What Happened That Night at Cornell? 

0:00Every day, animals across the country face abuse and neglect. And every day, the ASPCA shows up to rescue animals in crisis. But they can't do it alone. Visit ASPCA.org slash need. Become a donor today to provide the care and shelter these animals urgently need. And for a limited time, the ASPCA will send you a free gift as a special thank you. Visit ASPCA.org slash need. happening now breaking news what happened that night at cornell university new details about what jango told police two years ago my late reporting is straight ahead in the documents i just obtained before the show plus the breaking details about a violent midair incident between pilots on an israel-bound flight what officials know at this hour and flash flood emergency heavy rains force communities to evacuate in New Mexico as dams fill to the brim.

1:03And new changes coming to the Pentagon. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is looking to make cuts to senior officers. We'll discuss with New York Senator and Armed Services Committee member Kirsten Gillibrand. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Pamela Brown. Wolf Blitzer is off and you're in the Situation Room.

1:30This is CNN Breaking News. And we start with that breaking news and reports of Jane Doe's comments to Cornell police alleging she was drugged and raped inside a fraternity house in 2024, which is now raising new questions about how the investigation was handled. CNN affiliate WCBS obtained a transcript of Jane Doe's interview with Cornell police on November 14th and the 15th in 2024. and I obtained a six-page written statement signed by Jane Doe to Cornell weeks after the alleged rape. According to the documents, Jane Doe told Cornell police she was heavily intoxicated. In a transcript, Jane Doe reportedly told police she was, quote, okay, pretty okay with the initial sexual activity, but did not consent to what occurred later in the night.

2:21In her written statement, Jane Doe said she consented to some sexual acts but refused others, including a foursome proposed by a fraternity brother. She also described thinking if she passed out and the men could be charged with, quote, rape if they had sex with her. The only mention of rape, by the way, was in her written statement. Now, in the statement, Jane Doe also reportedly described being physically hit, according to transcripts with Cornell police. No criminal charges were brought afterward. Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Ben Houghton tells CNN, quote, I will be looking into whether the reports of her initial comments are true and the specific circumstances of this allegation.

3:01I was not provided the transcript and the specific statement that has been attributed to Jane Doe was not included in the written statement that I received from Cornell PD. I will be investigating this fully and determining the truth. He also said this about his next steps right here in the Situation Room yesterday. I've expressed to him our desire to meet with Jane Doe, to start the conversation, to understand what insights she has gained over the last two years, what additional reflections and healing that she's done that she can provide to us in terms of additional evidence that we could present to the grand jury.

3:44CNN's Jason Carroll joins us live from Ithaca, New York. Jason, where do you think stand this morning? Well, there's clearly a lot to unpack here based on what you've been able to get from that six-page statement framed from Jane Doe and also from what other networks are reporting as well. WCBS, for example, had obtained a transcript from Jane Doe and her interview with campus police back in 2024. And there are a lot of questions that are circulating here on campus, a lot of criticism that's been directed toward Cornell University, toward the district attorney's office. A lot of people here on the ground asking for more transparency in terms of releasing information about where the investigation stands.

4:37I can tell you that very early this morning, the DA told CNN this morning that he did not receive the transcript from campus police back in 2024. So what at this point we're trying to do is to get more clarity in terms of what the DA received back in 2024. As you know, the DA has come under a great deal of criticism in terms of why he did not file charges, his critics say back in 2024. The district attorney telling CNN late last night that he is bound by the law. Here's a little sample of what he had to say. Unfortunately, under New York state law, which I'm constrained by, the voluntary intoxication of someone is not a basis to claim or to prove that they are incapacitated to the point that they cannot consent to sexual contact.

5:34So as much as I'm emotionally repulsed and morally repulsed by the events, I can't prosecute cases based on emotion or based upon moral standards or moral repulsion. Again, when you consider the six-page statement that Jane Doe gave back in 2024, And on top of that, when you consider the statement in the transcript that she gave to police back in 2024, she said several things, notably that she was heavily intoxicated, that she was initially okay with an encounter. But later that night, she felt as though she did not give her consent, also saying at one point that she believed that she was raped.

6:20And according to what ABC has obtained, she described thinking that if she had passed out, that the men that had had sex with her and the men had sex with her, that then those men could later be charged with rape. So once again, here, a lot to unpack. What we're really looking for is more clarity in terms of what this Jane Doe told campus police back in 2024 and what sort of information was then relayed to the district attorney's office. And as of right now, Jane Doe's attorney will be on the Situation Room this coming Friday. So certainly a lot of questions for him as we try to unpack all of this and this very important story.

7:04And thank you so much, Jason. Let's try to get a better understanding from the legal perspective with legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Elliot Williams. Great to see you as always, Elliot. So there's a lot to understand here. You have what WCBS obtained, and then you have this six-page statement that I obtained just before the show, her written statement to police. What questions does all of this raise for you when in these documents it's laid out that she was describing physically hit, that she described initially consenting, and then later on not consenting? Right. Well, at a minimum, there are questions for Cornell University to answer about their response to all of this.

7:54The mere fact, Pam, that Cornell actually took actions against some of the students itself is damaging for Cornell because it indicates that the university knew that something incredibly serious had happened on campus, such that they either suspended or expelled individuals and had felt the need to set up a task force thereafter. So, at a minimum, the university, I think, is in hot water over all of this and ought to be, number one. Number two, I think it's important to go to the New York state law on sexual assault in terms of when an individual can be deemed either, quote-unquote, physically helpless, which is what first-degree rape, the standard would be, or mentally incapacitated, which would be the standard for second-degree rape.

8:37Now, this came up in the prosecutor's statement in his quote above, where he'd said that an individual who had voluntarily taken drugs cannot be deemed mentally incapacitated for under second degree rape law in New York state law. And he's correct there. So all of those things, you have to pick apart the victim's statement to determine, you know, number one, when did this individual take substances? Number two, when did this individual either consent or not consent to conduct? These are very painful, fraught questions, but they have to be answered for any responsible prosecutor's office to be able to move forward with charges.

9:10Yeah, and according to these documents, she reportedly told police that she was, quote, pretty okay with some of the sexual activity, but as I pointed out earlier, did not consent to everything that happened that night. So legally speaking, does consent to one form of sexual contact constitute consent to all forms of sexual contact? It's going to depend on the entire record here. And what you have, Pam, is the huge divide, and this is not uncommon in sexual assault cases across the United States, the big divide between moral misconduct and conduct that can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt in a court in the state of New York where I'm admitted to practice.

9:49And that's going to be an immense challenge here. Now, if there are acts that an individual consented to, a person cannot be prosecuted for engaging in those acts. However, by all accounts here, there are other acts that this victim did not consent to, at least based on the information that you're presenting here. People can be prosecuted for those depending on what else shows up in the record. And so prosecutors, I would hope, are going through these statements very, very closely. And with a fine-tooth comb and not, to your question, creating a broad brush and applying one set of consent to every single act that happened or every statement that happened by the defendant in every act that happened.

