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Two Killed, Three Hurt in Car Ramming and Stabbing at U.K. Synagogue; Investigation Underway After Jets Collide on LaGuardia Tarmac; House GOP Leaders Comment on Government Shutdown. Aired 10- 10:30a ET

Aired October 02, 2025 - 10:00   ET

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

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PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news, deadly synagogue attack on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. At least two people killed in a stabbing and a car ramming in Manchester, England.

Plus, plane collision, what led to two jets slamming into each other on the New York tarmac, cracking the nose and cockpit window.

And then later looming cuts, President Trump is meeting with his budget chief today. Trump says he and the architect of Project 2025 will be targeting, quote, Democrat agencies.

Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Pamela Brown. Wolf Blitzer is off today, and you are in The Situation Room.

And we begin with that breaking news, a horrific attack at a U.K. synagogue on the Jewish faith's holiest day. Police say a suspect rammed a car into a crowd and stabbed one person. This all happened during a morning prayer service. At least two people are dead. Three others are in serious condition.

And we are getting new video in, but I do want to warn you, it is disturbing. Video posted to social media shows the moments immediately after the attack, police surrounding the synagogue and drawing their weapons.

Let's go live now to CNN's Nic Robertson in Manchester, England, where this attack happened. Nic, what more are you learning about this?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, there's a lot of police presence here at the moment. The site of the attack is just a few hundred yards up the road behind us. I spoke to one lady coming out through the police court, and here she told me of her shock, her anger, her outrage. She was taking her daughters to another synagogue for prayers today. They have normally would be in the synagogue that was at the center of the attack today.

And what eyewitnesses and video appear to show is that the police surrounded the suspected attacker outside of the synagogue demanding he get on the ground and respond to their commands. He didn't respond to their commands. He was shot.

The police are also saying that three people are critically ill in hospital. It's not clear the state of their injuries at the moment, but what witnesses have described is the attacker. In a vehicle ramming into people on this, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, as they went to the synagogue for prayers that were due to begin at 9:00 A.M., ramming into the people as they were outside of the synagogue heading there and then jumping out the vehicle, running and stabbing other people as well.

So, the details still being investigated, it is still a closed police scene. But in this community, I can tell you people are shocked and they're in fear as well. People here have been worried about this sort of attack because the rise in anti-Semitic attacks in the U.K. has been increasing, particularly since October 7th, and particularly over the last few months. And this sort of incident, the most violent that we've seen in a long time in the U.K., has been a fear on people's minds for some time.

BROWN: It is been a fear. There's been that concern, and then another attack happens on this Jewish holiday.

Nic Robertson in Manchester, England, thank you so much.

And happening now, an investigation is underway after two jets collided at LaGuardia Airport in New York. The wing of one plane slammed into the cockpit of another, and you can see cracks on the nose of one of the jets right here in this picture. Here's one pilot talking to air traffic control right after the incident.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ground, Endeavor, 5047. We need trucks on Mike.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 5047, say again?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need trucks on Alpha.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Emergency trucks, sir?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have two CRJs on Mike that collided.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you guys did clip, correct?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we did. Their right wing clipped our nose and cockpit. We have damage to our windscreen.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Endeavor, 5155, we have one injury onboard.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roger.

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BROWN: All right. Let's go live now to CNN's Omar Jimenez. What more are you learning about this, Omar?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So, these are two regional jets and all things considered, thankfully, this happened on the taxiway. So, Delta Airlines is calling this a low speed collision. But when you look at the images of the impact here, I mean there they're pretty severe. You can see the impact, even a so-called low speed collision could have, you see it right there on the nose of the plane.

But, basically, one flight, Flight 5047, was coming back in from Charlotte, and then another flight, Flight 5155 was getting ready to leave toward Roanoke until the wing of the Roanoke-bound plane hit the nose and cockpit window area of the other flight, as you can see there. This happened around 10:00 Eastern Time last night.

And while we don't know the full reason for this collision that's still being investigated, the FAA, as part of a statement, said that air traffic control did instruct Flight 5155, that's the Roanoke-bound one, to stop. Here's the statement, to hold short and yield to the other aircraft.

Now, obviously, something went wrong and that didn't happen, and we saw the impact that you saw in those images there. Take a listen to a passenger describe just what that moment was like.

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WILLIAM LUSK, PASSENGER ON COLLIDED JET: We were taking a right off of the main runway and all of a sudden you feel the brakes go on and you see this object coming across the left side of the plane and you feel the front of the plane just kind of get dragged to the right. And you can physically feel like in your seat, you're moving to the right.

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JIMENEZ: Now Delta says they're going to investigate, FAA continuing the investigation. Thankfully, no major injuries here.

