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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Official: Hamas Consulting Other Factions On Gaza Plan; U.S. Government Runs Out Of Funding And Shuts Down; Judge Denies Bids For New Trial And To Vacate Conviction For Sean "Diddy" Combs. Aired 5:30- 6a ET

Aired October 01, 2025 - 05:30   ET

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

[05:30:00]

BRIAN ABEL, CNN ANCHOR: Italy has sent vessels, along with Spain, to help the flotilla after activists said it was targeted. But Italy's Defense Ministry said once the group is about 150 nautical miles from Gaza's coast the Navy would no longer accompany it.

And Hamas says it's consulting other Palestinian factions for a response to the U.S. president's Gaza proposal. An official telling CNN Hamas negotiators met with Qatari, Egyptian, and Turkish officials Tuesday night for discussions.

Meantime, Donald Trump says he is giving Hamas three to four days to respond to the peace plan. A source telling CNN the U.S. is willing to discuss Hamas' counterproposals when they come in but won't engage in lengthy negotiations with the militant group. When pressed on what would happen if Hamas doesn't agree to a deal Trump says it's going to be a "very sad end."

CNN's Paula Hancocks joins us live from Abu Dhabi now, and now we do know that Hamas is reviewing this proposal, Paula.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Brian. There are a number of issues that we could see given what they have said in the past that Hamas would have with this proposal.

One of those issues could well be the fact that the plan calls for the disarmament of the group. That it wants the demilitarization of Gaza. Now in the past, Hamas has said that is a red line. That they simply will not disarm.

We have heard from a source involved in this U.S. plan that the U.S. is willing to talk to Hamas about how exactly they would carry out this disarmament. And as you say, they have said that there could be some counterproposals that they would listen to, but they don't want this to be a long negotiation back and forth as we have seen in the past.

Now, of course, we have already seen that this plan has had the approval of Arab and Muslim nations. The leaders were shown the plan last week on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. They have had their input. They have given their suggestions about what should change. We know that Israel has given its suggestions. In fact, we have heard that this plan was coordinated with Israel.

And so at this point we're waiting to hear back from Hamas. That disarmament likely to be a key issue for them.

Potentially, the fact that the hostages should be, according to this plan, released within 72 hours. That, of course, creates a situation where Hamas loses all of its leverage in a very short time. Potentially, they will ask for more Palestinian prisoners to be released as part of this deal. We simply don't know.

But the deadline we have heard from the U.S. president is they will give Hamas three to four days, which takes us up to the end of the week. That is still an eternity for civilians in Gaza. We are seeing civilians being killed every single day.

We have freelancers on the ground working with us as we are unable to get into Gaza because of Israel's ban on international journalists. And they asked some people on the ground what they thought of what was happening now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ATTALAH YAGHI, DISPLACED GAZA RESIDENT (through translator): The plan he presented is a plan of surrender and it's a difficult decision to be made. Whether they accept it, that's a hard decision. And whether they reject it, that's also a hard decision. It's the people who will pay for it. The people who are dying. And the homeland is getting destroyed.

MUHAMMED NASER, DISPLACED GAZA RESIDENT (through translator): Who is going to take control of Gaza? Who is going to solve the current situation? The important thing is they find a solution. Whoever takes it, let them. What matters is they find a solution for us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANCOCKS: And as the discussions continue, we are seeing the Israeli military pushing further into the center of Gaza City. More evacuation orders for civilians on the ground there. And we are also hearing that in the vicinity of Al Shifa hospital there has been significant Israeli military activity.

So for the civilians on the ground in Gaza this ceasefire cannot come soon enough -- Brian.

ABEL: And it is so important for us to continue finding ways to hear from those individuals directly impacted in Gaza.

Paula Hancocks, as always, appreciate your reporting live for us in Abu Dhabi. Thank you.

OpenAI is hoping to alleviate the fears of parents about teens using AI chatbots. Ahead, we will have details on the new safety features they've launched.

Plus, is the new face of food delivery -- is this it? We'll look at the robot that could be heading for your door one day soon.

(COMMERCIAL)

[05:39:20]

ABEL: Welcome back to EARLY START.

We are just hours away from a new trading day on Wall Street and right now we are keeping an eye on U.S. stock futures, which are lower following the government shutdown. This development will only add to concerns among investors who are already monitoring inflation risks and a slowing labor market.

Let's check some of the other top headlines today in business.

Drugmaker Pfizer will lower its prices in the U.S. in exchange for tariff relief under a deal with the Trump administration. President Trump says Pfizer will give Americans the "most favored nation price" for its prescriptions. Drug companies typically charge more for their meds in the U.S. than in other countries.

