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Israel-Bound Flight Diverted to Saudi Arabia; Obama Privately Pressing on A.I.; Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) is Interviewed about A.I.; New Report on Cornell Rape Case. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired September 30, 2026 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH REPORTER: That California says leaves a significant gap for its residents. Also, 10 percent of this will go to things to like education and food assistance. It's expected to raise around $100 billion over the next several years.

But opponents of this say that it could harm California. In particular, I talked to California Business Roundtable President Robert Lapsley, who told me that he worries that business leaders and the wealthy in California could flee the state because of this tax, taking the jobs that they create with them.

But it also, obviously, would save these billionaires lots of money. These -- Sergey Brin and other Silicon Valley tech leaders who have been backing the opposition to Proposition 40, it seems like a lot of money, $100 million that Sergey Brin has spent. But when you look at his net worth of $270 billion, that means that his tax bill, if the proposition were to pass, could be $14 billion.

So, I think it is going to be really interesting. One of the ways I think in which we could see these midterms become sort of a referendum on big tech, on tech billionaires, because they are running up against real concerns, I think, about wealth inequality and around the impact that these tech leaders products have had on people. Their -- polling is very split in California on this right now. So, going to be really interesting to see how this plays out.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, very interesting. Yes, with the polling especially. A kind of interesting bit about it as well.

It's great to see you. Thank you so much, Clare.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking this morning, a flight headed to Tel Aviv, forced to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia after a pilot reportedly stabbed another pilot, sending the plane plummeting thousands of feet. We are seeing new video from inside the plane of people asking for help.

And exclusive CNN reporting. Former President Obama shaping how Democrats are talking about A.I. The advice he is giving to potential 2028 presidential candidates and the tech leaders he's been talking to.

And new video this morning of a dramatic rescue after a boat capsized off the Florida coast. We'll take you there.

I'm Sara Sidner, with Kate Bolduan and John Berman. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And the breaking news this morning, Israeli sources say they think it was a suspected hijacking. The copilot apparently trying to stab the captain on a FlyDubai flight from the UAE bound for Tel Aviv. It made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia, reportedly with more than 160 people on board. Some passengers were reportedly able to get inside the cockpit to help stop the attack. One passenger appeared to have blood on his shirt. Another posted this video about the incident.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We are here on the plane right now. We have taken control of the terrorists. We are about to land. Anyone who hears me, we need help. We are landing in Tabuk (ph), probably in the Saudi Arabia area. An unknown and unfamiliar area. Everyone on the plane is healthy and whole except for the pilot. We need help.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The aircraft dropped about 17,000 feet in two minutes. As of now, no injuries among passengers have been reported, but both pilots have been taken to the hospital with injuries.

Let's get right to CNN's Jeremy Diamond, live in Jerusalem with the very latest.

Jeremy, this is some of your reporting on the idea that Israeli sources say they believe it was a hijacking. What are you learning?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Two Israeli sources telling me and my colleague, Tal Shalev, that the pilot and -- the copilot was apparently trying to hijack the plane after stabbing the captain. That's what those Israeli sources suspect at this point.

What is less clear are his motives at this point for stabbing the captain of the plane. And it's also not clear what the intention was once he would have hijacked that plane, whether he was trying to crash it and kill everyone on board, or whether this could have become a hostage situation.

Of course, Israel is familiar with those types of plane hijackings and hostage situations. Those took place several times in the 1970s as Palestinian militants hijacked several planes, including, of course, the infamous Entebbe situation, which resulted in a dramatic Israeli rescue operation.

In this case, though, all of that, all of those scenarios were averted, as it appears that several passengers heroically were able to, you know, get this copilot under control, to restrain him in some way. We don't yet know the details of how the door to the cockpit was able to be opened in order to allow for that to happen.

What we do know is that both the pilot, the copilot, and the captain of this flight, they are indeed at a hospital now in Saudi Arabia.

[09:05:02]

Saudi authorities have confirmed that both of those men are injured.

We've also seen images from aboard the flight showing at least one passenger with blood on his shirt. And we've seen a slew of different videos and testimonies from passengers on the flight describing an absolutely terrifying scene as this plane nosedived more than 17,000 feet in about two minutes time. And, of course, you can imagine how terrifying that must have been for the passengers on board that flight.

