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CNN International: London's Heathrow Airport Shuts Down Due To Power Outage; Trump Signs Order To Dismantle Education Department; Teachers Union Slams Trump Order To Axe Education Dept. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired March 21, 2025 - 04:00   ET

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

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[04:00:27]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News. Thanks for joining us on CNN Newsroom.

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Isabel Rosales. 4:00 a.m. here in Atlanta, 8:00 a.m. in London, where we're following breaking news. A major power outage has forced London's Heathrow Airport, one of the world's busiest, to completely shut down, and that is leading to severe disruptions to global travel. Officials say the airport went dark after a transformer at an electrical substation caught on fire, sending the Smoke billowing through the area. Britain's National Grid says crews are working at speed to restore power. 10 fire engines and dozens of firefighters have been working on the scene there in West London. So far, no word on the cause of that blaze.

Heathrow's closure is affecting more than 1,300 flights and upwards of 145,000 passengers in the hours ahead. That's according to monitoring sites Flight Radar 24 and Cirium. Let's bring in CNN's Nada Bashir in London. Nada, what can you tell us?

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Isabel, as you can see behind me, London's Heathrow Airport has been brought to a standstill that is expected to last at least for the duration of the rest of today, but could continue in the coming days as a result of the severe disruption that has been caused by this fire at the North Hyde Electrical Substation, just about four miles from Heathrow Airport in West London. And it is a fire that has caused a complete power outage at Heathrow Airport, as well as local residents and businesses have also been impacted. We've heard just in the last hour or so from Britain's energy secretary who has indicated that the backup systems, energy systems for the airport were also impacted by the fire given the sheer scale of the fire. And we've seen that dramatic footage overnight coming in, shared with us by residents living nearby the electrical substation.

Really dramatic footage of those flames engulfing the substation overnight. London Fire Brigade officials say they were called to the incident at around 11:20 p.m. on Thursday evening. And firefighters, dozens of them, had been working overnight into the morning to try to contain and tackle that fire. Now, just a few hours ago, we did speak to a London Fire Brigade

official at the scene who told CNN that the fire had been contained, that there wasn't a concern that it could spread, and that was no imminent risk to nearby residents. But they had said that it could take hours to fully tackle the fire, that they were focusing first on isolating the electricity and then allowing firefighters to tackle the fire safely.

That's something that could take a matter of hours. But the disruption that is caused, of course, is going to last for some time. As you mentioned, hundreds of flights have been impacted in Heathrow Airport tens of thousands of passengers, and there's no clear indication of when exactly power back up and running at London's Heathrow Airport. We know that Britain's National Grid has said that it is working at speed to restore power to those impacted. At this stage, they say more than 62,000 households have already had power restored. There are still nearly 5,000 households, though, without power. And of course, at Heathrow Airport was significant impacted by this fire at the substation, Europe's busiest airport. So that will be a critical focus now for the National Grid and for all those involved in trying to store power as soon as possible.

For passengers, though, it is a moment of chaos and uncertainty. They've been told not to head to the airport.

ROSALES: Yes. Working at speed, but no word on how long that power restoration could take. Must be incredibly frustrating for passengers. Nada Bashir in London. Thank you.

Joining me now also from London, is aviation analyst Alex Macheras. Alex, thank you so much for being on the show.

So, listen, we're talking about one of the busiest airports here in the world. A quarter million passengers passing through the airport every single day. What are the ripple effects we're anticipating here?

ALEXAS MACHERAS, AVIATION ANALYST: Good morning. It's going to be incredibly significant. In fact, I actually think that so far the understanding, at least across much of the U.K. is that, yes, there's been this terrible fire at the substation that has brought Heathrow to a standstill. But I don't think that the true scale of the impact is being properly understood yet by the public. We are talking about the busiest two-runway airport in the world. This is one of Europe's most prominent, busiest hubs.

