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Aces Hold Off Mercury 90-88, Take 3-0 Finals Lead; Trump Says Hostages Should Be Released Monday or Tuesday; Israeli Security Cabinet Meeting on Gaza Ceasefire Plan; Sean Duffy Says He May Fire Air Traffic Controllers Over Excessive Call-outs; National Guard Troops Now Deployed in Chicago Area. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired October 09, 2025 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: -- to take a commanding 3-0 lead in that series. They can close it out in game four tomorrow. Now, it was an awesome atmosphere here in Vegas for the Golden Knight season opener against the L.A. Kings. Now, the pre-game show always a big deal. They had 64 drones flying around in the pre-game show on the ice. First time ever that's happened at a hockey game. It was really cool.

Now, as for the game, it was a slugfest. Vegas went down two goals early. But thanks to a hat trick from Pavel Dorofeyev, they went up to in the third. The Kings though they tied it late and they would end up winning it in a shootout 6-5. But I tell you what, Boris, I mean, sold out crowd. Everyone wearing a Golden Knight's jersey, even the dealers in all the casinos wearing Golden Knight's gear. You never think in the desert is where you find a big-time hockey town. But that's certainly what Vegas has become.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": One of many things to enjoy in Vegas. Andy Scholes, a little bit envious of that gig, man. I'll see you, Andy, thank you so much. The next hour of "CNN News Central" starts right now.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": New details from President Trump on the Gaza ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. What he's saying about when hostages could be released and his possible plans to travel to Israel. Courtroom showdowns over National Guard deployments in Oregon and Illinois. We're learning more details about whether the courts will let the president send the Guard to different cities as some of those troops hit the streets in Chicago. And from working without pay to possibly out of work, the latest threat from the administration to air traffic controllers who are thinking about calling out sick during the shutdown.

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

We have Breaking News on the peace plan between Israel and Hamas, President Trump moments ago saying that all of the hostages should be released here in the coming days. Adding that once Phase One is complete, the momentum to end the war will not stop. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: There will be disarming, there will be pullbacks, there'll be a lot of things that are happening. I gave you a whole list of 22 different things that will take place. And I think it'll take place. And I think you're going to end up with peace in the Middle East, but we have to get our hostages back. And we weren't going to do it at the end. We're going to do it at the beginning.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Right now in Israel, the country's security cabinet is meeting to vote on the first phase of the deal. And if the plan passes and it is then approved by the full Israeli cabinet later today, officials say the ceasefire will begin immediately. Hamas has said the hostages would then be released on Monday. Earlier Gazans were seen celebrating in the streets. But just a short time later, smoke was rising after some new explosions there. The family of hostage Omri Miran who was kidnapped two years and two days ago, telling CNN we know war is the kingdom of uncertainty.

CNN Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour --

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Yes.

KEILAR: -- is now with us to talk a little bit about what we are witnessing here. Christiane, just put this into perspective, what this moment means.

AMANPOUR: Look, it's a really, really important moment, and Trump has achieved a ceasefire with, as you just heard him say, the momentum set to pursue to the final end game, which is a peace, a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians. It has to be said that the elements to this piece are well known. It really just does depend on getting the full might of the United States in terms of its diplomatic and political leverage over Israel, and indeed with its Arab neighbors and Arab allies in this event.

They got all the important Arab states to come in and to help push Hamas towards agreeing. They got Turkey to come in as well and do it. And they have insisted this is -- when I say they, I mean Trump and the administration -- that Netanyahu listens as well and does what they -- what he needs to do. So yes, it is a ceasefire now. And the next phases will be as they have laid out. I mean, look, the devil will be in the details. I know we say it all the time, but I've covered enough ceasefire and peace negotiations to know that this is not an overnight job. It will take a long time.

It will take focus. It will take serious negotiations and real commitment. I just spoke to a load on my show just now of expert Middle East negotiators, a former Israeli Oslo negotiator, a conflict resolution negotiator, one of the negotiators who helped in previous U.S.-Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. And they all say, one of, if not the main key is for America to stay 100 percent involved and to be as honest broker as it can and not just to be on one side. So this is a very important moment, and we know that according to this first phase, after the Israeli cabinet has agreed, and Netanyahu and everybody signs off on it, then there will be apparently a 24-hour period until the actual ceasefire takes effect and the guns stop firing.