10:29They have to go through each one. and prosecute each one separately if they can. So how does New York's law that you pointed out about mental incapacitation and drug use play into the consent factor here? Yes. Where she's saying, I consented early on but not later on and talked about doing drugs throughout this. Now in the civil suit, her attorney says she was pressured into it, just for context. Right. And civil suits and criminal suits, Pam, as you know, have a very, very different standard. They're much lower in civil suits, and you can win a civil suit more easily than you can win a criminal prosecution.

11:06Now, for mental incapacitation, in the state of New York, surprisingly, an individual who voluntarily takes a substance cannot be deemed mentally incapacitated for the purposes of sexual assault law. They need to have been administered the drugs against their will by another person. That's for second-degree sexual assault or rape in the state of New York. Now, if a person still is intoxicated on their own, they went to a bar, had a bunch of alcohol, and is blackout drunk and is sexually assaulted, then that can be first-degree rape in the state of New York under what's called physical helplessness.

11:44There's a distinction there between the two. And this whole debate over mental incapacitation, a central question to be answered is, were the substances administered to the defendant against their will? And if they were not, prosecutors are going to have a very hard time, if not an impossible time, charging that the person was, quote, mentally incapacitated under New York law. So we know that based on everything that's out there, there was a Title IX investigator and a victim advocate that were present when Jane Doe spoke to a campus police investigator. How important are they right now in this investigation to confirm what Jane Doe said at the time?

12:25Oh, critically important because of how long ago So, I mean, you're talking two years, which is still a fair amount of time in people's memories and people's recollections of events that happened. Prosecutors will have to rely on the statements of multiple people, and that includes some of these Title IX investigators and so on. I would also note that any electronic record that still exists, namely Snapchat, namely text messages, which don't lie. I mean, they are, they, years later, they still say the same thing they did a few years ago. The difference is somebody's memory might fade, but their text messages don't.

12:58And those are going to be critical here. So I would assume that prosecutors and investigators are number one, talking to all those university investigators and all those university personnel and the Title IX folks, but also going very closely through every single digital record that exists at the time to see what they can piece together. Just very quickly as we wrap up, the DA says that he did not receive these other documents that WCBS is reporting. What do you make of that? I think it's a lot of this. And you find this a lot of times when there's competing jurisdictions. You have the Cornell University Police Department, the Ithaca Police Department, and the Thompson County, New York DA's office, that when the system's working right, they're all working together well.

13:39But law enforcement agencies often are not sharing information in the way that they should. And there seems to have been some error, some mess up, some deficiency a few years ago. And again, the university, I don't want to let the university off the hook here as well. All of them, I think there's a lot of finger pointing, and I think many of them are going to have a lot of questions in the coming weeks and months. Questions to answer in the coming weeks and months. Right. No, of course. Elliott Williams, thank you so much. And we just want to note that if anyone watching right now, if you or anyone you know is struggling after a sexual assault, there is help.

14:09The National Sexual Assault Hotline is available 24-7. The number is 1-800-656-HOPE. And there are also resources available at RAINN.org. Still ahead, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the co-pilot of a fly Dubai flight apparently tried to crash the plane, setting off a violent incident in the cockpit. And then later, more dramatic video from New Mexico after officials issue the highest level flood warning. You're in the Situation Room and we'll be right back.

14:45Hey, I'm Anderson Cooper. On my podcast, All There Is, we explore grief and loss in all its complexities. My guest is Lil Jon. He's a rapper, DJ, and producer known for hits like Get Low and Turn Down for What. In February 2026, his 27-year-old son Nathan went missing near Nathan's home in Georgia. Three days later, his body was found in a pond nearby. Lil Jon has a memoir that just came out called I Only Shout So You Can Hear Me. It takes time to heal. And I kept myself busy that I didn't let myself mourn. I needed to laugh again. I needed to be silly and interact with people and feel other people's energy and make people happy too.

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16:39A moment, as you see, of tremendous relief and exhilaration. passengers aboard a Fly Dubai flight erupting shears after the two pilots engaged in a bloody brawl. Moments ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said one pilot stabbed the other and may have apparently tried to crash the plane. As you can see here, the aircraft, we're going to pull up that video, dropped a terrifying 17 ,000 feet in two minutes as the flight traveled from Dubai to Tel Aviv. The airline says a crew member took control and made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia. And that is significant because Israel and Saudi Arabia don't really have diplomatic relations.

17:17And Israeli officials now tell CNN that Saudi Arabia has denied Israel's request to send a plane for the stranded passengers. A quick warning, these next images are disturbing. Passengers reportedly came to the aid of the injured pilot. Wow, look at this one bloody passenger describing the ordeal.

17:41We are here on the plane right now. We have taken control of the terrorists. We are about to land. Anyone who hears me, we need help. We are landing in Tabuk, probably in the Saudi Arabia area, an unknown and unfamiliar area. Everyone on the plane is healthy and whole except for the pilot. We need help.

18:04A lot to go through here from the counterterrorism aspect and the aviation aspect. So here to help us better understand is CNN aviation analyst Miles O 'Brien and CNN national security analyst Alex Peetz says he is also director of the counterterrorism program at the Atlantic Council. So, Alex, I want to start with you. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, says one pilot stabbed the other and then apparently tried to crash the plane. You're the director of the counterterrorism program at the Atlantic Council. What does all of this tell you and how does this happen in this day and age?

18:40Sure. So kind of remarkable, the entire situation for a few reasons. And let's talk about the aviation aspect of it. But in this particular case, it appears that pilots somehow managed to throw the door open because one of the post 9-11 security changes is they lock from inside the cockpit doors to make sure that you can't have hijackers get in because it wasn't really thought of that a pilot would be the one responsible for doing something like that. That allowed the passengers to come in. So the assumption at that point is, which is what the prime minister mentioned, we saw the dive that the plane took that it was then pulled out of at the last minute.

19:11So were they trying to get to a lower altitude? Were they trying to crash the plane? The motive is incredibly important here for a few reasons. So they were either trying to kill everybody on board. And you can, you know, from there surmise that this is a plane load of largely Israelis traveling back from Dubai to Tel Aviv at this point that speaks potentially to motive. But until we find out, we're not sure. If he wasn't attempting to crash and kill everybody on board, where was he going to take the aircraft? What country would actually allow him to land with these people being held hostage? And the last piece I'll mention is terrorism is politically motivated violence against civilians.

19:43So the cause of a terrorist or would-be terrorist would need to be made known for the act of violence to sort of impact whatever the policy is they were looking for. So far, we've seen no claim of responsibility, and we haven't seen any evidence to date at this point that the guy was either affiliated with a state sponsor of terrorism or a group at this point. So it could be a lone wolf factor. A lot more questions that we have answers to right now. All right. I believe we have some sound from Benjamin Nanyahu, who says the co-pilot tried to bring the plane down, apparently. Let's listen.

