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Social Media Accounts Suggest Flydubai Copilot's Radical Leanings; G7 Members Agree to Release Diesel Stockpiles; U.S.-U.K. at Loggerheads over Initial Fairford Arrestees' Bail; Russian Guided Bombs Kill Two, Wound 33; Spanish Parliament Rejects Housing Bill, Angering Protesters; Cornell University under Fire over Handling of Alleged Gang Rape. Aired 3-3:30a ET

Aired October 03, 2026 - 03:00   ET

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

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BEN HUNTE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello. Wherever you are in the world, you are now in the CNN NEWSROOM with me, Ben Hunte in Atlanta. And it is so good to have you with me.

Coming up, we are learning new information about the suspect in the violent incident on a flydubai flight. The details that his social media accounts reveal.

G7 members agree to release diesel stockpiles ahead of the U.S. midterm elections, a win for the Trump administration, which had been bringing pressure on European leaders.

And thousands of protesters in Spain are camping out in Madrid after parliament rejected a housing bill aimed at protecting people from eviction.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Ben Hunte.

HUNTE: Welcome.

We begin with new information about the suspect in Wednesday's violent incident on a flydubai flight. He was the copilot accused of attacking and injuring the captain in mid-flight; that is, before passengers rushed into the cockpit and subdued him.

But officials have released little information about him and his motives are still under investigation. CNN looked into social media accounts associated with his name, which have now been confirmed by multiple sources. As Jeremy Diamond reports, we found some disturbing posts.

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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: This is the first time that we are able to report, the name of the suspected attacker of that flydubai flight.

According to one of the sources we spoke to, his name is Hamam Al- Hammami. He was born in the United Arab Emirates to an Omani father and a Syrian mother. We found a LinkedIn page, that has since been taken down with that name, which one of those sources confirmed as being, the same copilot of that flydubai flight.

This LinkedIn page shows him having worked for Oman Air for seven years until February of 2025 before joining Morocco's flagship airline. I also spoke to a source who confirmed that the copilot of this flydubai flight had indeed worked for that very same Moroccan national airline.

There is a video that was posted from the cockpit of an airplane at Dubai Airport that shows El Al planes, Israel's flagship carrier. That video ends with a photo of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Al-Qaeda leader who took over after Osama bin Laden's death.

Another man is also shown at the end of that video. That man was responsible for a 2009 suicide bombing in Afghanistan. Now that video was actually posted about 9 hours after Hammami allegedly tried to hijack that flydubai flight. So it's not clear how that video got off, whether it was prescheduled, whether he had somebody else post it.

We've also analyzed a deleted Twitter account that shows Hammami railing against mixed gender workplaces and expressing other misogynistic and some deeply religious views as well.

So you take all that information, you also take the fact that we have multiple sources saying that he was removed from flight training, at Oman Air last year over concerns about his extremist views. And then somehow he gets hired at flydubai.

Now we don't know whether flydubai was aware of these radical views that he had, whether they had conducted a thorough background check. All of that is still unknown at this point and flydubai for now is not commenting, saying that there is an ongoing investigation.

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HUNTE: Two Iranian men are facing terrorism charges in an alleged plot to attack the Jewish community in Manchester on the eve of Yom Kippur. London's Metropolitan Police arrested Salam Ahmadyan and Rahman Salehi on September 20th and charged them with engaging in conduct in preparation for terrorist acts.

The charges come a year after an attack outside a Manchester synagogue killed at least two people. They also come a day after another Iranian national was arrested in connection with an alleged plot to target a U.K. airbase used by the U.S. military in Fairford, England.

Authorities say the latest arrest and the investigation into the Fairford incident are not connected.

The White House is counting on some close U.S. allies to help lower fuel prices before the upcoming midterm elections. [03:05:02]

On Friday, G7 leaders said they would release some 100 million barrels from their stockpiles in the coming months. As Anna Cooban reports, the decision came after some arm-twisting from Washington.

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ANNA COOBAN, CNN BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS CORRESPONDENT: This has come after a number of days of really escalating pressure on Europe. The U.S. has essentially said a number of times now that you're not pulling your weight in terms of responding to this very tight diesel market that we've been seeing globally.

Now it's tight for a number of reasons. We've got the war in the Middle East, which means that less overall has been getting out of the Strait of Hormuz.

We know that Ukraine -- Ukrainian drones have been attacking Russian refinery -- refining infrastructure, which means that Russia's instituted a ban on diesel exports, which is also extended to the end of October.

So all these factors are really coalescing to mean it's a very tight market. And the U.S. is bearing the brunt of this or it's seeing really high diesel prices. We saw last month for the first time ever the average price of a gallon of diesel surpassing $6 a gallon.

