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London Heathrow Closes After Significant Power Cut; Russia and Ukraine Carry Out Attacks Despite Planned Peace Talks; Zelenskyy Brings Up Talks with Trump; E.U Leaders Discuss Defense Spending; Hamas and Houthi Rebels Fire Missiles Towards Tel Aviv as Israel Renews Ground Offensive in Gaza; Trump Denies Musk Briefed on Potential War with China; Judge: DOJ Response On Deportations "Woefully Insufficient"; Trump Signs Order To Dismantle Education Department; Flights Canceled, Diverted As Heathrow Hit By Power Outage; Judge Tosses Out Copyright Case Against Maria Carey's Hit. Aired 2-2:45a ET

Aired March 21, 2025 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:00]

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(TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES)

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN HOST: Busiest is completely shut down to a power outage. Officials say the airport went dark after a transformer in an electrical substation caught fire sending smoke billowing through the area. Ten fire engines and dozens of firefighters have been working on the scene in West London through the night. Around 150 people in the area have been evacuated from their homes. So far, no word on the cause of the blaze.

Heathrow's closures expected to affect more than 1,300 flights and upwards of 145,000 passengers in the immediate future. That's according to monitoring sites Flightradar24 and Cirium. I want to bring in CNN's Nada Bashir. Nada, so you are, I understand, near the substation that's been on fire. What's the latest?

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kim. We're just outside the North Hyde electricity substation in Hayes in West London. This is where the fire is still currently ablaze, according to London Fire Brigade officials. As you can see behind me, there was a police cordon in place around 200 meters around the actual substation. Some residents in the nearby area have also been asked to evacuate due to concerns around the smoke that had been billowing from the substation.

And of course, we are still waiting for more updates from officials. What we understand thus far, according to London Fire Brigade, is that a transformer within the electricity substation was ablaze. They were called to the incident at around 11:20 p.m. last night and have been working throughout the night to contain the blaze.

Now, we did speak to a station commander from London Fire Brigade just a little while ago who said that the firefighters currently on the premises are trying to isolate the electricity in order to safely then tackle the blaze with firefighting foam. That could take a couple of hours, but that is underway, according to London Fire Brigade officials. Again, there is still uncertainty around what caused this fire.

At this stage, officials say the blaze is under control. It has been contained. They do not believe that it will spread and at this stage not a concern for local residents. But as we know, it is a huge concern for one of Europe's busiest airports, London Heathrow Airport. A complete power outage as a result of this fire, the airport has been closed. It is now completely inoperational, according to airport officials, for the entirety and duration of Friday.

It could be even longer, though, if they aren't able to get that power back up and running. And if this fire continues over the course of the day, this has led to a significant amount of disruption and chaos. More than a thousand flights currently impacted. We know that some of those flights that have been on route to London Heathrow Airport have either been delayed, cancelled or diverted or even sent back to their airport of origin. So a huge amount of chaos and frustration for passengers as well.

London Heathrow Airport has said this is going to cause significant disruption over the coming days. It remains to be seen what that knock-on effect is, not only today, but of course over the course of the weekend. As I mentioned, this is the busiest airport in Europe, five terminals all impacted by this power outage. Of course, so a huge amount of pressure now on airport officials to find some sort of solution for the thousands of flights that had been set to pass through Heathrow Airport.

At this stage, they have told passengers not to head to the airport because of the complete chaos that the Heathrow Airport is facing at this stage. They've asked passengers to speak to their airlines about what to do next, what those next steps will look like. And of course, for the fire brigade here, for the emergency services, we've got the ambulance, police cars all lined up behind me, their main focus right now is trying to get this blaze under control. Kim?

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, the impact on flight travel can't be overstated here. Nada Bashir in London. Thank you so much. I want to bring in aviation analyst Geoffrey Thomas. Thanks again for being with us here this hour. So as we heard there, one of the busiest airports in the world, some quarter million passengers flying through there. How much chaos could this cause?

