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Mid-Air Catastrophe at a Flydubai Flight, Israeli P.M. Calls it a Terror Attack; Cornell Agrees to Independently Investigate the Alleged Rape Case; FTC Opens Probe on OpenAI, Anthropic over Consumer Risks. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired October 01, 2026 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

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SALMA ABDELZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR: Hello and a very warm welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm Salma Abdelaziz, in London. Let's go to our headlines.

Disaster averted. We have live team coverage with the latest on what Israel is calling an attempted terrorist attack inside the cockpit of a flight to Tel Aviv.

President Trump again says the war with Iran will end soon, but the potential off-ramps he's giving are now starkly different. We're going to explain.

Plus, more fallout from Cornell University's handling of an alleged gang-rape case. I'll discuss it all with a legal analyst coming up.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from London, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Salma Abdelaziz.

ABDELAZIZ: Let's start in Israel, where passengers on a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv are describing a nightmare in the sky after one of the pilots allegedly attacked the other, forcing the plane to be diverted to Saudi Arabia. But despite the complete chaos in the cabin, they landed safely at Ben Gurion Airport on Wednesday, a warning the video of the incident is graphic.

A group of passengers rushed to the cockpit to subdue the alleged attacker and render medical aid to the pilot. The airline says on-duty crew managed to take control of the plane. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the attacker, who has not been identified, was trying to crash the plane on purpose, and investigators are searching for a motive in what Israel calls an attempted terrorist attack.

The passengers were eventually flown to Ben Gurion Airport in Israel. Some say they thought they were going to die and began saying goodbyes to their families. Others say they thought the plane was being hijacked, and they simply didn't know who they could trust.

Netanyahu met with some passengers at Ben Gurion Airport. Some still bloodied from the incident. He praised the heroism of the pilot for fighting back and preventing what he called a potential 9/11 disaster.

The Israeli Prime Minister spoke with CNN's Jim Sciutto about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF U.S. SECURITY ANALYST: You warned yesterday that enemies were going to attack Israel ahead of the elections. Did you have any warning or intelligence about an attack such as this one?

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: No, not specifically.

What we had is a lot of information streaming in that Iran's proxies in particular, Hezbollah and Hamas, were planning attacks against Israel and Israeli civilians abroad. But I can't tell you that we had any specific warning about this. This is being interrogated right now.

The pilot, the attacking pilot, is now being interrogated in Saudi Arabia. I assume very soon he'll be taken to the United Arab Emirates.

I spoke to the president of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, and he agreed that Israel would join the interrogation.

So we'll find out very soon if Iran had anything to do with it. But I can't say that in advance of the conclusion of the interrogation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: For more on this incident, we have Nic Robertson, our senior diplomatic editor, standing by there in Jerusalem for us. Good morning to you, Nic, first of all.

This is such a curious case and how it unfolded, because we were on the air just about 24 hours ago when this all broke, and initially it was being declared not a hijacking. What do we know now? And is there a clear motive yet when it comes to figuring out what the driving force was behind this?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, I think those early indications you were getting 24 hours ago were when the plane was still in the air. And then, of course, when it landed, the passengers on board, connected to cell service with their phones, were able to relay to friends, relatives what had happened.

And of course, the passengers getting back here to Israel has really sort of allowed a better understanding of what took place. And of course, having experts weigh in. I mean, one of the staggering facts I think we've learned about this whole incident is the plane lost about 17,000 feet in the matter of about a minute or so.

Not only was that sort of incredibly scary for the people on the plane, but it could have shattered the superstructure of the plane.

[03:05:07]

It could have disintegrated on the way down and in fact, pictures taken of the aircraft when it was on the ground in Saudi Arabia show that the tail fin has been damaged. So I think where we've come to now is a more precise understanding of what took place. But it's the wise and wherefores.

The Indian pilot who was stabbed by the other pilot is really being called the hero. You heard Prime Minister Netanyahu there talking about it. He's understood to have to have been able to open the even though he was stabbed, to be able to open the cockpit door, which allowed the other passengers to come in, bring him to safety, subdue the attacking pilot, and then with the additional pilot, the backup pilot who's on board the aircraft, stabilize the plane, land it safely.