And let's be aware that Donald Trump is staring down the barrel of the midterm elections in just under a month. And so he really wants to get these prices down. And so he's touted this ban to basically keep supplies high at home to reduce prices.

But, of course, Europe is dependent on many imports of diesel. And so that would then boost prices up in Europe because the overall global supply would shrink.

And so Europe, in responding to these threats over the past few days, has basically brought forward any decision that they may -- may have otherwise made to -- to release diesel from their stocks and perhaps brought that forward.

But in any case, they have now liaised with the G7 and the International Energy Agency to put out this $100 million barrel release from their stocks and have said that a big part of that will be diesel, which they will be releasing over the next 20 days.

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HUNTE: Sir Peter Westmacott is a former British ambassador to the U.S, France and Turkiye and he joins us now from London.

It's good to see you, sir.

Just looking at where things stand with the Fairford incident right now, how surprised are you by what we're seeing in Britain and what do you make of the situation?

SIR PETER WESTMACOTT, FORMER BRITISH AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S., TURKIYE AND FRANCE: Well, Ben, that whole story has been very confusing for people here in the U.K.

Initially, it looked as though it was perhaps a terrorist attack, literally ready to go, a bomb about to explode somewhere near the big RAF base, which is, of course, used by the United States Air Force.

Then it turned out that the four people, the five people they initially arrested, had been bailed very quickly, that there wasn't a bomb about to be detonated, that there were some cans of fuel in the vans that were stopped and the trail went cold, to be honest. Nobody really seems to know what was going on.

President Trump said, I happen to know that there's going to be an Iranian connection to this story.

Marco Rubio, secretary of state, said the same.

British prime minister has also. Andy Burnham has said something similar about there being an Iranian connection.

But all we have got, apart from the first five people being bailed, is one more dual national, part British-part Iranian, who has been arrested in connection with a potential terrorist incident. We do not know any more than that. The story has really been very quiet for the last day or two.

HUNTE: Well, speaking a bit more about that, the British government says there are strong indications that Iran was involved. But Tehran completely denies that.

So how confident should we be that this was potentially an Iranian operation?

WESTMACOTT: Well, the fact that the president of United States, the British prime minister, U.S. secretary of state have all said we're confident, in slightly different language, that there's an Iranian connection, I think means that there must be something going on.

And the one additional arrest -- excuse me -- is a dual national British-Iranian, with some Iranian connection, it would seem. So something there.

Yes, of course, the Iranian embassy in London has denied it and said it's complete nonsense. That's what usually happens when the Iranian government, one way or another, does use people to cause mayhem in Britain or to attempt an assassination attempt or some other kind of malevolence.

And we have had a number of incidents in the U.K. over the last year or so. They usually use cutouts so that they can say it's nothing to do with us. So it's standard procedure, if you like, for the Iranian embassy to say that they're not involved. But I think I'll be very surprised if, when we learn more about this

incident, it doesn't become clear that there is some specific -- but I can't be -- I can't say any detail of it -- link to Iran. But we don't know any more than that, Ben, at the moment.

HUNTE: At the same time, president Trump has openly questioned why the first suspects were released on bail.

How difficult is this for the U.K. when the U.S. is publicly questioning all of their decisions?

WESTMACOTT: I don't think it's too much of a problem. We're used to the president saying what's on his mind. He has strong views on things. He doesn't necessarily wait for the normal legal procedures and niceties to be followed before he says what he thinks.

He doesn't understand the details of how you do and don't get released on bail in the U.K.

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And what the law does and doesn't allow in terms of detaining people if you haven't got any evidence that they are directly involved with some kind of serious crime. So I don't think people are too bothered.

I think the sad part of it is that the communications on all this have been a little bit confused. We've had messages coming out of Washington. We've had messages coming from London. There's been a certain amount of silence.

Initially it was described as a major incident by the local police. We don't know whether it's internal intelligence. We don't know whether it's normal police activity. We don't know whether it's a group of people who are trying to steal diesel fuel from farmers in the area around RAF Fairford. We really don't know very much.

I think the president saying those things gives a pretty clear pointer that he's got some information about an Iranian connection. And that obviously has been confirmed by Andy Burnham saying there is an Iranian connection. So I don't think it's particularly embarrassing. But I think public opinion is waiting to hear more.

HUNTE: We are now also seeing the Iran war hit Europe's wallets with diesel prices absolutely soaring.

How worried should Britain and Europe be about the overall economic impacts of this war?