[0205:00]

GEOFFREY THOMAS, AVIATION ANALYST: Well, this is about as bad as you can get, Kim, quarter million passengers, 1,300 flights a day. The problem, these aren't flights, these aren't 737s or A320s in most cases with, you know, 150, 160 passengers. Many of these flights are A380s, 777s, 200, 300, 400 passenger flights. So the disruption is huge, compounded by the fact that a lot of these flights are coming in from a long way away, like San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Seattle, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo. Now, the problem there is, is the flight crews are beyond their hours when they arrive. When they arrive, they're out of hours. So when they're diverted into Shannon or Paris or Frankfurt, then the aircraft is on the ground, the passengers are on the ground. But the flight can't go anywhere for at least 12 to 15 hours because the flight crew have to have a regulation rest. So the disruption for this is colossal. And, you know, a lot of those

1,300 flights that are coming in are from a long way away with very large aircraft.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, as you make that point, I mean, this is a hub really for the world. You say it. I mean, flights from Asia, Africa, people around the world are there on layovers and to sort of mitigate all of the problems now. I mean, the knock on effects here, how long could they last?

THOMAS: Well, they could last weeks because the issue here is we're getting into, as you know, in the United States, you're into spring, you're getting in towards summer. That's when the travel boom is on to go to Europe. So most of the flights that are going to Europe right now are full. So the issue then becomes not only have you got disruption of flights in the wrong place, tomorrow's flight or today's flight, I should say, will be cancelled because Heathrow is closed.

So those passengers who suffer a cancellation, they won't be going the next day. They'll be going on the next available flight that has a seat available. That's the way it works. So, you know, they could find themselves being bumped four or five or six days before there's a spare seat for them to travel to their intended destination.

So the dislocation is huge. The disruption, the domino effect of this is massive. And what I find extraordinary, Kim, is how come Heathrow hasn't got a plan B or a plan C for a power outage like this?

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, let's talk about that. I mean, the power requirements to run an airport are clearly massive. So what do we know about the power sourcing and that very crucial question that you posed there? Why wouldn't there be a backup power source?

THOMAS: Well, I'm not an electric engineer, that's the first thing I should say, but I would have thought that a piece of infrastructure that's that important to the economy of the United Kingdom, the largest airport in the United Kingdom, the second largest international airport in the world, should be drawing power from an alternative grid source, not just one grid source. And why hasn't it got its own generators?

I mean, every hospital in the Western world has got backup generators. You can't be doing an operation and suddenly the power fails. You've got to have an immediate backup situation. All the media outlets around the world, they've all got backup power options to them. All critical infrastructure or most critical infrastructure has backup power options.

Sure, Heathrow is a massive place. It's got five terminals. It's got a number of hotels. Its power draw would be very significant. But that's all the more reason why it shouldn't have a robust plan B.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, and as you say, neither of us are electrical engineers. Presumably it does have backup generators for crucial operations, but certainly it doesn't seem enough to power an entire airport. Certainly, there'll be many questions asked about all of this in the days and weeks to come. Appreciate your analysis, Geoffrey Thomas. Thank you so much.

THOMAS: Pleasure, Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Talks towards a partial ceasefire in Ukraine are set to get underway next week as officials prepare to talk peace. Drones and bombs are doing the talking on the ground. That's ahead.

Plus, Israel steps up its renewed ground offensive in Gaza and Hamas fires back for the first time since the collapse of the ceasefire. This is "CNN Newsroom." Stay with us.

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[02:10:06]

BRUNHUBER: The fire near London's Heathrow Airport has disrupted air travel right around the world. It burned an electrical substation, causing a power outage at the airport. It's expected to remain closed at least throughout the day. A flight tracking service says more than 1,300 flights could be affected and at least 120 have already been diverted.

[02:14:56]

Russia and Ukraine are trading heavy fire despite new ceasefire talks expected in the coming days. Have a look.

