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Trump Claims Victory After Hamas Responds To Peace Plan; Mosque Near Brighton Targeted In Suspected Arson, Hate Crime; Judge Blocks Trump Admin Deploying Troops To Oregon; Czech Populist Party Wins Parliamentary Vote; Poland Activates Jets After Russian Strikes on Ukraine. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired October 05, 2025 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:25]

BEN HUNTE, CNN ANCHOR: 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 on the show, Hamas says it's ready to negotiate for the release of all of the hostages. But a question remains, will it accept the whole of Donald Trump's peace plan?

A populist party in the Czech Republic wins the parliamentary elections? What that could mean for the county's support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.

And keeping an icon clean. The debate around scrubbing the statue in Paris Place de la Republique.

ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Ben Hunte.

HUNTE: Welcome.

Donald Trump is keeping pressure on Israel and Hamas to stick to his 20-point Gaza peace plan and end the war. President Trump said Israel has agreed to an initial withdrawal from Gaza, posting this map to his Truth Social account on Saturday. The map reflects a significant increase in Israeli control of Gaza's territory compared to the ceasefire proposal presented to Hamas in July. The militant group is expected to push back on this redeployment of Israeli troops.

Here's where each side stands right now. Hamas says it's ready to enter negotiations for the release of all hostages, but it has stopped short of accepting Trump's proposal unconditionally. In addition to agreeing to the initial withdrawal, the Israeli prime minister expressed optimism that all hostages will be released within days and defended his pursuit of all-out war in Gaza.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Thanks to the great support I received from you, citizens of Israel, and thanks to the bravery of our fighters, I stood up to enormous pressure from home and abroad to stop the war and to give in to Hamas's dictates. You know what would have happened then? We would have left Gaza, having achieved almost nothing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTE: I am joined now by CNN's Eleni Giokos in Dubai.

Eleni, thanks so much for being with me. We know there are huge expectations right now for this potential deal. What's the latest that you're hearing?

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I mean, huge expectations. And it's very tenuous. It is a very pivotal moment. We also know that President Trump had instituted a 6:00 p.m. Eastern deadline Sunday for Hamas to agree to the 20-point plan. But as you say, a lot of details that need to be worked through.

Here's the point. Youve got Hamas and Israel both showing willingness to agree and to release the hostages, as well as what could bring an end to this two-year war. All teams are headed to Egypt. Netanyahu announcing that his special negotiating team are headed to Cairo. Youve got us special envoy Steve Witkoff, as well as Jared Kushner that are heading through as well. And then Hamas deploying its team to work through those details.

Netanyahu yesterday in a televised address showing optimism, but also perhaps a lot of caution in the wake of so many things that still need to be worked through.

Ben, take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NETANYAHU (through translator): We are on the verge of a very big achievement. It's not final yet, but I hope that in the coming days, during the holiday, I will be able to announce to you the return of all of the hostages in one phase, while the IDF remains deep inside the strip in the territories that control it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIOKOS: Yeah, and the IDF remains deep inside the strip. President Trump, posting on social media a map which shows basically where the IDF will still have control and will be deployed, but this also represents the deepest Israeli lines of control that has been presented during previous ceasefires.

Now, Hamas is likely to push back on that. That's not only one of the sticking points, but many others like, for example, you've got the complete disarmament of Hamas. Whether they will agree to that remains to be seen. We also know that there's talk of this technocratic government. Hamas wants to see Palestinians involved in it.

And also, you've got to remember that this 20-point plan, Ben, is perhaps up to interpretation on some of the points. And also red lines, not only for Hamas, but also for Israel, but for the people on the ground, not only in Gaza but also in Israel.

They have seen this movie before. They know how it ends. Will it have a different ending? That is the big question.

There's concern that the 11th hour will come and, of course, things will fall apart. Take a listen to what people had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHEREEN KHAROUB, DISPLACED PALESTINIAN (through translator): I wish this really comes to effect, not like every time we hear of ceasefire, then it doesn't happen, and we live on false hope.

[03:05:05]

We don't want false promises. This is enough. Our children are gone. Our life is gone. Our homes are gone. Everything is gone. This is enough. We want a ceasefire. For real. On the ground, for real.

KEREN SAAR, ISRAELI RESIDENT OF JERUSALEM: We know that President Trump has been pushing it. Unfortunately, knowing our prime minister, Netanyahu, we are -- we are very worried that he will find a way to sabotage like he did in the past two years already.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIOKOS: You know, Israelis took to the streets in Tel Aviv, tens of thousands of people. And you can see that sign. It says, don't sabotage the deal. That's the concern that Israel won't stick to its commitment.