But I should also say quickly that some might say, hey, we're in a government shutdown. Did this have anything to do with it? There was no indication at this point that it had anything to do with it. But, obviously, as this goes on, one of the fears is that those in air traffic control might be less incentivized to show up to work. Pamela?

BROWN: Certainly, Omar Jimenez, thank you so much. And as Omar pointed out, there's still a lot of questions about the government shutdown. In fact, Speaker Johnson is talking about it right now.

Let's listen.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): It would be reckless and irresponsible and dangerous to close down the federal government. Why did Chuck Schumer change his tune? Everybody knows that. He's trying to avoid a challenge from his left flank in his next Senate reelection campaign. And he wants to avoid the scrutiny that he received for doing the right thing back in March because the far left and the base really went crazy on poor Chuck Schumer. And so he changed his tune.

And now they're trying to pretend it's about something completely different. They have made a decision that they would rather give taxpayer-funded benefits to illegal aliens than to keep the doors open for the American people, to keep vital services, veterans' services, healthcare and nutrition for women, infants and children, they would rather not pay the troops and TSA agents and Border Patrol agents. They would rather stop services of FEMA in the middle of a hurricane season than to do the right thing for partisan political purposes.

It is selfish, it's reprehensible, and it is exactly the opposite of what they have all said themselves in their own words very passionately every day until now. We've been playing the greatest hits loop here on a video right outside the speaker's office for days. You've all seen it. Make them answer for that. Don't ask the Republicans what we should be doing or what we should be negotiating. I don't have anything to negotiate. I sent them in good faith exactly what they had voted for before. We did not put any Republican provisions in that and we tried to make this very simple in good faith so the appropriations process of the people can continue.

Now, let me -- there's been a lot of talk about, they say that we're making this up, this illegal aliens receiving taxpayer benefits. It's a talking point, they said. I want to remind you of a couple of key facts. Everybody can remember, I think, back to 2020 in the presidential debate for all the candidates on the Democrat side. You might remember famously they were asked the question, raise your hand, they said, on the stage, if you believe that illegal aliens should receive healthcare paid for by American taxpayers. Every single one of them raised their hand. To great applause in the audience from the Democrats who were there, those hands included Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

Now, what did they do? Did they follow through in that promise? Yes, they absolutely did. Joe Biden used executive orders and he expanded benefits healthcare to illegal aliens in his four-year term. That was an outrageous violation of the existing federal law and of the principles of good stewardship. Those resources are not meant for people who break the law and come into our country. They're meant for U.S. citizens. And so they watered down these health programs. It was terribly dangerous.

Then so we got the majority. President Trump has returned to the Oval Office with a mandate of 75 million Americans as a big popular vote win.

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The House Republicans received our largest popular vote total in the history of this institution. Republicans went immediately to work and we passed the one big, beautiful bill, the working families tax cut, and we fulfilled all the promises that we made. One of the key promises that we made, because you all know that the open border was probably the number one issue in the election cycle, was that we would end that madness. We would cut off resources, hard- earned taxpayer dollars by American citizens not going to reward people for breaking our law and coming over the border. And we did that. The one big, beautiful bill, the working families tax cut, included a huge provision. A big chunk of that bill was the health provisions.

Now, why are we saying that they want to return and restore taxpayer funded benefits to illegal aliens? Because that's exactly what they did. When they rejected the clean C.R. that we sent over, the Senate filed -- the Senate Democrats, Chuck Schumer --

BROWN: All right. You're listening here to Speaker Johnson. He's trying to frame the shutdown as a Democratic shutdown. He also false claimed the Democrats want to give healthcare, extend healthcare to illegal immigrants. That is not true. Illegal immigrants are not eligible for federal healthcare programs.

Joining us now is CNN's Kevin Liptak at the White House. Kevin, President Trump is meeting with Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget. I want to remind our viewers, Kevin, what Russell Vought has said previously about federal workers. He has said that he hopes that they will be villainized, right? He says, we want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected when they wake up in the morning. We want them to not want to go to work because they're increasingly viewed as the villains.

Now, this was before he took over as OMB director, but it's notable they're meeting today because he says, Trump says they're going to determine which, quote, Democrat agencies to target.

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. And it's clear the president is trying to increase pressure on Democrats as this shutdown wears on, but also try and exact as much of his political agenda as he can from this stalemate. And then in this meeting with Russ Vought, his budget director, he says that they'll talk about some of the cuts that they want to extract as part of this cut down, saying that there are Democrat agencies. Of course, the federal bureaucracy is neither Democratic nor Republican. It's nonpartisan, saying he wants to hear what Russell Vought recommends be cut and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent.

