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Spain And Portugal Hit By Unexplained Power Blackout; Russia Announces Three-Day Ceasefire In Ukraine From May 8; Polls Open In Canadian Election Dominated By Trump Threats; Court Sets July Date For Harvard Versus Trump Administration; Trump Administration Conducts Several Immigration Raids; Conclave To Elect Francis's Successor Set To Begin May 7; Rising Concerns Between India And Pakistan Over Region. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired April 28, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:58]

LYNDA KINKADE, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm Lynda Kinkade. Welcome to CNN NEWSROOM.

And we begin with breaking news. A mysterious power outage that has caused widespread chaos across Spain and Portugal. The blackout knocked out traffic lights and caused some subway systems to fail. Portugal's grid operator says the electrical supply was lost across the entire Iberian peninsula, as well as parts of France. Trains and airports have been severely impacted, as well as basic services like supermarkets and banks.

The Spanish prime minister says power is gradually being restored, stressing there have been no security problems. He is urging patience.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PEDRO SANCHEZ, SPANISH PRIME MINISTER: We still don't have conclusive information about the reasons for this outage. So, I ask the public, as we have done in past crises, to seek information through official channels. It's best not to speculate. We'll find out the causes. We're not ruling out any hypothesis, but now we must focus on what's most important. Restoring power to our homes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: Well, I want to bring in Joseph Majkut. He is the director of energy security and climate change at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

Good to have you with us.

JOSEPH MAJKUT, ENERGY SECURITY AND CLIMATE CHANGE PROGRAM DIR., CSIS: Thank you and all best wishes to those affected by this crisis.

KINKADE: Yeah. I mean, we were just trying to get through to one of our correspondents and can't. It's not just power that's down. It's also phone and Internet access.

Quite mysterious as to -- to the cause at this point in time, what is your initial assessment?

MAJKUT: Well, it's going to take us some time to figure out exactly what caused this crisis. These are complicated systems. When they fail like this, there's not just usually one single point of failure, but a variety of changes or effects that that cause the system wide outage. Of course, as you're experiencing with your colleagues, these are very scary and disruptive events as well.

KINKADE: And the scale of this outage is quite surprising, really. Not just power, Internet, but this is across many countries, multiple countries. Just talk to us about how long it could take for the restoration of power.

MAJKUT: When a system fails as deeply as this one has failed, it can take some time for all systems to come back online. Now, of course, we've already seen that the Spanish operators have been able to restore some service over the course of the afternoon, but it's a complicated endeavor. Oftentimes, regional power grids have to restart singularly. They have to be synced up, and that could take some time, days, weeks in isolated cases.

KINKADE: It was interesting to hear the Portuguese prime minister quickly rule out any sort of cyber threat. He said, their intelligence service was looking at a possible cause. Where do you think this originated?

MAJKUT: Well, we've heard no really conclusive evidence that this was a cyberattack or other kind of sabotage at the moment, most people are pointing towards some sort of system dynamics where an initial error was amplified throughout the power system, and it had to be shut down before it caused yet further damage.

KINKADE: And nuclear power plants automatically stopped working. Airports obviously still shut down. In terms of the causes, we know it wasn't a weather event. Still, question marks over any sort of cyber issue. But in terms of the time it's going to take to restore these, why is it why is it taking so long? Because this happened just after lunchtime, right? Local time.

MAJKUT: Of course. There's a -- there's a couple of things that that caused this to take some time. The system is complicated. It has a lot of moving parts, figuratively and literally. And those parts often have to be restarted on their own. Like a generator, a natural gas plant or a diesel power plant has to be restarted, connected to new loads.

And then when you, as you do that in isolated cases, that whole thing needs to be brought together in harmony. Not unlike getting a symphony in tune before a performance can begin.

[15:05:03]

It just takes time.

KINKADE: So, what is your advice to those impacted by this? MAJKUT: For those people who are critically impacted, of course,

critical services come online earlier. So, hopefully, we'll see some those critical services being available to people in increasing amounts. And then over time, learning to be resilient to these kind of threats is not just a challenge for individuals, but for all of society.

KINKADE: And I was just hearing from our producer, Portugal's grid operator says power will be -- will be restored in Lisbon within 5 to 6 hours. So, some good news, but still a long way off. Getting sort of normality back there.

We'll leave it there for now, although we appreciate your time. Joseph Majkut, thanks so much for your time.

MAJKUT: Thank you.

KINKADE: Well, Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared a unilateral three-day ceasefire in Ukraine. The Kremlin says the pause in fighting will start on May 8th, to coincide with the 80th anniversary of victory in World War II and the defeat of Nazi Germany. The move is being met with skepticism by Ukrainian officials, who say the Kremlin should immediately accept a longer truce proposal from the U.S.

The question remains, can the Trump administration actually broker lasting peace between Russia and Ukraine? Well, the White House has signaled that it is becoming impatient.

