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Iran Foreign Ministry Says, No Plans for Second Round of Talks as of Now; Powerful Earthquake Hits Off Japan Coast, Tsunami Warning Issued; New Details on Killing of Eight Children in Louisiana Mass Shooting. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired April 20, 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]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Iran vows to retaliate now after the U.S. Navy fired on and seizes an Iranian ship. The ceasefire between these two countries expires in just days. So, what must now happen in the next, well, essentially 24 hours?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking this morning, a powerful earthquake strikes the Pacific, buildings shake for minutes, tsunami warnings in effect with officials urging thousands of people to seek higher ground.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Crazy video showing the terrifying moments of skydiver crashed into a scoreboard at this weekend's Virginia Tech game rescued in front of thousands.

I'm Sara Sidner with John Berman and Kate Bolduan. This is CNN News Central.

BOLDUAN: There are new images coming in. This is nighttime video showing U.S. forces from the USS Tripoli boarding an Iranian flagship in the Gulf of Oman, a helicopter flying over the ship, Marines rappelling down to it. U.S. Central Command says that they took control of the ship after it failed to comply with repeated warnings to stop over a period of six hours. CENTCOM also released video of U.S. forces alerting those on the ship to vacate its engine room as the U.S. was about to fire at it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Motor vessel Touska, motor vessel Touska, vacate your engine room. Vacate your engine room. We're prepared to subject you to disabling fire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Quite a moment.

Also this morning, we're hearing a new response from Iran. Here's the quote. Once the safety of the families and crew of the vessel targeted by the United States is ensured, the powerful armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will take the necessary action against the U.S. military, Iran though calling the terrorist U.S. military.

So, the situation along the Strait of Hormuz is -- seems to be only getting worse, not better, and at the very least, only more chaotic for sure, just as there is a push to now renew peace talks and a ceasefire between the two countries is set to expire tomorrow. Vice President J.D. Vance is expected to lead the U.S. delegation to Pakistan today, but Iran's foreign ministry is insisting that there are no plans for more talks as of now.

CNN's Alayna Treene at the White House for us to start us off this morning. Where do you want to begin? There's so much.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Look, I think I'll start with just the status of these talks, especially in light of what you just mentioned, Kate, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson coming out and essentially saying that there are no plans for a second round of talks, and also arguing that they do not -- he said, quote, we do not believe in deadlines or ultimatums to secure Iran's national interest looks.

As for what we are seeing on the ground in Islamabad, the streets are kind of shut down. There is a security posture in place, just as it was last night after the White House had announced that the vice president, J.D. Vance, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were going to be headed to the region for this second round of talks.

But I think the timing of this, especially in light of what we are hearing from the Iranians, on the official side, at least, you know, the timing of this, it's kind of anyone's guess right now when we should actually see these talk move forward and take place.

Now, I do want to get into a little bit of the back and forth here because what I found so interesting is everything that we saw happened over the weekend was a major departure from the kind of the optimistic posturing we saw from the Trump administration on Friday. They were really trying to push this idea that they believed a deal could be finalized in the next few days.

Now, from the conversations I've had throughout the weekend, Kate, the position of the White House remains that they still want diplomacy. They are hoping for a diplomatic solution here. They do not want to resume, have this resumption of military operations and attacks and really see the ceasefire fall apart and lead to more war.

But, of course, there is a lot of distrust right now on the Iranian side as well, and there's a lot of anger after the U.S. targeted one of their tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.

[07:05:00]

We actually heard the Iranians arguing that it was the landing -- the U.S. of landing terrorists, not Marines, who, you know, took -- seized the ship, but terrorists. So, that's kind of the posture we're hearing on the Iranian side.

Part of the reason I think we are in the position we are today, where there's a lot more skepticism of whether or not a deal could actually be reached is I'd remind you of where we were Friday. The conversations I had heading into the weekend was that we had seen the Pakistanis, they were in Tehran, they were having their third day of talks. Things were going at least on the White House side, they believed very well.

But then we saw President Donald Trump begin Truthing a lot of, you know, I was told that he was getting regular updates throughout the day on Friday from the Pakistanis, and the president then went out and started sharing a lot of that on Truth Social, something that we saw publicly the Iranians really take issue with and argue that they didn't understand what the U.S. was doing, that they didn't agree to a lot of those things. And then we saw the breakdown in the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend. Today, things not really as in as much of a great place as I think they were previously before the weekend.

And so there's a lot, I think, that still needs to be worked out. We have to see really what is going to happen with these talks. But it remains that the vice president, Witkoff and Kushner are going to be in the region, and they're hoping that they can hash some of that out in this second round of talks. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Quite a bit to hash out. Alayna, thank you so much. John?

