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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

U.S. Peace Plan For Gaza Proposes End To War, Return Of Hostages; Lawmakers Dig In Heels As Shutdown Deadline Looms; Trump And Hegseth To Address Top U.S. Generals In Unusual Military Gathering; Investigators Search For Motive In Deadly Michigan Church Attack; Trump Renews Threat Of 100 Percent Tariff On Non-US-Made Films. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired September 30, 2025 - 04:00   ET

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

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PAUL FINE BAUM, ESPN HOST: You well know you're sitting there talking to Stephen A. Smith and you're and -- as you're waiting for your turn, you're thinking, I wonder if I should move forward on this. So it's a -- it's been a -- it's been going on for a couple of days or if not weeks, and it's just hard to chisel it down to make an educated decision. But to say I'm considering it, of course, yes.

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KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks so much for joining us. The news continues here on CNN.

BRIAN ABEL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning and welcome to our viewers joining us from the U.S. and all around the world. I'm Brian Abel in Washington, DC.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: And I'm Becky Anderson in Abu Dhabi, where the time is midday. We are following two major stories.

Donald Trump unveils a plan to end the war in Gaza. And Benjamin Netanyahu approves but warns Israel is prepared to finish the job if Hamas rejects the plan.

Plus, Washington is just hours away from a government shutdown as Republicans and Democrats accuse each other of bringing it on. U.S. President Donald Trump says he's close to a peace agreement that will end the war in Gaza and secure the release of all the hostages.

The Israeli prime minister says he has agreed to the 20-point plan, which includes a permanent ceasefire, the release of all remaining hostages, living and dead, Israel's gradual withdrawal from Gaza, as well as a roadmap for Gaza without Hamas in power.

Benjamin Netanyahu warned of dire consequences if Hamas rejects the plan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: If Hamas rejects your plan, Mr. President, or if they supposedly accept it and then basically do everything to counter it, then Israel will finish the job by itself. This can be done the easy way or it can be done the hard way, but it will be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: In the meantime, Qatar says Israel apologized for its attack on Doha during a phone call with President Trump. Qatar's prime minister says his country is still willing to continue engaging in efforts to reach an end to the war in Gaza.

Well, CNN's Paul Hancocks is here with the very latest. Look, this isn't a done deal as of yet. We need to be quite clear about that. But walk us through the contours of this initiative and the important caveats, as it were.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, Becky, we have the basics which we've known all along, that there would be a permanent ceasefire, that there would be the release of all the hostages in return for a number of Palestinian prisoners.

Now, beyond that, there's also one of the points is that there will be a gradual withdrawal of the Israeli military from the Gaza Strip. Now, this is a departure from what we've heard from Benjamin Netanyahu in recent weeks and months that the military would remain stationed in certain areas.

So certainly that's an interesting part. And then also talking about having a roadmap for Gaza without Hamas in it. Now, we have heard from Hamas themselves that they say they accept they will not have any part in the governance of Gaza. That will be up to an international entity to start with.

But there is a red line there, that this plan calls for the demilitarization of Gaza. It calls effectively for Hamas to lay down its arms. Some Hamas members can leave Gaza if they want to. Some, if they give up their weapons, they will be granted amnesty according to this plan.

But there is no indication that Gaza -- that Hamas will accept this -- what it is called itself a red line, the fact that they will be demilitarizing. So, it's tricky to see how Hamas could agree to it. But it's also written in such a way that it's not so specific that both sides can see there might be wiggle room.

ANDERSON: So no official response from Hamas as you and I speak. Benjamin Netanyahu himself has publicly accepted this proposal. But of course, there is no formal acceptance by Israel until the Cabinet Security Cabinet votes on this. And it is unclear as of yet when that vote might be. This region that we are in, and we're here in Abu Dhabi, in the UAE,

this region is working with Donald Trump in with his administration in lockstep on this.

[04:05:00]

Let's just break down for our viewers the region's role and their reaction to this proposal or plan.

HANCOCKS: So the interesting point about this is that Hamas is the last to be presented this plan. This is a plan that has been created by the U.S. President, those around him, in conjunction with Arab leaders, in conjunction with European leaders.

I mean, this plan was actually given to the Arab Muslim leaders last week at the U.N. General Assembly on the sidelines. They accepted parts of it. They gave their suggestions for other parts. As we understand, there's been a lot of give and take when it comes to trying to create something that everybody would be happy with. So, many of the countries that are invested in what happens in Gaza have had input into this.