[14:05:00]

And hopefully then, they can start getting the hostages back within some 72 hours after that. And at the same time, or at some point very, very soon, they have to surge in hundreds and hundreds of trucks of basic necessities, i.e., food and medicine to a Gaza that's been under siege for half a year. And it's a terrible situation there. So, the whole thing is on the road for the first time in a long, long, long time, and many people are excited, but also really worried and hopeful that nothing derails it even at this early date. Thank you.

KEILAR: There's this element of kind of holding your breath, waiting for this to all happen. What does security look like moving forward, Christiane? What is that going to look like for Palestinians?

AMANPOUR: Well, the basic demand under this agreement is that Israel, first and foremost, pulls back its armed forces, the IDF, from inside Gaza. That we remain to see what lines, will it be a total pullback? Will it not? What exactly? We know that Prime Minister Netanyahu and his extreme far right, frankly, most people in his government don't want to pull back. They don't want to pull back to a place where they feel they may not be safe and secure and to a place that they may not be able to start the war again if they want to start the war again. And this has happened.

So I'm not saying this off the top of my head. For the Palestinians, according to this plan, there is some, but the details are not quite clear. There is some talk of trying to assemble a peacekeeping force. Again, we don't know who and what would make up the component parts. We've heard that it could be an Arab force that comes in, along with certain Palestinian factions in some form or fashion. We know that Hamas will have no right to be part of governance or any security force, but the disarmament of Hamas will take a long time.

The Northern Ireland Peace Proposal, the peace accord that was signed, the Good Friday Accords, I think it was 1998. It took another 10 years to negotiate the full decommissioning of the weapons. So the weapons were put out of use, but to end any armed factions there, it took a long, long time. So this is not an overnight process and it's going to take a long time. But unless there is an end to the occupation in the West Bank and de facto in Gaza, there will not be peace. And that is the bottom line for what the Palestinians say, what many Israelis say, former negotiators for sure, and for what the rest of the world says.

We've come to that place now in history after this terrible two years that began with the horrors of October 7th. We've come to that place where we know what the end picture looks like, and there can be no more messing around the edges and not doing what has to be done, which is the end of an occupation and to allow two states to exist in peace and security. And that was the point of this year's UNGA. President Trump went there and met with all the Arab states after they had had their conference with Macron and other European leaders, where they brought even more nations into the recognition, the official recognition of Palestinian statehood. This is all part of the building blocks to a future.

KEILAR: Yeah. Really putting it into perspective. Christiane, thank you so much for that, Christiane Amanpour. Boris?

AMANPOUR: Thanks, Brianna.

SANCHEZ: For more on the situation in Gaza, let's turn to a former U.S. Special Envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, Frank Lowenstein. Frank, thank you so much for being with us. Do you have any doubt that Israel's security cabinet is going to approve this first phase agreement?

FRANK LOWENSTEIN, FORMER U.S. SPECIAL ENVOY FOR ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN NEGOTIATIONS: No, not really. They're only approving the initial stage. They're effectively just approving the release of the prisoners and return for the hostages. And that doesn't really touch any of the red lines of Bibi's extremist partners. But I do think that there's a long way to go before we can declare this a success, right? Even in this first stage, so there's much to celebrate. There's still a lot of things that can go wrong.

And we had this situation in 2014. We negotiated a ceasefire that the Israelis and Hamas had both agreed to, but it wasn't clear where the withdrawal lines were exactly located. And it turned out there was a couple of Israeli soldiers that were on the wrong side of that. They were killed by Hamas. And the whole ceasefire blew up before it had even gotten started. And in fact, the soldier's name was Hadar Goldin. I believe his body is still being held by Hamas. So hope that finally gets returned.

But yeah, there's a lot of work to do just to make sure this first part goes smoothly. And then, of course, all the difficult issues were really left to Phase Two.

[14:10:00]

So there are some very challenging negotiations ahead.

SANCHEZ: Given the fragility of this peace, I wonder what you make of a senior Hamas official telling CNN that Hamas still doesn't trust Israel, but they've received guarantees that were enough. What do you make of that? And why do you think Hamas is agreeing to this first phase?