Our Frederik Pleitgen is tracking developments and joins us live from Moscow.

Good to have you with us, Fred.

So just explain what Vladimir Putin is trying to achieve with this three-day ceasefire.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, Lynda, I think it's perfectly reasonable for the Russian president to be clearing that ceasefire on those days. It is by far the most important public holiday here in Russia, where obviously, as you mentioned, they celebrate the victory over Nazi Germany. And in this case, you can really see throughout the city, throughout Moscow and other Russian cities that there are already big preparations that are being made, because of course, this year it's even bigger than in others because it is the 80th anniversary.

And one of the things that we have to keep in mind also is that it's also a huge public holiday, of course, in Ukraine. Of course, a lot of the fighting in World War II took place in the Ukrainian SSR, which back then was part of the Soviet Union and in various other parts of Russia as well -- of Europe as well, I'm sorry. So, therefore, it's not something that's out of the question that it would be a public holiday and that there could be a ceasefire on those days.

However, of course, what the Ukrainians are asking, why wait until May 8th? Why not do this any earlier? And one of the things that we can see is that, of course, the Russians also understand that the patience of the White House right now appears to be wearing more thin.

And one of the things, Lynda, that we picked up on in the decree that Vladimir Putin signed when he announced the ceasefire, is that in that decree, he also announced that Russia is ready at any time for direct negotiations with the Ukrainian side and is calling on the Ukrainian side to enter into those negotiations.

So, the Russians, obviously picking up on the fact that the U.S. wants to see some movement there, but the Ukrainians are saying, look, that ceasefire needs to happen. The Ukrainians have already signed on to a 30-day ceasefire, have signed off on that, and the U.S. has as well. And the Russians so far are still saying that they want what they call the root causes of the conflict in Ukraine to be sorted out first before they sign on to any ceasefire.

But at the same time, of course, you do sense and we saw this over the entire weekend, President Trump really has patience running thin. And then we saw Marco Rubio, the U.S. secretary of state, also saying on TV this weekend that the U.S. is at least getting closer or getting closer to possibly walking away from this entire process, if there is not more movement soon, Lynda.

WHITFIELD: Yeah. And, Fred, I'm wondering what the reaction has been in Russia to Donald Trump's comments online. He posted that maybe Putin doesn't want peace after his discussions with the Ukrainian leader. What is the reaction there?

PLEITGEN: Yeah, yeah, there certainly has been a reaction. And I think it's something where the Russians realize that right now Donald Trump is maybe questioning the entire process and also not feeling very good about the last meeting that took place between his envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

What we saw today, it's actually a really fascinating question is that Vladimir Putin was in St. Petersburg earlier today giving a speech there, and there were several high level Russian politicians who were asked about the ceasefire taking place and about, in general, the initiatives that the Russians have launched. And they all said, look, the Russians want the Ukrainians to come to the table. They're not sure whether or not the Ukrainians are going to come to the table, and whether or not Ukraine is actually even going to be able to abide by this ceasefire.

And so the Russians, they're signaling right now that they understand that something is needed to show President Trump that they are still serious about this process, while at the same time, of course, the Russians have said that there is not going to be any agreement or any ceasefire if the Russians come to the conclusion that their core national interests are not being serviced, that those are being violated by any sort of agreement.

[15:10:03]

And that is why the Russians are saying they want something like that to be in place. They want the core issues to be discussed and agreed upon before they will enter into any sort of ceasefire, Lynda.

KINKADE: All right. Frederik Pleitgen for us in Moscow, great to have you there. Thanks so much.

I want to turn to Canada now, where people are going to the polls to choose a new prime minister. Many have U.S. President Donald Trump on their mind as they cast their ballot. The election is happening in the shadow of threats by Mr. Trump to make Canada the 51st U.S. state.

The massive tariffs levied by the president have led to a cloud of economic uncertainty and strained relations with the U.S. and Prime Minister Mark Carney of the liberal party is facing his biggest challenge from conservative Pierre Poilievre.

Well, the election is being held in the aftermath of one of the darkest days in Canada's history. 11 people were killed, dozens more injured, when an SUV driver rammed a crowd at a festival celebrating Filipino heritage in Vancouver. A 30-year-old man has been charged with eight counts of second-degree murder. Police say they're confident the incident wasn't an act of terrorism.

Our Paula Newton is in the Canadian capital, Ottawa, with more on this.

So, Paula, while the nation is mourning this horrific car ramming attack, they are going to the polls. Just how big of an impact is Donald Trump having on the way people are voting?

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Lynda, this campaign has been so unpredictable in so many ways, not in terms of the way the leaders conducted this campaign, but of how many events have just buttressed this campaign. And unfortunately, in a very solemn way, with that attack in Vancouver, the leaders, I have to say, showed uncommon emotion on the campaign trail yesterday. Some of them adjusting their schedules. And of course, it is a pall on on everyone voting in Canada today, but most especially those in Vancouver.

