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Social Media Accounts Suggest Flydubai Copilot's Radical Leanings; G7 Members Agree to Release Diesel Stockpiles; Democrats Hammer Trump and GOP on Economy; Spanish Parliament Rejects Housing Bill, Hundreds of Teens in France in Custody after Violent Education Protests; Cornell University under Fire over Handling of Alleged Gang Rape; NY Governor Seeks to Close "Voluntary Intoxication" Loophole in Rape Law; U.S. Veterans Agency Struggles to Staff New Health Clinics; Jobs Report Shows Vanishing Roles in AI-Friendly Sectors. Aired 5-6a ET

Aired October 03, 2026 - 05:00   ET

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

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SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hello and a very warm welcome to our viewers in the U.S. and all around the world. I'm Salma Abdelaziz in London. Let's go straight to our headlines.

New details are emerging about that flydubai attack. We're going to go live to Jerusalem for the latest on the investigation.

President Trump rallies supporters in ruby-red Alabama ahead of the midterms as his approval rating hits an all-time low. We're going to look at his impact on the race for control of Congress.

And New York's governor says she wants the truth. The growing fallout from the Cornell sexual assault investigation and the push to close a loophole in state law.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Salma Abdelaziz.

ABDELAZIZ: Let's begin with word about a possible terrorist connection behind Wednesday's violent incident on a flydubai plane.

The attorney general of the United Arab Emirates now says that the copilot attempted to carry out a, quote, "terrorist attack."

This is according to the UAE's state news agency. A criminal investigation into the incident is now underway in the UAE.

Earlier, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the suspect had been radicalized but he stopped short of calling the incident a terrorist act. To learn more, I want to bring in Nic Robertson, our diplomatic editor in Jerusalem. Good morning to you. First of all, Nic, this is a very fast-moving

investigation, of course, it spans across multiple countries.

What has been revealed so far when it comes to the motive behind this attack?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, it really is a fast-moving investigation here. Of course, there's a lot about the investigation we don't know.

And, of course, because this is a -- there is an active criminal investigation, as you say, the attorney general in the UAE, where the suspect is in custody, ongoing criminal investigation, calling it a terrorist act.

And that's because there's an ongoing criminal investigation. Obviously, one has to be careful about what one can say. But the facts that we can very clearly report are he was named. The suspect was named Hamam al-Hammami, named by Saudi state media.

And, of course, when the plane came down, when the attack took place, it was in Saudi airspace. And the plane landed in Saudi Arabia before the suspect was transferred yesterday to Emirati custody.

So we do have that now from the Saudi state media, the name of the suspect. We knew that he was an Omani. And we've also learned another interesting detail from the attorney general in the UAE, who is leading the investigation, and that is the nature and more details about the attack.

He says that the suspect used the crash ax. That's an ax that's kept on board the aircraft in case it's needed to break out, you know, in a -- in a crash scenario. So saying that he used the crash ax that was on board the aircraft to attack the captain, who was overwhelmed almost.

But just in his last acts yesterday, before passing out, he explained how he had been able to open the cockpit door and let -- and let the passengers in, who then rescued the aircraft.

So the details are coming out. And we can certainly understand that intelligence agencies in both Israel and the UAE -- because we know the Israelis are going to be part of the investigation as well; we heard that from prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the past 24 hours or so.

They're both going to be looking, now the name is clear of the suspect, into his background. So I think these are the -- these are the details of where we're at on this, as you say, fast-moving investigation.

ABDELAZIZ: And a very important and disturbing detail there from UAE officials that it was the crash ax that is the suspected weapon in this attack as they continue to dig deeper in this investigation.

Nic Robertson there, reporting for us from Jerusalem, thank you so much for that update.

The White House is counting on some close U.S. allies to help lower fuel prices before the upcoming midterm elections.

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On Friday, G7 leaders said that they would release some 100 million barrels from their diesel 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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ABDELAZIZ: President Donald Trump is now back in Washington, D.C, this morning. This is after a whirlwind trip to Alabama to stump for Republicans. The midterms are just over a month away and control of Congress is, of course, hanging in the balance.

The president's team believes he can boost voter turnout and that might improve the GOP's chances of maintaining power. But this is despite the fact that Trump's approval rating is at an all-time low and some Republican candidates are openly breaking with him.

His advisers have put together a schedule that has him on the campaign trail for much of October. The rally in Mobile, Alabama, was part of that strategy and the president talked about it on Friday night.

