- Well welcome to the 700 Club.
Raging wildfires in Northern California
have exploded, doubling in size.
And now new wildfires aretorching Southern California
forcing terrified residents to flee
in the middle of the night.
With no rain in sight andmore wind in the forecast,
how will it ever end?
Mark Martin has the frighteningdetails from California.
- Hundreds of fires areerupting throughout California.
High winds and dryconditions fueling the flames
that are threatening Los Angelesneighborhoods in the south,
and consuming tens of thousandsof acres in the north.
- Just in the last 24hours CAL FIRE's put out
330 fires in this state.
- [Mark] In Southern California,
the Los Angeles Fire Department says
around 10,000 residentialand commercial structures
were under mandatory evacuations,
including homes owned by LosAngeles Laker, LeBron James,
former governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger,
and Walt Disney CEO, Bob Iger.
In Brentwood, sleeping residentshad to escape their homes
in the middle of the night.
- There was a neighbor whorang the doorbell and said,
we got to evacuate, we gottaget out right this minute.
- [Mark] For a time the flames forced
the shutdown of southboundlanes of the Interstate 405.
Meanwhile in the north,the Sonoma County fire
has exploded in size,doubling to more than
105 square miles in just 24 hours.
More than 100,000 are undermandatory evacuations,
and at least 96 buildingshave been destroyed.
Officials say power lines may have caused
two fires in the Bay Area,
even though there have beenwidespread power shutoffs
to keep that from happening.
More than 600,000 peopleare set to lose power
in dozens of California counties.
That's on top of the morethan two million people
who were without power overthe weekend in the north.
The Bethel Global Response Team
from Bethel Church in Redding, California
has a team on the ground in Sonoma County.
- Right now we're partnering
with Salvation Army and Red Cross.
The focus right now is housingand feeding the displaced.
As you guys just mentioned,over 200,000 displaced.
- Firefighters will have an opportunity
to make progress against the fires today
as those high winds die down.
Unfortunately, they're expected
to pick up again today and tomorrow.
Mark Martin, CBN News.
- Tragedy of epic proportions,
and what I was saying yesterday,
is this gonna be the newnormal for California?
This kind of wildfire has never happened,
I don't think, in our recollection,
and to think that in Southern California,
which is not experiencedany of these terrible fires,
is breaking through, and with these winds,
the little sparks are flying,and tinder, it just takes off.
It's awful.
Well, in other news,after weeks of pressure,
Democrats now say the House will hold
a preliminary vote on impeachment
to try to determine whether Republicans
will have a chance to question witnesses.
It's like putting lipstick on a pig.
Efrem Graham has more.
- Pat, House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi,
announced the House willvote Thursday on a resolution
laying out the next stepsin the impeachment process,
including a procedure forholding public hearings.
Republicans strongly criticize
the Democrats' House Impeachment Inquiry
for questioning witnessesbehind closed doors.
Last week Senator, Lindsey Graham,
introduced a Senate Resolutioncondemning the process
and calling in unfair to the President.
50 Senate Republicansco-sponsored that Resolution.
In a statement Grahamsaid the vote is quote,
"A bit like un-ringing a bell."
On Fox and Friends, GOPCongressman, Jim Jordan said,
"It's nothing but politics."
- This is all a ridiculous,unfair, partisan process,
and the American people see through it,
so I think the Speaker's gonna try
to dress it up a little bit,
but a little lipstickon the pig, as they say,
and have this vote on Thursday.
But it's not gonna change anything
and I think you're gonna see
every single Republican vote against it.
- Today a White HouseNational Security official
is expected to tell theCommittee he twice reported
his concerns about the Administration's
Ukraine policy to his superiors.
Pat.
- Ladies and gentlemen,it is so patently obvious.
When this thing reaches theSenate, which it will be,
there is no way the 20Republicans are gonna vote against
a sitting president in an election year,
they just aren't going to do it.
It would be suicide andthey don't even consider it.
So why would the House Democrats
consider an impeachment vote?
And I said yesterday, I say it again,
if they do so, they willhave to face the voters
with a handful of nothing instead of
action on foreign policy, action on debt,
action on infrastructure,
and all of these otherthings they should be doing.
This is an illusion, there'snot way an impeachment process
will succeed in the Senate,
and so to take a vote on that is crazy.
And I said yesterday, I'll say it again,
I don't believe therewill an impeachment vote.