WESTMACOTT: I think we are very concerned about it. Of course, the impact on global supplies of oil and oil derivatives, petrochemicals, gas, all sorts of fossil fuel products has been very severe since Russia first invaded Ukrainian territory.

I mean, some of it even began years before when they took over Crimea. But the main invasion back in '22 of Ukraine started causing a lot of mayhem in global markets. And then this war, which began on the 28th of February this year, when

the United States and Israel attacked Iran has obviously had a far greater impact on oil prices, oil supplies. And we've had this particular crisis with diesel.

You remember that, a few months earlier, we were worried that we were going to run out of jet fuel.

Same problem, if you like, because it's both the effect of the closure or limited closure of the Strait of Hormuz on crude oil exports but also on the export of refined products, including diesel and some other derivatives which come through the straits, which have affected global markets.

And as we all know, the price at the pump of diesel in the United States has gone up by 65 percent. It was when I last looked. It's up by 40 percent here in the United Kingdom. It's fairly similar in Europe. There is a very big problem for consumers, especially, of course, in America before the midterms.

But we're all suffering from it. So I think as long as this conflict continues, there is a real problem for the global economy and for consumer spending.

HUNTE: Definitely.

Looking at Britain's relationships today, do you think this is one of the most complicated moments for British foreign policy in decades?

WESTMACOTT: I think it is a very difficult moment. We are dealing with a United States government, which is, of course, different to the one that we've dealt with in the past, although different prime ministers, I think three or four of them, have been dealing with president Trump as prime minister.

We've had some experience now of the unpredictability and a rather different approach to international affairs that we have with president Trump.

But also we've got another new prime minister. I think it's the seventh in 10 years. I'm afraid that's just the way the British democratic process has been working. So Andy Burnham is finding his feet and working out which way to go.

He has made some interestingly different statements about Britain's future relationship with the European Union at his party's conference this last few days. And people are getting interested in that.

But I think more generally, how to manage the relationship with the United States, where are we going to go and can we make a difference on the two very serious conflicts, both in terms of economic and humanitarian aspects -- Russia, Ukraine and Iran, United States, Israel -- all of these are doing a lot of our interest (ph).

So yes, it's very complicated. And you've got a new prime minister with no real track record of foreign affairs who's having to wrestle with these things. So I think you're right. This is a very tricky moment for Britain and its international relations.

HUNTE: Yes, indeed. Sir Peter Westmacott, speaking with us from London, thank you very much, sir. I appreciate your time.

WESTMACOTT: Thank you

HUNTE: Russian president Vladimir Putin was on hand to watch large- scale military drills as his country continues its war in Ukraine. Putin said more than 47,000 personnel took part. He also spoke with foreign military officials and toured an exhibition of some of Russia's latest weapons.

The visit came a day after he warned that the world is living through a dangerous moment.

Meanwhile, the mayor of Ukraine's second largest city, Kharkiv, says Russian bombs killed two people and wounded 33 others on Friday. Rescuers and police responded to the scene to find homes destroyed.

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Russia has launched nearly nonstop aerial attacks on Ukrainian cities in recent weeks. The past four months have been among the deadliest for Ukrainian civilians since the full scale invasion began in 2022.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): People lived here. There was nothing here. People simply lived here. There was nothing here.

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HUNTE: There is much more to come here on CNN NEWSROOM.

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HUNTE: These are live pictures right now from Madrid, where it's Saturday morning and thousands of protesters remain camped out. They have been there since the Spanish parliament rejected a housing bill aimed at protecting certain tenants from being evicted.

The bill was an attempt to quiet widespread anger over the recent eviction of an 87-year-old woman there. Despite the bill failing, the demonstrators reaffirmed their commitment to continue protesting all across the country.

Spanish media report that the country's prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, may call a snap parliamentary election in the wake of that bill's defeat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PABLO GARCIA, SPANISH PROTESTER (through translator): Personally, I stopped asking anything of politicians because I don't expect anything from them. What I'm counting on is the people camped out here.

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I believe we're the ones who can wield our power and our strength to force them to take action. Honestly, I don't expect them to do anything willingly or just because we ask them to.

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HUNTE: Meanwhile, protests turned violent in France as students and police fought openly in the streets. Several schools were set on fire as students railed against an underfunded education system. CNN's Melissa Bell has the latest for us from Paris.

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MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's been another day of violence and barricades as student protests continue at high schools across France. More than 560 impacted by those protests this Friday, according to authorities.

At this high school in Paris, students had set fire to the doors of their school earlier today. Even now, those doors are being repaired elsewhere.

We've also seen violence between police and students at several locations across the country and again, barricades, fires, more violence and a determination on the part of the students to stand firm in their demands for better funding.

