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U.S. Inflation Highest in Two Years; U.S. Prepares for Iran Talks; Confusion Over the Ceasefire Deal; Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D- VA) is Interviewed about Iran; Artemis II Crew to Splash Down Today; Terry Hart is Interviewed about the Artemis II Mission. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired April 10, 2026 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

LELAND MELVIN, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: Things that can happen, because we've seen what happened on the Apollo I on the ground, you know, Challenger, Columbia, all these things. But I think the bigger -- the bigger mission is for us to explore as human beings, to bring technology back to planet earth so that we can all live and work together as one -- hopefully one harmonious human community. And so we are -- it's worth these things, these dangers to bring that back to planet earth and to save lives there. Because I think we all sign up for this. We all know the dangers. You know, there's eight million gallons of fuel. There's all these things that are happening. But I think the bigger picture is that we, as humans, must continue to explore.

I remember one time, John Young, who walked on the moon, said, once we stop exploring as a civilization, we will falter. So, this is something that we've always done, and we must continue to do no matter what the risks are.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Leland Melvin, always great to see you. If I had a spacesuit, I'd be wearing it today also. Thank you very much. I know you'll be watching along with the rest of us tonight.

MELVIN: Thank you.

BERMAN: A brand-new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we're following the breaking news this morning. Vice President J.D. Vance is on his way to Pakistan right now for high stakes talks with Iran. But the Strait of Hormuz is still closed. So, what are they really then negotiating?

And the first inflation report since the war began just came out. And it's tough news. The highest annual inflation rate in nearly two years. Meaning, it's really costing Americans real money now.

Sara is out today. I'm Kate Bolduan, with John Berman. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

Let's talk about the breaking news this morning. New data just out moments ago showing that inflation is now at the highest level in nearly two years, largely thanks to the war with Iran. Sharply rising gas and energy prices were the biggest contributor to March's jump in inflation.

Let's get to Matt Egan. He's been digging further into these numbers and he's joining us now.

What do you see?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Kate, look this was a hot inflation report. And the fingerprints of the war in the Middle East are all over this report. So, consumer prices surging by 0.9 percent between February and March. That's triple the rate of the prior month. And that's the highest in any month in almost four years. You got to go back to June 2022 when gas prices were at $5 a gallon. The annual rate ticked up to -- well, it went up sharply to 3.3 percent.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

EGAN: That was slightly less than expected, but that's the highest annual rate, as you mentioned, in almost two years. In fact, this is the highest annual inflation in any month of either of President Trump's two terms in the White House.

This is looking at the trend for inflation. You can see, it had been moving in the right direction, had been cooling off.

BOLDUAN: It's like a straight line up.

EGAN: Yes, it's going straight up. So, why did this happen?

Well, obviously, gasoline is a major part of this. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that three quarters of the monthly increase in prices was driven by the fact that gas prices skyrocketed by 21 percent month over month. That's the most since they started tracking this back in 1967, when LBJ was in the White House.

Airfare also went up significantly. A three percent increase in airfare. That's actually less than it could have been. I mean jet fuel costs have doubled since the war started.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

EGAN: So, airfare up three percent is not good, but it's actually likely to get worse in the coming months.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

EGAN: Tomato prices also up by 15 percent on a monthly basis. That's the most since 2011.

Now, the news isn't all bad here, right? Egg prices. Among other things, eggs went down. Overall, grocery prices actually were down between February and March. Unfortunately, though, that's not likely to last, right, because the war in the Middle East has interrupted the supply of critical materials, including fertilizer.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Yes.

EGAN: And when you combine that --

BOLDUAN: And diesel.

EGAN: And diesel, right.

BOLDUAN: Which is --

EGAN: So, you combine all that, that's why economists are saying that you could start to see food prices go up.

Now, one thing to note is core inflation, which economists say is a better underlying indicator of where inflation is really going. Core inflation only ticked up a little bit.

BOLDUAN: OK.

EGAN: But that's not likely to last. We do expect these other price increases to seep through the rest of the economy.