20:18This morning, there was a severe security incident on a flight from Dubai to Israel. Almost all the passengers on that flight where Israel is during the flight, as they approached Israel, one pilot stabbed the second one and probably tried to crush the plane on all its passengers. I spoke with one of the passengers, and he told me that the plane went into turbulence and started to sink. And that in a way, somehow, he managed to broke into the cockpit, and together with the other pilot, they neutralized the stabber. Another team who were on the plane went into the cockpit and managed to stabilize the plane.

21:12I salute those heroes who were resourceful and discovered resourcefulness and saved the plane. The plane landed in Tabuk, and we are in contact with the authorities in order to guarantee the passengers' welfare and safety and bringing it back to Israel. How scary this must have been for those passengers, Miles. This plane dropped more than 17 ,000 feet in two minutes. How dramatic is that for passengers inside the cabin? Dramatic and structurally a problem. I don't know if you've seen the pictures, but it appears most of the rudder of that aircraft is gone. So, so many stresses has it dropped so precipitously that it lost the rudder.

22:09Fortunately, the conditions were such at that airport that they were able to land it. Apparently, there were some deadheading, you know, off-duty pilots on board that assisted in this case. But what a heroic group of people on board that aircraft. You know, I always say that there was a switch flipped for passengers on 9-11, and that was at Shanksville when everything turned. And up until that time, passengers were told to just stay seated and a hijacking will work its way out. It'll be OK. It's a different world now. And those passengers on this aircraft realized that they needed to take action.

22:46It makes me shudder because you have to wonder if indeed the intent was to deliberately crash that aircraft where they were headed to Tel Aviv, to Ben Gurion Airport, any number of possible targets there. It's clearly a heroic action to save the day here. And the fact that nobody has died as a result of the crash of an airplane because of the heroic action of the passengers and those pilots who were on board is extraordinary. It is nothing short of extraordinary. Alex and Miles O 'Brien, thank you very much. Coming up here in the Situation Room, a twist in the Lindsay Clancy case. Her lawyers now argue over the evidence that she was the one who killed her three children, what this could mean for a potential retrial, and surviving postpartum psychosis, how one woman is using her experience to try to help other new mothers.

23:47Happening now, Lindsay Clancy's defense attorney says the prosecution did not actually prove that Clancy killed her three children. Where's the evidence that she did this? Where is the evidence that she did this? This entire case is based on speculation. Where is the admission? Where does she say that she did this? This was Clancy's first time back in court since her trial ended with a deadlocked jury, with a mistrial. So during the trial, Clancy's attorney, Kevin Reddington, had argued that she was experiencing postpartum psychosis at the time of the killings and therefore should not be held criminally liable.

24:32So let's go live now to CNN correspondent, Jean Casares, to make sense of all of this. Jean, what is the legal strategy here in your view? Oh, it came out of the blue yesterday, right, as he was arguing this renewed motion for required finding of not guilty. So he's asking the judge in this argument to find her not guilty because of the insufficiency of the evidence. Now, here's what he prefaced it with. This makes it, I think, understandable for all of us. At the beginning of this trial process, he wanted to bifurcate the trial. He wanted two separate sections of the trial. the first trial to be whether she's guilty, whether she intentionally killed her children with premeditation and atrocity or cruelty.

25:15If the jury said beyond the reasonable doubt, yes, then you go into the second phase where it's the psychosis, that she's not criminally responsible. And he said, I'm going to argue the motion in this way. That's what he said yesterday. So conceivably, and the judge denied that, by the way, didn't happen. If there had been that initial phase of the trial, it looks like that he would have, and he would have had to have said that she's not guilty because deficiency of the DNA, deficiency of fingerprints, there was no investigation. But Pamela, what was fascinating yesterday, we listened to what he said about the timeline when Patrick left.

25:52He said there wasn't time enough for her to do it there. And once she threw herself out the window in socks, he said it would take two hours for a core body temperature to get down to what hers was when she was taken at the hospital. So he's saying that timeline right there, that something else happened. And if there is another trial, he's going to try again to have a bifurcated trial. You heard that yesterday, two parts. So it may be a completely different defense. So what is the prosecution stance right now? Now, the prosecution, Timothy Cruz outside said we have made no decision yesterday, he said, if we are going to retry her.

26:35The judge wanted a trial date. He was pushing the lawyers, set a trial date. And that can be in theory because he wants to move this along if there will be another trial. Now, the next hearing, November 2nd, we may learn more, but the motions are flowing. And the motions means this is an active criminal case. We just have to see if it's proceeding to trial or not. All right, Jean Casares, thank you so much. Well, after surviving postpartum psychosis, Esty Rollhouse is using her experience to try to help other new mothers going on to become a reproductive psychiatrist. Rollhouse now pushes for better U.S.

27:12perinatal mental health care. And our CNN's Mina Derson has a look at her story in this Situation Room special report.

27:25You know, it almost feels like it didn't happen. It feels so unreal. Esty Rollhouse was a new mom when she was hospitalized here for what she'd later learn was postpartum psychosis. That was the worst part of my life. I can say this, but I wish Lindsay Clancy was here. This was two weeks before I was hospitalized. Ten months after giving birth to twins, Rollhouse was struggling. The world turned gray. It just all felt so bleak that I couldn't see a way of anything getting better. She stopped being able to sleep, and her symptoms escalated rapidly. I remember feeling like everyone was staring at me, and then I heard people saying derogatory things about me, which I now recognize is a hallucination.

28:14I felt like there were helicopters tracking our car, and then I felt like there was, like, broadcasts happening about how terrible I was. The plot against me was to take my babies away from me because I was an unfit mother. It took two trips to the emergency room for doctors to recognize the severity of the crisis, where they gave her husband a devastating choice. They were like, you can sign this thing that is going to involuntarily commit your right. Like, she doesn't want to. But they were like, you have to. You have to do this. Like, this is, like, she is not well. And Esty was like really, really upset at me and was like, if you do this, I'm going to divorce you.

28:54It's like, oh my God, like what do I do? Now I understand that that was really an act of heroism on his part. Roll House was hospitalized for 11 days. I met with a psychologist in the hospital. And even though I was 11 months postpartum, she said, this is a postpartum story. And she is the one who sent me to the motherhood center. People don't realize how dangerous these illnesses can be when left untreated. Dr. Katherine Berndorf created the Motherhood Center to treat pregnant women and new moms with mood and anxiety disorders. One in five women will have a perinatal mood and anxiety disorder.

29:34One in five? One in five. There wasn't even a name for reproductive psychiatry when I started. It's gone from don't even mention it to we're now having a national conversation. Do people in the medical field know enough about what's happening with a postpartum person? I don't think they do. Is the healthcare provider you reach out to able to diagnose it and not just say, oh, that's, you know, being pregnant or that's, you're a new mom. Of course you feel that way. A treatment center like this is more common around the world, but still rare in the U.S. Lindsay Clancy's attorney said she sought care at a similar facility but was discharged the same day.

30:16We started 10 years ago and had hoped to really have more centers by now. But insurance companies don't recognize perinatal mental health issues. What do you mean? I mean that they're not in our Diagnostics and Statistics manual. People using the manual will have a common language. And that insurance companies will recognize it to pay for it. If you can't see it in that book, nobody believes that it exists. Roll House is one of the thousands of women who've worked with the Motherhood Center since it opened in 2017. How are you? Hi! Oh my god. Wow. Wow. Yeah. I used to sit over here. People like their chairs, you know?