I do want to say another thing though, that has been annoying Canadians. I would say they see it as a betrayal as Donald Trump, who now for five months has continually been saying that Canada should be the 51st state. He upped the ante this morning in a Truth Social post. I'll just read one line to you saying that, look, have -- you can have your car, your steel, your aluminum, your lumber, your energy and all the other businesses quadruple in size with zero tariffs or taxes.

What's interesting here as well, Lynda, is that he seems to propose that Canada is like a commodity for the taking. Suffice it to say, this really has been the defining issue of this campaign. As Canadians go to the polls this hour, they'll be choosing between essentially two leaders, Prime Minister Mark Carney and Pierre Poilievre. They are the two that are leading in the polls right now. And they want to know who will be the stronger leader there to take them into what they know will be a difficult fight with Donald Trump and the White House.

Pierre Poilievre, for his part, shooting back at Donald Trump just this morning, saying, President Trump, stay out of our election. The only people who will decide the future of Canada are Canadians at the ballot box.

It has to be said Pierre Poilievre does run what we call a conservative party. Trust me, that is much further to the left than it would be in the United States. Still, he has been accused of not being strong enough against the threats with Donald Trump. We will wait to see, though, what the ultimate poll says this evening, as things have been tightening quite significantly in the last week of this campaign, Lynda.

KINKADE: Yeah. And of course, Mark Carney has only been prime minister for a very short time. How is he looking going into this election? And when will we start to see the exit polls?

NEWTON: You know, no matter what happens, Lynda, what's happened to Mark Carney, in fact, has been absolutely historic. The liberal party that he now leads was in the dumps. Pierre Poilievre was leading by 25 percent in a matter of months. He has completely turned that around. And now, it's a very competitive contest, sure, but he has been leading in the polls for leader for quite some time now.

In terms of how this ends up for him, as I said, it will be historic no matter what. He will look to have a majority government, which means he'll be in total control for four months. He may end up, though, with a minority government, or the conservatives might end up with a minority government.

Again, though, Lynda, top of mind is what Canadians believe Mark Carney can do, remembering that he is the former governor of the Bank of Canada, former governor of the Bank of England. If they're going to be in a financial crisis. So many of Canadians have told me that they want this man to lead Canada. We will see if that's what bears out in the polls this evening.

KINKADE: All right. No doubt we will talk again soon.

Paula, good to have you with us, as always. Thank you.

Well, hundreds of people are in custody after several large immigration raids over the weekend. Why? Thats putting the Trump administration on the defensive. We'll have a live report next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:18:04]

KINKADE: Welcome back. I'm Lynda Kinkade.

The epic legal clash between America's oldest university and the Trump administration hit the courtroom today. Harvard is suing the White House after it froze billions of dollars in federal funding to the university. At issue is control over the school's curriculum and the government's demands for reforms.

Well, joining us now from Boston is CNN's Kara Scannell.

Good to have you there for us, Kara. So just explain the constitutional argument that Harvard is making, in

this case, to fight for this funding.

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So Harvard's filed this lawsuit last week and they said that the Trump administration. Violated their

constitutional rights, the First Amendments rights to academic freedom. That is something that the Supreme Court has upheld in numerous cases, and that a university is able to express its views through its teachings, through its hiring of people, through the people that it admit and the viewpoints that it has, that that is something that is protected under the First Amendment and free speech.

So they're saying that the demands, the changes that the Trump administration is seeking would violate that. They also say that another law is also being violated, and that is one that governs the process through which federal funds can be withdrawn once they are allotted out to a program. And they're saying that Harvard didn't file this very administrative process that they should do if they want to revoke funds, which could be something as -- as conducting an investigation, as holding a hearing, as finalizing a written report. They're saying none of that happened and that they should have had these due process rights before more than $2 billion in federal grants was funded.

And they also say that that funding freeze was retaliatory, that it was because Harvard would not agree to a list of demands that the Trump administration had wanted them to make, and that included canceling their DEI program, making changes to the admissions process and their hiring process to reflect, as the administration put it, more diverse viewpoints.

But Harvard says, is really more viewpoints that are what the administrations are.

[15:20:07]

So that is this clash in this point of friction. And so, after Harvard said they wouldn't do that, the Trump administration imposed this freezing of funds. And that's how we ended up in court, where this lawsuit is now playing out, Lynda.

KINKADE: All right. So, we'll leave it there for now. Kara Scannell, good to have you there for us in Boston. Thanks so much.

Well, we are learning more today about several immigration raids which took place in the U.S. over the weekend. More than 100 suspected illegal immigrants were arrested at an underground nightclub in Colorado. In Florida, nearly 800 were arrested in raids and three children who were U.S. citizens by birth were deported with their mothers who were in the U.S. illegally.