Bottom line here, Kate, look, the war is clearly making life more expensive for Americans. And this is likely not over. Right, this is not just a March story. We're going to continue to see the impact of the war in the inflation reports going forward, which just means the cost of living is likely to get worse.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Here's a look at futures right now. We're going to be watching the opening bell as it comes.

Matt, thank you so much.

EGAN: Thanks, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Tough news this morning.

John.

BERMAN: All right, breaking just moments ago, Vice President J.D. Vance leaving for Pakistan to attend the talks aimed at ending the war with Iran. He spoke briefly just before he left.

[09:05:02]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're looking forward to the negotiation. I think it's going to be positive. Well, of course, see, as the president of United States said, if the Iranians are willing to negotiate in good faith, were certainly willing to extend the open hand. If they're going to try to play us, then they're going to find that the negotiating team is not that receptive.

So, we're going to try to have a positive negotiation. The president has gave us some pretty clear guidelines and we're going to see. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, there have been new attacks in the Middle East and, of course, as the unresolved dispute over the Strait of Hormuz, which is basically not open or barely open.

Alayna Treene is at the White House.

We're going to start, though, with CNN's Clarissa Ward in Riyadh, in Saudi Arabia, for the latest on maybe the expectations and the hopes and the challenges.

Clarissa.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John.

Well, certainly the hope is that this could usher in a calmer period over the last 24 hours there have been almost no attacks here in the gulf, with the exception of Iranian drones, which launched several attacks in the country of Kuwait last night. But critically, as you mentioned, still no movement on the Strait of Hormuz and a somewhat belligerent message from the new supreme leader of Iran, Mojtaba Khamenei, who declared that this war has been a huge victory for Iran and who warned of a new phase of management in the Strait of Hormuz. That appearing to bolster fears that Iran has no intention of relinquishing its de facto control of that vital choke point. That is a big red line for all of the gulf countries here who have struggled enormously with attacks on infrastructure, particularly Saudi Arabia, just last night, John, releasing some information about the devastating impact that these relentless attacks have had on their own infrastructure. As much as 700,000 barrels of oil a day lost in the last week due to attacks on various pipelines, including the crucial East-West Pipeline.

So, all eyes here very much on these talks. They want them to be successful, certainly, but they also want to be sure that there will be guarantees for their own security baked in to whatever agreement comes out, if indeed there is an agreement that comes out as a result of these talks, given that they fear potentially the U.S. up stakes and leaves and it will be countries like Saudi Arabia, like the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait who will be left to deal with the fallout of Iran, emboldened, but also seriously weakened, and seemingly maintaining control of that vital Strait.

John.

BERMAN: Our Clarissa Ward in Riyadh.

Let's go to the White House. Alayna Treene.

What have been the preparations at the White House for these talks?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, look, I think a lot of it has been, of course, ongoing negotiations between the people who are going to be attending this in person meeting, the vice president, of course, but also Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who I'm told have really been at the forefront of all of these negotiations throughout this war. But continued negotiations with mediators to determine and make sure that the starting point, the different points that they have set out and prepare to use as the jumping off point for these negotiations, make sure that there is not too much daylight between them.

Of course, we've heard from the Iranians that they have that ten-point plan that they had put forward. The president, on Tuesday, when declaring this ceasefire, saying that he believed that ten -point plan was a good basis for the start of negotiations. But, of course, the United States also has their own 15-point proposal, all of which, I should just note, I'm not specifying what's exactly in them because they have not been forthcoming with what is exactly in these different proposals. But that is a big part of this, making sure that they have a specific multi-step plan where they can both kind of use to make sure these negotiations are significant and substantial.

Now, I will say as well, there is a broad understanding that it's very unlikely that this one meeting in Islamabad tomorrow is going to produce the breakthrough to create a more lasting term peace deal. From my conversations with Trump administration officials, they say this is likely to be the first round of many intense negotiations over this two-week period. Potentially, we will see the two weeks extended if the Trump administration believes that they are making enough progress. But that's all, of course, getting ahead of this first meeting.

It's really important, I think, to have them in the same room. I do -- I have heard that the president himself is pretty confident about how these talks will go. You played that clip of the vice president getting on the plane to head to Pakistan.

