitter a tome of presidential complaints,

. >> ben wedeman, thank you so much. >> coming up, cnn's special coverage of the humanitarian crisishurricane dorian next. did have . >>> hello, everyone. thank you for joining me. i'm fred rericka whitfield. this morning a cruise ship carried more than 1,400 evacuees from the bahamas to west palm beach where families are reuniting. >> i don't think there's words for that, the sound of t

cnn's ben wedeman is joining us from beirut.hat do you make of if bolton's correct, if it is that close to a syrian port? is there a violation there was sanctions? >> reporter: not quite yet, but certainly all the indications point to somehow they're going to try to unload the 2.1 million barrels on this ship. it was released from gibraltar on the 15th of august on the condition or after written commitment was made by iran that this oil would not be sent to syria. but what we've seen is that this ship has been loitering around in the eastern mediterranean now for about two weeks on the 2nd of september, five days ago, it turned off its tracker. and now national security adviser john bolton is tweeting, it appears to be right off the coast of syria, the port of tartus, syria's second largest port. it's not clear exactly what's going to happen, but certainly it would seem that the intention is to offload that oil, perhaps at sea as opposed to in the port of tartus. but certainly that's the indications that we're getting. now this