30:58Yeah. They like their chairs. You know, Lindsay Clancy sought care from numerous providers. What do you guys make of that when you see a story like that? That could have so easily been me. Wow. You know, like I got really lucky in coming here. Only one person. Could have so easily, this is the same story of could have so easily gotten the other way. What is justice from here is really taking this moment and really moving it forward. The system has to change. So this is part of your course that you put together? Yeah. Rollhouse was inspired by her experience to become a reproductive psychiatrist, one of fewer than 500 in the country.

31:40It's really cute to see them play. Her twins are now 10 years old, and three years ago, the couple welcomed a third baby through surrogacy to protect her mental health. I could never have imagined a wall like this and a family like this. This is beyond my wildest dreams. I really want people to know that they're not alone, that this can happen to normal people and you can get better.

32:05wow what a powerful piece there if you or someone you know is struggling help is available you can call or text help to postpartum support international at 1-800-944-4773 we'll be right back

32:25all right we're following that breaking news out of the middle east where a fly dubai flight had to be diverted after two pilots engaged in a bloody brawl. Moments ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said one pilot stabbed the other and may have apparently tried to crash the plane. CNN's Eleni Jaqas joins us live with more. So what can you tell us, Eleni? Hey, Pamela. So what we understand, and early this morning we heard the news of this flight that was diverted and ended up in northwestern part of Saudi Arabia in Tabuk. And then more details started sort of coming up. And now the latest, we've got these images of, you know, some passengers covered in blood, news of the pilots and the co-pilots involved in some kind of violent altercation.

33:14Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying that one of the pilots had tried to crash the plane after the stabbing incident. But some of the flight radar data really shows just how dramatic and harrowing this must have been for the passengers as we're getting more information. So the flight dropped from 34 ,000 feet, Pamela, to 16 ,500 feet. That's a drop of around 17 ,400 feet in the span of two minutes. Then you see the plane being stabilized and then eventually seeking emergency landing in Saudi Arabia. As we're starting to get more information through, and I have to say it's mostly from Israeli officials as well as sources, that this violent altercation was then stopped by some of the Fly Dubai crew as well as passengers on board.

34:00And then Fly Dubai crew, according to a statement from them, that they were able to eventually take control of the plane and land it safely. Fly Dubai has also put out a statement just a short time ago, and they say that the underlying reasons and motives behind this event are unknown, and we have to wait for a formal investigation. They're urging all parties to refrain from premature speculation, very different from what we're hearing from Israeli sources, and also some of the accounts of people on the aircraft as well. And you can see some of them covered in blood, and you can also just hear the distress in their voice.

34:35This is going to be a very big issue diplomatically. It is going to bring into a lot of questions around security on flights, whether this was just an altercation between pilots. What was the source of that altercation? Why was the plane not on autopilot? Was autopilot disengaged deliberately? Or was it because it was a coincidence at that moment in time? All these things we're still waiting for as the investigation gets underway. Saudi Arabia says that the two pilots are now currently in hospital. They both have been injured. And then there's efforts to try and get the passengers around 170 or so back into Israel and massive effort there to try and get people home, Pamela.

35:18All right, Eleni Jokos, thank you so much for bringing us the latest there. How frightening for those passengers. Wow. Well, affordability back here in the United States is on the minds of so many Americans, especially heading into the midterms. Up next, we'll speak to one California restaurant owner forced to close his doors over high costs.

35:41Well, with just over a month until the November midterms, affordability and higher prices are a top issue for voters across the country. And that includes California, where the candidates for governor, Democrat Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton, are both drilling down on the issue. CNN's Kyung Law spoke with a Hollywood restaurant owner who says he had to close his doors because of the state's economic challenges. In this Situation Room special report.

36:12Tonight is last call. An employees only restaurant and bar. The final pour for owner Tom Sopit, closing after nearly 10 years in West Hollywood. It's just becoming increasingly tough to operate in this state and in this city. So we decided to close. A bittersweet end to service after surviving the pandemic. I'm concerned. This was Soapit in March 2020. COVID-19 gripped the country. Soapit's restaurant shut down with all the others. His rent was$1 ,000 a day. He was completely underwater. All we can do is help each other. Help is what he did. Soapit's small staff prepped free meals for any worker who lost their job.

37:10For weeks, he donated food to emergency rooms across Los Angeles. He turned his parking lot into an outdoor patio, pivoting with ever-changing protocols. How do you survive that, but you have to close now? Through the years, the economics of the state and the country has really changed. We've tried. It's not one thing that took us out. It's just what I like to say, death by a thousand cuts. Affordability has really impacted our state. The cost of goods, the cost of labor is much higher than everyone else in the country. California labor laws are really tough. Insurance is a big part of it, with the wildfires controlling the premiums and the increases, all the carriers leaving the state, and that's why it went up so quickly.

37:58How much did the shrinking of Hollywood impact you? Oh, immensely. It disappeared overnight. We're not really Hollywood anymore. All these people that are, that used to work here, used to work in the city of Los Angeles, are now gone. All the businesses close early because there is no foot traction. It's a completely different city now. Tell me about what you see when you drive around West Hollywood. There's a lot of Ford Lease signs up, a lot of businesses that are shutting down just a few months after they open. It's really sad. Sofit voted for Gavin Newsom, but is today a registered independent.

38:33He says the political system is failing people like him. Your advice to the next governor of California. My advice is focus on the issues. Focus on the real challenges. Drive up and down the street. Get your hands dirty. I think you can't just keep taxing businesses and people. How are we just keep paying more taxes, but somehow the state just keeps going downhill. That doesn't make sense. There has to be some real change there. I asked Soapit whether it matters who the next governor of California is. He says that he's very pessimistic, that he's not sure it matters who occupies that office. But he does add that whoever wins the election, that person begins to tackle the issue of affordability.

39:28Kyung Law, CNN, Los Angeles. All right, our thanks to Kyung. And make sure to watch CNN's California Governor's debate tonight with Javier Becerra and Steve Hilton, moderated by CNN's Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. That is tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 Pacific on CNN and streaming live on CNN All Access. And here's what's coming up all new at the top of the hour. Breaking news out of Tennessee. A federal appeals court has stopped what would have been the first execution of a woman in the state in 200 years. Plus, we'll discuss potential changes at the Pentagon with New York Senator and Armed Services Committee member Kirsten Gillibrand.

40:05And will self-policing of AI work? We're going to speak to a prominent AI ethics researcher as concerns over AI safety grow. That's all new next hour.

40:22Happening now, breaking news. An appeals court delays Tennessee's first execution of a woman in more than two centuries, just minutes before it was set to happen. And booze ban. President Trump is cutting off most alcohol from Canada. It is the latest blow in an escalating trade fight that could cost you money. We are going one-on-one with New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. She is fighting to repeal and refund Trump's latest tariffs. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Pamela Brown. Wolf Blitzer is off and you're in the Situation Room.