What's being talked about nowis nothing but procedural,
we'll allow you now to comein and question witnesses,
and Adam Schiff won't beallowed to put you in a limbo
where you can't hear whatthe witnesses are saying.
But that's way too late,and it's too little,
and the Republicans,under the Constitution,
deserve a whole lot more than this,
and I wouldn't be surprised
if they didn't boycott it, they should.
Or else somehow, I don't knowhow you do it procedurally,
but something needs to be done.
But this whole thing is and outrage,
and I said before, I'll say it again,
there is not going to be animpeachment vote in the House
that really puts everybody on record.
They will not face the electionwith that on their record,
and the Republicans will have a field day
with television response if they do.
And these people do notwanna give up their jobs,
and there'll be dozens of them
taken out of office if they do.
So all this is just smoke and mirrors,
it could get some television,
and I would be amazed atthe television entities
and the media entities thatare suckered in on this thing
because it is just nonsense.
Efrem.
- Pat, U.S. forces took out
another high-ranking ISIS leader in Syria.
Abu Hassan al-Muhajir, was aspokesman for the Islamic State
and the potential successorto Abu Bakr al‑Baghdadi,
the ISIS leader killed ina strike over the weekend.
Officials say they learnedof Baghdadi's location
after capturing one ofhis wives and a courier.
The compound was reduced torubble by bombs and missile
as U.S. forces and K-9's pursuedhim down a dead end tunnel.
The terrorist detonated a suicide vest,
killing himself and three of his children.
Baghdadi is responsiblefor thousands of deaths,
including Kayla Mueller, anAmerican Christian aid worker
who repeatedly was raped.
Military officials namedthe operation in her honor.
- Those men and women thatput their lives on the line,
we owe them our sincere thanks.
- No U.S. military liveswere lost in the mission.
The Administration has released an image
of a K-9 injured pursuing Baghdadi.
He is recovering and is back on duty.
We turn now to the situationin Northeastern Syria.
While many believe thefighting has stopped,
people on the ground aretelling a different story.
Chris Mitchell now reports.
(gunshots)
- [Chris] On the front linesa small Christian relief group
is reporting theceasefire is in name only.
- They're hitting pretty hard today.
It was Turkish armor, orTurkish-painted armor.
Three armored vehicles, multiple infantry.
Many wounded, we got in theback here, Kim is treating them.
Lord, help make it in Jesus' name, amen.
- [Chris] Dave Eubank andhis Free Burma Rangers
have been rescuing the wounded
and helping those caughtup in the fighting.
- [Man] That mortar just hit right here.
- [Chris] He says the Turkish army,
along with its jihadist allies,are continuing the attack.
- Right now the onlysafe zone that there is
is the international borderbetween Turkey and Syria.
The other zone is a genocide zone.
Christians and Kurds are gone,
they can't stay, they will die.
- There is no ceasefire.
- [Chris] Dalton Thomastold CBN's Ben Kennedy
on Faith Nation, there'stwo safe zones inside Syria.
- One for ethnic and religious minorities,
protected by the Kurds,
and one for ISIS, protected by Turkey.
And the one safe zonewas exposed yesterday
with Abu Bakr al‑Baghdadi being killed,
and now we're seeing how far
this conspiracy is actually gonna go.
- [Chris] Al‑Baghdadi's safe house
sat in a Turkish-protected area.
Thomas and a number of otherssuspect Turkey shielded him.
Israel's U.N. Ambassador said,Turkey's president, Erdogan,
supported terror organizations
and wants a new Muslim empire.
- Erdogan is dragging Turkey down
a dangerous neo-Ottoman imperialist path.
- [Chris] After Baghdadi's death,
Thomas sees a greater threat.
- Because we're seeing therise of the true Islamic State,
which is the state of Turkey.
- [Chris] In the midst of the crisis,
Eubank and Thomas are praying for the U.S.
and the international community.
- But I'm praying that our country changes
and not only is guarding oilfields, which are important,
but even more important are people,
that's why you have oil, forpeople, and it's their oil.
So we need to bring our troopsback and draw a new line.
- My prayer would be thatthe international community
would wake up to what's actually happening
and engage to stop it, becausewe're running out of time.
- [Chris] Chris Mitchell,CBN news, Jerusalem.
- So, Pat, where do we go from here?
- Well I think we go torecognizing who Erdogan is,
that he is a thug.