[05:40:00]

And Mr. Trump has also announced a direct-to-consumer website called "TrumpRX" for Americans to buy medicine at discounted prices.

DoorDash has unveiled a new delivery robot. Meet Dot. DoorDash says Dot is fully autonomous and all-electric. It's about a tenth of the size of a car and can get around at up to 20 miles per hour on bike lanes, sidewalks, and roads. Dot will go into action initially in the Phoenix, Arizona area, but DoorDash says it should appear in more U.S. cities in the future.

And car rental giant Hertz is offering a new way to buy vehicles online. It has launched a fully-digital platform for purchasing preowned cars as demand rises. Hertz is also offering options for trade-ins. Customers who want to check out the used vehicles in person before hitting the buy button can still find them at Hertz locations across the U.S.

New parental controls are now in place for ChatGPT amid growing concerns about the safety of teens using AI chatbots. OpenAI says the new safety features allow parents to reduce exposure to sensitive content and block access during selected times, among other tools.

CNN's Clare Duffy reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH REPORTER: Yeah. This comes weeks after OpenAI was sued by the parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine claiming that ChatGPT contributed to his suicide, including by advising him on methods. Days after that lawsuit was filed OpenAI said it was working on new teen safety features and now this new parental control offering has become available to all ChatGPT users as of Monday. Now, these parental control features are going to depend on both parents and teens opting in to linking their accounts, but once they do that the teen users will be placed under new content restrictions. So the chatbot will be less likely to serve them graphic content. Also less likely to engage in romantic or sexual roleplay.

And then parents will have a number of additional controls that they can turn on. Things like quiet mode where ChatGPT won't be available to their teen. They can turn off the ability to generate images. They can turn off voice mode, which we know is often the thing that draws people into deeper relationships with these chatbots. Parents will also be able to opt out of having their teens' data used to train OpenAI's model, so a privacy feature there.

And then on top of that, Open AI says it's going to be trying to notify parents if their teen's conversation with ChatGPT indicates that their child might be at risk of self-harm. So an effort to avoid any future parents having to go through the same kind of tragedy that the Raines endured.

Now I think it's worth noting that when it comes to social media in many cases it took the platforms years to roll out similar safety concerns. It's interesting to see how quickly OpenAI has moved here but the company is acknowledging that more work is needed to be done. These features will be limited by the fact that teens have to be honest about the fact that they're using ChatGPT. They have to opt in to linking their accounts.

But OpenAI says it's working on an age estimation feature where it will guess how old users are and place suspected teen users under those content restrictions.

Certainly, we'll be keeping an eye on how well all of this works as more parents and teens begin to use these features.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABEL: All right, Clare. Thank you.

For the first time in nearly seven years the U.S. government is shut down after lawmakers failed to agree on a funding plan. What will and will not be closed as a result.

Plus, a judge denies two major requests from the legal team of Sean "Diddy" Combs. We'll tell you what they asked for after the break.

(COMMERCIAL)

[05:48:00]

ABEL: Welcome back. I'm Brian Abel. Here are some stories we are watching today.

The U.S. government is officially shut down after lawmakers failed to agree on a new funding bill. Democrats and Republicans are blaming each other. Some lawmakers say they won't accept pay during the shutdown since many servicemembers and federal workers won't receive their paychecks either.

U.S. President Donald Trump says he's giving Hamas three to four days to respond to his Gaza peace plan. An official tells CNN Hamas negotiators met with Qatari, Egyptian, and Turkish officials Tuesday night to discuss that response. President Trump says that if Hamas doesn't agree it's going to be a "very sad end."

Hurricanes Imelda and Humberto are churning up dangerous surf and rip currents along the U.S. East Coast. Bermuda, meanwhile, is bracing for a rare double impact. Imelda could make landfall there later today after Humberto grazed the islands on Tuesday.

More now on the U.S. government shutdown. Lawmakers failing to meet a midnight deadline to pass a new funding bill and a quick resolution doesn't seem likely. Republicans are blaming Democrats for holding out instead of approving a stopgap measure to temporarily keep the government going. But Democrats are digging in, demanding health care concessions from their Republican colleagues -- in particular, an extension of subsidies in the Affordable Care Act.

President Trump, though, is warning Democrats their tactics could come at a cost.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So the last thing we want to do is shut it down, but a lot of good can come down from shutdowns. We can get rid of a lot of things that we didn't want, and they'd be Democrat things.