And we have already seen President Trump and Russell Vought already start to cancel funding, pause funding that had already been approved. You saw that yesterday with a number of green energy initiatives. Most of that will take effect in blue states and the president and Russell Vought also pausing funding for two major infrastructure projects in New York City. Of course, New York is represented by the two Democrats who are involved in all of this, the senator, Chuck Schumer, and the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries.

Now, when it comes to these layoffs in the federal government, what Russ Vought told Republican lawmakers yesterday is that this could be an opportunity to go after federal workers who are working on programs that aren't necessarily aligned with President Trump's agenda. He said that those could take place imminently within the next one or two days.

Now, ordinarily, during a shutdown, it's not an opportunity to make permanent cuts to the federal workforce, but I think it really does underscore here the unprecedented nature of what the president is trying to do here, really trying to exact as much political pain on Democrats as is possible to try and essentially win some political victories out of this shutdown.

Now, as of this morning, hundreds of thousands of federal workers are furloughed, which means they're not showing up to work and they're not being paid. There's also this other subset of workers at the TSA, federal, military service personnel who are showing up to work and are still not being paid.

And so as all of this plays out, you can see how the political battle is shaping up, but, certainly, there are a lot of workers and people who are being affected by all of this.

BROWN: All right. Kevin Liptak at the White House for us, keep us posted. Thanks so much.

And new this morning, Climate Activist Greta Thunberg has been detained by the Israeli military while aboard a fleet of Gaza bound aid chip that were intercepted. The boats were trying to deliver aid into the war-torn enclave. This prerecorded video was published after her detention.

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GRETA THUNBERG, ACTIVIST: My name is Greta Thunberg. I'm a citizen of Sweden. If you are watching this video, I have been abducted and taken against my will by Israeli forces. Our humanitarian mission was nonviolent and abiding by international law. Please tell my government to demand my and the others' immediate release.

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BROWN: Israel, however, argues the activists were, quote, not interested in aid, but in provocation.

CNN Senior International Correspondent Ben Wedeman joins us now with the very latest.

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So, Ben, how did all of this unfold?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, this flotilla that's composed of more than 45 boats and ships has made its way across the Mediterranean with as many as 500 activists and volunteers on board.

Now, last night at 9:00 P.M. local time, that's Gaza local time, at about 70 kilometers or rather nautical miles off the coast of Gaza, they were approached by Israeli ships. Some of those Israeli ships rammed the boats in this Flotilla. Others fired water cannons. They were boarded. And we understand that most of the volunteers have been taken into Israeli custody to the Port of Ashdod where they have, after some delay, been given access to independent legal consultations. And we understand, for instance, from the Italian foreign minister, because Italy has 21 nationals in that flotilla, many of them are actually lawmakers, that they are working to win their release as soon as possible.

The aid that they were bringing to Gaza, it's unclear if and whether that's going to reach Gaza, but to the fact that the Israelis stopped, boarded and detained these volunteers has sparked massive protests across Europe. There's going to be a general strike in Italy Saturday, a very large demonstration in Rome and other Italian cities elsewhere in Italy. For instance, in Milan, students have taken over a university in protest. And what we're seeing is a chorus of condemnation of Israel's boarding this flotilla in what is clearly international waters. Pamela?

BROWN: All right. Ben Wedeman, thank you so much.

And new this morning, for the first time, we're hearing the 911 calls and the terrifying moments after a woman who's fatally stabbed on a North Carolina light rail train back in August. We want to warn you what you're about to hear is disturbing,

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This man just (BLEEP) stabbed this woman for no reason.

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BROWN: The suspect, Decarlos Brown, faces state and federal charges in Iryna Zarutska's death.

Let's go live now to CNN's Dianne Gallagher. So, tell us more about these calls and what they reveal. So sad.

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, Pamela, police just released those 911 calls. The attack actually happened back on August 22nd. 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska, who was a Ukrainian refugee, she fled war in her home country, was coming home from work on Charlotte's light rail train when police say that she was attacked, provoked, stabbed three times in the neck by 34-year-old Decarlos Brown.

Now, these 911 calls, police have altered the caller's voices in them, but they do give us an idea of kind of the chaos in the aftermath there. You can hear the callers are just incredulous. They're panicked and they're really in disbelief at what they're seeing.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tell me exactly what happened? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know. We didn't see it. There's just a lady right now on the ground with a lot of blood and everybody's screaming that she got stabbed, and I don't know if anybody's called 911 yet. People are just freaking out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's on this train.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On the train?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's on the train. She's on the ground right now. There's people around her right now. I think they're holding pressure on the wound site.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How old is the patient?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She looks young. I don't know. I don't think she's responsive right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a woman in the train got stabbed, and she's bleeding right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a woman stabbed and she's bleeding all the way through.