But, you know, as you rightly pointing out, these outstanding questions remain for the attacking pilot. What was his motivation? Why was he doing this? What was he using to attack the other pilot with? So there's so much we don't know.

And then, of course, what the prime minister, Prime Minister Netanyahu, alluded to there, which is, you know, he's talking about an interrogation. He's talking about the Saudis handing over the suspect attacker to the Emiratis where the plane took off from Israel, joining that interrogation.

This is a language the Israeli Prime Minister is using. And I think at this stage, we don't know if that sort of protocol is going to happen. Who has jurisdiction?

So I think these questions are there on top. But there's one thing that we absolutely learned yesterday, and that was just the fear for all those passengers. Here's one of them talking about it when she got back to Israel last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKA BAUMAN, FLYDUBAI PASSENGER: We just saw the plane drop completely and start spinning a little. And everyone was screaming.

There were children crying. And it was just like a death in front of our eyes moment. Like I was just sure I was going to die.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: And that's the takeaway here today, right? 174 people alive who came so close to death and some heroes on board that plane. Resourceful is one of the words that's being used to describe them.

But I think, you know, if you're trying to sort of put a finger on the pulse of Israel today, it's that relief and somewhat pride in what Israeli citizens were able to do in that terrible confronted with that terrible, almost deadly situation.

ABDELAZIZ: And as you're describing that to us, Nic, we are playing those images of a very emotional return to Israel for those passengers as that investigation is underway. Thank you so much for updating us. President Trump says that he is studying a potential response against

Iran after a suspected terrorist plot at an air base in England. Now, he spoke hours after British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Tehran may have been involved at the incident at the Fairford base. The facility has been used by U.S. bombers to launch strikes on Iran.

Here's what Burnham had to say on Wednesday.

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ANDY BURNHAM, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: There are strong indications that Iran played a part in what happened over the weekend at RAF Fairford. But of course, it remains an ongoing, complex and serious police investigation. And of course, we are working closely with our colleagues in the United States of America.

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ABDELAZIZ: Now, Iran has strongly rejected. There's accusations calling them unfounded and malicious speculations. Five people were arrested near the base on Sunday and accused of terrorism and explosives related offenses, they were later released on bail.

But there was a new twist in the case on Wednesday when British media reported that one of the suspects called police shortly before their arrest. The Times newspaper says authorities are investigating whether he got cold feet or the call itself was part of the alleged plot.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News that Israel had given intelligence to the U.K. about an upcoming attack sponsored by Iran. Meanwhile, President Trump again says that the war with Iran will end soon. And he says there are two ways that that can happen.

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REPORTER: You describe the Iranians that the U.S. is dealing with as crazy. How do you get a deal done when the counterparts to the U.S. are crazy, irrational, whatever you want to use to describe them?

TRUMP: Maybe you blow them up, we have to make that decision.

[03:10:05]

We blow them up, make a deal, but the time is coming. It's going to end very soon one way or the other.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: Now, earlier, Iranian state media said Tehran had formally received a response from the U.S. to its latest proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump had publicly rejected it over the weekend, but Iran says it didn't get any official response until now.

Meanwhile, this is where oil prices stand after those developments. According to marine tracking service, Kpler, the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz has been just under 80 percent of pre-war levels in recent days.

We have so much more to come here on "CNN Newsroom," including new details on the alleged sexual assault at Cornell University. We're going to tell you what we're learning with a new independent investigation now in the works.

Plus, the governor of Tennessee is putting a hold on executions after the failed lethal injection of a 50-year-old woman convicted of a murder she committed at age 18.

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ABDELAZIZ: Welcome back.

A Tennessee death row inmate is still alive after state officials attempt to execute her failed. Attorneys for Krista Gayle Pike say she was still breathing after being injected with two doses of a lethal drug. Pike was convicted in the 1995 killing of a teenage classmate.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has now halted executions for the rest of the year and ordered what he calls a, quote, "comprehensive third- party review." Pike's execution had been scheduled for Wednesday morning, but an appeals court stopped it at the very last minute.

Hours later, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned that stay, paving the way for what would have been Tennessee's first execution of a woman in at least 200 years.

Cornell University has agreed to an independent investigation into how the school handled the alleged sexual assault case from 2024. Now, CNN gained access to a statement. The accuser gave the university police about the night she claimed several members of a fraternity assaulted her.

