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Uncertainty Swirls After Trump Extends Ceasefire With Iran; Iran Says It Seized Two Ships in the Strait of Hormuz; CNN Projects Virginia Voters Approve Redistricting Referendum. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired April 22, 2026 - 07:00   ET

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

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KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Iran now attacking and saying it's seizing ships in the Strait of Hormuz. This is just hours after President Trump extended the ceasefire. Whose move is it now?

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: And back here at home, breaking news out of Philadelphia this morning, a manhunt underway for two armed suspects who robbed an armored truck and made off with millions of dollars. Police revealing new details about what they're saying was an elaborate heist.

And a wild rescue caught on camera after multiple people were trapped in a burning car on the side of a bustling parkway.

John's out today. I'm Sara Sidner with Kate Bolduan. This is CNN News Central.

BOLDUAN: All right. So, the breaking news that we're following this morning, Iran's Revolutionary Guard says that they have seized two ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran's state media says a third vessel is now, quote, disabled off of Iran's coast. This is all playing out in real time, and just after President Trump extended the ceasefire indefinitely.

There are also new images from inside Iran, pro-regime rallies being held in the streets. The regime carting out what state media says is a ballistic missile paraded through Tehran.

The ceasefire was supposed to expire, and remember, tonight, even though the president, President Trump, has repeatedly said in many different ways that he would not extend it, he did. The president's post about it -- in the president's post about it, he blames a, quote, seriously fractured government in Iran, and says that the United States is now awaiting a unified proposal from whoever is in charge there.

Iranian officials responded to the president with skepticism, saying that his extension was meaningless or means nothing and calls it a ploy to buy time for a surprise strike.

CNN's Alayna Treene is live at the White House to start us off this morning. I mean, what are you hearing? ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I mean, this was a remarkable day yesterday, Kate. Just to give everyone kind of the state of play of what we saw when we went into Tuesday morning, which was the Air Force Two, the vice president's plane, was sitting on the tar tarmac at Joint Base Andrews ready to travel to Pakistan.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration was really waiting on any sort of response from the Iranians. In the days prior, the U.S. had given the Iranians through the Pakistani intermediaries, you know, a series of different points that they really thought were kind of the gaps between Washington and Tehran, that they wanted to communicate to the Iranians what they needed to head into the second round of talks.

But what they got back from the Iranians was virtual silence. And so that led essentially the president to call the V.P., his number two, back to the White House. We saw Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. They had been in Miami also preparing to travel to Islamabad. They traveled to D.C. and they all huddled. The president gathered his national security team, to figure out, what next steps were.

And that's when we saw around 4:00 P.M. yesterday, the president say that he was going to be extending ceasefire to really allow for the Iranians to come up with some unified position to try and move this forward.

Now, a couple things I want to point out. One is that the Trump administration does believe that there is some divisions on the Iranian side. One between some of the negotiators that they've seen and including Iran's speaker of the Parliament, Ghalibaf, and their foreign minister, and then the military side of the Iranian regime, the IRGC.

And so this is really where they're at, trying to make sure that the Iranians can formulate a plan and come back to them so that they can still have diplomacy prevail here, because that is still the priority. But the ceasefire does add some complications about really how long this is this going to drag out, how long is the president going to allow for these talks to continue, and will we really see some sort of in-person meeting like they were expecting to have take place today before it kind of all fell apart.

BOLDUAN: Yes. And as the street sweeper at the White House moves past, let me also ask you, what are you -- there's a lot of people that we saw going in and out of the White House yesterday, from the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, around all of this, as you're talking about.

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What are you hearing his advisers are telling him? Because there's a big question now if they're saying they're waiting -- he's waiting for a unified proposal to come from Iran, that they don't know who's in charge still.

TREENE: Yes, that is one of the key things. They actually -- you know, part of the complicating factor of this as well, Kate, is that they believe, you know, there's a question of whether the new supreme leader, the new Khamenei, Mojtaba Khameini, is giving his subordinates clear directions. And, you know, I would remind everyone that we haven't actually heard from the new ayatollah specifically or seen him since his father was assassinated back at the start of this war.

But as to what his advisers are telling him, the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, was also in the room yesterday, so was Hegseth, Dan Caine, the joint chairman of the Chiefs of Staff, Rubio, you know, the list goes on, he was gathering his top brass here at the White House to decide this. And what they have told him is the problem with the ceasefire, part of the reason the president was hesitant to extend it is there is concern amongst some of his advisers that this is going to allow Iran to drag this out further and also give them even more time to try and re-arm.

But I also think this extension shows exactly what we have been reporting all along that the Trump administration does want diplomacy. They do not want to return until all-out war, to kinetic strikes. And so this is kind of a wait-and-see period to see how they can still reach that end goal.

BOLDUAN: Yes, all of those things can be true at once, unfortunately, which doesn't leave any clear of a path forward. But great reporting, Alayna, thank you so much. Sara?

SIDNER: All right, thank you so much, Kate.