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TRUMP: They said, "Why are you going to Alabama? Why are you going to Oklahoma? Why are you going to Texas?" But especially in the last 2 in Texas because we have to win that race. Ken Paxton has to win.

But here, you're going to win your races. But in the case of Oklahoma and Alabama, I'm here to say hello. I love you, and I'm coming really as a sign of respect.

I'm asking you to pretend that I'm on the ballot. Here's what happens. When I'm not on the ballot, we don't do well.

When I'm on the ballot, we kill everybody.

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ABDELAZIZ: A new AP-NORC poll finds most Americans believe the country is economically worse off since president Trump's second term began, 61 percent of adults say the national economy is much worse or somewhat worse and just 23 percent say it's better.

The Democratic House minority leader hammered Republicans on the economy Friday but Alabama senator defended the president and insisted the economy would improve.

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SEN. TOMMY TUBERVILLE (R-AL): This guy works 18 to 20 hours a day every day of the week and he's working to make this country better. And I promise you, in a very short period of time, those prices are going to drop. When they drop, the bottom's going to drop out of them and the Democrats - we're going to send them home.

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REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY), MINORITY LEADER: People are drowning in this failed Trump economy and we've got to do something about it across the board. We have to lower the price of groceries, lower the price of gas, lower the price of housing.

We're fighting to make health care affordable for every single American. And Republicans clearly have done damage to the economy. The Trump tariffs have increased costs on everyday Americans by thousands of per year. And this reckless war of choice in the Middle East has skyrocketed gas prices. So no, it's too little, too late.

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ABDELAZIZ: Meanwhile, national Republican groups are pausing spending in North Carolina's Senate race. Republican candidate Michael Whatley, who you can see on the right there, has long been trailing in opinion polls.

The Democratic candidate, former governor Roy Cooper, is leading in every recent survey. So one top political action committee is instead moving funds to the Senate race in Kansas. Republican incumbent senator Roger Marshall is facing a tough challenge there as well.

I want to bring in to this conversation now Natasha Lindstaedt. She is a professor of government at the University of Essex and joins me from Colchester, England.

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Good morning to you. First of all, you know, we had that brief little sound bite there from president Trump, who has now kicked off his midterm tour. And it includes Republican strongholds like Alabama, as well as fiercely competitive states that sit on a knife edge. Let's begin there.

What is the electoral calculation behind visiting places his party would normally expect to win, as well as places that need help with vulnerable candidates?

Is he looking for photo ops with adoring crowds here?

NATASHA LINDSTAEDT, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX: I mean, it's a great question and a lot of experts have questioned this strategy, which seems like it's some kind of campaign blitz of supposedly he's going to visit 32 states in October.

And they've clarified that they think this is a winning strategy because they want to motivate the base to come out to vote. They think that some of these races are going to be really close. And the midterms are about who can motivate their base to come out, since traditionally voter turnout in the midterms isn't very isn't very good.

So it's about getting people to vote. And then second, it's about fundraising. And this is actually something that the Republicans have an advantage of over the Democrats, actually, by a lot, where they have twice as much amount than the Democrats, even more than that.

So I think they think that they can, you know, just get some enthusiasm going. And Trump is convinced that he is the key to this. He doesn't seem to believe that, even though his really terrible poll numbers are going to drag other candidates down, he thinks that it's going to help them because he can get his base out to vote

ABDELAZIZ: So let's talk about that polling. And as you said, he believes he's the key. But, of course, there is low approval ratings. Where could he potentially drive away swing voters and where could he

help make a difference for Republicans?

LINDSTAEDT: I mean, in swing states, he is just doing terribly. If you look at the approval rating of all the different, you know, states in the country, in all of the swing states, he is underwater in a state like Georgia. He's 24 points underwater. I mean, this is terrible for him.

And even in states where he's doing well -- and that's only in nine states -- does he have a net positive approval rating. States like Oklahoma, where he's visiting, just visited, he has just barely two points approval rating; a 47 percent to 45 percent in Texas. He isn't doing well at all.

So I would think this would be quite a risky strategy to go to some of these states where they're really on a razor edge here and where Republicans actually want to distance themselves from Trump because they think that he's dragging them down.

I mean, there was actually a recent CNN poll that showed that it's 75 percent of Americans that disapprove of the way he's handling the relationship with Iran, the war in Iran.