Our Jason Carroll has the latest.

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JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More details emerging about what Jane Doe alleges happened to her at the Chi Phi fraternity house in 2024. CNN obtained the six-page statement she gave to Cornell police two years ago, saying she consented to some sexual acts but repeatedly refused others, including a foursome proposed by one of their fraternity brothers.

The 20-year-old then says it got to the point where it, quote, "had become extremely uncomfortable with how this night was turning out. So my thought was, if I do ketamine again, maybe I will pass out. My thought was that if I passed out and these men had sex with me, then they could be charged with rape."

In the six-page statement, she said two Chi Phi members "were asking me to have sex so many times that I finally gave in. To me, that felt like coercion."

Also telling Cornell police, "I remember being totally disgusted at the situation, and I felt tired and intoxicated. I would say it was the most intoxicated I have ever been in my life. I felt like I was unable to make any decisions because of how intoxicated I was."

This month, Jane Doe filed a civil lawsuit against Cornell University and seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity. That lawsuit also included a screenshot of Snapchat messages between the fraternity members on the night of the alleged incident, inviting others to join in.

The district attorney's office facing criticism by some on campus who questioned why charges were not filed in 2024. Despite the disturbing details, the Tompkins County D.A. says he is bound by New York law.

MATTHEW VAN HOUTEN, TOMPKINS COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: The voluntary intoxication of someone is not a basis to claim or to prove that they are incapacitated to the point that they cannot consent to sexual contact. So as much as I'm emotionally repulsed and morally repulsed by the events, I can't prosecute cases based on emotion or based upon moral standards or moral repulsion.

CARROLL (voice-over): The D.A. later pointed out while he did receive Jane Doe's six-page statement, he says his office did not receive a separate transcript of Jane Doe's interview with campus police.

Quote, "we never received it and still don't have it. It was not part of what Cornell provided to us. We got the six-page statement and nothing more except for the Snapchat video."

In that transcript exclusively obtained by WCBS, the young woman told police, I can say with 100 percent confidence I was raped. That comment does not appear in her six-page statement to Cornell police.

CARROLL: Well, a spokesperson for the university tells CNN that Cornell police shared a, quote, "lengthy" investigative report with the D.A.'s office and if there are any further questions about that report, that needs to be addressed with the D.A.

CARROLL (voice-over): Many on and off campus have called for more transparency in the investigation. Though it is not required, Ithaca's mayor says campus police should still have alerted Ithaca police about their initial investigation.

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MAYOR ROBERT CANTELMO, ITHACA, NEW YORK: Our officers are specially trained to respond to the level of trauma-informed care that is often required when dealing with a survivor. Why not work with the municipal police department to try and help find justice?

CARROLL (voice-over): Jason Carroll, CNN, Ithaca, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ABDELAZIZ: Joining me now from Los Angeles to break down this case is attorney and legal affairs commentator Areva Martin. Thank you so much for coming to us so late in your hours from L.A.

As you know, this case has just drawn so much attention because of all of the disturbing details within it. And I think one of the questions that so many people are asking is about that transcript, the initial interview with university police in November of 2024 when Jane Doe said, quote, "I can say with 100 percent confidence I was raped." And this is according to a copy of the transcript that was obtained by a CNN affiliate.

But as of noon on Wednesday, the D.A. told CNN he still had not received this original transcript. My question to you, and I think the question so many are asking, is why can't the D.A. compel Cornell University to hand over this 2024 transcript?

AREVA MARTIN, ATTORNEY AND LEGAL RIGHTS COMMENTATOR: Yes, that's a big question and one of the questions I think many people have about this case. And it appears to be such a colossal institutional failure.

You literally have the Cornell University's police department pointing the fingers at the district attorney's office and the district attorney's office pointing the finger back at Cornell University. And the simple, you know, question of how come you two institutions can't get together and share the critical information needed to do a transparent investigation. You have this district attorney going on television up until I think today he said he's no longer doing media interviews, but he was on T.V. doing interviews.

And, yes, why wasn't he at Cornell University getting all of the materials needed to do an investigation? This is, again, I just go back to this colossal institutional failure that has obviously impacted this victim and could impact others.

ABDELAZIZ: So you describe it as an institutional failure, and you're clearly asking the same questions that we are. But is this also a legal failure? I want to break this down here.