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So that is the moment Ukrainian drones hit a Russian airbase about 650 kilometers from the border on Thursday. Russia's state news agency says at least 10 people were injured and about 30 homes damaged. A video shows a large plume of smoke rising from the base after the strike. Kyiv says the base has been used to launch attacks on Ukraine. But Russia hit back, launching what's been described as a massive drone attack on Odessa leaving parts of the city on fire. Three people were injured. Power was knocked out as well.

And there was a similar picture coming out of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region, which was reportedly hit by guided bombs. Ukraine says two people were injured and multiple homes were damaged. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed a European Union meeting Thursday, accused his Russian counterpart of dragging the war out.

And meanwhile, he is urging Europe to pour more money into its defense. He spoke as European leaders met in Brussels on Thursday to talk about how to boost defense spending in the face of Moscow's military ambitions. Sebastian Shukla has more. SEBSTIAN SHUKLA, CNN PRODUCER: President Zelenskyy spent today on a

tour de force of Europe again as he looks to shore up more weapons for his country. He began the day talking to the European Council leaders in Brussels via video link, where he urged them to pass a EUR 5 billion spending package in order to acquire more artillery shells, which would then be sent to Ukraine as his forces continue to battle Russian forces in the east.

But as part of that conversation with European leaders, President Zelenskyy also elaborated a little on the phone call he held with U.S. President Donald Trump.

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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE: Yesterday, I had a productive conversation with President Trump from the very, very beginning. Ukraine has been advocating for what we are discussing now, an end to attack on energy and infrastructure and ceasefire at sea. And we continue to support these efforts. Putin must stop making unnecessary demands that only prolong the war and must start fulfilling what he promises the world.

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SHUKLA: Those unnecessary demands referred to by President Zelenskyy seem to be a direct reference to comments and that phone call with Donald Trump that Vladimir Putin had this week, where he said a 30-day ceasefire he would be willing to agree to as long as a series of demands were met by Ukraine. Some of them, which it seems very difficult for Kyiv to agree to at all, which include the halting of military support for Kyiv, as well as the halting of intelligence sharing between Western partners and Ukraine as well.

President Zelenskyy did also say in Oslo that Ukrainian negotiators would be in the Saudi Arabian capital this weekend for talks, which we know are due to be held between the U.S. and Russia. What Zelenskyy said, though, is that negotiators will not be in the room or part of the discussions with Russia and Ukraine, but a form of shuttle diplomacy will take place where the U.S. will act as the middleman, conveying messages from Russia to Ukraine and vice versa.

The talks taking place in Saudi Arabia, the U.S. said, are going to be a working level, so not involving presidential or even foreign ministry level. But they do show that the United States has not yet given up on trying to push Russia and Ukraine to come to a ceasefire agreement. Sebastian Shukla, CNN, Berlin.

BRUNHUBER: For the first time since Israel renewed its strikes on Hamas targets in Gaza, Hamas is fighting back. The Israeli military says it intercepted one rocket fired toward Tel Aviv, while two others fell into an open area. No casualties have been reported.

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I hear them there, air raid sirens sounding in Jerusalem, as Houthi rebels in Yemen fired a ballistic missile at Israel, the second since the Gaza ceasefire collapsed on Tuesday. The Palestinian Health Ministry reports more than 500 people have been killed in Gaza this week alone. The overall death toll since the war began in October of 2023 is nearing 50,000.

Also Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government voted to dismiss Ronen Bar, the chief of Israel's Shin Bet internal security service. On Sunday, Netanyahu said his ongoing distress of Bar led to the decision and his removal was necessary for achieving Israel's war goals in Gaza. We have more now on the fighting from CNN's international diplomatic editor, Nic Roberts.

NIC ROBERTSON, INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: The IDF say they have launched a limited ground operation. They're describing it as limited. But we do know that part of it is in the distance behind me, along the Mediterranean coast. That's where some of that ground operation is going on.

