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Vance Says, Trump Impatient to Make Progress in War With Iran; Iran Says, Military Will Coordinate Passage Through Hormuz; Oil Prices Fall, Stock Futures Rise After Iran Ceasefire Agreement. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired April 08, 2026 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, the 11th hour deal that brought America, Iran, and the world back from the brink. Will this two-week ceasefire hold? We're standing by for answers for a Pentagon briefing next hour.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And it's a shocking twist in the case of the Gilgo Beach serial killer, now expected to plead guilty for the killing spree that terrorized women across Long Island for three decades.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A motorcycle crashes into a ball of fire, narrowly missing children standing right nearby.

I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan and Sara Sidner, a flurry of new developments. This is CNN News Central.

SIDNER: Breaking news, celebrations in Tehran after the U.S. and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire. President Trump went from threatening to destroy Iran's whole civilization to announcing the deal less than two hours before his self-imposed deadline. We're standing by this morning for the first briefing from the Pentagon since the agreement was made. There are a lot of questions about where all this goes from here, especially in the Strait of Hormuz.

Now, Iran is saying its military will cooperate -- coordinate, excuse me, safe passage through the strait, that critical oil shipping route during the ceasefire. We're also learning about the next steps in diplomacy, U.S. officials say. Vice President J.D. Vance is expected to attend possible in-person talks with Iran. Pakistan has invited both sides on Friday.

Vance, who called the ceasefire fragile during his visit to Hungary, said the president has given his negotiating team clear instructions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: He's told us to come to the negotiating table. But if the Iranians don't do the exact same thing, they're going to find out that the president of the United States is not one to mess around. He's impatient. He's impatient to make progress. He has told us to negotiate in good faith. And I think if they negotiate in good faith, we will be able to find a deal. But that's a big if, and, ultimately, it's up to the Iranians, how they negotiate. I hope they make the right decision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: CNN's Alayna Treene is live this morning at the White House. What are you learning about these potential talks in person talks in Pakistan?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Look, from the conversations that I've had U.S. officials told me and our colleague, Kristen Holmes, that the Trump administration is preparing for in- person talks in the coming days likely in Pakistan, of course, Pakistan being the crucial mediator here that helped put this proposal for this two week ceasefire together and helped get both sides, the United States and Iran, on board.

And we're told you know, it's very fluid. We're told nothing is officially set in stone yet. We know that the Pakistanis had proposed Friday as a potential date for this meeting in Islamabad. But this is expected to include U.S. officials and Iranian officials and really would kind of be the start of intense negotiations that they're hoping to have to make this two-week temporary or as in, you know, the vice president's words, fragile ceasefire a much more permanent and lasting type of deal to ensure that military attacks and operations do not start up again at the end of those two weeks.

Now, we are told that likely the vice president would attend. I'd note he is in Hungary. There's a possibility he could add this potential meeting to the trip that he is currently on, but also Steve Witkoff, the president's special envoy, likely to attend. He's been very crucial in this, and the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

But I do, Sara, want to get into a little bit of what we've been hearing now just in the hours since, you know, the president's deadline for Iran was staved off and they announced this two-week ceasefire. The president has been describing it. He did this in one interview following the announcement of this deal as a total and complete victory.

But I do think, and we're seeing this for a lot of people today, including some of the president's allies, this idea of total and complete victory is a bit early to be declaring and a tough narrative to sell because I think a lot of people are pointing out that, you know, you're looking at where -- what does Iran get in some of this?

Now, you know, I think there's, here's a few things to point out. Iran's hardline leadership structures remain intact. We're seeing, you know, the leadership and, you know, many leaders in the regime were killed as part of this military operation.

[07:05:02]

But many of the hardline leadership figures are still intact. Sanctions are now lifted for now. The fighting has stopped. They were able to delay what the president was arguing were going to be very aggressive attacks on civilian infrastructure and energy plants. And it shows that they still have largely a firm hold on the Strait of Hormuz.

And so we have to really see, you know, this basis, this ten-point proposal that the Iranians put forward as the basis or starting off point for negotiations, where this could actually lead and what the United States is ultimately willing to accept to make a much more permanent deal than the one that we saw announced last night. Sara?

SIDNER: Alayna Treene, thank you so much for your reporting, a lot of threads to get through. Kate?

BOLDUAN: A lot, for sure. This morning, we have learned that two ships have moved through the Strait of Hormuz since the ceasefire set in. Hundreds more though are still stuck, paralyzed, and still caught in the middle of all of this, according to shipping data.