And his approval ratings on affordability, which is the most important factor in these midterms, is abysmal. So he continues to believe that his problem is that he has a public relations problem.

That's what he has stated, that, if he can just get the message out that the country is doing great, that that's what's going to help these swing state candidates. But typically, that hasn't been the case when we've seen the midterms, the way they have played out, historically speaking.

ABDELAZIZ: If I may go now to the Democratic strategy here, because, after years of struggling to connect with voters, some Democratic groups have -- recruits, rather, have expanded the battlefield. And they're really beginning to address the failures in positioning policy language that helped fuel president Trump's dominance.

But is the party too divided to capitalize on this moment between its progressive and moderate base?

LINDSTAEDT: I mean, that's often been the Democrats' problem, that they shoot themselves in the foot sometimes. They don't always have the most brilliant strategy. They start infighting. The infighting becomes very public. It looks as if there is this huge division within the party.

And then sometimes different elements of the party turn off voters, either not being progressive enough or being too extreme and so forth.

But if they can stay disciplined with their message of focusing on affordability, which is how Mamdani won in New York City and some other candidates as well, and some of these, you know, races that occurred prior to the midterm, where they won by actually double digits.

We didn't think that would be the case.

If they focus on a really disciplined message of affordability but also explaining that it's Trump's policies that are driving up prices at the grocery store, at the gas pumps and so on, they might be able to tap into the angst that a lot of these independent or more moderate voters are feeling.

And get them motivated to vote in the midterms, which they typically don't in large numbers to support Democratic candidates.

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ABDELAZIZ: Natasha Lindstaedt there as the control of Congress hangs in the balance, with midterms just about a month away now. Thank you so much for that analysis.

The Justice Department is asking a court to reinstate president Trump's ban on White House access for CNN, MS NOW and "Politico." A judge is considering whether to extend a two-week order that restored the outlets' access. That order is expiring at the end of next week but a hearing is set for Thursday.

Now the White House says the outlets published news stories that put national security at risk, an argument that the judge simply rejected last week.

There is much more to come here on CNN NEWSROOM. Protesters in Spain are angry after a housing bill aimed at protecting vulnerable tenants failed in parliament. Our reporter on the ground will explain the impact on the Spanish government.

Plus education protests in France turn violent as students clash with police. After the break, we head to Paris, as demonstrators show no signs of backing down

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ABDELAZIZ: Thousands of protesters are still camped out in downtown Madrid.

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This is after the Spanish parliament rejected a housing bill. It was aimed at protecting certain vulnerable tenants from being evicted. We have live pictures right now from Madrid, where it is Saturday morning. And those thousands of demonstrators remain in the streets.

The housing bill was supposed to be an attempt to quiet widespread anger over the recent eviction of an 87-year-old woman. Since the bill's failure, demonstrators have reaffirmed their commitment to continue protesting across the country.

I want to go to our Pau Mosquera, who is in that square right now in Puerta del Sol, covering the heart of these demonstrations in Madrid.

So Pau, this gets turned down yesterday by parliament. And yet protesters say we will remain in the square.

What happens now that this measure has been voted down?

And what do demonstrators plan to do to continue their pressure on the government?

PAU MOSQUERA, CNN SPAIN CORRESPONDENT: For the time being, Salma, they are determined to continue the camp continuously, indefinitely, which means that we don't know how long it could go on for.

It is also worth noting that today marks a week since protesters began camping out at this Puerta del Sol downtown Madrid. We actually can see them how they are putting up some makeshift tarps as to get some protection from the rain that is forecasted for the day.

The intention is to keep the pressure on the streets, they tell me, as to force lawmakers to continue to work on proposals to solve the housing crisis that is affecting the country.

Even though the parliament yesterday rejected the proposals made by the government as to tackle the situation, they are determined to keep on the streets, to keep demonstrating as to make the government to go again to the parliament with new proposals, new measures as to change this situation. Have a listen.

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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.

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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MOSQUERA: Now the other question, Salma, is what is going to happen after the parliament rejected all those measures. There are many that are already speculating and making political calculations on what could be prime minister Pedro Sanchez's next move.

Actually, several national media outlets are reporting that he might be considering calling for an early election. But I got in touch with the prime minister's office and they didn't confirm this possibility.