BERMAN: All right. Breaking this morning, a tsunami warning is in effect for Japan after a powerful earthquake measuring at least 7.4 hit off the northeastern coast. Local media is reporting some small waves already. Look at that. There are fears that some could reach as high as ten feet.

A CNN producer on the ground in Tokyo, that's about 600 miles from the epicenter, told us the building they were in shook for about seven minutes.

Let's get right to CNN's Ivan Watson following the latest for us. Ivan, what are you hearing?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, John, the Japanese government isn't taking any chances. They've issued evacuation orders to more than 170,000 people. They have this tsunami warning, even though the first waves of tsunamis that they've counted and registered are kind of less than three feet and less, but the warnings are still for as high as three meters, nearly ten feet.

The earthquake hit a little bit more than three hours ago off the northeastern coast of Japan. It was registered at 7.4 magnitude by the U.S. Geological Survey. And as you mentioned, our producer in Tokyo, she felt the building shaking, she was up on the 18th floor, for seven straight minutes, started to feel nauseous. The elevators were shut down. There were a lot of warnings going out. We've heard that some of the bullet trains in Japan, the services have been shut. Two of the power plants, nuclear power plants, have been evacuated of workers, but no abnormalities recorded.

Now, Japan is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world. It's on the Ring of Fire. It has a lot of experience and a lot of preparation for earthquakes like this. So, that's part of why they're not taking any chances.

15 years ago, there was an earthquake that had a massive 30-foot tsunami. It triggered a nuclear power plant disaster, more than 20,000 people killed and missing, and that's part of why the authorities are being so careful now. They're saying there are warnings of aftershocks and they're also telling residents to be ready, have emergency supplies packed for a week just in case. And that's just the level of precautions that the government takes when it gets hit by a powerful earthquake. No injuries and no real damage reported thus far, John.

BERMAN: Well, that's good news, but there are these clear protocols in place, as there needs to be given the history there.

Ivan Watson, thank you so much for that update. We're going to continue to watch this throughout the morning.

SIDNER: Yes.

BERMAN: Sara?

SIDNER: Never forget the images from Fukushima, my goodness.

All right, disturbing new details about the suspect in the deadliest mass shooting in the United States since 2024, police say he killed eight children. Seven of those children were his own kids. Two women were also wounded in this attack. The latest in the investigation this morning from Louisiana.

Plus, Elon Musk has been summoned by Paris by French prosecutors as part of an investigation into his social media platform, X. Will he show up?

And a skydiver crashed into a scoreboard. He's now speaking out after his intensely scary landing. What he says happened in the moments leading up to the crash, how he ended up on the scoreboard.

Those stories and more next.

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SIDNER: This morning, we are learning new details about the horrific killing of eight children in Shreveport, Louisiana. Police say a 31- year-old father fatally shot seven of his own children and their cousin. Their ages ranging from just 3 years old, their 11. It is the nation's deadliest mass shooting. In more than two years.

The violence unfolded early Sunday across at least two locations, and ended with police shooting and killing the gunman. Police say two women, the mother of those children, were critically wounded. They say one of those women is the shooter's wife.

Some children tried to escape out the back door according to one official, and police say a teenage boy escaped after jumping off a roof. According to The New York Times, the shooter told the family that his wife wanted a divorce and he was drowning in, quote, dark thoughts.

This morning, the community waking up still in grief and shock.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TABATHA H. TAYLOR, SHREVEPORT CITY COUNCIL: And I'm asking you to please utilize every resource that the sheriff has brought forth now when you know that these situations occur. We cannot be and make this a joke. This is not a freaking joke. This is real and this is the result when someone snaps.

So, I'm going to ask the community along with prayer, with every mental health consultant, counselor that is out here, this family and this community needs you. I need you, because how do we get through this?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Joining me now, CNN Senior National Security Analyst Juliette Kayyem. That was a council member who ha, who had just burst in out into tears talking about the tragedy of all this. This is a scale that is almost unimaginable. How do investigators approach a case like this?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes. So, they clearly have the motive or at least the connection between the shooter and of course all these children. So, there's not a sort of a question of the why. I think the two things they will be looking at is, of course, the mental health issues that who knew about them, what was being discussed, you know, the suspect who's now dead, sort of what was his state of mind. And then, of course, what was the triggering, I think, you know, an early morning shooting. You know, this is not at a bar, it's not a drive-by. Was it premeditated? Was he stalking them? Those are important, you know, simply for closure, for whatever -- for what the community needs.

But I think also to get an understanding of what led to this tragedy so that we can learn from it. I mean, we can't -- you know, I think we can't isolate every tragedy and sort of say, well, they're in another state or a race or socioeconomic status. These are American tragedies. And I think that's our obligation to learn from them.