Let's go to CNN's Nic Robertson, who is in his Islamabad Pakistan where there's possible new talks between the U.S. and Iran are on hold. What do you know about these ships in Iran, the one in particular that was seized in the Strait of Hormuz?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes. I think there were several things happening here all at the same time. The president said there's divisions within inside the Iranian leadership. We are absolutely seeing that play out in real time. On the one hand, you have ongoing diplomacy here in Islamabad, the Iranian ambassador going in to meet the prime minister.

And on the other hand, you have the IRGC claiming that it has taken control of a number of ships in the Strait of Hormuz. At least one ship reporting an IRGC vessel coming up, an IRGC gunboat coming alongside of it. No radio communications. The gunboat starts shooting up that container ship, severe damage to the bridge. We understand no one injured there, and another ship in the same sort of area in the Strait of Hormuz, not far from the Iranian coastline, also shot up. Again, that ship, the crew, you know, not damaged.

But the IRGC here, the military, if you will, the hardliners in Iran, are signaling what we are hearing from the politicians. And the politicians are saying in Iran that the U.S. blockade on the Strait of Hormuz must be lifted. And President Trump was very clear last night when he, in his Truth Social post, extended the ceasefire, he also said, I'm not lifting the blockade on the Strait of Hormuz.

Now, how does that play into what's happening in Iran with those leaders there who -- the more moderates, we might call them, who want to get into the talks? What we heard from the foreign minister there, who was a number two at the talks last week, saying that, absolutely, the United States needs to lift the blockade on the Strait of Hormuz.

It's clear, President Trump's made that clear that's not going to happen. We had the leader of those negotiations saying that -- from the Iranian side -- saying that they weren't going to come into the talks under the shadow of threats.

Now, the perception here in the region was clear that President Trump wanted to use the end of the ceasefire as a lever in the talks as pressure on the Iranians. So, it does appear by extending the ceasefire. The president's taken off that pressure point.

However, the Iranians have come out and said, we didn't ask for that ceasefire to be removed. The diplomatic maneuvers here that we see in this city would indicate this circumstantial evidence to suggest that the Iranians may well have asked for that ceasefire that was put forward by the prime minister. The foreign minister here yesterday that the field marshall here contacted President Trump about, and he acted upon. But the diplomacy on the ground is playing out here, and the hope here is contacts I talked to that the talks can still happen. That optimism is still here.

SIDNER: Yes. The one thing we know is that without talks, there cannot be peace here in this particular conflict and in any conflict.

Nic Robertson, thank you so much for your great reporting there out of Islamabad, Pakistan.

Ahead, breaking overnight, a big win for Democrats in the State of Virginia and one that could have major implications for the balance of power in the midterms.

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Also, a brazen heist in broad daylight, a manhunt in Philadelphia underway after thieves stole nearly $2 million from an armored truck. What we're learning this morning in the investigation there.

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SIDNER: Breaking overnight, Virginia voters giving a big boost to Democrats' hopes to wrest control of the House from Republicans in the November midterms. The CNN Decision Desk projects that the state's redistricting referendum passed 51 to 48 percent with an estimated 97 percent of the votes in.

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The new Congressional map created by Democrats gives them a chance to grab as many as four additional U.S. House seats.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny joining us live. What do these results tell you? And give us a sense of the way this has changed the map. JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Sara. Certainly a big victory for Democrats in Virginia, there's no doubt about it. I mean, that Republican redistricting war that President Trump started last summer in Texas when he said, I am entitled, Republicans are entitled to five more seats, that was responded to last night in Virginia. So, now, effectively, this gerrymandering war, which is unprecedented, has been something of awash.

Now, Democrats even have a slight net gain, but in Virginia it's a dramatic redrawing of the districts. There is no question about it. Previously, right now, the state is largely split, six Democrats, five Republicans. That would change to ten Democrats to one Republican.

But Democrats believed that this was something that they needed to do to effectively fight fire with fire and. The House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, explained the strategy last night to our Laura Coates.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): It was important for Democrats to push back aggressively across the country to stop Donald Trump's gerrymandering scheme, which was designed to rig the midterm elections. They thought we were going to step back, but we've made clear that we will fight back and we're going to keep our foot on the gas pedal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So, there certainly was a question of is this Democratic overreach to have ten Democrats and one Republican, but voters responded through a narrow margin, but a convincing one that they believed it was effectively right to fight fire with fire.

But, Sara, there are many questions going forward here. A, did Republicans overreach by doing this? Because even though Virginia is nearly the final word, it is not the last word in this redistricting fight.

SIDNER: Yes. I mean, the next big question is are there other states that are looking to do to have redistricting there and take that potentially to voters?

ZELENY: Well, there is one, and that is a state, of course, you know very well, Florida. Next week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is expected to call the lawmakers back to Tallahassee and discuss redrawing Florida lines as well.