41:03This is CNN Breaking News. And we begin this hour with new details on a bloody attack aboard a commercial flight in the Middle East. Heroic passengers seized control of a plane before it made an emergency landing.

41:23So those are the passengers on the fly Dubai jet erupting in cheers, as you just heard. And a short time ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said one pilot stabbed the other and then apparently tried to crash the plane. As you can see right here, the aircraft dropped a terrifying 17 ,000 feet in two minutes as the flight traveled from Dubai to Tel Aviv. It diverted and landed in Saudi Arabia. And that is significant because Israel and Saudi Arabia don't have diplomatic relations. A quick warning for you, these next images are disturbing. This is one of several passengers right here seen covered in blood.

42:02And we are now learning that some reportedly helped the injured pilot and prevented a catastrophe. CNN's Eleni Jokas joins us now. And this is really just a remarkable tale of heroism. Eleni. It absolutely is. I mean, we're hearing accounts from passengers and importantly, the timeline of this is really harrowing. And you showed that image of the incredible descent within two minutes, dropping 17 ,400 feet and a huge altitude. We're talking about a massive G-force while the pilots were embroiled in a violent altercation. From what we understand, they eventually got into the cockpits. Passengers as well as fly-dubite crew assisted in trying to neutralize the co-pilot that allegedly stabbed the pilots.

42:52Both pilots injured and we know that they are currently in hospital in Saudi Arabia. And then importantly, what we've heard and we spoke about this in terms of getting the passengers back to Israel. A short time ago, we've learned, according to passengers and family members that were waiting in Ben Gurion Airport, that some passengers have now boarded a substitute fly Dubai plane that was sent to Tabuk Airport to pick them up. Apparently, from what we understand, some families refused to board a new flight and are insisting on flying home on an Israeli air carrier. We know that Israel was exploring the possibility of sending military aircraft or aircraft to pick up the civilians.

43:35But apparently, according to Israeli sources, Riyadh has refused to allow Israeli planes to collect them, keeping in mind that Saudi Arabia and Israel do not have any diplomatic ties. However, Israel and Saudi Arabia allowed and opened up airspace for each other to allow aircraft to travel over their airspace. But this is a very serious incident, one that could have ended very badly. We spoke to aviation experts. I mean, absolutely harrowing just the descent in itself. Massive risk. And you can see the applause of the passengers as emergency landing in Tabuk got underway. way. The other detail that we've learned throughout the day is just how the passengers were able to assist after hearing the loud screams emanating from the cockpit.

44:26And Fly Dubai has also categorically said this, that we shouldn't speculate for the underlying reasons and the motives behind this event. That is very contrary to what we're hearing from Israeli officials that say that this could have been an attempted terror attack. Wow. And you have some new reporting on Israel requesting Saudi permission to retrieve the Israeli passengers. What more can you tell us about that? Yeah, so what we understand is Riyadh has refused to allow Israeli planes to land in Saudi Arabia to allow to for repatriation of the Israeli passengers. Some of the passengers had agreed to board another fly Dubai plane that was sent to get them back to Ben Gurion airport.

45:13That's all the detail we have right now. Israeli officials have just been very categorical on the fact that Riyadh has refused this. Again, a lot of diplomacy must be happening in the background because this isn't just a security event, according to a lot of political analysts. They believe that this is also a diplomatic event. It's a geopolitical event, Pamela, for a region that is very tense right now, where you've got the Iranian war still basically raging on and affecting a lot of the Gulf states. And we know that Israel takes massive protocols and security very seriously for any flights that do land in Israel.

45:50It is a very popular route between Dubai and Tel Aviv, keeping in mind the UAE has normalized with Israel. So these flights are extremely crucial for the region and movement of people. All right, Eleni Jokas, thank you so much. And let's bring in CNN national security analyst Alex Bleetsas. He is also the director of the counterterrorism program at the Atlantic Council. So, Alex, Israel has some of the strictest aviation protocols in the world. Are you surprised that this attack got as far as it did? No, because the protocols really focus on external security threats to an aircraft, from the passengers to potential outside terrorists.

46:30And even the security measures that are put into place after 9-11, such as locking the cockpit doors on the inside, were really meant to prevent an external threat. So where this is rare is that you had a pilot or a co-pilot who happened to be in the cockpit, has gone undiscovered for one reason or another, whether this was a lone wolf or this was part of a larger conspiracy involving a state or a terrorist organization isn't known, but it simply wasn't discovered. So this pretty much exploited most of the loopholes in the system. If this is, in fact, terrorism, wouldn't you expect a very public claim of responsibility?

47:06Yes, and that's exactly right. So terrorism only works if your political cause is known, because it's defined as politically motivated violence against civilians. So a terrorist, whether it's an individual or group, would commit some sort of act of violence against the civilians or group of civilians in the hopes of getting some sort of policy outcome. In this particular case, if you had a pilot or a co-pilot who was going to just crash the plane in the ground, if there's no manifesto that they had written or there's no claim of responsibility for a terrorist group, it doesn't really serve a wider political cause.

47:35It's more akin to those car ramings that we see in the West Bank recently, where you've got an individual who's angry about political events in the region with the war in Gaza or something else where they're running over Israeli soldiers, but they may not necessarily belong to a group where they haven't released a public statement. So it's unclear at this point whether the co-pilot who's being alleged to be the one to stab the pilot, whether that individual was a lone wolf, self-radicalized, or a member of an organization or wider conspiracy that simply isn't known yet. And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just spoke about this.

48:07Let's Take a listen.

48:11This morning, there was a severe security incident on a flight from Dubai to Israel. Almost all the passengers on that flight were Israelis. During the flight, as they approached Israel, one of the pilots stabbed the second one and probably tried to crush the plane on all its passengers. I spoke with one of the passengers and he told me that the plane went into turbulence and started to sink. And that in a way, somehow, he managed to broke into the cockpit and together with the other pilot, they neutralized the stabbard. Another team who were on the plane went into the cockpit and managed to stabilize the plane.

49:04I salute those heroes who were resourceful and discovered resourcefulness and saved the plane. The plane landed in Tabuk, and we are in contact with the authorities in order to guarantee the passengers' welfare and safety and bringing it back to Israel. So, Alex, how remarkable is it that an Israeli-bound aircraft landed, and I should say Israel-bound aircraft, landed in Saudi Arabia, given the lack of formal diplomatic relations between the two countries? so it's not the first time that's happened i believe the last time i think mbs actually showed up himself if i'm not mistaken to welcome folks i'll have to go back and look at that to make sure uh but it is unprecedented because you're right they don't have relations the opening of airspace and the ability to fly over and relations have been warming over the years but they still haven't reached anywhere near uh you know normalization and that's it's been a big goal for uh for prime minister netanyahu and his government because there's a belief that many um many of the other countries that have held out in the region on normalizing through the Abraham Accords would do so, but only after Saudi Arabia did so as the keepers of the two mosques into the focal point for the Islamic faith.

