Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Oil Prices Fall; David Albright is Interviewed about Iran's Nuclear Supply; U.S. Military Looks Underground to Protect Troops; Numbers on California; A Late Season Snowstorm Pummels Colorado. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired May 06, 2026 - 08:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:32:04]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: This just in, Iran responds. The IRGC put out a new statement moments ago saying safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz is now possible under, quote/unquote, "new procedures" following president Trump pulling the plug on the short-lived operation that the -- of the U.S. military guiding ships through the critical waterway.

Also this morning, President Trump posted that a potential deal with Iran may be close. "Axios" reporting that the two sides are nearing agreement on a one page memorandum, a framework to begin the detailed talks to end the war.

Oil prices, they're falling on this news this morning and with renewed hope for a U.S.-Iran deal. Gas prices, though, rising, up six cents overnight, $4.54 a gallon on average. And experts say if and when the war does end, high prices, they will stick around, warning that it could be years before prices come back down.

CNN's David Goldman has much more perspective on this one.

What are you seeing? What are you hearing?

DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, I mean, I think that when oil prices fall as much as they have this morning, you know, as much as 11 percent earlier this morning, because this is inevitably good news, or at least that's how the market is looking at it.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

GOLDMAN: So, people are wondering, what does this mean for gas prices?

BOLDUAN: (INAUDIBLE).

GOLDMAN: You don't have to look that far back in the future. Just about four weeks ago, we were kind of here. Remember, we were saying, oh, OK, the ceasefire might be able to get us back down to those sort of, you know, levels where gas might be at $3. Well, it didn't ever really approach that. We fell about 12 cents over the course of two weeks, right?

BOLDUAN: Right.

GOLDMAN: Gas prices don't fall that quickly.

Now, if you don't believe that as history, you can look back to 2022. Oil prices were in the same kind of situation after the Russia war. And President Biden was not happy that oil prices were falling very, very quickly. But gas prices stayed the same for a long time.

So, this is history repeating itself over and over.

So, why does it do this? Well, there's a couple reasons. First of all, gas prices are based on wholesale future prices. That's the nerdiest thing I'm going to say today. If you look at it though, this -- you have to kind of do a little bit of math and add 90 cents to this. This is telling us that gas prices aren't going to be back to $3 until 2027. Not like early 2027, November of 2027. It's going to be a long time. It's because it takes a long time for the oil that's being purchased today to get to a gas station at this new price. And if you're a gas station owner, you just don't want to lower your prices. It is razor-thin margins that they get. They need to be able to make a little bit of profit on the back end.

BOLDUAN: That is really, I mean, I'm going to go with your math on this one, but also always important to get all the perspective on it.

[08:35:07]

It's great to see you, David.

GOLDMAN: Good to see you too.

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thank you, guys.

Now to the war that's causing all this. U.S. and Israeli justification for the war against Iran is that Iran should never be able to create a nuclear weapon. In earlier strikes before the war, President Trump said Iran's nuclear capability was obliterated. But CNN has found the damage done may not have taken out the most dangerous and important part of Iran's nuclear program, it's enriched uranium.

Here's a bit of what CNN correspondent Katie Polglase found on that element.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATIE POLGLASE, CNN INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Back last June, French outlet Le Monde found this truck visible in imagery taken just days before the strikes. These blue containers are likely carrying uranium into the tunnels, experts told CNN. Days later, these facilities were substantially damaged in Israeli attacks. You can see several buildings wiped out. Then in early 2026, Iran covered over several entrances to these underground tunnels, with earth preventing people from accessing them. Further measures were taken this April when these roadblocks were put up in front of the entrances to the tunnels. It could suggest there still remains something valuable down there. They were not, however, hit in the latest U.S.-Israeli strikes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Joining me now is physicist David Albright, the president and founder of the Institute for Science and International Security. He is also a former nuclear inspector.

Thank you so much for being here.

First, when you look at the images, satellite images, about Iran's nuclear capabilities, and what you know about its capabilities from before all of this, what do you glean from all this?