[04:05:12]

Today, the airport should have been handling around 200,000 passengers. It was scheduled to have around 680 flight departures and a further 680 flight arrivals. And of course, is home to British Airways. British Airways and airlines so big that it would simply be impossible to park all of its own fleet on the ground at Heathrow at any given time.

We are talking about something that I think we're going to see the impacts of not only over the coming hours, and it's very unclear as to where in Heathrow will reopen or be able to reopen, but over the coming days and this is going to have ramifications in the global aviation sector as well, as aircraft are out of place, crew are out of place and out of hours, and of course, all of the passengers around the world that are caught up in this monumental shutdown.

ROSALES: Yes. And you're saying for those of us that are not aviation experts like yourself, we could be underestimating the impacts of all of this. Let's dig into that a little bit deeper.

You were mentioning the strict crew, flight crew hour regulations. So even when the power comes back on, that's going to be a major problem. Talk about those domino effects.

MACHERAS: Effects, sure. So we know what the domino effects are and we know how the words travel chaos are bounced around when the U.K. has, you know, a couple of centimeters of snow, for example, and that lasts a couple of hours. For Heathrow to have been left with no choice but to declare itself absolutely closed to all operations for the entire day. As I said, there should have been around 1,300 and above flight arrivals and departures. That's typically around 200,000 passengers. They recognize themselves that obviously the challenge and the situation that they found themselves in with this fire at the substation was significant enough. And we've heard from the Energy Secretary, we've heard from various U.K. government ministers that apparently backups had also been affected and failed as part of the incident that unfolded.

We're going to have ramifications that reach well beyond whether or not you are in the U.K. and for example, going on a holiday or a vacation today. Aircraft that had left places like the United States, including gateways such as Los Angeles and New York, were turning back halfway over the Atlantic or halfway over North America and returning back to the point of origins in L.A., New York and everywhere in between, because they recognize that all of the European airports will start to fill up by the time they reach the other side of the Atlantic. And right now, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Paris, Manchester, they are taking the bulk of the diversions with the rest of the aircraft that were much further away told go back to your points of origin and wait for the next update. An update of course, that hasn't yet arrived.

So that's why, as I say, this is going to have that impact, not simply if you're flying to or from London, but actually to airlines who operate to Britain's hub airport. And boy, aren't there many.

ROSALES: And Alex, you're talking about global ramifications here from this issue. Clearly Heathrow is critical infrastructure, so one has to ask how did we get here in the first place? How is there not adequate backup power to prevent something like this from happening in the first place?

MACHERAS: You're right. This certainly does seem quite extraordinary that we have Britain's hub airport seemingly relying on a single sub power station. And those questions are understandably being asked. It's still very early in everything that's unfolding here in the U.K., it's a little after 8:00 a.m. so we're expecting a slightly clearer picture on what unfolded and then, of course, that reliance.

The only development we've had in that area and on that subject is that apparently the backups that were involved in the contingency planning of if a sub power station were to go down, would Heathrow enter a blackout? Apparently, those backups were part of the failure to. That's something that I'll leave the other sector to investigate. But for air travel, that provides very little certainty as to, a, when things will be able to get back up and running and then, b, how.

And I think if we do see Heathrow, for example, open tomorrow, it's going to be in a gradual way. We're not going to have bounce back operations because if they have had to take this decision now, the priority will be ensuring that the aircraft that are stuck abroad are able to get back. As I said, all those crew that will be out of hours, out of sync, out of schedule, re-accommodating the hundreds of thousands of passengers that should have been flying today that were already end route from last night onto additional services. It's perhaps going to be the most costly for the aviation sector and most significant airport shutdown in recent commercial aviation history.

[04:10:05]

ROSALES: Yes, Alex, clearly a lot of reflection needing to happen here. And so many passengers, now stranded, including those heading to weddings, heading to a company, family members going cancer treatments, going through those cancer treatments. Deeply impactful. Alex Macheras, thank you for your time.

MACHERAS: Thank you.

