WSJ What’s News - A Terrorist Attack at a British Synagogue Leaves Two Dead, Several Injured

Episode Date: October 2, 2025

P.M. Edition for Oct. 2. A terrorist incident in Manchester during the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur killed two people and injured several others, rattling British Jews. Plus, on the second day of the U.S. government shutdown, President Trump ratcheted up pressure on Democrats. We hear from WSJ White House reporter Alex Leary about how he’s doing it, and why the shutdown presents a political risk for Trump. And Tesla set a new sales record in the third quarter, beating Wall Street’s expectations. WSJ reporter Becky Peterson joins to discuss what drove it, and what that means for the company’s future. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An attack at a synagogue in the United Kingdom leaves two dead and four seriously injured. Plus, as the government shutdown continues, President Trump ratchets up pressure on Democrats. But that could backfire. Millions of Americans, including a lot of Trump voters and people in states that Trump won, receive those subsidies. And if they go away, their premiums are going to skyrocket. That's a big risk for Trump and his fellow Republicans heading into the midterms. and What Drove Tesla to a new sales record last quarter?

It's Thursday, October 2nd. I'm Alex O'Sullough for the Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. We begin this evening with news of a violent incident in the United Kingdom. Two people were killed and four people severely injured today in a ramming and stabbing attack outside a British synagogue. Police have described.

the incident as a terrorist attack during the Jewish Holy Day of Yom Kippur. According to police, the attacker drove a car into a group of people in the northern English city of Manchester just after 9.30 a.m. local time. He then got out and stabbed a member of the public. Security guards and worshippers stopped the man, who was wearing what looked like explosive devices from entering the temple. Within minutes, armed officers arrived and shot the suspect dead. The attack at the Heaton Park Synagogue was the highest profile anti-Semitic incident to hit the U.K. in the past two years. Since the start of the war in Gaza,

growing numbers of British Jews say they feel increasingly isolated and unsafe amid a sharp rise in anti-Semitism. UK Prime Minister Kirstarmer condemned the attack. While this is not a new hate, this is something Jews have always lived with.

We must be clear. It is a hatred that is rising once again. And Britain must defeat it once again. He added that police are deploying extra security to synagogues across the U.K. We're exclusively reporting that President Trump is considering providing at least $10 billion in aid to U.S. farmers, as the agriculture sector warrants of economic fallout from tariffs. That's according to people familiar with the discussions.

They added that the president and his team are weighing using tariff revenue to fund much of the aid. The aid would likely go toward helping soybean producers, as well as other parts of the farm economy. A senior administration official stressed that the deliberations are ongoing and nothing has been finalized. The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. The government shutdown is rounding out its second day, and lawmakers remain divided. Democrats are demanding that Republicans agree to extend expiring health care subsidies, and senior Republicans say they won't negotiate as long as the government is closed.

Meanwhile, the White House is pushing Democrats to come to the table, in part by threatening to turn worker furloughs into layoffs, an effort that analysts say is unprecedented. In a briefing today, White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt answered a reporter's question about how substantial the cuts may be. Look, it's likely going to be in the thousands. It's a very good question, and that's something that the Office of Management and Budget and the entire team at the White House here, again, is unfortunately having to work. on today. These discussions and these conversations, these meetings would not be happening if the Democrats had voted to keep the government open. For more on where the shutdown stands, I'm joined by

WSJ White House reporter Alex Leary. Alex, President Trump, was scheduled today to meet with budget Chief Russell vote. We haven't yet heard what's come out of that meeting, but what are we expecting? Trump is really ratcheting up the pressure here on Democrats. And this meeting, he and Russ vote, the budget director, will be sitting down to talk about which agencies or job cuts can be made. Trump and Republicans have long viewed the federal government as way too big and bloated. We saw with the Elon Musk-led Doge effort significant cost cutting and job slashing. And this is seen as an opportunity to continue that work at a real pressure point and a way to punish Democrats for the shutdown. I'm curious about this, whether this presents a political risk at all for

Trump and for Republicans. I mean, the showdown over the shutdown. the possibility of not extending the health care subsidies, which is really at the heart of this. Is there a risk here for him? Absolutely. Trump and the GOP definitely have some risk here. They're fighting the immediate war over messaging and in some ways are sort of dominating that, although there is some polling out today from the Washington Post that shows that more people blame Republicans for the shutdown, but the poll also said that a lot of people are undecided. Broader, though, is a definite and distinct risk for Republicans over these

affordable care act subsidies which are going to expire at the end of the year millions of Americans including a lot of Trump voters and people in states that Trump won receive those subsidies and if they go away their premiums are going to skyrocket that's a big risk for Trump and his fellow Republicans heading into the midterms they're aware of that that's why we're seeing some movement from Republicans saying let's negotiate that at another time Trump is receptive to that we're reporting. So definitely a risk for Republicans. That was WSJ White House reporter, Alex Leary.