So you have Cornell's campus police. They exercise powers that are granted by the state, but are employed and supervised by the university. What outside oversight exists to ensure a sexual assault investigation is thorough in that all relevant evidence reaches prosecutors, and who holds campus police accountable if that process fails?

MARTIN: Well, what we're hearing is that this police department, this Cornell University Police Department has the jurisdiction over any alleged crimes that happen on that campus, and that they have the same powers as the Ithaca Police Department.

Now, we also just heard the Ithaca Police Department saying that they wish they had been notified. They wish they had been brought into this process. Ultimately, we have the governor of the state of New York who's now stepped up, intervened, and has requested, and Cornell apparently has agreed to a third-party independent investigation. But again, how come that police department, the Ithaca Police

Department, how come they weren't notified of this, I think, again, is a part of what hopefully comes out of this independent investigation. So an independent investigation, but that will take time.

ABDELAZIZ: So the other question is, how has this 2024 statement, the one that she gave in November to campus police, if it is not brought to light, or if that interview is different, and again, her lawyer, Jane Doe's lawyer says it is not dramatically different from her civil lawsuit, how can it affect Jane Doe's pursuit of justice? Does it matter even at this stage, or does the civil lawsuit supersede that 2024 transcript?

MARTIN: Well, I think it's important that we distinguish two things that are happening in parallel time.

One is the civil lawsuit that was recently filed, seven individuals who have been named as defendants as well as the university as a defendant. And then you have a district attorney in that county now saying that this entire case will be presented to a grand jury. So there is both a civil lawsuit that is proceeding through the civil court system, and you have now the reopening of a criminal case by the prosecuting attorney.

[03:25:00]

And in both of these cases, both the six page statement and the transcript are going to be critical pieces of evidence that will be examined in both tribunals, in both the civil lawsuit, as well as the grand jury. And we've heard this devastating statement in the transcript where Jane Doe says without doubt, 100 percent, she believes that she was raped. That is a crucial statement made contemporaneously by Jane Doe shortly after the alleged rape took place.

ABDELAZIZ: I want to take a step back also and look at New York state law, because I read that it contains a provision that makes it nearly impossible for survivors to seek justice if they voluntarily consumed alcohol or drugs before an assault. Now, there have been numerous attempts to alter that law in recent years. There is obviously a renewed push in light of this case.

But can you explain this provision to me and how it might impact the proceedings in both the civil lawsuit, as you said, and the criminal prosecution that's now taking place?

MARTIN: Well, the law in New York at the time of the alleged rape was, it creates a significant hurdle in cases involving involuntary intoxication. And at the time of the alleged assault, being extremely intoxicated did not by itself necessarily establish that a person was legally incapable of consenting. And what we are hearing from the statement is that Jane Doe acknowledged that when she showed up at the fraternity house, she was already intoxicated.

But we are also learning from the transcript that she said at some point, she said no. At some point, she believed that she was being compelled to engage in sexual conduct. And again, that statement about her believing that she was raped.

So two things can be true at the same time. She could have been involuntarily intoxicated, she could have gone to the frat house, she could have agreed to some sexual encounters with some of the individuals that have been identified.

And then she could have later, during that same period of time, determined that she was no longer consenting. That she no longer had the ability, the physical ability, the mental ability to give her consent to those acts.

At which point, that changes the game. That is the issue here. At which point did she say no? Was she able and capable of declaring that she was not participating, she was not willingly consenting to the sexual acts?

ABDELAZIZ: Areva Martin there providing us with analysis on what you have described as an institutional failure when it comes to that handover of the initial transcript from November 2024 and the hurdles that New York law actually create in terms of intoxication and determining consent. Thank you so much for breaking that down for us.

Still to come here on "CNN Newsroom," we have much more on the Flydubai pilot, stabbing here from people who were on board that chaotic flight that miraculously made a safe landing.

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ABDELAZIZ: Welcome back. I'm Salma Abdelaziz, in London. Let's take a look at today's top stories.

U.S. President Donald Trump says the war in Iran will end soon in one of two ways. He says either Iran will make a deal or he will, quote, blow it up, that is the latest instance of him predicting that the conflict is close to coming to an end. The war is now in its eighth month.