ROSALES: Well, U.S. President Donald Trump is starting to dismantle the Education Department with a new executive order signed Thursday. It's something that Republicans have wanted for decades, but it's raising a lot of questions for students and parents. CNN Sunlen Serfaty reports from Washington.

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 school children in uniforms sitting at classroom desks.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, USA PRESIDENT: 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 it's going to work. Absolutely, it's going to work.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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 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 she said certain critical functions like student loans, administrating 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.

ROSALES: The American Federation of Teachers is speaking out against President Trump's move to shut down the Education Department. The union's president tells CNN she's concerned that this will funnel money away from students in need to those in private schools.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI WEINGARTEN, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS: The real issue is how do we make sure that kids have the funding that they need and we make sure that every single kid has a safe and welcoming environment, and is one that is engaging and relevant. But I think we could all do a better job in terms of education. I'm just surprised that the president is not working with that. Teachers in classrooms throughout the country as represented by their union, to make things better.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROSALES: And another executive order signed by President Trump on Thursday increases U.S. mineral production by invoking a wartime power that dates back to the Korean War. The order is aimed at boosting U.S. Production of critical minerals, things like uranium, copper, potash, and gold, and will expand leasing and development on federal lands. Trump invoked the Defense Production Act, which was first passed in 1950. He had previously signaled his desire to increase U.S. Mineral production in his joint address to Congress a couple of weeks ago.

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 unclear 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.

Well, just ahead, we'll have the latest on the fire that forced the closure of London's Heathrow Airport. A smoke you can see right here still billows from the site. Plus, Hamas strikes back what Israel is saying about the first rocket attacks from Gaza since the collapse of the cease fire this week.

Plus, efforts to achieve a partial ceasefire in Ukraine are picking up steam. But you wouldn't know it by what's happening on the ground.

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[04:19:08]

ROSALES: Welcome back. Experts say air travel in Europe and beyond will be disrupted for days to come as London's Heathrow Airport is shut down for at least today. The closure was caused by a fire at an electrical substation a few miles away that triggered a major power outage. Travelers are being told not to go to Heathrow but to check with their airlines about rescheduling their flights.

Aviation analyst Jeffrey Thomas says Heathrow handles about a quarter of a million passengers every day. Incoming flights have now been turned back or diverted to other airports.

Kim Mikhail Shubrick was on his way from Minneapolis to London. He is among the thousands of travelers who have been turned back because of the closure of Heathrow Airport. He joins me now on the line.

Kim, really appreciate you coming on the show. Can you, first of all, where are you currently and walk me through what happened?

[04:20:08]

KIM MIKHAIL SHUBRICK, PASSENGER: Yes, good evening. I made my way back home. So we got off the plane, and I think everybody feels happy to be off that flight now. But we were up in the air, and as we just left the continent, we started noticing the plane turning around. And the captain hadn't announced anything at that point. So we were looking around at each other and kind of puzzled about why the plane was turning around. Shortly afterwards, the captain announced that the plane was now heading back to Minneapolis, that we had been diverted due to a fire at the London Heathrow airport.

So at that point, you know, a lot of kind of talking had started happening around in the cabin. People standing up confused. And the captain several times came back and tried to assure everybody that the reason the plane was turning around had nothing to do with the plane, that it was indeed ground-related issues at London. And then the plane did calm down after a little bit.

Once people felt reassured that there was nothing wrong with the plane and that was not the reason were being diverted.

ROSALES: Right. And Kim, so you're back home in Minneapolis, but you were, I understand it, headed to Oslo. Tell me about what you were there for.

SHUBRICK: So the reason I was heading to Oslo is I have a dad who is sick, and I wanted to make sure that I could spend some quality time with him, you know, while he's still feeling pretty well. And this is, you know, for me, you know, a lost opportunity. I just came off the phone with Delta to rebook my flight and of course, due to this situation in Europe right now, there is no flight available for today at all.

So, they were not able to rebook me until Saturday. So that means I'm losing two valuable dates with my family, where I could have spent that time with my family rather than apart during a relatively difficult time for the family.