[09:10:02]

And he said the president laid out very specifically to him and Witkoff and Kushner exactly what he wants. The vice president called it clear guidelines for what he wants them to achieve in this first meeting. So, we'll have to see how that goes.

Now one other thing I will say, just getting into a little bit of what we heard Clarissa going through with these continued attacks from Israel on Hezbollah in Lebanon. I mean this is, of course, been one of the most crucial things that could unwind this entire ceasefire. It's obviously going to be a major part of the negotiations tomorrow.

I will say, we have heard the president get more involved in this. And over the last couple of days we've reported that the president has spoken on the phone with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, directly. We were told it was a tense phone call that the two had, and he told him to kind of lay off, or in the president's word, he said, I told the Israeli prime minister to be more low key. I think that is maybe a signal that they're trying to give to the Iranians at this point that they're, you know, trying to maintain this ceasefire in good faith. But there's a lot that needs to be done. And I think the key question,

of course, is really whether or not they believe they can come to an agreement, at least on the main terms that they want to focus on as the negotiations get underway.

BERMAN: Be fascinating to hear what they say going in and coming out of those very first face to face talks.

Alayna Treene, at the White House, thank you very much.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Let's talk about this. Joining us right now is Democratic Congressman Suhas Subramanyam.

It's good to see you, Congressman. Thanks for coming in.

Let's look towards this planned talks in Pakistan. You were just hearing from Alayna Treene kind of the position of the United States going in. We also have heard from Iran's foreign ministry saying that his -- that his country -- that his country won't show up for the talks if Lebanon's not brought under the umbrella of the ceasefire. Who knows if, you know, you can believe that that is a red line for them or a condition of showing up.

But one of the conditions that the U.S. side had set for a ceasefire was that the Strait of Hormuz be fully reopened. It is not. Should that be a line that you want to see the United States draw is we won't show up for these talks unless you actually open the Strait, or what?

REP. SUHAS SUBRAMANYAM (D-VA): Yes. So, let's take a step back.

We are in a worse position now than we were before this war. Before this war started, Iran was putting things on the table, like giving up their nuclear materials. The Strait of Hormuz -- there was no toll on the Strait of Hormuz. They had no control over the Strait of Hormuz except for the geographic boundaries there.

Now we're in a worse position. The nuclear stuff isn't even on the table right now. That was a stated goal of this war. And now the Strait of Hormuz, they are asserting full control over it and realizing that, why do nuclear when we can just do a Strait of Hormuz and have that leverage over the world and over the region?

And so, they've found this new leverage through this war of choice that the president started. And we need to get ourselves out of it.

And so, the Strait of Hormuz has to be a central part of any sort of agreement. My concern is that this entire war started because of a diplomatic failure by this administration. And so now we're -- and we're relying on this administration to fix their own diplomatic failures. I'm not quite sure if that's going to actually happen, but I hope it does. I hope we actually get a diplomatic solution to this and end this war.

If not, Congress is certainly going to keep pushing. We're going to have a war powers resolution vote next week. And we're going to continue to speak out on behalf of the American people who are seeing their costs continue to rise.

BOLDUAN: Just this morning, and we were just talking about with Matt Egan, the first inflation report since the war began just came out. Annual inflation has now bumped up to the highest point in almost two years. Your reaction to that?

SUBRAMANYAM: Yes. The numbers match the eye test and what I'm hearing in the community here in Virginia, I mean people have already seen prices go up and now they're just seeing more and more. And it's not just gas prices. It's trickling over to other parts, groceries. Everything is more expensive now.

And we haven't even seen the Houthis get more involved in this war and cut off the Red Sea. That would continue to raise prices and continue to put pressure on the world economy.

Iran is seeing this. They are seeing this whole geopolitical situation, and they're realizing that they have a newfound strength now and that they can just choke off the world economy at any time they want. And that is dangerous. And so, we need to solve that problem and clean up that mess that this president created by starting this war of choice.

BOLDUAN: You also -- you sit on the House Oversight Committee. This is the committee that is investigating the Epstein files and the Justice Department's handling of the files. What did you think of the first lady's statement from the White House yesterday? And most importantly, what is Congress, your committee, do you think, going to do with what she is calling for?