And of course, big question around what Hamas will do. But you hear the devastation, the pain that people have endured over the last two years. Will this deal, this potential deal finally, finally bring closure to people both in Gaza and in Israel? That's the big question, Ben.

HUNTE: Lots of questions still remain.

Eleni Giokos thank you for the update. Appreciate it.

There have been massive protests across Europe this weekend in support of Palestinians in Gaza, from Madrid to Dublin to Lisbon to Rome. Protesters marched against Israel's conduct of the war and its interception of an international flotilla that was trying to deliver aid to Gaza.

CNN's Ben Wedeman was in Rome, along -- and among the protesters, where large crowds gathered for a fourth day of protests.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This massive protest march through the center of Rome is just the latest in a series of general strikes and demonstrations across this country in recent days. Some of them have been planned, but many of them were sparked by Israel's interception of the flotilla that tried to get to Gaza but did not succeed. Now, certainly this is what we've been seeing in recent weeks is perhaps the largest protest movement in this country in decades.

ROBERTO, PROTESTER (through translator): This Italian government, as the Italian government, must intervene to do something because one of our allies is committing crimes against humanity, and this cannot be allowed to continue.

ANGELO, PROTESTER (through translator): The main thing is we just have to get involved. The results? We'll see about them later. In the meantime, a mass movement has formed that hasn't been seen in Italy for decades.

WEDEMAN: It really is reflective of growing anger at Israel's conduct of the war in Gaza. In fact, according to an opinion poll that was conducted in September, almost 73 percent of the 1,000 respondents said that they believe Israel is conducting genocide in Gaza, and 88 percent said that the Italian government should recognize a Palestinian state.

This despite the fact that the government of far-right Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni is largely sympathetic to Israel. So there really is a growing gap between what the government, the government's policy toward the war in Gaza and the sentiments on the streets of cities like Rome.

I'm Ben Wedeman, CNN, reporting from Rome.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTE: After nearly two years of Israeli bombardment, forced displacement and starvation, some Palestinians in Gaza are optimistic but unconvinced that the war could end.

Tamara Alrifai is director of external relations and communications at the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. She's joining us live from Amman, Jordan.

Tamara, thanks so much for being here. I'll get straight into this.

This isn't even the first time this year that we've been counting down to the end of this crisis. But does this time feel different to you and your team?

TAMARA ALRIFAI, DIRECTOR OF EXTERNAL RELATIONS & COMMUNICATIONS, UNRWA: We hope that this time will be different, and we hope that the agreement reached last week will transform into a permanent ceasefire. This is what we've always called for a ceasefire, along with the release and safe return of the hostages and the opening up of crossing points in the face of food and other urgent supplies to the U.N. to big aid organizations. Given the large scale of destruction and suffering that people in Gaza have endured for now, almost two years.

HUNTE: On that, can you just give us a sense of the current humanitarian situation that does exist in Gaza and what the most urgent needs are for civilians right now?

ALRIFAI: The most urgent need is a sense of safety, because nowhere has been safe in Gaza for two years. Given the continuous bombardment, the continuous fighting, and mostly the continuous forced displacement, all mass of Palestinians in Gaza.

Second is food. Famine was declared on the 22nd of August in Gaza City and was said to be spreading to other parts of the strip.

Third is the continuation of medical consultations and medical services and children -- the psychological status, the anxiety of children, and the fact that they've been off schools for now, two years.

[03:10:15]

All these are priorities. But I'm going to tell you that UNRWA has been responding to all of them. We have not stopped working. We've been and continue to be the largest aid agency. And even inside our shelters that are routinely hit, by the way, during the fighting, we continue to give basic learning to children and basic psychological support.

HUNTE: That's incredible to hear, especially looking at the pictures that are just alongside you while you're talking there. It just looks like an absolutely horrific situation.

When it does come down to humanitarian aid, the current ceasefire plan calls for a return to the terms of an earlier agreement back in January. Was the flow of aid at that time enough to meet Gaza's needs, or does this new agreement need to go further? Do you think?

ALRIFAI: The minimal, minimal, minimal number of trucks, truckloads of food and other medical and urgent supplies, including hygiene kits for women. By the way, because we often forget the special needs of women, the minimal is 500 to 600 trucks per day, so describing this as sufficient is inaccurate. This is really the minimal.

And this was, as you said, this was at the time of the previous agreement with the scale of destruction, with the scale of dispossession, with everything that people have lost, and also with the malnutrition rates, one in three children today is considered malnourished, meaning they go on for one full day without food. Even these minimums now need to be bumped up.