ROSALES: And Kim, I'm curious to know from the perspective of a passenger. The aviation industry has really been going through it. From close calls to mishaps to unruly customers to meltdowns and now something like this. Does this change how you see choosing a flight? Obviously, you have no choice going to Oslo, you must take to the skies. But does this change how you approach air travel?

SHUBRICK: So, personally, I don't think so. I'm a fairly experienced traveler. I travel a lot. But situations like this, you know, being sent back to Minneapolis, it definitely, you know, makes you think twice about the safety and, especially with, you know, changes in the, with air traffic controllers, that is something you definitely think about. And when you fly, you are at the mercy of the airline and the captain and the decisions they're making. And so you're putting a lot of trust in that, in the system.

And so for me personally, right now, I still feel comfortable flying and I will continue flying. But obviously, that is something that you're aware of and you think about when you do choose to book a flight.

ROSALES: Kim, I really appreciate your time and I'm hopeful that you're able to see your father soon here. And as I understand it, a father who's going through or so such a sensitive time and as you mentioned, every day, so important to spend that time with him. Really appreciate it.

SHUBRICK: Absolutely. Thank you so much.

ROSALES: Well, 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.

In Gaza, the Palestinian Health Ministry reports more than 500 people have been killed this week alone. The overall death toll since the war began in October of 2023 is nearing 50,000 people.

Also Thursday, Prime Minister Netanyahu's government voted to dismiss Ronan Barr, the chief of Israel Shin Bet, Internal Security Service. On Sunday, Netanyahu said he distrusted Barr and his removal was necessary for achieving Israel war goes in Gaza.

A Ukrainian official says the country's third-largest city was, quote, on fire after Thursday's massive Russian drone strike on Odessa. Videos appear to show civilian infrastructure engulfed in flames with plumes of smoke billowing above the city. Officials say three people were injured, but Ukraine fought back, hitting an air base deep inside Russia. The base has reportedly been used to launch attacks on Ukraine.

[04:25:20]

And in Washington, U.S. President Donald Trump says he'll sign a deal to on critical minerals with Kyiv, quote, "very shortly". Talks on a partial ceasefire in Ukraine are to resume in Saudi Arabia on Monday.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is urging Europe to pour more money into its defense. He spoke as European Union 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.

SEBASTIAN SHUKLA, CNN PRODUCER: President Zelensky 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 5 billion euro 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 Zelensky also elaborated a little on the phone call held with U.S. President Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Yesterday I had a productive conversation with President Trump. From the 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.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SHUKLA: Those unnecessary demands referred to by President Zelensky 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 cease fire 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 Zelensky 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 Zelensky 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 at 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 cease fire agreement. Sebastian Shukla, CNN Berlin.

ROSALES: A fire in London has closed one of the busiest airports in the world. More than a thousand flights are affected. We'll update you on the closure of Heathrow Airport. Plus, a judge is stepping in after the Trump administration tries to deport a researcher at Georgetown University. That story and much more after the break.

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[04:33:50]

ROSALES: Our breaking news this hour. One of the world's busiest airports is closed affecting more than a thousand flights and triggering travel disruption across the globe. A fire at an electrical substation shut down London's Heathrow Airport for all of Friday, wiping out almost a full day of travel at a global hub served by more than 90 airlines. Dozens of firefighters were at the scene of the blaze, which is now under control.

Heathrow is one of the busiest and most important airports in the world. Almost 6 million passengers passed through the airport just this last month, and the impact of its closure will be felt for days to come. 1,300 flights have been affected. That's according to aviation tracking firms. This is affecting over 145,000 passengers.