The governor of Tennessee has halted all executions for the rest of the year and called for a comprehensive third-party review, this is after state officials failed to execute Christa Gayle Pike on Wednesday. Her attorneys say she was still breathing after being injected with two doses of a lethal drug. Pike was convicted in the 1995 killing of a teenage classmate.

Israel says it is investigating the stabbing of a Flydubai pilot as a terrorist attack. The flight had to be diverted to an airport in Saudi Arabia. Passengers described complete chaos as people rushed the cockpit to subdue the attacker. The airline says on-duty crew took control and landed the plane.

CNN's Jerusalem correspondent Jeremy Diamond has more on that Flydubai incident. First a warning though, his report does contain some graphic video.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The wounded man being treated aboard this blood-stained aircraft isn't a passenger, he's the pilot. And lying just a few feet away from him, also wounded, is the man who allegedly stabbed him and tried to hijack the plane, his co-pilot.

Flydubai flight 1073 was bound for Tel Aviv from Dubai. About two hours and 15 minutes later, the plane plummets, dropping more than 17,000 feet in under two minutes.

[03:35:01]

Passengers aboard this Israel-bound flight say the plane began spinning out of control before diving toward the ground, until a few brave passengers and crew rushed to the cockpit.

ASAF RAJUAN, SUBDUED ATTACKER(through translator): We are here on the plane right now. We've taken control of the terrorists. We are about to land.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Asaf Rajuan is one of those passengers. Together, he says, they took down the would-be hijacker and restrained him for nearly an hour.

RAJUAN (through translator): It wasn't a prolonged battle.

We neutralized him very quickly. There was no real fight. We aren't heroes.

I'm no Van Damme. I was terrified for my life and my family's lives. And I didn't have total confidence until things started to clear up.

And I saw that the pilot had truly regained control of the plane.

DIAMOND (voice-over): His shirt still bloodied, Yaniv Hayoun tells the Israeli Prime Minister how he put the attacker in a choke hold.

YANIV HAYOUN, SUBDUED ATTACKER: The plane's nose was pitched like this. I called out to a bunch of Israelis on board, and two other guys came over. We pinned him down, I jumped back, grabbed the controls, and started pulling back the handles.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Celebrations in Israel greeting the plane's 174 passengers, who are still reeling from their brush with death.

PELEG ITALY, FLYDUBAI PASSENGER: I was flying, and I see the ground. Then I see the wing of the plane, and the brakes, the brakes on the wing of the plane, they come up, and all of the plane tilts. It tilts to the other side, and we start falling.

We drag down five, 15,000 feet (inaudible). You feel of the G-force, you feel it on you. And you're squished into the chair. BAUMAN: Children crying, and it was just like a death in front of our

eyes moment. We didn't actually know what was happening until we landed, which was like a few hours later.

DIAMOND (voice-over): The plane's captain, who managed to open the cockpit door as he was being attacked, was identified as Smit Mutcher from India. Dr. Shotav Musaev, a dentist who worked to stabilize him on board, said Mutcher barely survived the ordeal.

DR. SHOTA MUSAEV, TREATED INJURED PILOT (through translator): If we had waited even a few more moments, we would have lost him. His blood pressure had plummeted. He suddenly lost consciousness, and there was blood everywhere.

DIAMOND (voice-over): The plane was diverted to Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. On the ground, you can see clear damage to the plane's rudder. Both pilots were rushed to a hospital.

Israeli officials say they are investigating the suspected hijacking as an attempted terrorist attack. But so far, no clear motive has emerged. Authorities have yet to publicly identify the attacker or the weapon used.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABDELAZIZ: For Iraq and the wider Middle East, it is a new dawn of a new era, with the Trump administration announcing it has completed the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. U.S. forces left their last remaining bases in Erbil in northern Iraq on Wednesday. As part of a long planned withdrawal, the Iraqi government declared four days of public holiday and celebrations this week.

The Pentagon says the withdrawal caps off the 12-year campaign that defeated ISIS in the region and marks the transition from a wartime coalition mission to an Iraqi-led security effort. It comes more than 20 years after the U.S. invaded Iraq and toppled its then leader Saddam Hussein. President Trump framed the withdrawal as the close of a costly chapter in history.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: It's been a long time with very bad decision-making that got us involved in this quagmire. In the first place, it was a quagmire. Many years it lasted.

