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Global Travel Chaos as Power Outage Shuts London's Heathrow Airport; Musk to Visit Pentagon as It Considers Major Cuts to Top of Military; DOJ Returns to Court Amid Legal Fight Over Deportation Flights. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired March 21, 2025 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: We do have breaking news. A global travel nightmare unfolding right now after a huge fire knocks out all power at one of the busiest airports in the world. We are just getting a sense of all the flights impacted.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: Elon Musk is headed to the Pentagon today, but many are asking why, especially after a New York Times report, he will be briefed on a top secret plan for a possible war with China. What both Musk and President Trump are saying about it this morning.

And is your bracket already busted? Well, March Madness living up to its name after some big upsets for tracking all the games.

I'm Jessica Dean with John Berman. Kate and Sara are out today. This is CNN News Central.

BERMAN: And the breaking news, global travel chaos that could last days, even weeks. Airports around the world rolling out emergency measures, hundreds of thousands of travelers stranded and potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. All right, this is what happened. A fire at a power substation near Europe's busiest airport, that's London's Heathrow, it triggered a power outage. The fire is now under control, but the fallout just causing ramp chaos.

CNN's Richard Quest was on a flight from Brazil to London as it all unfolded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR: We boarded the plane. Everybody was really calm about it. We learned very quickly about the fire and haze. And it soon became obvious we weren't going anywhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, CNN's Nada Bashir is live outside Heathrow Airport, which is all but shut down.

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. Heathrow is at a standstill, John, at least for the rest of the day, according to Heathrow officials. But it could take much, much longer to get the airport back up and running as a result of that power outage caused by the fire at the substation in Hayes, just about four miles from where we are.

Now, according to Britain's energy secretary, the backup generator as well was also impacted by the fire. So, there are real questions as to how long it will take to get Heathrow back up and running as a result of this. It's a total power outage, and, of course, this has caused total chaos as well for passengers and airlines who had been planning to travel through Heathrow Airport.

We've been hearing from the flight tracking radar team as to the knock on effect this will have. Hundreds of flights canceled, that's just today, tens of thousands of passengers potentially impacted. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IAN PETCHENIK, DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS, FLIGHTRADAR42: Anything that hasn't already crossed an ocean or multiple continents is heading back towards where it came from.

The majority of those flights are wide body aircraft with lots of people on board. And so you're going to need large parking spaces for those aircraft as well. And so that's going to be a logistical nightmare.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASHIR: Now, we have updates from London's fire brigade. They have said that the fire at the substation has been now placed under control, but it could take hours, if not days for a full investigation to be carried out as to what caused the fire. Emergency services were called to the incident at around 11:20 P.M. Last night, we've been speaking to residents in the nearby area who were terrified at the large blaze that was ongoing near this residential area at this stage, as we understand it, no residential buildings were damaged.

The fire has been contained, but, of course, a huge amount of damage and, of course, concern for the situation at Heathrow Airport.

BERMAN: Yes, I just simply can't imagine what the implications are with Heathrow closed and no work yet on what it might reopen.

Nada Bashir, thank you very much. Jessica?

DEAN: Also happening today, a visit that's raising a lot of questions. Elon Musk expected to arrive at the Pentagon after an invitation from the Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. But what exactly will he be doing there? The New York Times reporting the tech billionaire and the world's richest man will receive a briefing on top secret war plans involving China.

But President Trump overnight denying that report, posting, quote, China will not even be mentioned or discussed.

[07:05:02]

And Musk in a very early morning post on X calling The New York Times, quote, pure propaganda and writing, quote, I look forward to the prosecutions of those at the Pentagon who are leaking maliciously false information to NYT. They will be found.

But many are still questioning why this top level meeting is happening and wondering about Musk's potential conflicts of interest. All as he takes his chainsaw, of course, across the federal government, while at the same time, several federal agencies consider new contracts for Musk's businesses.

And with all of that in mind, we now go to CNN's Natasha Bertrand, who joins us from Washington. Natasha, what more are you learning about this visit to the Pentagon?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are expecting Elon Musk to come to the Pentagon today, meet with senior leaders. He was apparently invited by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, but we still, at CNN, don't know exactly why he is going there. It does seem that he is going to be receiving a briefing on something. Secretary Hegseth said from his personal account on X last night that it's an informal meeting about innovation efficiencies and smarter production. He added, it's going to be great.