We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible -- that are bad for them and irreversible by them, like cutting vast numbers of people out. Cutting things that they like. Cutting programs that they like.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[05:50:05]

ABEL: The government shutdown will have a range of effects on the U.S. economy from employee furloughs to a halt in some public services.

Brian Todd runs through some of those impacts.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What's going to be open and what hasn't? Here are some of what we can tell you.

What will continue to operate, crucially, Social Security and Medicare payments will continue normally. Everyone who gets those will continue to get those. Now the question regarding some of these benefits is if you call and

have questions about your benefits or something is -- if you have a hitch and you need to ask someone, is there going to be someone there to pick up the phone and answer your questions at these agencies? We'll have to see about that. That's been an issue in previous shutdowns.

Unemployed people will continue to get their jobless benefits during the shutdown. That will be uninterrupted.

Now, crucially, the State Department is going to be still issuing passports and visas during a possible shutdown and will continue to assist Americans who are abroad. But we have to say that only about 10,000 State Department employees will be considered essential workers out of a workforce of almost 27,000 people. So how fast these visas and passports will be processed, that is going to be a big question.

Crucially also, the National Weather Service is going to continue its forecasts and warnings regardless of whether there is a shutdown or not. That is crucial because we're still in the middle of a hurricane season.

Now what could be compromised or actually shut down in the event of a shutdown? Well, the Food and Drug Administration. We're told that their inspectors could have their work halted or delayed, or possibly that they won't go on at all.

Also, we're told that Americans can expect travel delays, especially at airports, if there is a government shutdown. Because TSA screeners -- those security screeners at American airports will not be paid. In the past when that has happened some TSA employees have called in sick. You get staffing shortages.

We're also told that air traffic controllers will be on the job, but they will not be paid. Now, in a previous government shutdown the decision by some air traffic controllers to stay away from work actually led to the ending of that shutdown. So keep a close eye on that and on travel delays in the United States.

A big question, national parks and whether they will continue to stay open. That's a little unclear. We have contacted the National Park Service. We haven't gotten answers on that as to whether the parks and the monuments in Washington will continue to be open to visitors. In the past they've relied on some additional funding -- some extra funding to stay open for a few days during a government shutdown. We're not sure if that's going to happen this time.

One Department of the Interior official told me they've received almost no guidance as to whether appropriations will be available to keep national parks open or not if there is a shutdown.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABEL: Brian Todd reporting there.

A judge has denied Sean "Diddy" Combs a new trial and a request to vacate his conviction on prostitution-related charges. Combs' team argued he was protected under the First Amendment as a producer and consumer of amateur pornography, and that the definition of prostitution should have been interpreted more narrowly in his trial. The judge disagreed with both of those arguments.

Now, prosecutors want him to be sentenced to more than 11 years in prison, some of which involve his former girlfriend Cassie Ventura in the charges that are leading to this. She wrote a letter to the judge saying in part, "I know that who he was to me -- the manipulator, the aggressor, the abuser, the trafficker -- is who he is as a human. He has no interest in changing or becoming better."

For the fourth time in six years, the Las Vegas Aces are headed to the WNBA Finals. The team beating the Indiana Fever 107-98 in a game-five overtime stunner. It was an impressive show from the Fever who made it to the semifinals without superstars Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham who were both off for injuries during the regular season.

The league MVP A'ja Wilson scored 35 points Tuesday while teammate Jackie Young scored 32. The Aces now face off against the Phoenix Mercury in the finals with game one scheduled for Friday.

The public has decided and Fat Bear Week in Alaska has a winner. We reveal all when we return.

(COMMERCIAL)

[05:58:50]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LOLA YOUNG, SINGER: Singing "Messy."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: That is Lola Young's hit single "Messy." The 24-year-old singer is making headlines after announcing on social media that she's going away for a while and cancelling everything for the foreseeable future.

The rising star had a number of performances scheduled in the U.K. before going on tour in the U.S. and Canada through early December. The announcement comes days after the singer appeared to collapse on stage mid-performance. CNN has reached out to Young's team for more information.

And finally, congratulations to "32 Chunk." He was voted the fattest bear in Alaska's Katmai National Park. We don't know exactly how much 32 Chunk weighs, but you see him here. He's certainly pretty beefy. One hundred thousand people voted for him in the annual online contest. He'll, of course, need all of that extra insulation in the months ahead when he hibernates through the winter.

[06:00:00]

Congratulations, 32 Chunk. Thank you for joining us here on EARLY START. I'm Brian Abel in Washington, D.C. "CNN THIS MORNING" with my colleague Erica Hill starts right now.