But soon that part of history will be over. This is a great day for America, and importantly, we leave with Iraq having a wonderful new prime minister. This day is a victory for the United States, it's a victory for Iraq and a decisive victory over ISIS, which has been completely decimated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: Now, Iraqi civilians celebrated the U.S. withdrawal by waving flags and dancing in the streets. Iraq's new prime minister presided over the handover ceremony and described the U.S. withdrawal as the beginning of a new phase defined by Iraq's sovereignty.

The pullout, however, leaves a new Iraqi government with the daunting task of loosening Iran's grips on its neighbor while the U.S. war with Iran stretches on with no end in sight.

Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced a new command for autonomous warfare for drones and other tech weaponry.

[03:39:57]

In a speech to troops on Wednesday, Hegseth said the command will focus on artificial intelligence and robotics. It will be led by a four-star general, which likely signals a key role in future military operations. Hegseth cited lessons learned from the war in Ukraine as the motivation for the new command.

He also announced that he had ordered further cuts to the ranks of senior officers, slashing some 20 percent, up from 10 percent in a previous directive.

Hegseth also used the speech to repeat a number of his past criticisms of both media and military culture while using a slur to describe transgender service members.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: You read disingenuous headlines about deployment lengths, patently false claims of low troop morale or flat-out propaganda as if it's written by our adversaries. And frankly, sometimes it is.

A free press is of course important, but partisan activism that intentionally smears the troops and the historic mission that they're undertaking is fundamentally anti-American. We are no longer the woke department or the weak department. Simple translation of that, no fatties, no trannies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals, just warriors.

We're placing spiritual health at the same level as physical health. Our department is, you might say, putting on the full armor of God. Because while we wage physical war, we all know the real battle is spiritual.

God is good. Evil is not. And America's military must understand the difference.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: Now, Hegseth's decision to cut a fifth of the U.S. military leadership while the country remains at war with Iran has drawn bipartisan criticism from lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. JOHN HOEVEN (R-ND): I think we need to take a hard look at it and whatever is done there, and I'm not sure exactly where we're going to go with this. We need to look at it and we need to be careful and it needs to be done right.

SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): I've done reductions in force. I've done management reviews before. There's a right way and a wrong way to do it.

And quite honestly, Hegseth hasn't impressed me with his ability to go about it.

SEN. BEN RAY LUJAN (D-NM): His announcement will make America less safe and will make us less prepared.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: Coming up next on "CNN Newsroom," the U.S. government wants to know what could go wrong with AI and officials are set to investigate the top tech companies to find out.

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ABDELAZIZ: Welcome back. Here are your business headlines.

President Trump has announced what he branded one of the country's biggest ever energy infrastructure investment deals. Trump says the package is linked to a trade pact with South Korea in which he cut tariffs to 15 percent. South Korea has pledged $200 billion for the project; it included a six gigawatt facility in Texas, eight large- scale nuclear reactors and the delayed Alaska LNG pipeline.

Vietnam will keep tariffs on fuel imports at zero through the end of the year. The government is extending a relief program introduced in March to address supply issues caused by the war with Iran. It says the extension will ensure energy security, stabilize the economy and contain inflation.

Just ahead of the midterm, Senate Democrats are delaying Republicans -- are dealing Republicans a blow on the issue of affordability. They voted down a Republican-led bill aimed at fighting rising energy costs fueled by the data center boom, saying it did not go far enough. The legislation would have required states to consider adopting a federal standard compelling data center companies to cover their costs to the energy grid but included no way to actually enforce it.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is launching a probe into top A.I. firms and growing safety concerns, this is according to Reuters. The investigation will look into potential dangers at companies, including OpenAI and Anthropic. This reporting comes just days after the CEOs of both companies and others signed a commitment with President Trump to quote "self-police their A.I. model." CNN's Hadas Gold has more for us.

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HADAS GOLD, CNN A.I. CORRESPONDENT: This FTC probe would likely be the first official U.S. government probe into A.I. models and their agents and whether they cause the American people and the American consumer harm.

Now, according to these reports, the FTC plans to request information and possibly even subpoena from OpenAI, Anthropic, other major AI labs, including some of these A.I. research organizations that look into AI safety. And according to these reports, the FTC will be looking into whether these companies have violated federal laws that prohibit companies from unfair and deceptive practices when it comes to their products.