And this is what UNRWA, the largest aid agency, has been calling for. The full opening of border crossing. The conditioning of aid over political agreement is unacceptable. It's called weaponizing humanitarian assistance.

So, we do hope that with this agreement, there's no more weaponizing of food and conditioning people's access to food and to safety on political agreements.

HUNTE: I just want to talk about what happens if this deal doesn't go ahead. Do you have a backup plan in place to deal with everything that could potentially happen next? Because the threats that we've been seeing have been pretty extreme. ALRIFAI: The threats have been extreme. The consequences of this

conflict have been extreme on nearly 2 million people in Gaza. Most of them have been displaced several times, losing loved ones possessions and even hope with every displacement, there is no plan B to a full ceasefire.

There's no plan B to the release and safe return of hostages, and no plan B to resumption -- the resumption of full-fledged humanitarian work in Gaza that should lead to a resumption of safety, of life, of people going back even to their destroyed homes and hoping to build them for us, for the largest aid agency, the priority is the resumption of education for over 660,000 children who are traumatized in Gaza today.

HUNTE: It does almost seem like an impossible task, but thank you for your teams for actually doing the work you're doing on the ground there.

Tamara Alrifai in Amman, Jordan. Thank you. Speak to you again soon.

Flames tore through the front of a mosque in southern England late on Saturday night after a car was set on fire outside. Police are treating the incident in Peacehaven, near Brighton, as a suspected arson attack and hate crime. No one was hurt, but officials say the local Muslim community is deeply shaken. The attack comes just days after two Jewish worshipers were killed outside a Manchester synagogue, amid what officials are calling a rise in religious hate all across Britain.

The Trump administration says it will appeal after a U.S. federal judge blocked the president from deploying national guard troops to Portland, Oregon, for at least two weeks. President Trump had announced he was sending the troops to what he calls a war-ravaged city, following protests outside an immigration and customs facility. The temporary restraining order marks the latest legal setback to his crackdown on cities run by Democrats.

This all comes as the president ordered Illinois national guard troops to, quote, protect federal offices and assets in the wake of protests at another ICE facility, this time near Chicago. Tensions are running high, amid the federal immigration crackdown in the city. Protests continued at the ICE facility on Saturday, with officers deploying gas canisters against protesters.

Video shows people running down side streets to get away. You're seeing it there. Homeland security says officers shot an armed woman after they were rammed and boxed in by vehicles.

[03:15:04]

They say the woman drove herself to a hospital to get treatment and was taken into custody after being discharged.

Still ahead, a billionaire populist who admires Donald Trump comes out on top in the Czech elections. What it could mean for Ukraine. Plus, Poland and its NATO allies are on high alert as Russia launches

air attacks on Ukraine close to the polish border. That's all ahead. See you soon.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNTE: Welcome back.

Members of Syria's electoral colleges are meeting to vote for new lawmakers today. We're seeing some live pictures right there. The gatherings represent a major milestone. They will help establish a nation's first parliament since President Bashar al-Assad was ousted in a civil war that lasted more than 12 years. Today's vote will choose two-thirds of parliament. The interim president will select the rest.

The Czech Republic's ANO party, led by billionaire former Prime Minister Andrej Babis, has won the country's parliamentary election. The populist party's victory is expected to result in reduced support for Ukraine, with 35 percent of the vote.

[03:20:04]

It will lack an outright majority and is likely to look to smaller right-wing parties for support.

At least one person has been killed in a late-night Russian strike on Ukrainian City of Zaporizhzhia. Nine others have been wounded. Apartment buildings, houses and cars were damaged in the attack, and tens of thousands of people have lost power.

Ukrainian officials also report missiles and drones further east in the Lviv region, close to the Polish border. In response, Poland has scrambled aircraft and activated ground-based air defense systems. Allied aircraft are also patrolling Polish skies.

The NATO member country says it's operating at, quote, the highest state of readiness. This all comes nearly a month after some 20 Russian drones entered polish airspace from Ukrainian territory, which were shot down by jets from several NATO countries.

Gen Z is becoming increasingly active in demonstrations worldwide, using 21st century tools to mobilize the masses. Decentralized social media movements and viral online symbolism have given way to thousands of youth-led uprisings, many of which are rooted in the fear that young people's futures are being squandered by an array of broken social contracts.

CNN's Polo Sandoval brings us a closer look at Lima, Peru, where young activists are joining the fight to change the governments mandatory pension contribution policy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He never formally studied piano, but Wildalor Lozano is a 19-year-old graphic designer who knows how to navigate between the notes with the same intuition he feels that his generation, the so-called Gen Z, has dreams worth fighting for.