DAVID ALBRIGHT, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER, INSTITUTE FOR SCIENCE AND INTERNATIONAL SECURITY: Well, one is, before the war started in June, Iran was able to build a nuclear weapon, if it decided to do so, within months and have high certainty it would work. Now they aren't able to do that. I mean there's intelligence assessments that have become public recently. Say they'll need it a year. I would probably say perhaps longer. But more importantly, they -- the weapon may not work. That much of the nuclear weaponization infrastructure of the -- of Iran's program has been destroyed. So, it's not just the enriched uranium that matters. That's critical. And that's really the centerpiece of all the negotiations right now.

But it -- but the ability to make the bomb itself is important. So, I think they've been -- Iran has been seriously set back. And instead of us facing a program where at any moment Iran could decide to build a bomb quickly, within months, now we're -- with a program that if it decided to build a bomb would take more like a year and there'd be roadblocks along the way that would have -- they would be facing their own uncertainty of whether they could succeed. And so, the probability that it wouldn't work would be potentially substantial. So, I think the war created a -- quite a bit of damage to the program.

SIDNER: Yes, there are a lot of damaged facilities from the university where the research for a nuclear bomb was done, to many of the other places that helped facilitate the creation of nuclear weapons.

I do want to ask you about sort of what's happening right now. The secretary of state says that the combat part of the war is over it -- over. The president says just this morning that negotiations are underway. They're promising. If the goal is to keep Iran from nuclear weapons capabilities, what must be part of the agreement when it comes to how it's handled, when it comes to how Iran is moving forward or not with their nuclear program?

ALBRIGHT: Well, there's a couple things. One is, is the enriched uranium stocks that Katie pointed out are very important. And those have to be part of a deal to -- preferably, from a U.S. point of view, remove the enriched uranium from Iran. And that -- and you want to create further roadblocks on Iran's ability to build the bomb. And that's a very good way to do it.

Another part of it, though, which is that Iran has to -- they've got to commit not to build nuclear weapons. And it -- and I would -- from my point of view, they've got to admit that they do it. They always deny it. But we know they've been working on nuclear weapons for decades. And so, you have to have a commitment not to do it. And then you have to have some good inspections that verify that the program has ended. And so, I think that -- that's -- and I see from some of the reporting that the Trump administration is considering that. But that's always one of the hardest things for Iran to accept, because I think no matter what, they want to be able to reconstitute, to build nuclear weapons, to have that option, if not actually implemented. And these negotiations have to just end that ambition on the part of Iran. The war has made that goal much harder for Iran to accomplish, but it didn't end it.

[08:40:06]

SIDNER: You -- we're looking at some imagery here of some of the bombings of Esfahan and also, though, where the uranium is mined. And it looks like it's -- more and more of it has been mined since those initial strikes.

How much -- do we have any sense of how much enriched uranium there is and how difficult it would be for -- because Iran, that's the one thing they do not want to do is give that up?

ALBRIGHT: In this round, Israel took out the facility that could take that -- and it's uranium ore. It's not uranium per se. Uranium is maybe one percent or less of the ore. And you have to process that at a facility. And Israel destroyed that facility in this -- in this round. And Katie pointed that out in her story.

The International Atomic Energy Agency knew very precisely how much enriched uranium Iran had right before the war started in June of 2025. The uncertainty now is how much of it is inaccessible. Some amount was in the Fordow Mountain, which was heavily destroyed by the U.S. bombing. Any highly enriched uranium there, enriched uranium, is probably hard to assess. The IAEA has reported that over half is in Isfahan Mountain tunnel complexes, but we don't really know how much -- how much the bombing in June just destroyed some of that. So, I think the uncertainties are on how much is left that is accessible to Iran. And it's probably significant. So, it is right that that's a centerpiece of the negotiation.

Now, there is a question, why didn't Iran -- why didn't the United States and Israel further destroy these mountain complexes? Theres two that could hold enriched uranium. And I mean, the only answer I could default to right now is they didn't -- they wanted to make sure that in a -- in an end state negotiation, that they could access them and remove them from the country. But it is -- it is a question why they -- the United States and Israel did not attack these facilities to try to entomb whatever highly enriched uranium was inside them.