As mentioned, Iran's military says that it will now coordinate all ship movements through the strait, which only raises further questions and alarm about the future of this critical shipping channel.

CNN's Paula Hancocks is in Abu Dhabi with the very latest for us. Paula, what is the latest that you're hearing from leaders there, Gulf nations who now -- I mean, what is their sense this morning?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, on the one hand, there was this collective sigh of relief waking up this Wednesday morning and finding out that there was this two-week ceasefire. But on the other hand, leaders are now looking at what is left, the fact that the regime is effectively intact, and the fact that they still have the missile and drone capability to be able to terrorize their neighbors.

Now, on that point, since the ceasefire took hold, we have had an emergency alert here in the UAE. We know that there have been missiles intercepted in Kuwait. Now, of course, the military did boast of the fact that they had a decentralized system. So, even if their leadership was taken out in Iran, they could still have these teams on the ground firing projectiles. So, of course, the hope is that the message just hasn't got through to them. But it hasn't completely stopped at this point.

And what we're hearing from Iran, from the foreign minister, saying that Iran will be coordinating the movement through the Strait of Hormuz. We're hearing an even more fiery statement from the National Security Council talking about this proposal where, of course, part of it is propaganda and part of it is Iran needing to claim victory, but they are talking about other things that they believe will be part of this deal, accepting uranium enrichment, which we know is very unlikely to be accepted by Washington, all sanctions being lifted and a number of other issues that would not necessarily be very palpable to -- or palatable to the Trump administration.

So, it does show that the two sides are fairly far apart at this point when it comes to what exactly they want to see coming out of this deal. Leaders in this region, in the Gulf nations, will be watching very closely to see exactly what comes out of that deal. There is relief but also nervousness.

And the other thing that we're looking for clarity on, of course, is the Pakistan prime minister said Lebanon is part of this ceasefire deal. Israel says it is not. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Yes. Yet another key and important and lingering question though still this many hours later since this ceasefire has set in.

Thank you so much, Paula. John?

BERMAN: All right. Overnight, huge political warning signs, results just in from special elections, the biggest shift to Democrats in one race we have seen this cycle.

And then not just an El Nino, a super El Nino, the strongest maybe in a hundred years. Wild, extreme weather coming soon to a forecast near you.

And new, stunning images from the Artemis II mission, the Milky Way looking particularly milky.

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[07:10:00]

BERMAN: Breaking this morning, oil prices way down off their highs after President Trump backed off and agreed to a two-week ceasefire with Iran. Now, there are still questions about what this means about the Strait of Hormuz. Will oil begin to move through there? As the president says, it will overnight. Iran says it will allow passage but only with coordination with the Iranian military. That is a shift, a major shift from before the conflict.

Let's get ready to see it as Matt Egan for the latest on this.

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, John the relief on Wall Street, it is palpable this morning, right? Investors are exhaling because further escalation has been avoided.

Look at this, U.S. stock futures going straight up almost -- that's 2.6 percent. Look at that. For Dow Futures, 1,200 points, 3.5 percent for NASDAQ Futures. This shows, I think, how concerned investors were that this situation was going to spiral out of control. Remember, the Strait of Hormuz was basically holding the entire world economy hostage. And even though issues do remain here, this is a fragile ceasefire after all, right now, investors are clearly very happy.

[07:15:00]

Now, the reaction in the oil market, as you mentioned, was even more extreme, right, WTI, U.S. oil futures down 16 percent on the day. Some context, John, this is the biggest one-day drop, if it holds, since April, 2020 during COVID, back when oil was trading in the single digits.

However, we should also just note though, that even though oil prices are down, this only brings them back to where they were trading about three weeks ago, right? So, look at this chart. You can see as the year started, oil was trading at below $60 a barrel, at one point yesterday, oil prices had doubled on the year, clearly going down, but well up from where they were when the year started and certainly before the conflict began.

And I don't think we should fool ourselves into thinking that all of a sudden everything goes back to normal here, right. That is certainly not the case. There are a lot of questions, as you noted, about the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, right? What does that look like? How long does it take? Are we talking about 10 to 15 vessels transiting, or 20 or 30, or how long does it take to go back to the 50 or 60 that we're bringing oil and other products out of the region before the war started? And how are they going to overcome some of the insurance and security issues?

And look at this, meanwhile, the real world is screaming for oil right now, right? Oil futures, that's investors betting on where prices will be in the future, they're high. But Brent real, this is dated Brent, yesterday topped $144 per barrel, first time on record. And these are real barrels actually changing hands in the market.