Among the travelers affected was CNN's own Richard Quest. He was on a jet that was set to take off from Brazil to London but then the news broke out of the fire. Here's what he went through.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD QUEST, ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Okay. This is the reality. We've all got our bags but now we have to wait for the voucher to get the taxi, to get to the hotel which they say they've organized. But so far, it's just a long, long, long, long line where I'm at the back. Okay. This is --

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[04:35:11]

ROSALES: Just a nightmare. That was CNN's Richard Quest in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Earlier, CNN spoke with the Director of Communications at FlightRadar 24 about the scope of the shutdown's impact.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IAN PETCHENIK, DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS, FLIGHTRADAR24: For the total day, we're going to have about 1,350 flights affected directly to and from Heathrow. But that doesn't' that will be impacted because those aircraft are not out of position and can't operate the flights that they were supposed to operate after they went to or from Heathrow. Airlines that operate one or two flights to Heathrow per day are going to be relatively unscathed in total. But airlines like BA are going to take probably a few days, maybe even a week to -- to recover, depending on how long the problems at Heathrow last and how quickly they can get aircraft and crews and passengers back into position.

It seems like right now, anything that hasn't already crossed an ocean or multiple continents is heading back towards where it came from or diverting closer to home. Flights that are already near London are diverting to -- to first airports near London. So Gatwick is picking up some of the slack from the first arrivals, Paris, Amsterdam. We're going to start to see some secondary and tertiary airports start to pick up diversions like Birmingham, Manchester, and further afield within Europe. Euro Control is working on a diversion plan to accommodate all of flights. I mean, 120 flights doesn't seem like a lot, but the majority of those flights are wide-body aircraft with lots of people on board. And so you're going to need large parking spaces for those aircraft as well. And so that's going to be a logistical nightmare.

Airports will publish how many flights they can accept. And once an aircraft lands there, they'll basically check a box and say, okay, we can only accept X number more flights. And then they'll do that through the diversion process. They're full, and then they'll say, we're full, no more flights diverting here, and airlines will have to go to a secondary airport.

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.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROSALES: And gain, just a nightmare on that. And another blow to President Donald Trump's crackdown on immigration. A judge is blocking his administration from deporting a Georgetown University researcher who has been accused of spreading Hamas propaganda. CNN's Tom Foreman has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voiceover): A flurry of men in black masks brandishing weapons, grabbing a Georgetown University fellow as he returned home at night. That is how a lawyer describes the arrest of Dr. Badar Khan Suri by ICE agents. Never mind that a letter from a school official says, we are not aware of him engaging in any illegal activity.

The Trump Administration insists Suri, now being held more than 1,000 miles away in Louisiana, was actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting anti-Semitism with close connections to a known or suspected terrorist. It fits neatly into claims by Secretary of State Marco Rubio that academics legally in the country can be legally booted out.

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: This is not about free speech. This is about people that don't have a right to be in the United States to begin with. No one has a right to a student visa. No one has a right to a green card, by the way.

FOREMAN (voiceover): Those comments came amid questions about Mohammed Khalil, a Columbia University graduate, Palestinian rights activist, and permanent U.S. Resident. Khalil says immigration agents locked him up for exercising free speech in protest about the Israel-Hamas War. CNN has now obtained images of the flyers that a White House official says is the Hamas propaganda distributed by the group organized by Khalil, a claim Khalil's lawyer denies.

KAROLINE LEVITT, WHITEHOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We have a zero tolerance policy for siding with terrorists, period.

FOREMAN (voiceover): And there is the case at Brown University of Dr. Rasha Alawieh, deported to her native Lebanon after the Whitehouse learned she attended the funeral of a slain leader of another U.S. declared terrorist group, Hezbollah.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're going to keep this press conference on topic.

FOREMAN (voiceover): Administration officials are answering few questions about this case or the others, no matter how hard reporters press. But online, the Whitehouse mocked the doctor from Brown in keeping with the stance the President long had during his campaign.

TRUMP: We will revoke the student visas of radical anti-American and anti-Semitic foreigners at our colleges and universities, and we will send them straight back home. They go back home. Enjoy your life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[04:40:09]

FOREMAN: The Whitehouse is clearly trying to move fast and send a message with these actions. But now the courts are beginning to step in and suggest the actions of some of these people may be protected and no cause for them being pushed out of the country. Tom Foreman, CNN Washington.