So this is a departure from what we've seen in recent months of the negotiation back and forth between Israel and Hamas indirectly, which we know drags on and which we know has been ended in disappointment in the past. This is a done deal as far as the U.S. is concerned. They have the acceptance from the region.

I have a statement here from eight of the countries, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and they say, quote, the ministers affirmed their readiness to engage positively and constructively with the United States and the parties towards finalizing the agreement and ensuring its implementation. Implementation in a manner that ensures peace, security and stability for the peoples of the region.

So the way this is set up, it is effectively everybody has agreed the ball is very much in Hamas's court. And as we've heard from Benjamin Netanyahu, if Hamas says no, then they have carte blanche to continue what they're doing.

ANDERSON: Paula Hancocks in the house. Thank you very much indeed.

Well, my next guest describes his plan as, quote, a deal to end the war without actual date to end the war and without the consent of one side. I want to bring in Mairav Zonszein, who is a senior analyst on Israeli Palestinian issues at the International Crisis Group. She joins us now live from Tel Aviv.

And I quote a post that you wrote just after the press conference, which wasn't a press conference because no questions were taken, but the, you know, the announcement of this deal between Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday in Washington.

You're taking quite a critical stance on this initiative. Explain your assessment and whether you see Hamas accepting it in the first instance. MAIRAV ZONSZEIN, SENIOR ISRAEL ANALYST, INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP:

It's good to be with you. I mean, look, you know, you had the American president and the Israeli prime minister standing up there saying that they have a deal to end the war. Trump's rhetoric is obviously, you know, bombastic about peace, eternal peace. And you still don't have the consent of Hamas.

And you have, as you mentioned, Arab and Muslim countries who have put specific points into the document. And it's unclear if some of those points have actually made it in. And if you look at the document and you look at what is on paper, we still don't know what it's going to look like in practice. There is no actual timeline for Israeli withdrawal of troops.

All of it is at the discretion of people like Trump and Tony Blair and to an extent, Netanyahu, because he's the one who's in charge of the monopolization of force in Gaza right now. So you get the hostages very quickly. But then there's a lot of other elements that even if you agree to the fact that Hamas should no longer survive in its current form and that this is a complete surrender for Hamas, what does it mean for the Palestinian people of Gaza? What does it mean for the Palestinian people in the West Bank?

These are issues that matter. And so there's just a lot of, you know, the devils and the details. And that's really where Israel has, you know, the upper hand at this point.

ANDERSON: Yes, yes, I understand your points. I'm not sure whether this is a pushback necessarily, but it's -- I think this is important to discuss at this point. My colleague Stephen Collinson, you know, in reacting to the initiative or the plan, said, and I quote, the humanitarian situation in Gaza is so horrific and the plight of remaining hostages held by Hamas following the October 7, 2023 terror attacks so dire that any hope for ending agonizing human misery should be eagerly grasped.

Trump's new plan does appear to be the administration's most substantive, thoughtful and broadly supported effort to end the Gaza war yet.

This is the prevailing solution to this conflict from the key world power, plus regional players and those outside of this region, including other significant Muslim powers, Europeans.

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It's the most substantive sort of solution at this point that could stop the killing. Do you agree?

ZONSZEIN: I mean, there's no doubt that the stop to the killing is welcome. The question is that actually going to be enforced and going to be maintained? If you look at what Netanyahu said in Hebrew, addressing the Israeli public right after the presser, he talked about how he'll never withdraw Israeli troops from Gaza. So that's one thing to keep in mind. The other is that we had a ceasefire when Trump came into office in

January 2025. We had a very similar framework. It was the same framework that Biden put together. It may have not been in this current format with all the Arab and Muslim countries, but it was pretty much the same thing and it had the same idea behind it. Trump enforced it on Netanyahu and then let him break it and proceed to starve the people of Gaza.

So I'm not sure that there's anything in this that is going to be different in the sense that why, who is going to stop Netanyahu from going back in? And both Trump and Netanyahu have said, if Hamas doesn't take the terms exactly as we want, we will do as we like. So the guarantees are really important here --

ANDERSON: Yes.

ZONSZEIN: -- in the implementation and the sustained engagement.

ANDERSON: Yes. And your points are very well made when it comes to the timing of this. Of course, Israel would need to formally vote to approve the deal. How do you see Benjamin Netanyahu navigating this at home? Because he is going to get significant put back -- pushback on a number of issues.

Do you see him, for example, collapsing this current government in order to get agreement for this deal, in order to effectively ensure that he keeps Donald Trump on side?