LOWENSTEIN: Yeah, there had to have been some kind of guarantees because otherwise they were just giving up the hostages in return for a promise from the Israelis. I don't think they're -- either side trusts the other at all, nor should they necessarily. So yeah, that had to be a part of that deal. But at the same time, it doesn't mean that any of the main issues were resolved. And in particularly thinking about disarming and the IDF withdrawal, President Trump just sort of said casually, there'll be disarming and withdrawals. There's a whole lot of details that need to be worked out there, and it really goes to the core of the disagreement that has prevented us from having a ceasefire thus far.

So there's some really heavy lifting ahead for President Trump and his team and, as Christiane said, they're really going to have to stay engaged at a very detailed level going forward, or this could fall apart at any point.

SANCHEZ: I do wonder, just stepping back, what Hamas' remaining capabilities are, if they are in a position where this international security force is going to see issues, is going to see some kind of tension with Hamas there, if they don't relinquish their arms, if they don't give up control of the enclave?

LOWENSTEIN: Yeah, that's a great question. I think they're going to have to -- Hamas had to have accepted the international stabilization force, or I don't think we've gotten to the point where we are today, at least conceptually. And really, their military capabilities have been severely degraded. They're operating at 90 percent diminishment of their capacity. So hopefully, they'll take this opportunity to step back, let the international stabilization force come in, restore order, and sort of allow people to begin this long and arduous process of reconstruction.

But I don't think there's any way the international stabilization force will even go in there if there's any questions that Hamas will be fighting them. So, I'm assuming that piece of it at least has been sorted out.

SANCHEZ: Frank Lowenstein, we have to leave the conversation there. Always appreciate you sharing your point of view.

LOWENSTEIN: Thanks a lot.

SANCHEZ: Of course. Still to come, a new warning from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, his message to air traffic controllers amid an increase in callouts. Plus, National Guard troops deploying in Chicago while lawyers argue in court that President Trump is exceeding his authority. We have the latest on the ground and in court. And later, Pope Leo meeting kids from Chicago. It went viral last year after holding their own mock enclave. We'll bring you these scenes when we come back. Stay with us.

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[14:17:14]

KEILAR: A new warning, the Trump administration may start firing air traffic controllers who are repeatedly missing work during the government shutdown. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy making that threat today on Fox Business.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN DUFFY, (R) UNITED STATES TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: If we have a continual small subset of controllers that don't show up to work and they're the problem children, listen, we need more controllers, but we need the best and the brightest, the dedicated controllers. And if we have some on our staff that aren't dedicated like we need, we're going to let them go. Again, I can't have people not showing up for work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: CNN's Pete Muntean is at Reagan National Airport. A reminder that air traffic controllers, Pete, not showing up for work actually ended a previous government shutdown. But this is a big warning coming from the transportation secretary.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: It's a lot of bluster coming from the transportation secretary because it would be a pretty heavy lift up a pretty steep mountain to try and fire controllers and prove that they abused any sort of their sick time. The union of air traffic controllers, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association insists that there is no coordinated sick out effort taking place right now by the 11,000 air traffic controllers still working during this government shutdown, essentially without pay.

And we just got this new statement from NATCA, in which they are responding to Transportation Secretary Duffy's statement earlier there on Fox. NATCA says there are processes and procedures in place to deal with inappropriate use of sick leave. The important thing is the context here. There was already a shortage of air traffic controllers. The Trump administration is scrambling to hire new controllers, but just a handful of them calling out sick leads to a disproportionate impact, an outsized impact on the nationwide air traffic control system.

In fact, we saw the air traffic control tower here at Reagan National Airport go into a short-staffed situation last night for about six hours. The tower was short-staffed, which led to delays here at Reagan National Airport. The FAA implementing those delays in the name of safety. It is not just here; it is pretty much everywhere. We're talking about center facilities that control planes at higher altitudes on L.A. and Albuquerque. Some of the approach control facilities, the Newark facility that has been critically understaffed for a long, long time. And then of course, the towers at the airports themselves. And Denver has been an issue over and over again.

We just got new alerts from the FAA and there are new places on the areas of concern that we have not seen before. Roanoke in Virginia, Bradley, Hartford, Connecticut, the Boston Center in Nashua, New Hampshire. The list goes on.