[03:49:54]

We have seen similar tactics used in states, for example, in Florida. The Florida attorney general there sued OpenAI and has similarly cited what he said was a defectively designed product from OpenAI in the form of ChatGPT, saying that it had failed to perform safely as the ordinary consumer could expect.

And this is actually part of the Trump administration's approach to regulating A.I., in that they say they can use existing laws that are already on the books and that they don't necessarily need new regulations and new laws for this new technology. In fact, the FTC chair Andrew Ferguson addressed this just last week during an event with Reuters. Take a listen.

ANDREW FERGUSON, U.S. FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION CHAIRMAN: But I don't think the fact that this technology is exciting, interesting, and is acting in ways that sometimes or often surprise its creators, that we ought to be rushing out of the present toolbox, that these tools have always played the principal guardrail role in our economic and legal system. And I think we still should be using those until we know these are insufficient.

GOLD: Andrew Ferguson, that FTC chair you saw there, he was actually at the White House meeting this week, that major meeting with all of the major tech executives, as well as the upper echelons of the U.S. government, where they discussed this sort of self-regulating, self- evaluating accord that these executives signed, that President Trump himself called morally binding, not necessarily binding by the government.

Of course, there are still a lot of calls, including from the industry itself, that the government needs to take a stronger hand in at least setting standards and regulating this new technology beyond the laws that already exist.

Hadas Gold, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ABDELAZIZ: Britain's MI5 spy agency is accusing China of using U.K. academics as inadvertent spies. The agency issued an unprecedented public alert warning that more than 100 British-based academics had been involved in projects funded by a group with, quote, "very strong ties to Beijing's intelligence service."

Now, MI5 says those researchers have contributed to projects on topics from A.I. to cybersecurity, putting Britain's national security at risk. The Chinese embassy in Britain called the allegations, quote, "imaginary and purely fabricated."

Paramount says its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery will take effect on October 6. The U.S. federal judge has approved the settlement of an antitrust lawsuit that was blocking the deal. The merger will create one of the biggest media companies in the world, including movie studios, T.V. networks, streaming services, CBS News and CNN.

As part of the lawsuit settlement, Paramount has agreed to set up an editorial independence board for both CNN and CBS News. A new name for the company could be announced as soon as today.

Coming up next after a quick break, we'll get a close-up preview of a 19th century masterpiece by artist William Turner that's set to go on the auction block. We're going to be right back.

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[03:55:00]

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ABDELAZIZ: Welcome back.

A very well-preserved painting by British artist William Turner is expected to fetch a record price at auction in December. The painting, called Rome from Mount Aventine, will be shown in Hong Kong and New York before it goes on sale in Sotheby's in London. It's currently on display in Rome, where Stefano Pozzebon got a very close look.

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STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If you look at this painting close enough, you can actually see William Turner's fingerprint nearly two centuries after he left it there. And that's not even the only trace of him. There are also marks from his palette knife and even hair from his paintbrush still caught in the paint.

That is because Rome from Mount Aventine has survived in extraordinary conditions. In its nearly 200-year history, it's never been restored.

Turner painted it in the 1830s after studying this view from Rome, which has quite changed since Turner's time. It was originally commissioned by his friend Hugh Munro, and then in 1878 a future British Prime Minister bought it as a wedding gift for Hannah de Rothschild. It stayed in the family until 2014, when it was sold for almost $50 million, setting a record for Turner that still stands today.

It's back in Rome before going under the hammer again in December, and this time Sotheby's expects to fetch more than $66 million.

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ABDELAZIZ: After a week of fierce competition, Alaska's Katmai National Park and Preserve has crowned a winner of this year's Fat Bear Week. Bear 89 earned more than 100,000 votes to take the title. The contest works to raise awareness of the park's brown bear population by pitting the heaviest specimens against one another in a March Madness-style elimination bracket.

But Bear 89 isn't just a chunky star, he's a furry nepo baby known as Backpack, because as a young cub he rode around on the back of his mom, who was the 2019 winner of Fat Bear Week.

Thank you so much for watching. I'm Salma Abdelaziz. I'll be back with more news right after a quick break.

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