And, you know, a lot of people are wondering, what does this mean for when I should fill up the gas tank, gas prices, gas prices still going up, right? It's too soon to see a reaction there. The national average today hitting $4.16 a barrel, that's a fresh, nearly four-year high, well above where prices were before the conflict started.

Analysts say that we could start to see gas prices reversed in the coming days, likely by the weekend. GasBuddy's Patrick Dehaan says that we could fall below $4 a gallon nationally, likely in the next one to two weeks. But, John, even in the best case scenario, right where this fragile ceasefire holds and the Strait of Hormuz really starts to open up, we're not going back to those pre-war prices for gasoline, like sub $3 gas. That's likely not happening for months.

BERMAN: Some temporary, at least, relief, which I do think will be welcome here perhaps as soon as this weekend.

Matt Egan, thank you very much for that. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Thank you. Ahead, recovery efforts are underway for a Michigan woman who's been missing at sea for four days now. What we know about the search after they said she went overboard.

And the Masters kicks off this week. But, first, the Champions Dinner, what Rory Mcilroy picked for the menu.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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SIDNER: It is one of the most exclusive invites, so, clearly, I don't have one, the Champions Dinner at the Masters tournament, the golf greats gathered for the traditional annual meal.

CNN's Andy Scholes joining us from Augusta. Did you get invited? What's the deal?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Well, no, but a very exclusive dinner, Sara. I'm definitely not invited, but they had some rock shrimp tempura, some wagyu fillet mignon. I mean, that would've been right up my alley, but, unfortunately, I am not a Masters champion.

But this year's menu, it was picked by the reigning champ, Rory McIlroy, and he was sitting front and center for that annual picture last night. And Rory said yesterday he feels like just a giant weight's been lifted off of his shoulders after finally getting his green jacket to complete the career grand slam, and now he's forever going to get to go to that Champions Dinner and avoid potential awkward moments, like last year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RORY MCILROY, 2025 MASTERS CHAMPION: The champions were having their sort of cocktails out on the balcony and I'm like, I don't want to valet, get out. They're going to see me. It's going to be weird. Like -- so I had this really awkward moment with it all last year. And, yes, you know, thankfully, that was the last time that I needed to do that. People keep asking me, why didn't you go more Irish? And I say, because I want to enjoy the dinner as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: So, I got big laughs in the interview room. I guess Rory doesn't even like Irish food, but here was his full menu. He also had some bacon-wrapped dates for an appetizer. Those were inspired by Rory's mom who made them for him as a kid. Dessert, sticky toffee pudding with ice cream, making me hungry early in the morning right now.

But one person who obviously would love to be at that dinner next year, Bryson DeChamebeau. Bryson, he had the lead in the final round last year before Rory overtook him and went on to win. And Bryson versus Rory, it's become a nice little rivalry in golf and Bryson's all about.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU, WON 2020 AND 2024 U.S. OPEN: It is great if we can continue to have a rivalry. I don't see any problem with that. I mean, if anything that helps kind of create more buzz around the game of golf. Do I respect him as an individual? 100 percent. Do I want to beat him every time I see him? Absolutely. That's no question about it. I got him at the Piners (ph). He got me here. And I hope there's more of those to come because it's great for the game.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Now, today here in Augusta is the annual par three competition. It's always cuteness overload all the guys out there on the course with their families and their kids. Hopefully, we get to see some of the kiddos make some long putts like we did last year. But, you know, Sara, the Masters all about tradition, you know, the pimento cheese sandwich. They rarely add new items to the menu out there on the course, but they did this year the Masters Candy Bar.

[07:25:00]

This is the new item. You can get a dark milk chocolate blend with caramel, rice crisp and hazelnut crunch. It is fantastic, super chewy though. You got -- if you're going to eat this, be ready. It's going to take you a minute to chew this bad boy.

SIDNER: We are all ordering several for this show, so we expect them. And thank you so much for picking those up for us. We do appreciate it, Andy Scholes.

SCHOLES: $2.25.

BOLDUAN: Maybe it's strategy. Maybe if you're -- if all the fans are chewing on those, they have to stay quiet and then they can't be bothering any of the players, because we know how rowdy they've been getting, Andy Scholes being one.

SIDNER: Just a little bit. That's a good strategy. I like how you picked that out.

BOLDUAN: Wild at the Masters, guys.

All right, well, Andy's got plum assignment in Augusta.

Let's turn to this, President Trump declared while you were sleeping a big day for world peace. The president agreed to a two-week ceasefire with Iran, but how far apart are they from reaching an actual deal to end the actual war? What we're learning now about possible talks this Friday in Pakistan.

And there are new images coming in from NASA's mission to the moon.

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