And the idea that there's asafe zone for ISIS fighters,
it's a miracle that the President was able
to get through to get al‑Baghdadi,
and these are a bunch ofbutchers, what they have done.
But to think that Turkey really is the one
that wants to make thecaliphate, it's gonna be Turkey.
And if you look at theBible, it's interesting,
the churches of Asiathat were written about
in the Book of Revelation,
every one of them arein modern-day Turkey,
and Turkey was the homeof the most flourishing
of the early Christian churches,
and now Erdogan wants tomake it a Muslim caliphate.
Much more of a problem, much larger
than ISIS ever thought about being,
and the one thing wecan't do is enable Erdogan
to continue this vendettaagainst Christians,
against Yazidis, againstthe Kurds, to wipe them out.
And to make a safe home for ISIS fighters,
it's shocking to thinkthat it's being done,
but we need to open our eyes and recognize
the threat that's still there.
And we're just delighted atthat attack on al‑Baghdadi,
and that ISIS could be insome fashioned destroyed
because they were vicious killers.
Imagine putting somebody in a cage,
from Jordan I believe it was,
and then throwing gasoline on him
and setting him on firewhere he couldn't get out.
This is the kind of atrocitythat this man was involved in.
It was beyond horrendous,it is absolutely barbaric,
and so thank God that he's been taken out.
But there's more to come andmore that should be there,
but the real threat is stillTurkey, ladies and gentlemen.
Efrem.
- Pat, here at home, adeadly mosquito-born virus
has claimed the livesof at least 13 people.
While the latest victim died in Alabama,
it is hardest hit in northern states.
Our Caitlin Burke brings usthe story from Connecticut
where experts say peopleare still at risk.
- Fall in the Northeast is one of
the most beautiful times of the year.
The leaves are changing and temperatures
haven't quite plummeted just yet.
But this year officials fromMassachusetts to Michigan
are warning entirecommunities to stay indoors.
That's because for the firsttime in more than a decade
a mosquito-transmitted virus,
called Triple-E, is killing people.
- So the Triple-E virusis a mosquito-born virus
that occurs in the easternhalf of the United States,
and it's a very rare disease.
- [Caitlin] That's becausethe specific mosquito
that carries Triple-Eprefers to feed on birds.
Connecticut mosquitoexpert, Phillip Armstrong,
became concerned early in theseason when his department
noticed an unusually highnumber of this species.
- We didn't have anyevidence of Triple-E virus
until later in the season,
but we knew the conditions were right.
If the virus was broughtin by a migratory bird,
then it could spread like wildfire,
and sure enough, that's what happened.
- [Caitlin] The body's immune system
can usually kill the infection,
but about one in 20 cases develop
the brain infection, encephalitis.
Once that happens, theodds of survival are slim.
- Typically on any given year we average
about 7 human cases nationwide,
but it's a very severedisease, and serious illness.
It kills about a third ofthose that develop the disease,
and of those that survive,many of them suffer
from lifelong neurological damage.
- [Caitlin] In Connecticut,three of the four
confirmed cases with Triple-E have died.
- It starts off with a highfever, maybe a stiff neck,
but then it will progress to confusion,
seizures, and even coma and death.
- [Caitlin] Given the widespread severity,
extra precautions are underwayfrom New England to Michigan.
While mosquito activity is finally
winding down for theseason, this year's outbreak
won't be eliminated untilthe first hard frost.
Until then, people in affected regions
need to avoid mosquito bites.
- That could mean doing simplemeasures like covering up,
wearing long-sleeve pants and shirts,
and socks and shoes when you're outdoors,
particularly in the eveninghours when they're most active,
and consider wearing a repellent
to any exposed skin surfaces as well,
and that will do a long way
to protecting you and your family.
- Scientists at theConnecticut Agricultural
Experiment Center have actually found
that the Triple-E viruscan survive the winter
even though mosquitoes don't.
That means that nextsummer we could be faced
with another Triple-E outbreak.
Cailtin Burke, CBN News,New Haven, Connecticut.
- One reason to welcome the freeze,
at least in the short-term.
Pat.
- I'm looking forward to it, Ithink the sooner, the better.
We need a hard frost, butwe're not even close to it,
it's so benign down here.
But so far we haven'thad any great outbreak
of this Eastern Equine Encephalitis,
that's what the tripleE means, Eastern Equine,
and brought in by migratory birds
who the mosquitoes feed upon.