So the only ones that know what is going to be the next move are the demonstrators, the protesters that actually are calling the people in Madrid to gather here, around midday local time, to take again the city center and express their demands on how to solve this housing crisis, Salma.

ABDELAZIZ: People power yet again testing the Spanish government. This is CNN's Pau Mosquera joining us from Puerta del Sol, Madrid, as protesters show no signs of letting up. Thank you.

Meanwhile, demonstrations turned violent in France. This is as students and police fought openly in the streets. Several schools were set on fire and students rallied against an underfunded education system. More than 400 schools remain closed on Friday and some officials banned gatherings nearby.

French young people claim that their education system is underresourced and it results in packed classrooms. Many protests have been peaceful but hundreds of teenagers have also been jailed over the violent demonstrations. I want to bring in now our Melissa Bell from Paris. She has been following these demonstrations very closely.

I mean, when you look at these images, Melissa -- and, of course, you were there yesterday -- is there a sense that things are spiraling out of control?

And perhaps, as a result, these students are losing the chance to get their message and their demands across?

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think there has been this debate as this has escalated over the last few days, Salma, about the instrumentalization of the students' anger by the far left.

The fact that the government is blaming it on radical members of the far left LFI party, the fact that they're encouraging this at the barricades -- and there is a risk, I think, that the actual, genuine grievances of the students get drowned out about debates, about police violence and so on.

The pictures have been spectacular. The anger is there. It is more than 5,000 people who have now been taken into questioning over the course of the last five days as a result of these protests.

[05:25:05]

That's how violent they've been. But at their heart is this matter of underfunding students who, for years, been saying, we're in schools with sometimes lacking a desk, a chair. We don't have the resources we need. There's absenteeism, there isn't always teachers there.

We're in overcrowded classrooms and we need for this to be heard. We've also met a number of teachers who've taken the side of the students, like this woman. Have a listen.

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SANDRA CHAMPAIN-SELLER, HIGH SCHOOL GERMAN TEACHER (through translator): So it is entirely legitimate and normal for them to have demands. And the fact that things get out of hand, the fact that there's

violence is not the fault of the students or the high school students. It's too easy to level accusations or say that high school or university students are being manipulated.

It is, in fact, social realities that are causing things to spiral out of control unfortunately. We would really like things to calm down.

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BELL: So that teacher is speaking to the idea, Salma, that these are genuine grievances, longstanding grievances that students haven't been able to have heard so far. But that they -- this movement has now grown to such an extent with all of those images that a lot of the focus of the debate is on things, for instance, like the cleanup operation.

Even before this movement has ended -- and the students have vowed to carry on next week, calling on high school students to carry on their protest after a meeting with the education minister didn't deliver what they were hoping for.

But already you're hearing, for instance, the regional leader of the Greater Paris region saying there's already been 7 million euros' worth of damage to these schools. This needs to stop.

The students are determined that it is those central grievances that got them to the barricades in the first place, that they will continue to speak to and fight for next week, Salma.

ABDELAZIZ: And such an important reminder there from our Melissa Bell that, at the heart of this are genuine grievances, students who say they simply lack the resources that they need in their schools. Thank you so much for that update as the education protests in France continue.

Still to come here on CNN NEWSROOM, intoxication, consent and a glaring gap in New York state law, we're going to explore the legal loophole brought to light by the Cornell gang rape allegations.

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ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): Welcome back. I'm Salma Abdelaziz in London. Let's take a look at today's top stories.

President Trump spent Friday night in Alabama stumping for Republicans ahead of midterms. They are just over a month away. The rally is part of a larger electoral strategy. The administration believes Trump can boost voter turnout and improve Republican chances of maintaining control of Congress. G7 countries say they will start releasing diesel from their

stockpiles right away. They agreed on Friday to put tens of millions of barrels on the market. This was following heavy U.S. pressure on Europe.

Washington was threatening to shut off its fuel exports if Europeans said no. The White House hopes the move will lower fuel prices before those upcoming midterm elections.

Spain's parliament has angered thousands of protesters by failing to pass a housing bill on Friday that was aimed at protecting vulnerable tenants from eviction. The legislation was meant to quiet widespread anger over the recent eviction of an 87-year-old woman.

But the bill's failure reaffirmed the protesters' commitment to further demonstrations and now Spanish media claims the country's prime minister may call snap elections following the bill's defeat in parliament.

ABDELAZIZ: 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 adequately address the incident after it was reported.