The question now is, how are these Israeli passengers who have now safely landed in Saudi Arabia, how are they going to get back to Israel? Israeli officials were trying to send an Israeli military or civilian aircraft to Saudi Arabia to pick them up. An Israeli official has now told us that Saudi Arabia has denied that request. Important to note, of course, that Saudi Arabia and Israel do not have official diplomatic relations. And so, we're waiting to see whether another FlyDubai flight is going to then land and take those passengers out of Saudi Arabia and onward to Israel.

Many more details still need to be learned. The Israeli prime minister has been updated throughout the day by security officials.

John.

BERMAN: Jeremy Diamond for us. Thank you.

I want to bring in CNN's senior national security analyst, Juliette Kayyem.

And, Juliette, a miraculous outcome given that it was one of the people flying the plane, apparently, that either wanted to take it down or take it somewhere else. What do you see here?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So, this is the biggest vulnerability in airline safety since 9/11. You know, we have secured the cockpits. They are sanitized areas. Almost impossible to penetrate. But there are two people in there. And if one of them has a nefarious intent, we don't know what that intent is yet, it is almost impossible to stop that. We've seen this previously, either whether it's suicide by pilot, where they have mental illnesses and they bring the plane down, or, in this instance, one has to begin with the potential that this was targeted against Israeli passengers specifically, and that it was for maybe hostage purposes, but more likely, given the flight plan, that this was a copilot who intended on crashing the plane.

We know this simply because if you -- if you are -- if there's a hostage situation, you're going to land the plane somewhere and then what happens, right? So, we have no proof or no reporting yet that there was a group waiting for the plane for the sort of traditional hostage situation like we saw in the 1970s. This is the biggest vulnerability in airline travel. And given who was in the plane, the Israelis, and all intelligence agencies will be starting with the premise that this was a terror incident.

BERMAN: You say starting and you say intelligence agencies. How do you investigate something like this?

KAYYEM: Yes.

BERMAN: And in this case, who will be investigating something like this? Who will be primary? I mean, you're, you know, you're -- it happened in Saudi Arabia, which doesn't talk to Israel.

KAYYEM: Yes.

BERMAN: The UAE and Israel do have relations. But, gosh, it's going to be complicated.

KAYYEM: Yes, it is. So, this is the challenge. I think Saudi Arabia is actually being quite ridiculous at this stage. Get the passengers home. They can escort an Israeli plane coming in. My suspicion is the UAE will serve as both the investigator, as well as getting the Israeli passengers back to or to Israel where they can be, you know, basically home.

So, this is where the challenges of the Middle East play out in the most sort of -- honestly, sort of ridiculous ways. The Saudis certainly know how to get an Israeli plane in and out without any problems. So, hopefully they will get home.

The UAE, I would suspect, would take lead at this stage for two reasons. One, of course, this is where it's -- the airline started, where the -- where the flight started, but also, this is an issue about pilot mental state. If there is a copilot who has become radicalized, either quickly or over time, why didn't the airline pick it up? Why didn't others pick it up? Pilots undergo rigorous mental and emotional training and testing every three months, six months, whatever it is. So, this is also a major error because of -- because of the sort of sanctity of the cockpit, most airlines have rigorous controls regarding pilots.

BERMAN: Jeremy Diamond, our thank you to Jeremy. Juliette Kayyem, thank you very much as well. Obviously, we're going to stay on this as we get new information in.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: There's also new, exclusive CNN reporting coming in today. Two presidents, two very different approaches to A.I. President Trump, who hosted some of the biggest names in A.I. at the White House yesterday, says that he wants to let the industry police itself rather than impose government guardrails.

[09:10:09]

But another conversation is also happening, and this is where the reporting comes in. Sources tell CNN, A.I. leaders have also been talking with former President Barack Obama, who said he wants a, quote, "serious regulatory framework." And the reporting also shows that he's been telling potential 2028 Democrats that they need to have a plan to deal with this fast moving technology.

CNN's Isaac Dovere has this new reporting. He's here now.

Tell us more about what you're learning.

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, President Trump had a meeting with a lot of these A.I. executives at the White House yesterday. And as you said, he says it's about a moral agreement and that they should police themselves.

President Obama, still the standard setter for the Democratic Party in a lot of ways, even ten years after he left the White House, is having similar meetings, and he's been meeting with A.I. executives, but he's also been talking with academics, with people who are looking at this issue and, importantly, talking with a lot of the people who are getting ready to run, thinking about running for president in 2028 as Democrats.

What he's been saying to them is, they need to get serious about thinking more about the regulation that could be here, both for the policy reasons, because he says this is, in his mind and in many other minds, going to change --

BOLDUAN: You're going to have to deal with this.