ZONSZEIN: Well, I think he has a number of options. He can certainly avoid going to elections by switching out the far right with other coalition partners. Either way, they're supposed to be elections in a year in Israel. So Netanyahu could already be thinking about how to campaign for his reelection. And I don't think that's going to be the deal breaker.

And I do want to point out that when you look at the war goals that were set by the cabinet of, you know, removing Hamas from power, returning the hostages, removing Gaza as a threat, those are met in this -- in the current points. So the far right ministers aren't getting mass transfer, they're not getting ethnic cleansing, they're not getting annexation of Gaza. But those were not actually the goals that Israel set out to do so. I think Netanyahu, as usual, is politically resilient.

I don't think this is necessarily going topple him. And who knows, if we do go to elections, you know, he could be reelected. There could be no elected coalition. So, you know, I wouldn't rule out the fact that Netanyahu still has quite a long time to go even if this deal does go through.

ANDERSON: Mairav, it's good to have you very much appreciate your analysis and insight this morning. Mairav Zonszein in Tel Aviv.

And I quoted some of Stephen Collinson's analysis during that interview. And you can get his full analysis online titled Trump Must Learn From Failures in Ukraine if New Middle East Plan is to Succeed. More from us from this region throughout this hour. For the time

being, I want to get you back to Brian in Washington. Brian.

ABEL: And Becky, there is another major headline that is happening right here in Washington, D.C. today where there's less than 24 hours until the U.S. government is expected to shut down.

Republican lawmakers have been pushing Democrats to pass a stopgap bill to temporarily fund the government until a new deal can be reached. But top Democrats are signaling that they have no interest in delaying issues they want addressed right now. CNN's Manu Raju has more from here in DC.

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MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There is now growing fear on Capitol Hill that a government shutdown is all but unavoidable because the two sides, Democrats and Republicans, are nowhere near reaching an agreement on how to fund the federal government.

Democrats want to include as part of the bill to keep the government open new health care policy, specifically to reverse cuts that were enacted to the Medicaid program as part of Donald Trump's signature domestic policy achievement, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

They also want to extend expiring subsidies on under the Affordable Care Act, those Obamacare subsidies are set to expire at the end of the year. They want to include that in this proposal. They also want to constrain Donald Trump's ability to cut federal spending without the consent of Congress. There's a problem.

Republicans who control the House and the Senate and the White House say that is absolutely a nonstarter as part of this negotiation. Instead, Republicans are pushing for a straight extension of government funding up until November 21, seven weeks.

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And they say they can negotiate all those other matters over that seven-week time frame. Democrats say no way because they have leverage. They have votes in the United States Senate where they need to provide at least seven Democratic votes in order to overcome a filibuster in advanced legislation. That will not happen at this moment because of the position of Democratic leaders and most of the members of their caucus.

There's one outspoken member, Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, who's making clear he does not agree with his party's position.

SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): Right now, it's like you're running the risk of plunging our nation into chaos. Millions and millions of lives will be upended. And now that's the kinds of message -- what kind of message does that send to our country and to our allies and to our enemies?

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NJ): We're not asking for things to be added on.

RAJU: You have health care.

JEFFRIES: We are working on dealing with an issue, health care that is central to the quality of life of the American people.

RAJU: That last comment coming from Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader, who is on the same page at the moment with Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader. The question is going to be can they maintain that unity if there is a prolonged government shutdown? Because we saw what happened back in March when were on the eve of a government shutdown back then. Chuck Schumer ultimately relented, agreed with Republicans to extend government funding until the end of September. Jefferies and House Democratic leaders were furious at Schumer's position. Schumer is trying to make sure that does not happen again.

But that could mean they've agreed to block this Republican spending bill and ultimately see the consequences, which is a government shutdown which could last for some time and could be very painful for millions of Americans. Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.

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ABEL: And with the backdrop of that looming government shutdown, President Trump is expected to speak today at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's meeting with military leaders. The commander-in-chief says the gathering is meant to talk about how well the U.S. military is doing and about being in great shape.

Sources tell CNN, Hegseth will stress the importance of the warrior ethos and discuss standards and readiness, fitness and grooming. Hegseth has helped lead the charge to rid the military of so called woke ideology and reinvent the Defense Department as the Department of War.

Still to come for us, investigators are learning more about the man who carried out a deadly attack on a church in Michigan where hundreds of worshippers were attending Sunday services.

Plus, the latest Trump tariffs are on the way. Many household products could be impacted. And that's not all.