ROSALES: Yet another U.S. Judge is slamming the Justice Department for a quote, "woefully insufficient response" to his orders on deportation flights carried out last weekend. The Whitehouse was temporarily blocked from using a centuries-old law to deport migrants allegedly linked to a Venezuelan gang. Tren de Araguas. Judge James Boasberg ordered the DOJ to explain how it did not 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.

Still ahead, how Donald Trump's rhetoric on Canada is impacting tourism in the U.S, more on that next. From breaking records to breaking the glass ceiling, Zimbabwe's most successful Olympian becomes the IOC's first woman president. Why she will oversee issues much larger than sport ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:46:06]

ROSALES: We're following breaking news out of London as Heathrow Airport, one of the world's busiest, has shut down due to a power outage. And it's severely disrupting global air travel. Officials say the airport went dark after a transformer at a nearby electrical substation caught fire. London Fire Brigade says the fire is now under control, and the investigation will now begin. So far, no word on the cause.

Britain's National Grid says crews are working at speed to restore power. The British energy minister says the fire also affected Heathrow's backup power supply. The airport will stay closed at least until 11:59 p.m. on Friday night, London time. Thousands of flights are expected to be affected here in the coming days. British Airways says Heathrow's closure is having a significant impact on its operations and its customers.

Canada's new prime minister is now expected to call a snap election on Sunday. Sources say Mark Carney will soon tell the country's governor general, to dissolve parliament. Now, if this happens, CNN has told Canadians will likely go to the polls in federal elections at the end of next month. This comes as the country grapples with the U.S. over trade and tariffs and as many Canadians are furious with President Trump's repeated calls to make Canada the 51st U.S. state. CNN's Randi Kaye shows us the impact President Trump's rhetoric is having on tourism in Maine.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STERLING MORSE, OWNER, POINT OF VIEW INN: This has been a family business for 50 years. You've got to take into the fact how the Canadians perceive this and they are incredibly pissed off.

RANDI KAYE, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): We met Sterling Morse in Old Orchard Beach, Maine. He owns the Point of View Inn, which is only about 150 miles from the Canadian border. He says the majority of his regular customers are French Canadians.

MORSE: Very traditional people. You know, families that take the same room, the same, you know, the same dates every year.

KAYE (voiceover): Not this year. Sterling says most of his Canadian customers have canceled. Fed up with President Donald Trump's antagonistic rhetoric toward Canada. There's the threat of tariffs, too, and lately, Trump has suggested redrawing the border between the two countries.

MORSE: It's affecting at least 90 percent of my business.

KAYE: Are you saying you've had 90 percent of your business canceled this year?

MORSE: Easily. Easily. Point of View Inn.

KAYE (voiceover): During our visit, yet another Canadian called to cancel.

MORSE: Listen, monsieur, you don't, you don't need to explain anymore. This is every registration card from last year. This is the Canadian. That's my American. This just went away.

KAYE: That's all you got. Now, that doesn't pay the bills.

MORSE: Does not.

KAYE (voiceover): For Sterling Morse, it all snowballed shortly after Donald Trump's inauguration.

MORSE: All of a sudden, an email pops up. You know, it's almost like, you know, your phone. Ding, ding, slow ding. People that have been here for 35, 40 years, you recognize that number. And it's like, I know why they're calling. And the anger is, in my eyes, incredibly justified.

KAYE: Here in Old Orchard Beach, roughly 40 percent of the tourists come from Canada, according to the Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber's executive director told us that those tourists make up about 30 to 40 percent of the revenue for many of the business.

KIM HOWARD, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OLD ORCHARD BEACH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: I think we're still kind of seeing how many different industries this impacts. It doesn't just impact tourism, of course.

KAYE (voiceover): Over at the Alouette Beach Resort, owner Fred Kennedy hasn't seen a cancellation yet, but he's heard an earful from his Canadian customers.

KAYE: What are they telling you?