Thanks, Alex. My pleasure. In other news, a Ukrainian team is in Washington this week to craft a landmark deal with the Trump administration that would involve Kiev sharing its battle-tested drone technology with the U.S. In exchange, Ukraine would receive royalties or other forms of compensation. That's according to officials from both countries. The prospective deal, which has the backing of President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky,

would be a shift in the security relationship between Washington and Kiev. For years, the Ukrainian military has received U.S. weapons. Now, though, the Ukrainians are well ahead in mass-producing cheap, unmanned aerial vehicles that have proved to be effective in battle. A U.S. government official said that finalizing the detailed agreement, which could be worth billions of dollars, is likely to take months. And two regional Delta Airlines jets collided late yesterday on a taxiway at New York City's LaGuardia Airport while traveling at low speeds. No passengers were injured and one flight attendant was transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The collision didn't impact airport operations. Delta said that it will work with authorities to review the incident. Coming up, Tesla set a new sales record. But will the good times last? More on that after the break. Check out the big stars, big series, and blockbuster movies. Streaming on Paramount Plus. Cue the music.

Like NCIS, Tony and Ziva. We'd like to make up our own rules. Tulsa King. We want to take out the competition. The substance. This balance is not working. And the naked gun. That was awesome.

Now that's a mountain of entertainment. Paramount Worth. Tesla said today that it set a new sales record in the third quarter, as its global vehicle deliveries grew 7.4% compared with a year ago, beating Wall Street's expectations. It's a surprising reversal of the steep declines that have plagued the electric vehicle maker this year. Becky Peterson covers Tesla for the journal and joins me now. Becky, what was behind this pickup in sales?

This is an exceptionally good quarter, especially after their sales decline two quarters in a row. They were down 13%. That was really bad performance for them for the first half of the year. On September 30th, the $7,500 federal EV credit expired, which spurred a lot of consumers to make that purchase at the last minute. So we saw Tesla sales surge, but we also saw great sales at its competitors. for GM Rivian. So does that mean that this growth in its sales numbers is kind of a one-off, or can we expect more growth in the future?

So Rivian revised its numbers down for next quarter, which I think is a sign that other automakers don't expect it to last. In the case of Tesla, Musk has already told us that they're pivoting away from selling EVs as its primary business. The next car that they're set to release is the cyber cab, which doesn't have a steering wheel or pedals. So it's hard to see how the sales numbers are going to keep up when it will require such a big shift for consumers to be buying their cars. Does Tesla have a plan to incentivize EV buyers or is it more preoccupied with shifting its business away from EVs? Everything we've

heard from Tesla so far is about robotaxies, about its humanoid robot optimists. I haven't heard yet from Tesla that they are going to be subsidizing the incentive of the way that some other automakers announced this week. So despite these better than expected numbers, Tesla shares were down this morning. What's going on with that? So they were down this morning, but that was after this big run-up. And actually, they're up 21% since the beginning of the year. Tesla's stock tends to be a roller coaster.

So it's not always tied to its performance. That was WSJ reporter, Becky Peterson. Thanks, Becky. Thank you. U.S. stocks rallied today, pushing major indexes higher. The NASDAQ led the gains, adding about 0.4%. The Dow was up about 0.2%, and the S&P 500 closed about 0.1% higher. In business news, Fair Isaac, better known as FICO, said today that it's giving mortgage lenders a way to offer its credit scores

without buying them from Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Fico says it will charge $4.95 a score. roughly half of what lenders typically pay after bureau markups. Shares of FICO surged, while the Credit Bureau stocks fell sharply. And OpenAI has struck a deal with investors that values the company at about $500 billion. That's according to people familiar with the matter. A group including existing investors, SoftBank and United Arab Emirates-based MGX, paid about $6.6 billion to buy shares owned by OpenAI employees, the people said,

finalizing a deal that began taking shape this summer. The sale speaks to the frenzy around artificial intelligence and the sky-high expectations for open AI. And that's what's news for this Thursday afternoon. Today's show was produced by Pierre Bienname and Roddy Davis with supervising producer Yolanda McBride. I'm Alex O'Sullough for the Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning.

Thanks for listening. You know,