But, obviously, this is raising a lot of questions about what would happen if Elon Musk did actually get this top secret these top secret plans that the U S military ways and conducts in order to prepare for a potential war with China.

Now, it's worth noting that there are a number of different versions that he could receive of that briefing if it is in fact what he is There to get there are code word level classification briefings, which is the highest level of clearance briefings that someone can receive and then all the way down to less sensitive, less classified versions of that.

So, it's not clear if he is receiving this briefing what version he is going to get, but we should note that he does hold a top secret clearance. Still, there are a lot of questions here about potential conflicts of interest given that he has many contracts with the Defense Department, of course, and receiving such a briefing could give him a competitive advantage over some of his competitors in the defense contractor space. And, of course, he has said publicly that he has vested interest in China, one of which, of course, is Tesla, which relies on China for a lot of the productions -- production of those vehicles.

And so it remains unclear at this point just how this is going to play out, but as you mentioned, we are receiving a number of denials from the president on down that this is going to have anything to do with top secret war planning as it relates to China. President Trump actually posted as well that this has nothing to do with China, the briefing he is going to get today, and Musk himself, as you mentioned, said that is fake news. Although it is unclear, of course, how you prosecute someone for leaking something that is not true, but still they're all pushing back very hard on this idea that he is going to be receiving any kind of briefing that would be inappropriate for him to get.

DEAN: Okay. Natasha, looking ahead to what is going to come today. We'll see if we get any readout on that. Natasha Bertrand, thank you so much. John?

BERMAN: Right. is the Trump administration openly defying direct orders from a federal judge? We're going to find out shortly. We're standing by as a new deadline approaches.

And for the first time, we are hearing from the former chief of staff for Sean Combs, what she has to say about the accusations against her and her former boss.

And you've got to hear this, a revolution in scalping. Hoarding appointment times for the DMV and then selling them to make a fortune.

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[07:10:00]

DEAN: Happening today, Justice Department lawyers are set to return to court amid mounting tensions over the legal battle over deportation flights. And it comes after a federal judge, who President Trump has said should be impeached.

Chastised, DOJ attorneys yesterday, calling their response to his order, quote, woefully insufficient. Hours after the judge's orders, President Trump responded on Truth Social, calling the judge a grandstander looking for publicity and accusing him of, quote, doing everything in his power to usurp the power of the presidency.

CNN's Alayna Treene is joining us now. And, Alayna, President Trump's comments are coming just days after he did call for this judge's impeachment. What more are you hearing?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: That's right. And that did actually prompt a rare rebuke, the president calls for the judge to be impeached, a rare rebuke from the chief justice, John Roberts.

But, look, today is going to be a big moment, a high-profile showdown between the judge and this and the judge in this case and Justice Department attorneys. Of course, it comes after the judge initially last weekend had temporary blocked the president's ability to invoke the 18th century law known as the Alien Enemies Act, to transport Venezuelan migrants back to their home country.

But also, I think, today you're going to hear more about what actually happened and whether or not the administration tried to flout the judge's orders by continuing deportation flights after he had made a verbal order last Saturday.

Now, look, the judge in this case is a former Barack Obama appointee, but he's really become emblematic, Jessica, of the scores of district court judges who have really frustrated this Trump administration and pause their agenda coming into this term.

Now, as you mentioned, the president and other top allies of his have really laid in to these different judges, but mainly this judge, on arguing that they are overstepping their judicial authority.

[07:15:07]

Now, in addition to saying the president saying that this judge should be impeached, he also continued to rail against him in post last night, just hours before this hearing this morning.

I want to read for you some of what he wrote. He said, quote, Judge James Boasberg is doing everything in his power to usurp the power of the presidency. He went on to call his rulings, quote, so ridiculous and inept. And another post read unlawful nationwide injunctions by radical left judges could very well lead to the destruction of our country. These people are lunatics. He went on to say, stop nationwide injunctions now before it is too late.

Now, like I said, top people in this administration, people like Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, Justice Department of representatives, have all been arguing that Boasberg has gone too far with this ruling, that it is not in his authority to try to block a federal order of this extent. Boasberg however, has continued to argue that the Justice Department and the answers that they are providing him are insufficient. And that's really what we're going to see play out today.

But I want to read for you a statement from Boasberg as well on this. He said, quote, the government cannot proffer a regional ice official to attest to cabinet level discussions of the state secrets privilege. Indeed, his declaration on that point, not surprisingly, is based solely on his up sustain unsubstantiated understanding.