SIDNER: Yes. I think what's been made clear in this story also is that it wasn't obliterated, their ability to continue potentially to try to make a bomb. But as you were saying, it was heavily set back.

We will see what happens with these negotiations that will hopefully come to some diplomatic end.

David Albright, thank you so much for your expertise this morning.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, new CNN reporting this morning. The U.S. military is looking underground to protect wounded soldiers from enemy drones and missiles. Threats that have become much more common on the modern battlefield.

CNN's Haley Britzky visited a U.S. Army medical brigade's training exercise, where soldiers are preparing for future wars. And she's with us now.

Hayley, what do you see there?

HALEY BRITZKY, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, John, it was an incredible exercise that we saw from the first medical brigade down at Fort Hood. This was a huge exercise going from, as you said, underground, these decommissioned nuclear tunnels that ran under Fort Hood, where they'd set up a larger field hospital with the intent of practicing how to do this kind of medicine, how to do surgery on wounded soldiers, how to kind of perform this necessary medical care in an environment where you may not have as much light, you may not have as much access to water, to electricity, things like that. In the -- in the case that, in combat, soldiers will have to go underground to avoid drones and missiles.

Obviously, we've seen the volume of drone attacks at the war with Iran. We've seen this between Ukraine and Russia as well. And sources were just saying this is the new way of doing business. The old way of taking care of wounded service members can no longer continue because of the threat that these drones pose. And so, going underground sort of allows them to hide their signature, both protecting these medical personnel and the wounded service members, but also sort of lowering some of that electromagnetic signature, the heat signature that you might get from some of this equipment that is so necessary to medical personnel and taking care of wounded service members.

So, it was a really good opportunity for them to practice this, which would be so necessary for saving the lives of U.S. service members in future conflicts, John.

BERMAN: Beside going underground, what exactly is different than the past here?

BRITZKY: Yes, so, one of the biggest challenges that sources, both at Fort Hood and later told me was that, you know, in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. largely had control of the skies, right? The U.S. could sort of fly where it needed to, evacuate medical personnel as necessary, both back to larger bases in the region, but also to places like Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, which was a huge hub for medical care during the global war on terror. Now, the threat of drones and missiles in the air impacting both

planes, helicopters, aircraft to be evacuating those personnel, they may not be able to evacuate them as quickly.

[08:45:01]

So, sources were saying this is a huge change for the U.S. military, that it has to adapt to. Obviously, we saw at Fort Hood, they're working to do that, to figure out the kinks in that problem and sort of how to best get that care to wounded service members. But it could mean that service members are on the front lines longer, that they can't be evacuated to higher levels of care as fast as we have been expecting.

And we saw that, John, in recently with the war with Iran. A source familiar saying that because of the drone threat from Iran, the U.S. could not evacuate people to Landstuhl in Germany as quickly as they'd like.

So, very pressing and quite literally the difference between life and death, John, and getting this right.

BERMAN: You have to adapt. You have to adapt on the fly here really.

Haley Britzky, thanks so much for sharing that reporting.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: There's also a new report out this morning from the Anti- Defamation League finding that physical assaults against Jewish people in the U.S. reached a 46-year high last year. The ADL, in this new data compiled, finds that while incidents of anti-Jewish vandalism and harassment dipped, that drop did not extend to actual violence. Physical attacks rose four percent. Incidents involving a deadly weapon were up nearly 40 percent from the year before. Three people were killed in the U.S. in 2025 due to anti-Semitic violence, the first time since 2019, the fatal shooting last year of two Israeli embassy staff members outside a Jewish museum in Washington, and that horrible firebombing in Colorado that killed an 82-year-old woman last year. This new report also finds while overall anti-Semitic attacks declined, they remain significantly higher than what was seen prior to the October 7th terror attack.

And the ADL told "Axios" about these new findings, this, "Jews in this country are still being harassed, assaulted and targeted an average of 17 times a day. That is not a sign of deep progress."

Sara.

SIDNER: It's disturbing. All right. Thank you so much, Kate.