DOVERE: It's going to change a lot and change a lot about the economy and the world that we're living in, but also for political reasons, because you can see already this year how much of an issue this is becoming for a lot of voters.

BOLDUAN: Because the disruption is coming, the data center debate has already ignited and then the question becomes, like, does this become another like the two paths? Do Republicans who want to run have to run on police yourself and do Democrats, you know, kind of how that shakes out, Isaac, is going to be interesting. What are you hearing?

DOVERE: Yes. And as I get into the story, in the story that's up on our site, it is a situation that is not just a conversation up in the air. This is about hard-nosed political things, like the amount of campaign spending that we have already seen this year, going very high from A.I. companies on multiple sides of this issue, those who want a little bit more regulation, those who want much less. And that is something that you can see for a lot of these Democrats who are aspiring to run for president, maybe in a crowded primary field, they are worried about that money coming down on their heads. And when I've talked to people about this, what they say is that that is part of what is stopping there from being any real moves that go toward the kind of effort that Obama is talking about, that other people like Lina Khan Gina Raimondo, all of whom have been having conversations themselves, and some of them talked to me about it online -- and you can see online on all this.

BOLDUAN: It's great reporting, as always. Thank you so much for bringing it to us. And you can see that, Isaac's reporting, up on our site now.

Thank you.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, joining me now is Democratic Congressman Gregory Meeks of New York.

Thank you so much for coming in early this morning for us.

I'm just curious, after you're hearing the reporting, have you heard President Obama's advice about how to deal with A.I.?

REP. GREGORY MEEKS (D-NY): I have not heard directly, but I think that is the right direction in which we should move in. You know, this is a serious issue, Sara, and I think that it calls for real leadership.

You know, I was really disappointed yesterday when you saw all of the A.I. executives at the White House, and it's being made a political issue. This affects all Americans. And I think this is what the American people are talking about, where we should be talking -- this should not be a partisan issue. It should be a meeting that the call by the president that have Democrats and Republicans there to talk with these executives.

We did do a trip not too long ago to Silicon Valley on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where Democrats and Republicans heard from some of these A.I. individuals, executives, together, so that we could come up with a comprehensive plan. This is a really serious situation that we're in that affects not only the United States, but the rest of the world. So, we have to have different kind of mechanisms that I think need to be put in place for wanting individuals of what takes place in dealing with China and other countries. So, this is -- what happens on one side of the world is going to take effect on the other.

So, it's a real serious situation that should be sat down -- you know, we should be sitting down in a bipartisan manner, in my estimation, working collectively with the executives and others. Like, you know, for example, I'm reaching out and talk to a couple of people yesterday, like the Dell Corporation, who is not in competition, because I find out some of these A.I. companies, they're competing with one another, you know. And so, some of the times it's just who can get in front of one another.

Let's sit down. Let's have a real conversation with a number of academicians and others that are really involved. And I think that we need to come up with a piece of legislation, probably within the next year, and make sure that we're also having diplomatic talks with China and other countries because this is a very serious issue.

SIDNER: The president's idea is to leave things as they are and let the tech companies police themselves. [09:15:02]

Do you think that that is something that is savvy, sage, good idea?

MEEKS: Absolutely not. The tech executives are basically telling you that themselves, that this is -- they are actually crying for help. That's how part of this started. They came out and said, look, we don't know what's going to happen here. So, if the tech execs are saying this, then we should believe them. And as I said, you know, some want, for example, we had this with export controls with chips. Some wanted to sell them to some places. Some don't. Because of competition.

This is too big, too important for the future. And -- the present and the future, actually, for us to just have it as a political football and saying that, letting execs monitor themselves, that just does not make sense. In fact, many of them say it does not make sense. We have to have some guardrails that's put up.

SIDNER: I do want to ask you -- you're talking guardrails that have to be worked out. Look, CNN's latest polling found that 64 percent of registered voters say that A.I. and data centers will be important to how they vote this year. There is a whole lot of distrust over these centers. Democrats in the Senate are preparing to block a data center bill that passed overwhelmingly in the House. Are your colleagues in the Senate making a mistake here?

MEEKS: Well, look, I'm -- here again is why I think that we've got to try to calm down in the sense that to make sure that we are talking about this in a bipartisan manner. And I know we're in an election season and I'm, you know, and I think that's important, but this is where real leadership comes in. And I know that, for example, talking to Hakeem Jeffries, planning to put something together should we take control of the House with Democrats and Republicans would be a part of some kind of a committee to come up with it so that we can make a proposal that works. And I think that we need to then do that with the Senate.