[02:20:02]

But while we've been here overlooking Gaza, the town behind me, Beit Hanoun, we've seen that hit by what appeared to be an Israeli airstrike. We could hear the fighter jet. We could see the huge plume of smoke rising up from that. And when you zoom in with the camera here and take a look at the terrain there, Beit Hanoun is already incredibly damaged from the previous 15 months of fighting. It is an area that was hit in the overnight strikes by the IDF here.

Hanoun is in the center, Raffa in the south as well, according to health officials inside of Gaza. The IDF dropped warning leaflets telling people in this northern area behind me to evacuate the ground. The defense minister is saying that what could come now in terms of air and ground operation could be worse than the people, the Gazans, have seen before.

And in fact, he implied that if they didn't get rid of Hamas themselves, then there could be complete ruin and destruction inside of Gaza. So the threat at the moment does seem to be very big. And for the first time, Hamas, since the ceasefire broke down, and they would say because Israel never engaged in the phase two talks as they were expected and as had been previously agreed, phase one, phase two talks.

Hamas launched rocket strikes, not just small rockets, by the way. Some of their larger ones that could reach as far as Tel Aviv. That's what they said they were targeting. One of those rockets was intercepted by the IDF. The IDF said the other two fell into open spaces. It's not clear yet where Hamas will take their military operation. Will they try and step up a barrage of strikes? But certainly what we saw over the waning months of the 15 months of fighting was that Hamas's arsenal of rockets was incredibly depleted.

They fired only very, very rarely. And now the people in the north of Gaza really being prepared by the Israelis, by the IDF to expect a ground operation.

BRUNHUBER: President Trump has dismissed a report from "The New York Times" that Elon Musk is set to be briefed on the United States' plans for a potential war with China. Trump confirmed on social media that Musk will visit the Pentagon, but denied that it had anything to do with China. "The Times" said it was not clear why Musk would receive a top secret briefing on military plans. Musk's car company, Tesla, has multiple dealerships across China and a large factory in Shanghai. Musk has been closely involved with President Trump as part of DOGE, a controversial effort to slash costs in government.

For the first time in modern U.S. history, a U.S. president is trying to shut down a cabinet level agency. The latest on the story just ahead. Stay with us.

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[02:25:00]

BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is "CNN Newsroom." The following breaking news out of London as Heathrow Airport, one of the world's busiest, has completely shut down due to a power outage. Officials say the airport went dark after a transformer at a nearby electrical substation caught fire.

Dozens of firefighters and 10 fire engines are on the scene in West London. Around 150 people in the area have been evacuated from their homes. So far, there's no word on the cause of the blaze. The airport will stay closed until at least one -- until 11:59 p.m. on Friday night, London time. Earlier, CNN spoke with the director of communications at Flightradar24 about the scope of the shutdown's impact. Here he is.

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IAN PETCHENIK, DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS, FLIGHTRADAR24: For the total day, we're going to have about 1,550 flights affected directly to and from Heathrow. But that doesn't include the flights that will be impacted because those aircraft are now out of position and can't operate the flights that they were supposed to operate after they went to or from Heathrow.

This is absolutely crucial to airline travel. I mean, London, aside from being one of the busiest airports in the world, it's also one of the airports that collects the largest number of airlines. So an impact to, you know, a daily closure in say, Dallas would affect American Airlines, but pretty much only American Airlines. A closure of London Heathrow really affects multiple airlines and many airlines around the world.

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BRUNHUBER: We continue to bring developments out of London as they come.

A U.S. judge is slamming the Justice Department for its, quote, "woefully insufficient" response to his orders on deportation flights carried out last weekend. [02:30:01]

The White House was temporarily blocked from using a centuries old law to deport migrants allegedly linked to a Venezuelan gang. Judge James Boasberg ordered the DOJ to explain how it didn't violate his ruling when it allowed two deportation flights to continue. The judge says the department evaded its obligations about providing more information by handing over a sealed filing after the deadline on Thursday.