New York governor Kathy Hochul is now stepping in, appointing the state's attorney general, Letitia James, as a special prosecutor after saying she had lost faith in the local DA's ability to fairly oversee the investigation.

And the Cornell case is also drawing new attention to a loophole in state law involving voluntary intoxication, which Governor Hochul says she is now pushing to close.

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GOV. KATHY HOCHUL (D-NY): If someone is too intoxicated to consent, it should not matter whether they chose to use drugs or alcohol. Voluntary intoxication is not a license for sexual assault or gang rape, period. I support closing this loophole and will work with the New York state legislature to accomplish this.

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ABDELAZIZ: CNN's Anderson Cooper spoke with the mayor of Ithaca, New York, where Cornell University is located, about the university's handling of this case

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ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Should the Cornell Police have brought local police in on this immediately?

MAYOR ROBERT CANTELMO (D-NY), ITHACA: Unequivocally, yes. I don't see any reason why.

Something like this crime of this magnitude, violent crime, sex crime, these things should be handled with the local agencies or state police where there is professionalism, there is experience, there is training for trauma informed care for the survivor and to ensure that we can have justice.

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ABDELAZIZ: For more on what activists are calling a legal loophole in New York's rape laws, I want to bring in Leana Pardo. She is the executive director of the North Brooklyn Coalition Against Family Violence.

Thank you so much for being on with us. I know this is something that you have been advocating for and that many others have been advocating for, for a very long time, which is what is known as the voluntary intoxication exclusion or, as activists describe it, a loophole. And it is the reason why countless assaults have gone unprosecuted.

Could we begin by explaining the problem here?

Why does this distinction between voluntary and involuntary intoxication create such a significant hurdle for survivors seeking justice?

LEANA PARDO, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NORTH BROOKLYN COALITION AGAINST FAMILY VIOLENCE: Sure. So thank you for having me. I just want to say that rape is the most -- the least reported crime. So when it is reported, we really have to take it serious and we have to move and act.

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New York's law, as it is, recognizes mental incapacitation when someone is drugged without their consent. But if they chose to drink and then become unable to consent, there's a gap in that law.

This law was made to protect -- it was intended to protect people who had been drugged. In the '90s. People had been -- sorry; my dog -- people had been roofied. So it does a good thing of protecting people when they have been involuntarily drugged.

But then there is that gap that, if you voluntarily took a few drinks and you become mentally incapacitated, you should then be able to be protected by New York state law as well.

ABDELAZIZ: So you mentioned kind of the history there, which dates back to the '90s. But since then, I think, for at least the past eight years, legislation to remove this voluntary intoxication clause has been turned down by lawmakers again and again. And it seems like an affront to any common sense, to any moral decency.

Why are they turning this down?

PARDO: Right. So for seven years, lawmakers have brought this A101 bill to close this loophole. And I think a really important part of the story is Justice without Exclusion Coalition. It's a grassroots organization who've been pushing for this law before Cornell 7.

And they need it to really be a part of this story. So basically, it gets to the assembly and then it dies in the assembly. And it just needs to change. We hear these stories all the time.

Jane Doe had all of the evidence in Snapchat and group messages. So that's why it really went forward. But this happens all the time. Especially this has happened in my own rape case. We're not seeing any justice.

ABDELAZIZ: You say this happens all the time. I know you yourself are a survivor as you just mentioned there.

On a personal level, how are you feeling?

Because this is something you fought so passionately for. And now we're hearing the New York governor vow to close this loophole. You're seeing the public outrage because of Jane Doe's case and this legal loophole that has come to light.

How do you feel today knowing, OK, people are paying attention?

PARDO: It feels less isolating, to be honest, on a personal level, that people are seeing how rape crisis actually plays out in the justice center. RAINN has a statistic famously that they put out, that out of 1,000 rapes, 310 of them will have been reported. And only 27 of those rapes will end in a felony conviction.

That means that 3 percent of rapes are going through our justice system. That means 97 percent of rapists are walking around free. So this is a reckoning. It feels really good. But also the work isn't done. The only way to combat sexual violence and domestic violence is to legislate it. So we are long overdue here.

ABDELAZIZ: You described this as a reckoning. It absolutely feels like a reckoning. Those statistics that you just shared, 97 percent of rape cases that you say go unprosecuted -- and I think what's so terrifying and learning about this legal loophole myself is that this gap exists in about 19 states.

Could a change in New York trigger changes across the country?