50:28And so since that hasn't happened, it's kept other countries from joining. So it's been warming, but to your point, there's no relation. So it's a very unusual occurrence, but not the first time. All right, Alex Pleetsas, thank you so much for coming on. And now to more breaking news that we're following. I have obtained a six-page written statement signed by Jane Doe, the former Cornell University student who alleged that she was drugged and raped inside a fraternity house in 2024 in a recent civil suit. It includes accounts that she gave to Cornell police weeks after the alleged incident. And according to the documents, Jane Doe told Cornell police she was heavily intoxicated.

51:06In a transcript, she told police she was, quote, okay, pretty okay with the initial sexual activity, but did not consent to what occurred later in the night. In her written statement, Jane Doe said she consented to some sexual acts, but refused others, including a foursome proposed by a fraternity brother. She also described thinking that if she passed out, that the men could be charged with, quote, rape if they had sex with her, the only mention of rape in her written statement. No criminal charges were brought afterward. Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten tells CNN, quote, I will be looking into whether the reports of her initial comments are true in the specific circumstances of this allegation.

51:47I was not provided the transcript in the specific statement that has been attributed to Jane Doe, was not included in the written statement that I received from Cornell PD. I will be investigating this fully and determining the truth. A lot to unpack here and to better understand all of this, we go to our Bryn Gingras. First of all, Bryn, how are students reacting to this investigation being reopened? Yeah, I think there's a mixture of surprised and also disbelief and also not surprised because they feared that it's possible this has happened before and no one heard about it, which is what everybody is sort of worried about.

52:26Like, could this have happened before? And it was never reported. So thank goodness for the people who did report this out. But let's hear from some of the students on campus. You can sense the air on campus that nobody can trust the administration anymore. Just a lot of administrative distrust. I don't think students feel comfortable going to anyone like vaguely associated with administration. I think a lot of people already have this understanding that the university has disappointed them time and again. And Pam, great job on getting that statement because it provides so many details about what Jane Doe said happened, And not only that night, but also following up to the point of where she reported this to police, but also opens again so many questions at this point.

53:12Who knew what when what was investigated when what information was given to the district attorney's office? What information wasn't given to the district attorney's office? Why were charges never filed based on the information just from this written statement? It's still very unclear. So that's probably where some of this frustration, frustration rather, still lies with not only the student body, but everybody who's sort of following this story at this point. But certainly this written statement, it gives so many details of what happened. And there are so many questions, like I'm saying, that we're bringing all those questions to the district attorney there that has reopened the investigation into this, but also to Cornell and the university and its police department.

53:53Again, what information was shared not only at the time, but also since this civil lawsuit was filed by Jane Doe and her attorney. And from our understanding from talking to the DA who was on our show yesterday, the seven defendants in this civil suit were not initially interviewed by police as part of this investigation. Can you tell us more about how their lawyers are responding to this? Yeah, well, we haven't even really heard from all of the attorneys, right? Some people are basically saying that they were not culpable in some of this and also just reviewing this lawsuit at this point. So we're still trying to get answers as well from these attorneys of these seven individuals.

54:35But again, to your credit, this written statement gives a lot more details that we'll be bringing more questions to them with. Yeah, certainly more information, the better to just understand all of this. Bryn, thank you for helping us better understand the different pieces of this. We appreciate it. And still ahead, repeal and refund. We'll ask Senator Kirsten Gillibrand about her push to get back President Trump's tariff money. And then later, the Trump administration's crackdown on suspected voter fraud, with the midterms barely a month away. You're in the Situation Room, and we'll be right back.

55:14Breaking news out of the Middle East. These passengers from the diverted Fly Dubai flight are now on their way back to Tel Aviv. This is according to flight tracking data. And these are some live pictures of Ben Gron Airport in Tel Aviv. A new Fly Dubai plane was sent to Saudi Arabia to pick up the passengers who landed there after their original flight was diverted following what officials said was an attempted hijacking. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said one pilot stabbed the other and then apparently tried to crash the plane. Here now is Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.

55:49She serves on the Armed Services and Intelligence Committees. First of all, what is your reaction to all of this? It sounds deeply concerning. We're a country and a city that was harmed by hijackers, and we just came from the 25th anniversary of 9-11. So this type of story sounds deeply familiar and very concerning. So I want to ask you about another issue dealing with armed services. You're on the committee just hours from now. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will give the State of the Force address, and he's expected to announce plans to cut the number of positions reserved for generals and admirals by 20 percent.

56:30Two Pentagon officials say that's doubled the reduction to senior positions he ordered last year. What is your reaction to this expected major shakeup? Well, I have grave concerns about Secretary Higgs' leadership. It's one of the reasons why I voted against his nomination. He has continued to cut generals, particularly female generals, people of color. He's really destroying so many aspects of the military services that are there to protect our country, to make good judgment and good decisions. So I just have deep questions about why he would be cutting some of the most highly trained, most qualified people within the armed services.

57:13He also dismissed the entire section whose job was to make sure we don't have civilian harm. He's not answered questions honestly about the use of AI and targeting. He's been unwilling to provide clarity about the war in Iran. This administration and Pete Hegseth want$1.5 trillion for military, showing that they want unlimited money for bombs. They have plenty of money for billionaires in ballrooms, but yet sufficient money for regular people who are working hard for food, for housing, and for health care. It's just deeply demoralizing the direction this secretary is taking. And you believe he should resign?

57:56Is that right? I've called on him to resign many times over almost all of these issues. Most recently over the hitting of a girls' school in Iran, the fact that he continues to prosecute a war that the American people have not had a chance to even support. There's been no congressional approval. And again, asking for unlimited money for his bombs waging this war when this administration refuses to fund things like Medicaid. But isn't in terms of the war itself, it's more up to President Trump, right? as the commander in chief and getting that sign off, right? President Trump is bringing this country in the wrong direction on all these issues.

58:35But Secretary Heseth is an enabler and he is unwilling to do his job as the secretary of defense to prosecute wars properly, to have civilian harm reduction as part of his military services. He's firing people not based on qualifications, but how they look, the color of their skin. these are all red flags that this is a secretary of defense who does not know how to lead our country productively to keep americans safer you're also calling for congressional hearings after the navy confirmed to you in a letter that eight sailors on the uss abraham lincoln fleet we should note there you have the us the carrier and then you have the fleet that there were attempted suicides.

59:20So what more have you learned about the conditions on board? Not just the carrier itself, which I was an embed on for three days back in July, but also just the other warships around it where there were attempted suicides as well. Well, this goes to the lack of leadership of Secretary Hegseth again, and ultimately President Trump, deploying our service members for months upon months, far longer than they expected, not giving them the dwell time, the time at home that they need to recuperate and be ready to continue to go back into combat over and over again. We wrote a letter asking what is the status and well-being of the service members that are deployed and the answer we got was shocking.