SIDNER: You know, you make a really good point because this comes amid a series of high-profile domestic violence tragedies, including the recent murder/suicide involving the former lieutenant governor of Virginia.

You know, are you seeing a broader uptick in domestic violence cases?

Because there were during COVID, I remember that being one of the really scary results of COVID, where everyone was sort of stuck at home. What are you seeing out there?

KAYYEM: So, you generally see rise in domestic violence, especially by men, when men are under economic stress. So, you know, I think it's just a natural part of what we see in terms of the economic data. I should be careful. It was not natural part as is sort of the consistent part of downturns in economic data. We don't know his mental state.

We don't know his employment status, the suspect, the father and the husband, what his economic status was. But, certainly, if you look at sort of the societal stresses that we exist in all the time are often played out in violence.

And I think you're right that we are more attuned to this -- to domestic violence. And the scale of this is just shocking. I mean, you know, when I saw the number, I just thought, you know, this is just someone who was clearly wanted to disappear his past, right? I mean, it was not targeted just towards the wife.

SIDNER: Yes. And as we understand it with the reporting from The New York Times that there was talk of a divorce and we don't know if that was the trigger, but in the former lieutenant governor's case, that was also one of the issues they were having, you know, a difficult domestic dispute. I mean, for law enforcement, how dangerous is it to even get involved in this? Because what you heard from the council member was, you know, if you hear something, basically go tell the sheriff, like let them know what's going on. But it is an incredibly dangerous thing for officers even to get involved in this. Correct?

KAYYEM: Yes. Officers are trained in domestic violence sort of de- escalation. And also I think it was important what the councilwoman said about like, you know, if someone does seem off, it's not funny or you don't say, oh, what's his name went crazy, or whatever.

Look, we know the data now. We have enough data that the social consequences of this gun violence don't just impact the family but the communities as well.

SIDNER: Juliette Kayyem, thank you so much. I do appreciate you coming on in this really tragic story. Kate?

BOLDUAN: It was a wild moment and you will see it on camera, a hot air balloon makes an emergency landing in someone's backyard. The story behind all of that, you see the corner, but there's another angle you'll see in a second as well.

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And while you were sleeping, the ridiculous performance in the NBA playoffs.

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BOLDUAN: So, the playoffs got its first look at Victor Wembanyama and it was quite something. He stepped into his first -- his post-season debut and put on a performance that has everyone talking especially and including CNN's Coy Wire who's joining us now.

Talk to me about all of the talking. COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes. Game ones in the playoffs, Kate, are where messages are sent, tones are set and most players make a first impression in a playoff debut, Victor Wembanyama made a lasting one. Facing the Blazers, the Spurs' skyscraper of a man wasting no time, 21 of his 35 points in the first half, most in a debut in the play-by-play era. He's splashing three pointers. He's swatting shots, becoming the first player ever to drop 35 with 5 triples in a debut. Wemby didn't knock on the playoff door. He kicked it clean off the hinges, Kate. Spurs stamp it 111 to 98.

John Berman's Boston Celtics hit the Sixers with a 32-point avalanche of a win, 123 to 91, largest game one win in franchise history. And leading the charge, Jayson Tatum, first playoff game back after that Achilles tear, and looking like he didn't miss a step, a beat or a bucket, 25 points, 11 boards, seven assists.

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Jaylen Brown, he dropped 26 points as Boston buries 16 three pointers and never trailed. If game one is a message Boston texted, we are not here to mess around, in all caps, and then hit send.

In the NHL playoff pandemonium, Buffalo fans brought the blizzard. The Sabres snapping a 15-year playoff drought. But, look, frozen late, down 2-0 in the third ,enter Tage Thompson, the Olympian with ice in his veins. He scores a goal and then, again, two goals in his playoff debut to tie it. Sabres hadn't had a multi goal comeback in third up, in the third in 33 years. But Mattias Samuelsson rips wrister (ph) for his first career playoff goal in the league. Sabres hold on to win 4- 3.

It was snowing before puck drop in Buffalo, Kate, and Buffalo is saying keep those coats on because this Sabres storm is just getting started. The Sabres have never won a Stanley Cup. Of course, the Buffalo Bills have never won a Super Bowl. So, these are very exciting times in Buffalo, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Very exciting. And everyone in Buffalo is like, it's snowing, you want me to keep my coat on? Like you've, clearly, never been -- you don't know what we're like here in Buffalo. Like that's summer.

Thank you, Coy.

WIRE: You got it.

BOLDUAN: J.B., keep your coat on.

BERMAN: Always, always. So, the president says, high gas prices are just temporary, but his energy secretary said they might not drop below $3 until next year.

And we are standing by this morning to learn whether a popular singer will face charges after police say the decomposed body of a teenager was found in his abandoned car.

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