FRED KENNEDY, OWNER, ALOUETTE BEACH RESORT: Well, their feelings are basically hurt. They don't like to be referred to as the 51st state, and they feel that it just is. They just want to express themselves in sort of a nationalistic way. As a keeper hotelier, I'm concerned with losing any gas. I'm sort of cautiously optimistic that things will resolve themselves as time goes on.

[04:50:14]

KAYE (voiceover): Old Orchard Beach is a seasonal town, so businesses have about 12 to 15 weeks to make their money for the entire year. Back at the Point of View Inn, Sterling Morse doesn't see any way he can make up that lost revenue this season.

MORSE: Yet you got to start thinking about the end game. The endgame of 50 years of tradition, to be honest, yes.

KAYE: Like you would consider closing down. Selling?

MORSE: There may be no choice. (END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: Sterling Morse, the inn owner who says he lost 90 percent of his business, went to school in Montreal and feels a real kinship with Canadians. He told me that their anger is justified, and he appreciates their renewed sense of nationalism. He also told me that he has tried to convince some of them to change their minds and to come anyway, but he says they are standing firm with Canada. Randi Kaye, CNN Portland, Maine.

ROSALES: For the eighth year in a row, Finland is the world's happiest country. So says the World Happiness Report, which uses Gallup polling data from more than 140 countries. Denmark is in second place, and Iceland takes third. Other Nordic nations, which also have strong social welfare systems, the news is not so happy for the United States. It's at number 24. Its lowest ranking. Yet as its young people are said to be less optimistic.

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. It was alleged she copied elements of the smash hit from a country song. Listen.

Hey, we all know that tune at the malls around Christmas-time. Well, two songwriters were seeking $20 million in damages. They released their song with the same name several years before Carrie song made the 1994 Billboard hit list. Here's their song.

Hey, same name, but clearly sounds very different. The judge ruled that the plaintiff's failed to show Carrie's classic song shared enough similarities with theirs. Carrie responded last year that the songs were, she says, completely different and argued that any similar elements were common to many Christmas songs.

Well, for the first time in its 130-year history, the International Olympic Committee will be led by a woman. Kirsty Coventry was elected president on Thursday, beating out six other contenders for the most powerful position in world sport. CNN's Don Ruddell has more.

DON RIDDELL, CNN WORLD SPORT: It really was an historic day on Thursday for the International Olympic Committee. The IOC elected its first female and his first African president, the former Zimbabwean swimming champion, Kirsty Coventry. On Thursday in Greece, Coventry surprised many Olympic observers by claiming a majority of votes in the first round of the election. And at the age of just 41, she'll also become the youngest president in the IOC's 130-year history.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KIRSTY COVENTRY, IOC PRESIDENT-ELECT: It's a really powerful signal. It's a signal that we're truly global and that we have evolved into an organization that is truly open to diversity, and we're going to continue walking that road in the next eight years. The IOC and the Olympic movement have lasted so many generations because it brings people together and the diversity is a unifying way for us to connect with each other. So right now, in today's world, this is our biggest platform to showcase the good of humanity and to share our values as the Olympic movement.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RIDDELL: Kirsty Coventry has made history in so many ways. She's also the most decorated of the 10 IOC presidents. She won seven Olympic medals and was twice the 200-meter backstroke champion, taking gold in Athens and Beijing. Coventry will be in office for at least eight years. Her first games will be the Winter Games in Milan in February. And then, of course, the big one, the Summer Games in Los Angeles in 2028, a time in which she will have to work with President Donald Trump, some of whose policies could impact the games.

But it does feel like the dawn of a new era for the IOC. For so long, they've been accused of being out of touch and rather spineless when it comes to dealing with the challenging issues of the day. But this does like a new, young, fresh era for the IOC. Back to you.

[04:55:07]

ROSALES: Yes. Exciting times. Well, thanks for joining me here on CNN Newsroom. I'm Isabel Rosales in Atlanta. We have more coverage on the Heathrow Airport closure coming up after this.

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