Seven candidates took to the stage here on CNN to debate their case to become the next governor of California. Issues from immigration, to health care, dominated the discussion. One key issue had a candidate with some difficult answers here. The fact that the cost of living in California is really, really high. CNN's chief data analyst Harry Enten has stepped into the fray of all

this.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Yes, I have.

SIDNER: Obviously, cost of living is a big issue nationally.

ENTEN: Yes.

SIDNER: But, in California, a lot of people pay a lot more to live there. And it's seeing some exodus as well.

ENTEN: Yes, absolutely the case. I mean you want to talk about pain that is being felt in the golden state, Sara Sidner. I mean just take a look here.

Say California's cost of living is unmanageable. We're talking about 70 percent of all voters. That is very high. But more than that, you get the rare trifecta. You get a majority of independents, 77 percent, a clear majority of Republicans, 73 percent, and then nearly two- thirds of Democrats, 64 percent. So, you're getting about two-thirds or more of Democrats, Republicans and independents who all say that the cost of living in California is unmanageable. This is, obviously, part of a national picture as well, where the cost of living, of course, is such a major issue. But in California specifically, the pain is truly being felt.

SIDNER: It's not just the cost of living. There are other issues there. What's happening with unemployment in the state?

ENTEN: Yes, OK. So, let's talk about unemployment. That's not the only economic issue in which Californians are feeling the pain. What about unemployment?

When you talk about the unemployment rate in California versus the United States as a whole, it has been at least one point higher every month over the last three years. Every single month, at least a point higher.

Now, obviously, the two move in tandem, but California's rate is always higher than the United States as a whole. And I will not -- I was looking all the way back over the last 20 years. And according to our partner at -- our partners at USA Facts, what we see is, in fact, all the way back since 2007, since 2007, the unemployment rate in California is higher than the unemployment rate nationally has been.

SIDNER: Now, I know what attracts me to California. I do love the state. It's very beautiful. There's so much to do and see. But what is it economically that would keep people there or bring people there?

ENTEN: Yes, OK. So, you know, you see the cost of living being so sky high, right? You see the unemployment rate being higher than the nation as a whole for a long period of time, and significantly higher, at least a point higher, over the last three years. And you go, OK, why would someone want to live in California, at least economically speaking? And, you know, it's just simply put, because there's a lot of money in California. You know, again, looking at our partner, USA Facts, who compiled this data, where California ranks nationally, GDP, look, it's fourth. How about the median household income? It ranks fifth nationally.

So, yes, there are cost of living problems. Yes, there's some unemployment problems, at least versus the nation as a whole. But there's still a lot of goodness that comes out of California economically speaking. It's still a very wealthy state. And of course, it's these crosscurrents that, you know, a lot of folks out there are trying to manage.

SIDNER: Exactly. And we'll see how they manage them. We'll see who the next governor is.

[08:50:02]

It's --

ENTEN: The one who manages to get an answer to these questions, or at least some of them --

SIDNER: Or to fit it.

ENTEN: Or fix it.

SIDNER: Maybe that would -- that would work.

ENTEN: I think that might just work out very well, Sara.

SIDNER: Yes.

All right, Harry, thank you so much.

ENTEN: Thank you, my friend.

SIDNER: John.

BERMAN: All right, a manhunt underway for a special forces veteran accused of shooting his wife.

And, oh, no, snow in May. Who is to blame for this?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: So, Colorado could see more snow today from a May storm that's coming through. And then going to the deep south, it's bracing for some serious thunderstorms, possible tornadoes.

Let's get over to CNN's Derek Van Dam, who's watching it all for us.

Where do you want to begin, Derek?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Cue the Michael Buble, "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas." That's where we're going to start this morning because the pictures coming out of Colorado are astounding. It's a late season snowstorm. It's not highly unusual, but when you start talking about 17 inches in Estes Park, yes, it can cause some problems, especially when we had such a dismal winter when snowfall leads to this now on the roadways.

[08:55:07]

Some of the mountain overpasses, a lot of slick conditions there. There are reports of anywhere between a foot to upwards of 20 inches of snow. And just look at the piling up on this light post here. Denver, by the way, just under four inches at the airport, some areas a little bit more as you head your way into the metro region. But bottom line is, the I-25 corridor and along I-70, east and westbound, that's going to be a rough go this morning.