PARDO: That's what we're hoping for. I mean, a lot of people who are against this bill -- and I see it in discourse on social media -- they're saying, oh, well, we could just say no more drunk sex. That's not true.

I mean, this is when someone is mentally incapacitated and the other person is taking advantage of them. There also needs to be a crime that's proven by the D.A. So the drunk sex discourse is just not true. But we have to think about New York as one progressive state.

Why aren't we leading this fight? A lot of countries in Europe around the world have already closed this loophole. It can be done. So we really need to get on that progressive train here because we're late to the party right now.

ABDELAZIZ: A loophole in New York's rape law and the rape law of many other states that is now in the spotlight and being highlighted because of Jane Doe's case. And the hope, of course, for Leana Pardo and other activists, is that more prosecutions will be seen.

[05:40:04]

Thank you so much for joining us and for sharing that with us.

PARDO: Thank you so much for getting the word out. Thank you.

ABDELAZIZ: Attorneys for Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike say she is unconscious and on a ventilator. This is after Wednesday's failed execution by lethal injection. They say she's being treated for the effects of pentobarbital after surviving two doses of the typically fatal drug and has significant injuries to both her arms.

Now Pike's legal team has filed an emergency motion to preserve evidence from the failed execution and is calling on Tennessee's governor to commute her death sentence. The governor has not responded to that request but has ordered an independent review of the of the execution to determine what went wrong.

Coming up next on CNN NEWSROOM, a $300 million health center for America's military veterans. Why it's sitting empty and turning patients away.

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ABDELAZIZ: The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is struggling to keep its new health clinics staffed. The agency has built or updated about 40 facilities after VA benefits were expanded under the Biden administration.

But the effort is being impacted by staff shortages and hospital closures, especially in rural America. CNN's --

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We have new reporting, especially with one of the new VA clinics in Fredericksburg, Virginia. This VA clinic there was supposed to be a real crown jewel. It cost more than $350 million to build.

The VA touted it as the largest VA health care clinic in the U.S. spanning more than 470,000 square feet, completely state of the art. But now, 19 months after the ribbon cutting, the VA is struggling to staff that facility, according to our sources. And some veterans are telling us their care has suffered as a result.

[05:45:00]

According to VA data obtained by CNN, the Fredericksburg clinic has a staffing vacancy rate of nearly 40 percent, which means more than 350 positions there have not been filled.

The VA says it's open to 41 new clinics across the U.S. that same data that we obtained shows that roughly half of those new facilities had double digit vacancy rates as of July. Now at Fredericksburg, that has translated into some hardship for some veterans.

I spoke with one Marine veteran who has sought treatment there, Michael Dunlap, who told me he's gone through four primary care doctors in the span of a 1.5 years at the Fredericksburg clinic. They've all quit, he says, just sending him a form letter saying they wouldn't be there anymore.

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MICHAEL DUNLAP, MARINE VETERAN WHO SOUGHT CARE IN VIRGINIA: You have to start over every time. You know, they can look at your records but until they talk to you and know you, it slows everything down, you know.

And you build up a rapport with a doctor and now you lose a little bit of confidence because now you've got to explain everything all over again.

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TODD: Now other veterans told us they had problems getting in for initial appointments at Fredericksburg and one veteran was turned down for urgent care visits, all because of staffing shortages.

Those veterans described going to a gleaming, clean facility without many people in it and with a huge parking lot, much of it very empty, as these pictures that we took recently show you.

One health care provider at Fredericksburg who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution told us doctors and other providers at Fredericksburg are burned out, exhausted and that's why they're leaving.

This provider likened the work atmosphere there to, quote, a car production line. Now that was reiterated to us by Democratic Congressman Eugene Vindman, a veteran himself who represents that district where the Fredericksburg VA clinic is located.

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REP. EUGENE VINDMAN (D-VA): It is the fact that they can't keep staff, that they can't hire staff, that it's taking too long, that's making wait times too long, that's making it impossible for veterans to actually get in the door and that's what needs to get fixed. (END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: Now the VA is staunchly defending its operations at Fredericksburg.

VA press secretary Quinn Slaven, in a statement to CNN, said this, quote, "The Fredericksburg VA clinic is opening in phases. It met its hiring goals in the first three phases and is now in phase four.

"In less than two years since opening, the clinic has already completed more than 245,000 appointments and is ahead of schedule for enrolling new patients."