1:00:01Eight people have attempted suicide on these warships. Two threw themselves overboard, which according to experts is the most extreme scenario you can imagine being a sailor on a warship. And so I have serious questions about how Secretary Hegseth is leading this military and ultimately President Trump. I want to turn to another issue, and that is this Cornell rape civil suit that is getting a lot of attention. You have called the allegations, quote, serious and terrific. You and Republican Senator Chuck Grassley have introduced legislation to combat sexual assault on college campuses. But that bill was never passed.

1:00:42What role can Congress play here? Well, we should pass our legislation immediately. What it does is create rules of the road so that every student is protected on campus. We have to make sure that there's a person who's highly trained to receive these allegations in the first instance to tell a survivor what his or her rights are, what opportunities she has to report either through a civilian system, through a college system or through a criminal system. She or he is given just the basic tools of advocacy about what's going to happen to their lives and whether the school will provide accommodations.

1:01:23And then you need a process that is a highly informed process that is legitimate and doesn't put one student against another unfairly in a circumstance that doesn't actually resolve to justice. And so we need reform on all of these college campuses. It's not right that kids go off to school and are not safe. It's not right that what happened in this instance doesn't appear to have been assessed properly. So I'm grateful that the DA is looking at it again. All right, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, nice to have you back on the show. Thank you. Thank you. And just ahead, breaking news out of Tennessee.

1:02:05A federal appeals court has stopped what would have been the state's first execution of a woman in more than 200 years. What we're learning up next.

1:02:21Breaking news just about an hour before Tennessee was set to execute a woman for the first time in more than 200 years. A court has intervened. Krista Pike was 18 years old when she killed a classmate. She was convicted along with her boyfriend in 1995 for that murder. Pike has not denied her guilt, but her attorneys argue she suffered from untreated mental illnesses and childhood trauma. Now, a federal appeals court wants to look at whether that was considered before she was sentenced to death. So let's bring in CNN Senior National Correspondent Ryan Young in Nashville. What's the latest on this, Ryan?

1:02:58Yeah, a lot of curiosity in terms of what's going to happen next in this case. The federal appeals court putting that stay in in the last hour or so. I can tell you we're just outside this prison and there's been a lot of curiosity. People driving by trying to figure out exactly what's going to happen next. People actually taking video of the outside. We do know the victim's mom also traveled here to be here for today's execution. That was what was being reported on the local news here. But the conversation really is about the background of this woman who obviously had been convicted of murder back in 1996.

1:03:31So there's the questions about how this case will move forward. What her attorneys want the court to listen to is the fact that she said she suffered from sexual abuse and child rape. And they want that part of her background to be put into this case to see if it has anything to do with how she ended up murdering her classmate. But let's take a listen to the victim's mother talk about how long of a road this has been to get to this day. Somebody's got to talk. They have forgotten her. They don't care. It's all about Krista. And when you forget about everything and not even remember the victim and all these posts has been done, that's wrong.

1:04:17It's never about the victims. It's like Colleen was never there. Like when I sat in the court for three weeks in a row, they didn't see that I was by myself. They didn't see that I was in the hotel and nobody with me. Yeah. Colleen Slimmer was her name. And of course, one of the things we've noticed is there has been a lot of talk, especially here locally, just about let's talk about the victim a little more. But of course, this case is bringing so much national attention because this would be the first woman executed in the state of Tennessee in 200 years. This was supposed to happen by lethal injection.

1:04:53Now we're all sort of waiting to see what the next step is. Does a Tennessee AG make an appeal? Does this execution move forward at a different date? Does it happen tomorrow? These are all questions that we're still trying to work our way through. But at this point, so many questions that are left unanswered, but you have a family that's been in pain and wondering when the next step was going to be served when it comes to justice. You're talking about 1995 and now finally this family traveling here to see what's going on and then finding out that this stay was put into place probably about an hour and a half ago.

1:05:24So we continue to follow this, Pamela. And of course, we'll see if there's going to be any reaction outside. There's even been people who were on death row before who've shown up out here to talk to us and talk about the process here. and what the next steps would be. But all that right now doesn't really matter because everyone's looking to see what will happen in the courts next. All right, Ryan Young, thank you so much. More news when we come back.

1:05:50Happening now, President Trump is cheering a new agreement on AI safety after his meeting with top tech leaders at the White House. Some of those executives warned that artificial intelligence could go rogue and actually threaten humanity, and they want stronger regulations. The president posted the agreement on social media. It is a one-page document with just four bullet points of voluntary safety standards. The key word is voluntary with no government enforcement. Here is the president's reaction and a more cautious tone from one of the AI leaders. Well, I think I'm seeing tremendous self-policing.

1:06:26And they understand that they have to self-police. And it's very hard for somebody to come outside, get into these models. These models are very complex. And again, I believe they're going to be used for the good, and when they're not, we're going to be able to nab them. But there's going to be a tremendous self-policing aspect. As the president has said, whoever wins AI wins. I think that's very important. But I think the technology has very real risks. And the mechanism, how we address those risks is still under discussion. But we all need to work together to make sure that we can win, and we can win safely.

1:07:02All right. So let's continue this important discussion with Timnika Brew. She's a prominent AI ethics researcher and author of the upcoming book, Deep Unlearning, the Rise of AI and the Radicalization of a Tech Idealist. Thanks so much for being here with us. So what is your reaction to AI companies being empowered in this document to, quote, self-police? my reaction is that they got what they wanted um i think that this whole uh we have created machine gods that can render us extinct kind of hysteria was about capturing regulation and marketing their products like they are unprecedented unprecedented and so instead of holding them liable with existing laws and even we didn't we don't even need new laws to hold them liable for some of the things they've done, they successfully managed to perform regulatory capture, which is what just happened.

1:07:58Yeah, but you have the AI leaders of these companies, but also researchers within the companies and those who have left who have also raised the alarm with the same quote unquote kind of hysteria that like, if we don't do something, AI could kill us all. So what do you make of that? You know, yeah, so this kind of AI can either bring us utopia, like bring world peace, solve poverty, or stop climate change, or apocalypse, if the right people don't control it, narrative has been going on since at least 2012. And it was seeded by the very people who fund and create these AI companies themselves. Peter Thiel in 2013 said that AI was a higher existential risk than climate change.

1:08:45Elon Musk said that AI was summoning the devil. So what's interesting to me is it's the same playbook as the tobacco and fossil fuel companies. To the public, it seems like many independent voices, concerned voices are pushing this narrative. But when you actually look very closely, it's the same. Even the researchers who work at these companies or so-called external parties who are not actually independent are funded by the same exact people who led Anthropics Series A or OpenAI's investment. So one example is, for example, Jan Talen, who led Anthropics Series A, also co-founded the Future of Life Institute, which is advising Bernie Sanders and telling us that AI poses can kill us all.

1:09:36Also funds the Meter Institute, which is being treated like a third party, telling us that these agents went rogue all on their own and created their own civilizations. Okay. Just really quickly, just to follow up with you, do you not see the concern of AI becoming more intelligent than humans and not being aligned with humans and that causing it? Do you not see that as a concern? Why not? I see this as a very dangerous rhetoric. I see it as a way to make the public believe that these companies are building something that is akin to a machine god. And so when you do that, instead of now talking about what the companies have actually done, which is unleashed malware worldwide because of their incompetence and their basic lack of security practices.