So, look, we're really going to see this all play out today, when they come face to face this morning. It'll be Bozberg and Justice Department attorneys. And one person will be watching all of this very closely, of course, and that is President Donald Trump himself. Jessica?

DEAN: Yes, that is certainly true. Alayna Treene at the White House, thank you so much for that reporting.

A scathing review from safety officials, dozens of bridges across the U.S. are at risk of collapse, their report on bridge safety one year after the collapse of a Baltimore bridge.

And, as predicted by our very own Andy Scholes, an 11 seed was one of the big upsets in the first full day of March Madness. We're tracking your brackets. That's next.

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[07:20:00] BERMAN: This morning you might be perfect, but I bet you anything your bracket is not. March Madness strikes in all its fury. Less than 1 percent of brackets remain perfect this morning after a just nutty first day of the tournament.

Let's get to CNN's Andy Scholes for all the action this morning. Wow.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes. You know, John, unless you lost a final four-team or an elite 18 in your bracket, you're probably fine in your pool. It's impossible to get all of these games, right, you know? But sometimes in the first round of the tournament, it comes down to which teams have the best vibes.

And this year, there's no topping McNeese State. They're led out every game by their manager, Amir Khan, with his giant boombox. His nickname is Aura, because he's just that great. The players all love him. Amir is the only manager in college basketball to have his own NIL deals. The McNeese cheerleaders even wearing socks with Amir's face on them.

The Amir's Cowboys playing some inspired basketball yesterday against Clemson. They absolutely dominated the first half of 31-13 at the break. They then held on at the very end to win 69-67 for their first win, tournament win in program history. Just a huge win for the entire team, and coach Will Wade, who reportedly is heading to N.C. State whenever McNeese runs in, they're going to play Purdue tomorrow.

12th seed UCC San Diego, meanwhile, trendy pick to upset 5 seed Michigan. Tre Donaldson, a huge three here for the Wolverines to give them the lead just over two to go. The Tritons had a chance to tie this one in the closing seconds, but Tyler McGee's three here, no good. Michigan wins 68-65. They're going to face Texas A&M in round two.

11th seed Drake, meanwhile, they took down 6th seed Missouri. Bennett Stirtz leading the way with 21 points, including that three off one foot. Now, Drake's Ben McCollum won four national titles at the Division 2 level at Northwest Missouri State. He brought Stirtz and three other players with him to Drake when he got the job. Drake ended up winning this one, 67-57. Bulldogs next play Texas Tech to try to make their first Sweet 16 since 1971.

We got 16 more games on the schedule today. The action is going to get started with Baylor and Mississippi State at 12:15 Eastern. Cooper Flagg dealing with that sprained ankle, but he's expected to play as Duke opens with Mount St. Mary's, that game at 2:50. And can North Carolina keep their run going? They play Ole Miss at 4:00 on our sister station TNT.

And, hey, the women's tournament, it tips off today. Sophomore sensation Hannah Hidalgo and the Fighting Irish open play against Stephen F. Austin. That game's at 2:00. South Carolina beginning their quest to go back to back, they play at 4:00 against Tennessee Tech. Definitely one of those days, John, where you need that multi-box going on your screen.

But, hey, how's your bracket doing? It's one of those perfect ones, right, and less than 1 percent?

BERMAN: No. Everyone -- I blew everyone. I'm perfect in the sense that I blew every one of those upsets, 100 percent wrong so far on those choice games.

SCHOLES: Hey, I got Drake right. I told everyone to take the 11th seeds. VCU didn't win, but at least Drake did yesterday.

BERMAN: Andy Scholes, great to see you clear your schedule for the day. It's going to be another great one. I appreciate it.

All right, we're staying top of the breaking news. One of the busiest airports in the world shut down. Thousands of passengers stranded. This is a travel nightmare. We're just now getting a sense of how long it will last and when people might be able to fly again.

[07:30:00]

DEAN: New this morning, the European Union announced it is delaying retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods, including whiskey, in response to President Trump's 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum imports. The first wave of tariffs was set to take effect starting April 1st and follow a phased approach. But now they'll all kick in at once on April 13th to allow for negotiations with the U.S.

The E.U. tariffs also include American-made boats, motorcycles, beer, poultry, beef, and produce, such as soybeans, tomatoes, raspberries.

[07:30:05]

In total, the tariffs hit an estimated $20 billion worth.