If you're located in Denver, there's still another, let's say, 12 -- two to four inches. Look, if you're actually heading into Denver right now, looking at live footage. One single, lonely little car trying to navigate those slushy roads. I mean just imagine, in the middle of May, going through a winter storm.

Well, here's the radar. And the good news is, it's coming to an end from the northwest to the southeast. But we're still going to get that I-75 and I-25 corridor with the heaviest amounts of snow. Maybe one to two inches per hour through about 7 a.m. local time this morning. So, that's coming up here.

All right, so here's the cold front. And this is the system responsible for the wild weather across the eastern two-thirds of the country, including our snowstorm. But because of its position, it is going to also trigger off some showers and thunderstorms that could be on the stronger side. Severe threat really enhanced today across portions of central Mississippi into Alabama. That's where we have large hail, damaging winds and a few tornadoes possible.

But check this out. Atlanta. So, this is why we have millions of Americans under this risk of severe storms today. But we're specifically talking about tornadoes. The rotating part of the atmosphere. It's just west of the Atlanta metropolitan. So, Birmingham, Jackson to Shreveport, that's where you need to keep an eye to the sky in terms of tornadic development later this afternoon. These storms will erupt throughout the course of the day today. They move eastward, overnight, impacting Atlanta. That's where the heaviest rain will be felt as well, bringing some much-needed rainfall to drought-stricken southeast Georgia.

Just a heads up, we do have a flood watch for these locations as well, because we could get just a little bit too much of a good thing here in southeast Georgia.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Too much of a good thing. Too much of a good thing.

It's good to see you. Thank you so much, Derek.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, thank you, Kate.

On our radar for you this morning, six people rescued from a sinking boat. And the tense moments were caught on video. It happened in Florida. The people were on a small boat in choppy waters when, you can see it there, it started to sink just miles offshore. Some of the passengers didn't have life jackets. Others didn't even know how to swim. All six were brought back safely and there were no major injuries reported.

All right, new video now from Michigan. A man leads police on a high- speed chase, and it ends right there with him driving straight into a pond. Police say they tried to pull him over after he was suspected of assault the previous night. That's when he bolted away. Moments after he drove into the pond, he walked out with his hands up. Deputies say they found several firearms and methamphetamine inside his vehicle.

All right, if you're taking a short trip with Delta Airlines and not flying first class, you might not get a snack. Bring the snacks with you. Starting May 19th, the airline is ditching the free inflight service for passengers on flights of 349 miles or less. That means no more Biscoff or ginger ale for you. Delta says the move is expected to create a more consistent experience across its network. It now joins other major U.S. carriers that have stopped offering in-flight service on those really short flights.

And I know that John has something to say.

BERMAN: I just, a more consistent experience? Like, consistently hungry and thirsty. Like, I'm not so sure that should be the standard.

SIDNER: You know, you can go by the Biscoff cookies, put them in your pocket, but they always crumble, so that's a problem.

BERMAN: OK. As long as it's consistent, that's what we strive for here.

All right, new this morning, three patients with suspected cases of hantavirus have been evacuated from the cruise ship where an outbreak killed three people. They were flown from the ship off of Cape Verde to the Netherlands to get treatment. The ship is supposed to set sail for the Canary Islands, where the Spanish government has given the go ahead for the ship to dock there. But the local leader there of the Canary Islands is opposed to it. So, there's a political battle going on about whether or not the ship will dock. So far there have been three confirmed cases of the hantavirus -- deaths, I should say. There have been three confirmed deaths and five suspected cases. About 150 people remain on the ship.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: In a new episode of the CNN Original Series "Kara Swisher Wants to Live Forever," Kara travels to South Korea to uncover the secrets to longevity.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KARA SWISHER, HOST, "KARA SWISHER WANTS TO LIVE FOREVER": And these seniors take these things seriously. They give them nicknames, knit them clothes, and even tuck them in at night. Every month they get together to celebrate their loved one's birthday. And today's guest of honor is Grandma Jeon and her Juo (ph) doll.

[09:00:09]