There's a meeting that's to take place between the education minister and student leaders.

But what we have seen from the authorities is they say there was a ratcheting up on Thursday that what had been a student protest has thrown into more urban violence with nearly 2,000 people taken into custody over the course of the day on Thursday.

The question now whether that meeting with student leaders will manage to bring to an end this protest, which has only really gained speed and intensity and violence and determination on the part of the students over the course of the last 10 days -- Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.

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HUNTE: Cornell University is pausing some of its fundraising efforts as it faces growing scrutiny over its handling of a former student's gang rape allegations.

That former student says she was sexually assaulted by multiple men over the course of several hours at a fraternity party and alleges the university failed to address the crime after it was reported. CNN's Jason Carroll has the latest developments.

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GOV. KATHY HOCHUL (D-NY): What we learned yesterday raised even more troubling questions about what was done and not done after this young woman came forward.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New York's Governor visibly angry and focusing her on the Tompkins County district attorney and the Cornell police department.

HOCHUL: In what world would the police learn from a victim that she'd been literally gang raped while intoxicated by five men in a fraternity house and not elevate those allegations to the district attorney?

CARROLL (voice-over): Governor Hochul referred to crucial statements Jane Doe allegedly made to Cornell police in 2024.

"The New York Times" report showed, according to a university internal investigation, Jane Doe allegedly told campus police, "I can say with 100 percent confidence, I was raped."

That allegation was not included in what university police handed over to the district attorney.

HOCHUL: Them sending a partial record over is a -- in my judgment, a failure.

CARROLL (voice-over): Announcing she had lost faith in the DA, the Governor also appointed Attorney General Letitia James to lead the investigation.

LETITIA JAMES, NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL: Every New Yorker deserves to know that when they report a crime, it will be investigated fully and fairly, that they will be seen and heard.

HOCHUL: According to "The New York Times" report, there were about 120 pages of Jane Doe's interviews with Cornell police and the school's Title IX office.

But the Tompkins County district attorney telling CNN earlier this week, he only received a six page statement, which did not include her explicit rape allegation. The DA says he supports the governor's decision, saying it has become clear that we were not provided the full picture by the university.

THOMAS GIUFFRA, JANE DOE'S ATTORNEY: I think there was a lot of protection of the university and its reputation. And I don't like the word cover up but it feels like a cover up was going on.

CARROLL (voice-over): Some students here telling us they welcome the Attorney General taking over the investigation, many still critical of the university's response, saying there has not been enough transparency, accusing the university's President of not publicly addressing the issue enough. EMELY GUTIERREZ, CORNELL UNIVERSITY STUDENT: I think administration needs to talk to our students, not just handle it and let our students have to do it.

CARROLL (voice-over): On Tuesday, Cornell put out a FAQ page and said campus police investigated the matter in 2024 and shared all investigatory information with the Tompkins County district attorney's office.

But today, they changed it to say Cornell police shared much less than that, only the victim's sworn statement and the Snapchat with the DA's office.

We visited the university president's office today but were unable to meet him and he did not respond to our multiple calls requesting for an interview. Now the investigation in the hands of the state.

HOCHUL: Every parent who sends their child off to college expects them to be safe.

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And if something terrible happens, the student deserves to know that the people they turn to will listen to them, protect them and fight for them.

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HUNTE: CNN's Jason Carroll there.

Buckingham Palace says to expect no apologies from King Charles on his upcoming Caribbean tour. He is planning to visit three Caribbean nations from October 27th to November 4th. The palace says the king will not apologize for Britain's role in the transatlantic slave trade during his trip.

This despite many calls in the region for a formal apology and reparations too. Buckingham Palace did say King Charles will not shy away from the subject, though.

India marked the 157th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi on Friday. President Murmu and prime minister Modi laid flowers at the Gandhi Memorial in New Delhi.

The iconic leader of India's independence was born in 1869. He was killed in 1948, just months after he peacefully led India to freedom from British rule. In his honor, October 2nd is now known as the International Day of Nonviolence.

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HUNTE (voice-over): And you are looking at an elephant seal. This fellow showed up at a beach in Rio de Janeiro on Friday. It is not common to see elephant seals in Brazil. Lifeguards marked the area with flags to alert swimmers that he was there.

The part of the beach where he came ashore was also roped off. And curious observers were told to keep their distance.

Have a quick look. Wow. Very cute. Very cute.

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HUNTE: OK, that's all I've got for you. Thanks for joining me and the team. I'm Ben Hunte in Atlanta. "CONNECTING AFRICA" is next. And then I'll be back with you at the same times tomorrow with so much more CNN NEWSROOM. I'll see you then.