WILDALOR LOZANO, GENERATION Z - GRAPHIC DESIGNER (through translator): To live in a country that is fair to everyone, where we don't have politicians involved in acts of corruption, where are the police? Where are those 5,000 police officers who marched against us? Where are they at these moments when crime occurs?

SANDOVAL (voice-over): Lozano participated in the country's first anti-pension reform marches in September, when they were about to go into effect. Peru's congress approved the reforms last year. They require people 18 and older to contribute to public or private pension funds, which many believe are corrupt.

After the first protests, the government modified the measure, but protesters did not think that was enough. After becoming a voice of the movement, Lozano says he's been receiving hate messages.

LOZANO: They can label you with a lot of things and adjectives. They say, I'm -- I don't know if you can say that, a terrorist, that you're a leftist or part of the shining path, which is completely false.

SANDOVAL (voice-over): A few kilometers from Lozano's home, Isabel Saavedra studies law. In 2020, her parents first took her to protest government corruption back when she was just 14 years old. She says that's where her interest in the country's problems and politicians was born.

ISABEL SAAVEDRA, GENERATION Z LAW STUDENT (through translator): The president doesn't listen to us, doesn't pay attention to us. I don't know what she's expecting from the Peruvian people.

SANDOVAL (voice-over): Saavedra and Lozano say they avoided participating in recent protests because they're concerned about their safety. It's a fear many other youths share after protests turned violent.

PROTESTER: I want to believe that the love for the homeland is still alive, and I believe something like this is vital for each of us.

SAAVEDRA: There will come a point where not only young people, but all citizens will realize how we are and will want to come out and raise their voices.

SANDOVAL (voice-over): Polo Sandoval, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTE: Protests over proposed spending cuts in France could continue in the coming days, after thousands marched in French cities last week.

Trade unions are demanding action against plans for sharp cuts in next year's budget. A historic square is at the epicenter of the protests in Paris, and keeping it clean amid the demonstrations carries a very big cost.

CNN's Melissa Bell reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is the beating heart of the French Republic -- Paris's Place de la Republique.

ANTONIE GUILLOU, PARIS DEPUTY MAYOR RESPONSIBLE FOR CLEANLINESS: It's a place of gathering for all Parisians in the moments of joy, in the moment of protest, in the moment of sadness as well. And that's something which is, of course, very important to us.

BELL (voice-over): Since the statue was built in the 19th century, the Marianne, Paris's Lady Liberty, has seen it all -- protests, social upheavals, even riots. And each time, plenty of graffiti.

PATRICE DEBART, CLEANING OPERATIONS AGENT (translated): It's our profession. It's the acceptance of it. But graffiti's still graffiti. Graffiti. We've got to make the square as neutral as possible as fast as we can.

[03:25:00]

BELL (voice-over): Scrubbed and washed with high pressure water and sand at a cost of 4,000 euros each time, the statue is being exfoliated here for the sixth time in 2025. So far, a relatively quiet year by Parisian standards.

DEBART (translated): It depends on the current protests. Right after, we'll come and remove the graffiti. So it could be once a week or twice a week depending on the current events.

BELL (voice-over): The statue is also the focus of gathering rather than fracture, like when France grieved after the 2015 terror attacks, shook the republic to its core, with each time the cleaners back at work soon after.

Even as that cleanup operation is underway, there is a layer of protection that will be put on the statue in order to protect it, because one thing is certain that the French will gather here again very soon.

Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTE: I want to show you some video now of a dramatic animal rescue in Brazil. It shows police in the state of Amazonas saving the life of a young, injured jaguar found in a local river. You can see it there. It is swimming with difficulty next to the boat.

After rescue, the jaguar was taken to a clinic for evaluation which found bullets in its body and fractured teeth. The jaguar is now receiving specialized care. Sticking with animals, man's best friend joined other beloved pets for

a special mass in Rio de Janeiro this weekend. Dogs, cats, parakeets and even a turtle flocked to a special religious service with their human caretakers on Saturday in order to receive a special blessing.

It's customary for some Catholic and Methodist churches to hold ceremonies, blessing animals on the feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi, he founded a Franciscan order and was considered a protector of animals. His feast day is on October 4th, now known as World Animal Day.

Okay, that's all I've got for you. Thanks for joining me and the team. I'm Ben Hunte in Atlanta.

"QUEST'S WORLD OF WONDER" is up next. And there's so much more CNN NEWSROOM in about half an hour from now. I will see you tomorrow.

(QUEST'S WORLD OF WONDER)