This is too far. You know, the stakes are too high to allow us to just have a partisan fight on this issue, in my estimation, and, you know, we need real leadership and to allow the A.I. execs to do -- make their own determination or to monitor themselves. I want to make sure, and I think that the appropriate way to do it is to try to bring folks together, have this dialog and conversation, along with China and some of our other -- and others internationally, because it's going to affect the world. This is a, you know, jobs are at stake, et cetera. But one -- it's scary what I'm hearing and what I heard from the mouths of some of the A.I. executives themselves.

So, I want to make sure that we get this done. We need legislation. We need these guardrails. We need to do it within the next year. And we need to do it right.

SIDNER: Congressman Gregory Meeks, it's good to have you. Thank you so much for coming on this morning.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: There are new details coming out this morning on the gang rape investigation out of Cornell University. The district attorney says he is hoping to interview Jane Doe as soon as today. What is now emerging, though, about what she told police at the time of the alleged assault two years ago.

And Six Flags is closing a famous roller coaster following a CNN investigation that revealed years of injuries and deaths.

And in at least one election, the votes have been cast and already counted. And a new champion has been crowned in the annual Fat Bear contest.

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[09:22:38]

SIDNER: There are some disturbing new details this morning in the alleged gang rape of a former Cornell University student. We're now learning what Jane Doe reportedly told university police in 2024. CNN affiliate WCBS reports it obtained a transcript of the interview that she gave police weeks after the assault. In it, she told police she was OK with an initial encounter, but then later in the night she did not consent and believe she was raped. Last hour a lawyer representing one of the men accused in Jane Doe's lawsuit told us what he says his client saw in the room that night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEREMY SALAND, ATTORNEY REPRESENTING ONE OF THE ACCUSED IN CORNELL LAWSUIT: He goes up there. He introduces himself. She makes a joke back about his name being Scott, because there was another Scott there with him. He speaks to her, sees that she's OK. He does not see her naked. Does not see anyone engage in sexual activity with her. She's articulate in her words. And then he sits down for maybe, maybe five minutes, roughly, there's a couch in there and my recollection is it's facing the opposite way of the bed, and then he leaves. That is it. There's nothing more to this. He doesn't see any reason to have any alarm.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: CNN's Jason Carroll is in Ithaca, New York.

Jason, give us some sense of these new developments at this hour.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, again, as we've been saying, there is a great deal to unpack here, Sara. And much of it has to do with the comments that Jane Doe made back in 2024 to campus police and what -- and what types of those comments that she made, made it to the district attorney's office.

So, according to WCBS and ABC News, they are citing first a transcript and second a statement that Jane Doe made back in 2024 to campus police. Now, in those statements -- in that statement and in that transcript, apparently Jane Doe said that she was heavily intoxicated, that she was initially OK with an encounter. And later that night said that she did not consent and that she believed that she was raped. Also going on to say that she was OK with the initial, quote, "sexual activity," but did not consent to what occurred later that night.

[09:25:02]

And according to ABC, she described thinking to herself that if she had passed out in some way after taking drugs, such as ketamine, that perhaps after she passed out and the men had sex with her, then those men could be charged with rape.

Now, according to the district attorney's office, he told CNN this morning that he did not receive that transcript from the campus police. As you know, Sara, the D.A. here has been under a great deal of scrutiny and criticism from some members of the Cornell community asking why charges were not filed back in 2024. The district attorney telling CNN last night that he simply is constrained by the law.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEW VAN HOUTEN, TOMPKINS COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Unfortunately, under New York state law, which I'm constrained by, 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: So, again, Sara, this morning, I think, what some of us are looking for is a bit more clarity in terms of what Jane Doe said back in 2024, in her statement, and what -- if that statement made its way to the district attorney's office this morning. A spokesperson for campus police, the Cornell Police Department, saying the following, "Cornell University police investigated the matter in 2024 and shared all investigatory information with the D.A.'s office, which is the established protocol, if the department believes a crime occurred.

Sara.

SIDNER: There are a lot of questions now this morning.

Jason Carroll, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

John.

BERMAN: All right, two candidates trying to lead the most populous state in the nation go head to head in a live debate. And it all happens right here on CNN on that stage. That's a live look right now.

And then a police officer puts himself in harm's way to stop a driver who was going the wrong way.

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