[14:20:00]

And remember, controllers are really pushed to the limit right now. Many of them working mandatory six-day weeks of 10-hour shifts. You can understand the stress that they are under. They get their last paycheck, it's only a partial paycheck, one week's pay, it comes next Tuesday and then after that the money runs out. That last pay will be for work done before this government shutdown began. KEILAR: Yeah, those are some long hours they're working. And Pete, Southwest Airlines is urging employees to "remain vigilant." What does this mean?

MUNTEAN: Well, the airline was hit pretty hard by air traffic controller shortages in Burbank, where the tower closed on Monday for a time. Also in Nashville where the approach control facility, they're closed for a time creating a lot of delays on Tuesday. Southwest has sent out a company-wide memo to all of its workers, essentially saying to ride it out as things go south with air traffic controller staffing.

Here's the quote. "We must remain vigilant in ensuring operational reliability as the government's funding situation and its influence on controller staffing are dynamic and could change rapidly at any air traffic control facility." The subtext there, this is not over yet. The bottom line, we are not out of the woods and it's pretty hard to predict where these shortages will happen.

KEILAR: Yeah, indeed. Pete Muntean, live for us at Reagan Airport. Thank you.

And ahead, National Guard troops from Texas now deployed in the greater Chicago area while a federal judge hears arguments over whether President Trump's deployment is legal. We're live from Chicago with the latest.

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[14:26:04]

SANCHEZ: Happening now, a federal judge in Chicago is hearing arguments on whether President Trump can deploy National Guard troops to Illinois to protect ICE facilities and other personnel. During that hearing, an attorney for the state pushed back at White House arguments saying, "Rebellion, insurrection, war, these are heavy words. There is no rebellion in Illinois. That is such an audacious claim."

Not long ago in California, another hearing wrapped up over President Trump's effort to deploy the National Guard to Portland, Oregon. Officials there argue that the administration has non-military options to deal with anti-ICE protests there saying, "We have a ton of law enforcement agencies under the president's control." Adding that responding to threats "is their job. That's what they do." CNN's Omar Jimenez is outside the ICE facility near Chicago where National Guard members are now on the ground. Omar, what are you seeing?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. So throughout the day, we've been here since the early morning, that's when we saw for the first time, Texas National Guard troops sort of walking in front of the federal ICE detention building behind me. Since then, there's been a small group of protesters that have sort of come in. This is actually the biggest it's been today, but still a small group holding up signs in front of a fence that is in front of the federal ICE building. And as sort of personnel come in and out, that's when some of the yelling and shouting gets loudest.

Now, as this has been going on, and we've been monitoring updates out of a very crucial federal court hearing in the city limits in Chicago, as a judge weighs whether the deployment of the Guard is even legal at all. And what's critical about that is we actually got a glimpse into some of what the Department of Justice and the federal Trump administration is arguing here.

For example, the judge asked the DOJ if the location of the Guardsmen would just be limited to certain locations like federal property or could they be in neighborhoods or around schools? And the DOJ attorney said that it is possible they could be in neighborhoods when protecting federal agents or property. The judge asked, will they be solving crime in Chicago? Because some of the implication is that if the Guard is here, that it could help drive down things like gun violence. Well, the DOJ responded, the mission again is a federal protective one. So they seem to be sticking to that federal protection line.

But then the judge pushed back even further later on, said if -- that we would be in a very different position today if the government had simply said they were having problems on federal property and that is what they are deploying the Guardsmen for. You may be able to hear some of them getting loud behind me because, again, as federal personnel come in and out of this building, that is where they seem to get loudest. And what's critical about this is this has been the focal point of a lot of the process we have seen around increased immigration enforcement.

And one update on that front. Because look, we are just outside Chicago. That is obviously a federal building, could be one of the places that the Guard focuses on protecting. We are just listening to the cabinet meeting earlier with the president and we heard from Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, who talked about the efforts to increase security of ICE agents, but also said that they are purchasing more buildings in Chicago and "doubling down on federal forces there."

So if the last few weeks in Chicago have been any indication to this point, just as this comes down, if the last few weeks have been any indication to this point, it does seem that the federal government is trying to increase some of their investments. But we'll see what comes out of this court hearing, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Omar Jimenez from Illinois, thank you so much.

Ahead, optimism from the White House. President Trump says outstanding issues with his Gaza ceasefire plan will eventually be sorted out, as the Israeli security cabinet meets to approve the first phase of the deal. Stay with "News Central." We're back in just moments.

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