U.S. President Donald Trump is starting to dismantle the Education Department with a new executive order signed Thursday. Now, it's something Republicans have wanted for decades, but it's raising plenty of questions for students and parents.

CNN's Sunlen Serfaty reports from Washington.

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SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: President Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to begin dismantling the U.S. Department of Education. Now, this was a campaign promise of the president and is a rare move. No president in modern history has tried to close down a cabinet level agency. Here's President Trump at the White House on Thursday, surrounded by schoolchildren in uniforms, sitting at classroom desks.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're going to be returning education very simply back to the states where it belongs. And this is a very popular thing to do. But much more importantly, it's a common sense thing to do, and its going to work. Absolutely, it's going to work.

SERFATY: Shutting down the department would require an act of Congress, notably. Now Trump officials, they have acknowledged that they do not have the necessary votes to dissolve the department that way. Instead, the order that Trump signed Thursday instructed the Department of Education Secretary, Linda McMahon, to take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the department and return education authority to the states.

Now, how precisely the components of the Education Department will be dismantled is not yet clear. The White House press secretary said the order would move to greatly minimize the agency, but that she said certain critical functions like student loans, administrative grants for at risk students would remain under the agency's umbrella, even as Trump said these functions would be preserved but redistributed to various other agencies and other departments that will take care of them.

Sunlen Serfaty, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: All right. Still to come, Mariah Carey vindicated after a $20 million lawsuit leveled against her doesn't even get to trial.

A lot more coming up. Stay with us.

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[02:37:08]

BRUNHUBER: London's Heathrow Airport has been shut down after a fire caused a major power outage. The flames damaged an electrical substation that was powering the airport. Air travel almost everywhere is being impacted. A flight tracking service says more than 1,300 flights could be affected. At least 120 have already been diverted.

Now, Heathrow is one of the busiest airports in the world, and it's expected to remain closed at least throughout the day.

For the second consecutive day, protesters in Turkey defied a ban on public gatherings and demonstrated against the government's detention of Istanbul's mayor. Ekrem Imamoglu, a key opposition rival to President Recep Erdogan, called on people to resist the injustice of his detention as part of a corruption and terrorism investigation, say the mayor's detention is undemocratic and political.

Now, President Erdogan, in his first public comments on the detention, dismissed criticism as theatrics and slogans.

The main opposition party says they will nominate the popular mayor as their presidential candidate to challenge Erdogan on Sunday.

A U.S. judge has thrown out a copyright infringement case against singer Mariah Carey and her holiday classic, "All I Want for Christmas Is You".

Now, it was alleged she copied elements of the smash hit from a country song. Listen to this.

(MUSIC)

BRUNHUBER: Two songwriters were seeking $20 million in damages. They released their song with the same name several years before Carey's song hit the charts in 1994. Now listen to their version.

(MUSIC)

BRUNHUBER: Well, the judge ruled the plaintiffs failed to show Carey's classic song, shared enough similarities with theirs. Carey responded last year that the songs were completely different, and argued that any similar elements were common to many Christmas songs.

The Peanuts comic strip is celebrating a milestone with a 75th anniversary event. Have a look. For decades, designers have created special outfits for Charlie Browns pet Beagle. Well, now more than 50 plush snoopy dogs are on display in Paris, dressed in designer duds from Chanel to Hermes and Balenciaga. They're part of the snoopy in style exhibit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JEANNIE SCHULZ, WIFE OF SNOOPY CREATOR CHARLES SCHULZ: I think that just came about very happily, because the plush dog is so cute that once one fashion designer made a costume for Snoopy, then other fashion designers wanted to join in.

[02:40:10]

So it was a brilliant start. And it just -- you can see, it's expanded for 40 years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Well, of course, it's a classic. Peanuts, one of the most influential comic strips of all time. And snoopy is a part of many of our childhood memories.

All right, that wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber.

"WORLD SPORT" is next, and I'll be back at the top of the hour with more news.

Stay with us.

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[02:45:00]

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