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ABEL: Two powerful storms, Hurricane Humberto and Tropical Storm Imelda, are stirring up trouble in the Atlantic. Imelda is expected to strengthen into a hurricane later today. It's moving parallel right now to the southeastern U.S. coast but is forecast to shift to the east. While it probably won't make landfall, Imelda will likely bring heavy rain, dangerous surf and possible flash flooding to the Carolinas.

Hurricane Humberto briefly gaining strength to a Category 5 hurricane. It is now a Category 4, and its massive circulation is actually steering Imelda away from the US. Bermuda, though, is facing a rare one-two punch from both of these storms.

A community in Michigan grieving and looking for answers after Sunday's deadly attack on a church in Grand Blanc. Investigators are trying to figure out why a 40-year-old ex-Marine drove his vehicle into a chapel filled with worshippers, then began shooting with an assault rifle and set the Building on Fire. CNN's Leigh Waldman brings us the latest.

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CHIEF WILLIAM RENYE, GRAND BLANC, MICHIGAN POLICE DEPARTMENT: Evil. This was an evil act of violence.

LEIGH WALDMAN, CNN CORRESPONENT (voice-over): Congregants and residents in shock after at least four were killed in a deadly attack at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody in my neighborhood, they're so devastated.

BRANDT MALONE, CHURCH MEMBER: My wife and my daughter were just up here on Saturday night for a youth activity. So it's a really raw thing to see it.

WALDMAN (voice-over): A peaceful Sunday service cut short by violence when a gunman drove a vehicle into the church, began shooting, then set the building ablaze, authorities say.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lifetime of memories is just gone.

WALDMAN (voice-over): In an exchange of gunfire, officers killed the gunman they identified as a 40-year-old Iraq war veteran from a nearby city. Complicating the investigation on Monday, a 21-year-old drove a sedan through a barricade at the scene while was quickly apprehended by police.

Photos taken by a CNN crew shows what appears to be a long gun in the front seat of the car. Authorities have not provided additional details about the individual or the motive.

RENYE: We are still in the process of investigating that incident whether or not it's related or not.

WALDMAN (voice-over): The motive in the attack remains unclear. Kris Johns, a candidate for a Michigan city council, told CNN he spoke to the alleged shooter a week ago while door knocking on the campaign trail.

KRIS JOHN, BURTON, MICHIGAN CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATE: He did make the statement that Mormons are the Antichrist, which is a shocking statement. This is somebody you're just meeting for the first time. He had very strong opinions. Nothing that was related to violence that would indicate violence. Just somebody who had a very, very strong held belief that really he had maybe a philosophical animus but not necessarily a desire to do what he did.

WALDMAN (voice-over): Eight people were injured in the attack and everyone else has now been accounted for, officials say.

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SEN. ELISSA SLOTKIN (D-MI): It doesn't matter what party you're from, this kind of thing just chills you to the bone.

WALDMAN (voice-over): Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin surveyed the scene on Monday. It's near her home.

SLOTKIN: No community can ever believe that they would be on the receiving end of an attack like this.

GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D) MICHIGAN: This place has been shattered by bullets and broken glass, and this might be a familiar pain, but it hurts all the time. We cannot keep living our lives like this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABEL: Meanwhile, Donald Trump has announced that he intends to impose a 100 percent tariff on foreign made movies. Again, the president making the same threat back in May. And like before, he hasn't specified how the policy could be applied to what is primarily a service and one often produced with a mixture of international inputs.

His social media post says the U.S. moviemaking business has been, quote, stolen and he has decided to solve the problem. And President Trump has also ordered a new 10 percent tariff on imported lumber and timber that will start October 14. For things like kitchen cabinets and vanities, it will be 25 percent. That could mean higher home building and furnishing costs, which have already surged in recent months.

And Trump says the rates could go even higher to 30 and 50 percent on certain furniture and cabinets starting January 1st.

YouTube has agreed to pay 24 and a half million dollars to settle a lawsuit filed by the president. Trump sued after he was suspended by social media platforms in 2021 following the January 6th insurrection. Meta and X have already settled. They settled their claims earlier this year.

And now, according to a court document, YouTube will pay $22 million to the nonprofit trust for the National Mall to support the construction of the White House State Ballroom. It will also pay more than $2 million to settle with other plaintiffs, including the nonprofit American Conservative Union.

A growing list of world leaders welcoming the U.S. peace proposal for Gaza. But with no word yet from Hamas, how likely is a final deal? Becky Anderson will take a closer look at all the developments ahead.

Plus, cartels using social media to recruit young Americans to expand their smuggling operations. We'll show you how authorities are working to disband their networks.

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