1:10:32If you speak to cybersecurity experts, they'll tell you how laughable their security practices were. So now instead of us talking about what these companies have done and how to hold them liable, like Lina Khan had said, we can hold them liable with existing laws. We're now completely changing the conversation to some fictional, super intelligent being that is out of their control. So it's a very dangerous narrative setting. How do you know it's fictional? Oh, it is fictional. I am a researcher in AI. I got my PhD from what's called the AI lab. And I actually asked Elon Musk, point blank, in 2015, in person, why he at that time was telling us that AI was an existential risk and why it wasn't climate change.

1:11:20So I've been talking to dealing with these people for a long time. I mean, to give you an example, Ray Kurzweil, who's well known from the 80s, for creating a particular type of model, wrote a whole entire book called The Singularity is Coming in 2012, telling us that that model from the 80s was going to be super intelligent and either bring us utopia or apocalypse. So this kind of narrative is not new at all. All right, we have to get to some breaking news. Tamneet, Gabru, thank you for coming on to share your perspective on this important issue. We appreciate it. And to get to that breaking news, passengers who were on board that fly Dubai flight diverted to Saudi Arabia have now landed safely at a Tel Aviv airport.

1:12:05Joining us now is a correspondent, Eleni Jakas and John Pistol, who served as TSA administrator and FBI deputy director. First of all, Eleni, tell us the latest. Yeah, all right. So we're seeing live images there from Ben Gurion Airport where we are expecting the passengers to disembark. From what we understand, a Fly Dubai aircraft was sent to Tabuk and it landed a short while ago, bringing the passengers that had this harrowing experience throughout the day, where they experienced 17 ,400 feet drop in altitude in the span of two minutes, where these two pilots were in a violent altercation. Passengers had to get involved to try and subdue the co-pilot.

1:12:53And then luckily, according to Fly Dubai, there were other crew that were able to stabilize the plane and land safely in Saudi Arabia. So this is the first tranche of the passengers that were able to be repatriated to Israel. We also understand from Israeli officials that Riyadh has rejected allowing an Israeli plane to land in Saudi Arabia. This is because other passengers refused to get on a fly Dubai plane to get back to Israel. So this is what we understand right now to have happened in the last few minutes. This is after a harrowing day where Israeli officials say this could have been a terrorist attack.

1:13:35Investigations absolutely underway. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a short while ago was actually saying that one of the pilots had attempted to crash the plane after the stabbing incident. By all accounts, by everything we've heard, this is a miracle. Seeing the passengers getting back safely and obviously landing safely in Saudi Arabia after such a harrowing experience and importantly, and I've spoken to aviation experts, a drop of that magnitude in the span of two minutes could have ended very badly, Pamela. Yeah, let's bring in John on that point. What do you make of that drop? Yeah, that is just terrific, Pam.

1:14:18And the idea of the passengers and the crew who are able to intercede and prevent the co-pilot from crashing the plane is just remarkable and miraculous, I would say. I'm sure your viewers of a certain age recall the Egypt Air 990 flight from JFK to Cairo that took off. of halloween night i believe it was 1999 and the co-pilot put the plane into a nosedive very similar to that and the pilot was able who just stepped out to the lab was able to get back in and get the yoke and said pull with me pull with me to try to get the aircraft and they did get it up um several thousand feet and then the uh the co-pilot was able to shut off the the engines And so they plummeted into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Rhode Island.

1:15:15232 people, I believe, were killed because of that. And then I think it was a Lufthansa subsidiary, German Wings, same thing, that crashed in the Alps due to the co-pilot. But it's a very challenging threat and that insider threat, if you will, that airlines and aviation security and safety people deal with on a regular basis in terms of the vetting. And so what is going on in the person's mind? Those things. What is the vetting for pilots? I actually covered that German wings crash. It was so sad. Yeah. What that pilot did crashing that plane into the mountain. But what kind of measures are in place for the pilots themselves?

1:16:01We know what passengers have to go through, but what about the pilots? Right. So it varies between, for example, U.S. carriers and the International Civil Aviation Organization, ICAO, in Montreal, which is part of the U.N., sets international standards for obviously the onboarding, vetting of any future pilots, and then the recurrent vetting. So is it something that they have, obviously they have to have their physical fitness and all that. And then the question is, what's their mental fitness? And is that an annual or every other year or five years? And so that's when pilots unions get involved to say this is, unless there's some indicators, as there was, as you recall, from the German wings, co-pilot.

1:16:49And there was, with the Egypt Air 990 pilot, there were 31 Egyptian military officers on board that he apparently had a grievance with the Egyptian military. So it varies by where you are and who your airline employer is, all within the parameters of the International Civil Aviation Organization standard. So there's a baseline and then it goes from there, depending on that. This will obviously cause airlines to revisit. As often these incidents do. John Pistol, Alaini Jokas. It's just incredible that that plane was able to land safely, that the passengers are OK. You know, the pilots are injured.

1:17:34But wow, what an outcome. Thank you all so much. More when we come back.

1:17:45All right, back to that breaking news we've been covering throughout the show. Passengers who are on board that fly Dubai flight diverted to Saudi Arabia have safely landed at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. You see the pictures right here, security. It looks like security personnel and others who are there at the airport waiting for them to go through security. They have been through quite a traumatic experience, but also what an outcome with everyone on that plane surviving. what could have been really a deadly crash, according to the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. I want to turn to some other breaking news we're following.

1:18:21That's Attorney General Todd Blanche. He has just announced that the Justice Department has filed a complaint against nearly all federal judges in Minnesota. CNN senior justice correspondent Evan Perez is at the DOJ. What's going on here? Explain this complaint, Evan. Yeah, Pamela, this is a complaint that has been filed against six of the seven judges there in Minnesota. The Justice Department says that an interview that happened in the last few weeks with the that was published in the last few weeks by The New York Times with six of the seven judges, according to The Times, who these judges were essentially raising concerns with the way the Justice Department and the Homeland Security Department have been doing business in the wake of that that surge, that immigration surge earlier this year in Minnesota.

1:19:09And one of the complaints that the judges have been making is that the Department of Justice and Homeland Security have been essentially defying or ignoring court orders that are issued by judges, and they've raised concerns about the threat to democracy from the conduct of the Justice Department. And so that's one of the things that this complaint is about. This is a complaint that is pushing back on those judges. Presumably what the department wants to do is for them to recuse themselves because the attorney general points out that there are a number of active cases that are still pending before these judges, and they believe they're showing bias.

1:19:44Pamela. Has this ever been done before, Evan? I mean, something similar? Is there any precedent? We've never seen DOJ do this in this aggressive manner. This is an escalation. But, Pamela, you and I know from covering these cases over the past year that the concern that judges have about the conduct of the department and the willingness to sort of to overlook and to defy court orders is not confined to that district. It's around the country at this point. All right, Evan Perez, thank you so much. And thank you all for joining us on this Wednesday. Inside Politics with Dana Bash starts after a quick break.

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