Of course, Florida has trended as a red-leaning a Republican state in recent years. The question is though, redrawing those lines is going to make it uncomfortable for some Florida Republicans who were already in districts that they do not want to be diluted here. So, Florida is the last state most likely to have an opportunity to change their districts. And we should point out, this is so unprecedented. Usually, Congressional lines are drawn once every decade after the census is done. But, again, last summer, when President Trump has said that the Republicans are entitled to five more seats in Texas, that sparked an entirely unprecedented redistricting arms race, if you will. California responded adding five Democratic seats. Florida did as well -- or Virginia did as well, but our eyes are on Florida next week to see if they do.

But, again, the bottom line this morning, a big sigh of relief and a victory for Democrats in Virginia. Sara?

SIDNER: Yes. Jeff Zeleny, thank you so much for your reporting this morning from Washington for us.

All right, just ahead, a really scary moment in the playoffs. Spurs star Victor Wembanyama takes a nasty fall and is pulled from the game. How he's doing this morning.

And Project Hail Mary is breaking box office records and now its Lego set is breaking a Guinness World record.

Those stories are more ahead.

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BOLDUAN: A double loss for the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA playoffs. Star Wembanyama was just minutes into play before taking a really hard fall, one that landed him in concussion protocol.

Let's bring in Andy Scholes. He's got more on this. Andy, what happened?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Well, Kate, you know, it's never good when you fall on your face. And Wemby, he went down hard last night and now we don't know how long he's going to be out.

It happened in the second quarter. Wemby driving here to the basket, but he goes down and he breaks his fall with his face. And he may actually have been knocked out on this play. Wemby, he stayed down for a long time before finally getting up and heading straight back to the locker room.

Wemby sustained a concussion. He's now in the concussion protocol. He can't return to full participation for at least 48 hours, which means he could potentially play in game three on Friday. But without Wemby, the Spurs blew a 14-point fourth quarter lead. The Blazers stormed back to win that one, 106-103, to even that series.

LeBron James meanwhile just dominating the Rockets once again. Now, Jae'Sean Tate , he made LeBron mad in the second quarter. So, LeBron then hit back-to-back threes. And then in the third, LeBron just flying through the air here, throwing down the reverse slam. I mean, keep in mind he's 41 years old. And in the final minute LeBron cut into the basket and this time he throws it down again. That pretty much put the game away. LeBron, the oldest ever to score 28 in a playoff game. Lakers won that one, 101-94. They are 45-1 all-time when going up 2-0 in a series.

Now, it was a good night for the seven seeds, as the Sixers also pulled off and upset, beating Boston in game two, V.J. Edgecombe, he was red hot for Philly, he made six threes. He's the first rookie to score 30 points, grabbed 10 rebounds in a playoff game since Tim Duncan back in 1998. Sixers won game two, 111-97, to even that series at a game apiece.

In the Stanley Cup playoffs, meanwhile, check out what happened in the Avalanche-Kings game in Denver. So, the fans were excited after Colorado Goalie Scott Wedgewood successfully stopped the penalty shots. Some fans a little too excited because they broke the glass behind the Kings' bench. L.A. interim coach D.J. Smith, he got glass on him when it shattered.

Everyone was okay, but they had to all just hang out while the cleanup crew came to clean it all up and then new glass had to be installed there. Now, the Avs, they went on to win that game 2-1 in overtime.

Finally, the Mets gave up five unanswered runs last night, and they lost to the Twins 5-3. This was their 12th loss in a row. And to add insult to injury, the Twins been tweeted after the game, things you can get in a dozen, eggs, roses, and Mets losses.

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Kate, it's bad. It is bad for the Mets right now. I mean, have you got any Mets fans in the studio or at work today there in New York? Be extra nice to them.

BOLDUAN: Andy, I get in trouble anytime I try to assume what teams these boys and gals, or do we have -- who's a Mets fan? Oh, sorry, Minox (ph).

SCHOLES: Yes, maybe give him a hug, buy him a coffee. It's --

BOLDUAN: I mean, you guys, you don't know this man, only this camera, is the kindest human being alive, and I just like rubbed it in his -- I love you so much. Please continue to give me coffees. I love you so much.

SCHOLES: Yes.

BOLDUAN: Oh, Andy, you just created a real family dispute here.

SCHOLES: Yes. It is not good when your baseball team (INAUDIBLE) come out of it before May.

SIDNER: This is Minaco's (ph). This is how big of a fan he is. He's got the -- I mean, come on. Here's a --

BOLDUAN: How does the water taste today, Minox?

SIDNER: Poor Minaco.

BOLDUAN: Wait. I know I'm going to get in trouble, but can we please go back to the hockey situation? I know -- play me off the hockey when they broke the glass, is that like one of those Ron Burgundy situations where the coach turns, he is like, I'm not even mad, I'm impressed. Like you broke the glass. Okay.

SCHOLES: Hey, yes.

BOLDUAN: I mean, I love you. I know they're telling you to not talk because I've already gone over. You're the best, Scholes. Thank you, buddy.

All right, nearly $2 million gone in an instant. What we know about the search for two armed robbers now who took on a Brink's armored truck. We've got that.

And a snack attack caught on camera. The victim, a bag of Doritos, the thief, a bear wearing a camera.

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