SUBRAMANYAM: The first lady's statement was just so bizarre.

[09:15:03]

She said that she had very little relationship with Epstein and Maxwell. We have emails and photos that contradict that. But if she wants to tell her side of the story, she should do it under oath. She should do it before our committee. We've already set the precedent now of bringing in former first ladies. And so, I think a first lady who is in the Epstein files is fair game to be deposed or to testify before our committee.

The other thing she said was that the survivors should be coming forward, and they should be testifying under oath. I think the survivors have said enough. They've talked to investigators who then turned around and betrayed them in many ways. They've done so much already, been so brave. If they want to tell their stories to a committee, we will give them that forum. But that is their choice.

What they really want is for this administration, and that's -- this is the first lady's husband, President Trump, to release all of the files, the 2.5 million files that they are withholding right now. That's what they really want. BOLDUAN: We just had a survivor of Jeffrey Epstein, Alicia Arden, on.

She is -- and there is -- because there are so many survivors, there is a range of opinion among the survivors, which is understandable. Her opinion is, she would be -- she was happy to hear the first lady's statement. She would be more than happy, she said, to testify before Congress if given the opportunity.

As you mentioned, the other survivors have said very differently that they think this is actually just a deflection of responsibility in what they heard from the first lady. Do you have any indication that the Republican majority of your committee will hold, or has an appetite to hold public hearings to offer the opportunity for survivors, if they want to, to come testify?

SUBRAMANYAM: Well, the Democrats on the committee had already planned go down to Florida and hold a field hearing where survivors who wanted to speak out could come and testify publicly before us. We invited Republicans. They didn't want to join. But if Republicans on the committee now want to have survivors who elect to come tell their stories before a committee, we'd be happy to entertain that, no problem. But I do not want to force survivors to come testify unless they want to.

So, it really should just be based on the survivor. And they should tell their stories the way they want to in the forum they want to.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Congressman, thanks for coming in. I appreciate it.

John.

BERMAN: Happening today, the Artemis II crew faces the most dangerous part of their mission as they make their journey home.

And then caught on camera, thieves smash their way into a jewelry store. Look at that. How the owners tried to fight back.

And the great candy heist. KitKat now beefing up security after someone stole 12 tons of their chocolate bars.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:22:01]

BERMAN: All right, the crew of Artemis II will wake up shortly and then they're going to make their final preparations for one of the riskiest things astronauts can do, that's come back to earth. One of them described it as becoming a fireball in the sky, that as they reenter earth's atmosphere, traveling more than 30 times the speed of sound before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. You, of course, can watch it all live right here. Splashdown is at 8:07 p.m. Eastern Time.

Let's go to the nerve center. CNN's Ed Lavandera at the Johnson Space Center with the very latest.

Talk to us about these preparations, Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

Well, just an absolutely massive day ahead here at Johnson Space Center. And for the Artemis II crew and the team here on the ground. In a few hours, the astronauts will be waking up, beginning final preparations to reconfigure the Orion capsule for that reentry. So, they need to move stuff around, get the seats put back in place. Eventually they'll get in their spacesuits to trigger that reentry.

And that is the moment of truth here. This is incredibly tense. And obviously here officials at Johnson space Center preparing for this. You know, it's the question of the heat shield. There has been a lot of questions about this heat shield after Artemis I came back from that mission, which did not have a crew on board, you know, pretty severely damaged. And so there's been a small group of heat shield experts led by former astronaut who have been rather critical about this mission and whether or not it should have happened to begin with. But we should also point out, that that -- if there had been a crew inside Artemis I, they would have landed safely.

And NASA officials here at Johnson Space Center say they have full confidence in the plan and the analysis they did for the years leading up to this mission, that the trajectory and the path by which this capsule is going to enter the earth's atmosphere, they feel they've done all the calculations to ensure this crew's safety.

But they acknowledge that this is a nerve-wracking time. That they are, obviously, very emotional about what could happen. If something does go wrong, it could go terribly wrong. But they say they have full confidence in the plan.

The extreme conditions are intense. You know, nearly 5,000 degrees, 24,000 miles per hour. It's about 13 minutes of that reentry period. And six of those minutes, the capsule and the crew inside will have total loss of communication. So, you can imagine.