Now outside analysts tell us some of this is not the VA's fault.

They say the VA opened these clinics as the entire country is experiencing a shortage of doctors, nurses and other providers with even greater shortages projected in the next decade.

And they say the VA has to deal with an unwieldy bureaucracy and often cannot pay doctors the same salaries that they would make in the private sector -- Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

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ABDELAZIZ: As the U.S. war with Iran grinds on, president Trump says part of the difficulty in reaching a peace deal is determining who's in charge. He told a crowd in Alabama Friday night that the conflict has left a leadership vacuum in Tehran.

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TRUMP: They lost everything, including their leaders, by the way.

And it's part of our problem. I don't know who the hell to deal with. There's nobody to deal with. Nobody wants to be president.

Say, "Who do I speak to in Iran?"

There's not nobody around. Knock, knock. Nobody home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: He went on to say that the war with Iran could end soon, quote, "one way or another."

On social media the day before, president Trump defended the length of the conflict, which has far exceeded the original 4-6 week timeline.

Coming up next, even as artificial intelligence helps to catapult the stock market to all-time highs, there are new signs that the technology is slowing down parts of the job market. We'll break down the data from the final jobs report before the midterm elections right after this break.

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[05:50:00]

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ABDELAZIZ: The U.S. economy hit a soft patch in September. This is as the labor market added just 29,000 jobs. That figure missed the mark for economists, who were expecting 90,000 jobs to be added last month. The unemployment rate also ticked up to 4.2 percent.

The latest federal jobs report, the last before the midterm elections, showed wage growth slowed to its lowest level since May of 2021. And hiring in recent months was weaker than previously reported.

The latest jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows more industries lost jobs than added them in September and some of those sectors are the ones that are aggressively embracing artificial intelligence. Jobs are vanishing at a rapid pace there, with fewer humans employed. CNN's Matt Egan will break down the data for us.

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MATT EGAN, CNN SR. BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the fingerprints of AI are visible as jobs vanish in finance and in information. The two sectors that are embracing this game-changing technology most aggressively as those sectors plow more and more money into AI, their headcounts are shrinking.

Now economists say this is likely more evidence suggesting that rapid AI adoption is already slowing down hiring. For instance, the number of people working in finance fell by another 7,000 last month.

That industry has lost 129,000 jobs since peaking in May of 2025, most of that in insurance. This means that, even as the stock market flirts with record highs and even as big banks haul in massive profits, the financial sector is employing fewer and fewer humans.

A similar story is playing out in information. That's a broad sector that includes Big Tech as well as struggling media outlets. Information lost another 10,000 jobs in September. Employment in that industry is down by 376,000 since ChatGPT launched in late 2022.

Professional and business services, that's another one to keep an eye on. That's a diverse sector that includes accounting and law firms. That industry has lost almost 300,000 jobs since the end of 2022.

Now one thing to note here is none of this is to say that AI is causing a wave of pink slips. After all, unemployment across the economy, it's low. It's historically low.

But what does appear to be happening is head counts are shrinking by attrition. In other words, some bosses, they're not racing to replace workers when they quit or when they retire.

[05:55:00] And that may help explain why it's been such a challenging job market for recent college grads. Bottom line: even as AI is helping to catapult the stock market to all-time highs, there are signs that it's slowing down parts of the job market -- back to you.

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ABDELAZIZ: Meanwhile, president Trump is expected to name Jay Clayton, the Director of National Intelligence, as his new AI czar. This is according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The move comes as voters are putting growing pressure on the government to set guardrails for the rapidly expanding technology. Just this week, the president met with top tech leaders at the White House. They signed a commitment to self-police their own companies and technology.

But in an interview last month, Clayton signaled his opposition to new AI guardrails or any regulation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY CLAYTON, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: As the president so noted, we have consumer protection laws, we have product liability laws, we have the DOJ, we have architectures for dealing with developments in all of the verticals: transportation, energy, financial services and the like.

To somehow say we should back away from this and let the rest of the world develop these models and implement these models, I don't think anybody in that room, and I don't think any American, should think that that's a good strategy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): We're going to bring you images of 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 the guy was there.

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

What a cute guy.

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ABDELAZIZ: Thank you so much for watching. I'm Salma Abdelaziz. For our viewers in North America. "CNN THIS MORNING" is next. For the rest of the world, it will be "AFRICAN VOICES."