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GALLAGHER: Now, in some of the other calls, there are witnesses who describe the suspect, what he's wearing, saying that he's walking back and forth on the platform. Brown was arrested soon after he has yet to enter a plea. His attorney, Pamela, has requested a competency evaluation.

BROWN: All right. Dianne Gallagher, thanks so much.

Still ahead, right here in The Situation Room, federal authorities on the ground in Memphis are already making dozens of arrests. We're going to be joined by a Memphis pastor who argues this is all about political theater rather than public safety.

And we're following the breaking news out Manchester, England, after a deadly attack on a synagogue, the new details about the suspect.

We'll be right back.

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BROWN: We are following the latest on the deadly attack at a U.K. synagogue. Authorities say two people are dead, and three others are seriously injured after a suspect rammed a car into a crowd and stabbed at least one person. Police just said they have made two further arrests.

I want to bring in retired FBI Special Agent Daniel Brunner. Daniel, thanks for being here. This attack happened on Yom Kippur. That is the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. The press conference just wrapped up in the U.K. They're classifying this as a terrorist incident and announced more arrests. Tell us about that.

DANIEL BRUNNER, PRESIDENT, BRUNNER SIERRA GROUP LLC: Well, absolutely. The investigation obviously right now, the most important thing is to determine if there is any additional threats, if there are other co-conspirators, if there are other attacks planned, because this is the holiest day in the Jewish holiday number. Everyone will be going to synagogue today. Everyone's going to be honoring the holiday. So, especially, I think, everything is going to be on high alert.

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I'm sure New York City is deploying their officers in anticipation of possible follow-on attacks if this is part of a conspiracy. So, that's the number one thing law enforcement is looking for in England, is to see who is this co-conspirators, also because if there were -- allegedly, there were explosives near the individual who conducted the attack, if he built those on his own or did he receive help.

So, there's a lot to be determined right now, but number one thing is to determine, is there any additional threats to the community in England and elsewhere in the world?

BROWN: Lately, we've sadly seen an uptick in these attacks against Jewish people in the synagogues. There was an uptick in the U.K., here in the U.S. as well. I mean, we saw a young Jewish couple killed here not that long ago. What's driving this?

BRUNNER: I think a lot of the online hatred. And I've spoken previously that the online world, you know, whether it be social media or whether it be community groups, these people who are extremists have a mental problem. But now that they see other people of their mindset, they're driven to justify these attacks. They believe that their attack, their -- what they're going to move forward will begin the movement that the rest of them to conduct other attacks. So, the more attacks they see, the more it justifies in their head, okay, I can conduct this attack, it's okay because there are other people out there like me.

So, the more and more rhetoric that there is anti-Semitism or other religions, the attacking of holy sites of churches, synagogues, this is all very, very troubling and obviously there need to be, you know, places of worship and schools need to take proper measures to protect themselves.

BROWN: Our Nic Robertson says that synagogues across the U.K. had already stepped up security since amass attack on Israel, yet we just saw what happened there. What more can be done?

BRUNNER: Well, that's really the $1 million question is how much do synagogues -- and that's the problem, is a lot of schools, they don't want to turn into a hardened site where there's gate guards and then there's security checkpoints. They don't want that. That's where it's supposed to be, these holy sites. So, they have to balance the need of security versus protecting their people. So, I work with lots of synagogues up here in Montana and working out a security plan and how to employ their people inside, so the people are trained inside on how to respond to an attack. The balance is really not turning these into hardened sites, where everyone has to go through one section. But this individual drove through the checkpoint. So, I mean, it's very difficult. If they're determined, they're going to do the attack.

BROWN: So, what do you do? I mean, you talk about the role of social media and the online rhetoric. How do you combat the rise in anti- Semitism we're seen across the world?

BRUNNER: Well, here's the problem, is there's a balance between freedom of speech and talking to people of your mindset. There is that we cannot police the internet. We cannot sit there and silence individuals. So, that is not the -- I don't believe that is the answer of getting online and silencing those who are -- because they're going to find a way around it. They're going to find secret rooms. They're going to find -- they're going to find a way to be able to have their discussions. It's teaching, it's training these individuals. It's at the synagogues, at the churches, at schools, on how to identify.

And also getting state and local law enforcement working with the FBI and the Behavioral Analysis Unit to identify individuals that are troubled and where those red flags are. Once those red flags are identified, notifying your state and local law enforcement, let them know this individual does appear troubled so we can alter their pathway to violence and prevent an attack. Each one of these attacks are analyzed. Each one of these attacks are looked at by the behavioral analysis unit to find out where their pathway to violence started and where it can be stopped along the way.

BROWN: All right. Retired FBI Special Agent Daniel Brunner, thank you so much.

And coming up, CNN is on the ground in Greenland as the island flexes its military muscle. The message it is sending to the world. The Situation Room special report is just ahead.

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