We've been told that the family, very various family members of the crew, will be inside mission control watching. You can imagine, you can feel the tension during those six minutes. They will all desperately be waiting for those voices of the astronauts to come back on the communication system and to hear that they're about to land safely just off the coast of San Diego.

John.

BERMAN: It is very tense, very thrilling. And we all hope very, very successful. And we will all be watching.

Ed Lavandera, at the Johnson Space Center, you are there to witness it all. Thank you so much for being with us.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Let's talk more about this now. Joining us now is former NASA astronaut Terry Hart.

Terry, thanks for being here. What is going through their minds right now as they're preparing for

this fiery, wild reentry and then splashdown?

[09:25:08]

TERRY HART, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: Yes, good morning, Kate.

It's game time. I mean they're stowing all their equipment, making sure everything's strapped down. They have time for a meal a little later today. And then they're going to do one more course correction as they go around the east side of the -- of the earth here to make sure they hit that entry corridor just right.

BOLDUAN: You have so -- there's so much training. And one of the things you know, I mean we all know of astronauts is there's mental training as well. So, they're ready. They know this is happening. They're coming back in. But is there -- do you think there's a moment -- I mean, Victor Glover kind of got to it. He's like, we're going to be riding a fireball, which is kind of a thing, you know, to think about as well.

HART: Yes.

BOLDUAN: Is -- do you think they're nervous about this moment at all?

HART: I wouldn't say nervous so much, Kate, as focused. I mean they're very focused. They've done this hundreds and hundreds of times in the simulator with all kinds of anomalies being thrown at them, and they can handle all that. So, it's probably going to be a nominal entry, we hope, but we can't simulate being inside that fireball. That's something that will be spectacular for them. And while they're going through that deceleration there coming through the atmosphere, they're going to feel like they weigh about 500 pounds. It's going to be quite a ride.

BOLDUAN: And you've talked about, from your time in space, you've talked about how the impacts of space, even on your body. I mean, they've been there -- I think today is their 10th day in space. What is that acclimation like? What would you anticipate for them in terms of, welcome back, you're now on earth's gravity once again.

HART: Yes. Yes, after a week, Kate, it's not too bad. I mean at first they'll feel pretty heavy when they try to get out of their chairs. But they're going to have about an hour before they really have to get out of the capsule.

And then for the next couple days, a little careful when you turn your head, because your inner ears become very sensitive, you know, when you're weightless. You know, the crews that have been up for a whole year, that may take a month or two really to be back to normal.

BOLDUAN: This is quite a thing. It is really remarkable, the impacts of what happens to the body in space, and then it's really endless fascination on that.

Ed Lavandera, our correspondent on the ground in Houston, was just talking to John about lessons learned from the unmanned Artemis I mission. And those images, we'll show again, of what the heat shield looked like upon reentry and landing, and the noticeable damage, kind of the pieces kind of -- chunks missing that was seen and changes that were made by NASA in order to correct any issues there for this mission. Do you think this is cause for concern for this mission?

HART: (AUDIO GAP) on a problem like this, they're really good at doing that. A lot of analysis, a lot of testing. Yes, can we make it perfect? No. Theres always some risk. There's a lot of energy here going up and then coming back down again. So, it's a risky proposition. But I think NASA's decided that, you know, the risk is manageable here, and it's the right thing to run this mission. And the crew, I'm sure, agrees with them.

BOLDUAN: Yes, I loved one thing I heard from the press conference yesterday from mission control, which was, can you ever be done with -- put away your irrational fears? No. But there are no longer any rational fears with regard to reentry and the splashdown in this mission.

Terry Hart, former NASA astronaut, thank you so much for coming in. It's good to see you.

Coming up still for us, gas prices rose by a record 21, more than 21 percent in March amid the Iran War. Oil going up again this morning as the Strait of Hormuz remains shut down. How this weekend's high stakes talks between the U.S. and Iran could, will, might impact the price at the pump and so much more.

And don't think that you'll be able to find this at the Masters' merch shop. How one players' tee shot during yesterday's round found its way into a spectator's merch bag.

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