Border czar Tom Homan addressed the situation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM HOMAN, BORDER CZAR: But as far as the U.S., three USC kids, I'd say from day one, if you enter this country legally, it's a crime. If you remain in this country legally and you ignore a judge's order about -- about deporting. If you choose to have U.S. citizen child knowing you're in this country legally, you put yourself in that position. You put your family in that position.

What we did is we removed children with their mothers who requested the children depart with them. This was a parental decision. Parental one -- parent -- parenting 101. The mothers made that choice.

And I tell you what, if we didn't do it, the story today would be Trump administration separating families again. No, we're keeping families together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: Well, public opinion on President Trump's second term appears to be falling as he reaches the 100-day mark. A new CNN poll shows approval for the president's handling of immigration at just 45 percent.

Well, joining us now from the White House is Alayna Treene.

Good to have you there for us, Alayna. So, these ice raids are continuing, and again, we are seeing U.S. citizens, including young children, caught up in these deportations. What's the latest?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah. Look, I think one thing that's very clear about all of this is that despite some of the criticism that this administration is facing particularly on that case, that you were discussing, Lynda, about these three children who were born in the United States, meaning that they are United citizens being deported to Honduras despite a lot of the controversy around that the administration really does believe that immigration.

And what they have done, particularly on the southern border since the president has been in office, is something they want to highlight for this 100-day victory lap that they are taking all week. They are going to be doing events every single day this week to highlight what they argue are the president's top accomplishments. And there's a reason they selected immigration to be the issue to kick the week off on.

Now, I know you and I discussed this when I was on the campaign trail covering Donald Trump, but he often argued that immigration was the most important issue in the election, not the economy, which is always what most people running for president would refer to. And now the administration is trying to argue that, look, we delivered on what we said we would do. We have seen the president really massively step up and kind of lean into the sweeping deportations of undocumented migrants.

However, that all comes despite many of the different ways that they're trying to do this, including one example, of course, is using the 18th century law the Alien Enemies Act, to carry out some of these deportations. They have been facing a lot of legal battles over this, and were seeing that now with that case that you mentioned with these three children who were sent to Honduras with their mothers, their mothers, we should note, of course, are were in the United States illegally.

Now, one thing I want to make clear, because you played that sound from the White House border czar, Tom Homan, he argued that it was up to the mothers to decide whether or not their children would remain in the United States or travel back to Honduras with them. However, we know that actually a Trump appointed judge on Friday argued that that's not necessarily they're not necessarily sure if that's actually true.

They argued that its still unclear if the parents had made that decision. So this is just another example. I think, of American citizens and the legal court system as everything in the United States with regarding these judges pushing back. I mean, it's just the latest example of them all getting caught up in the crosshairs of this.

And I do briefly as well, want to point to the polling that you you showed, because one, overall, were seeing the president's approval rating at 41 percent. Thats lower than any president in modern history, including the polling that he had at this point during his first term. While in the first 100 days in office.

But then on immigration specifically, we're also seeing that be a declining polling numbers for him as well. All to say, they are really leaning into this immigration strategy regardless of that. But I do think, again, we're going to continue to see this be one of the key things that is continuing to be caught up in the courts -- Lynda.

KINKADE: And we will be looking for that executive action on this issue that he signs later today. Well speak again soon, perhaps later today or if not tomorrow.

Alayna Treene, thanks so much.

Well, I want to go back now to the new CNN poll that we're just discussing, President Trump's poll numbers sinking in key areas like immigration, inflation and the economy. In fact, the poll shows he has the lowest approval rating at the 100-day mark than any president has in at least seven decades.

Our Harry Enten breaks down the numbers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: The reviews are in for Trump's first 100 days in office, and our new CNN poll suggests that the reviews are terrible. Awful. Whatever adjective that you want to use in the negative, let's take a look at the issues, Lynda, and we'll see that Donald Trump, on all the key issues of the day, Lynda -- well, it's not too hot to trot when it comes to the 47 president of the United States.

Immigration, his biggest issue in terms of the ones that are highest in the minds of the American people, he comes in at just 45 percent below 50 percent, and that's the best one. How about the economy? 39 percent? Of course, that was why Trump was elected in the first place to fix the economy. But just a 39 percent approval rating. Inflation 35 percent. And of course, the tariff wars weighing down on Donald Trump as well, just 35 percent.

Now, I mentioned the economy. And let's take a look at the trend line on that. And you can just see again, it's just bad news for Donald Trump. Trump's economic approval rating at 100 days. You go to his first term. Look at this 49 percent. That was always a positive for Trump. In his first term, the economy was and again, now 39 percent.

And, Lynda, I went back through history and looked at every single president when it comes to their economic approval rating. I could possibly find through 100 days. Get this Donald Trump has the lowest one on record, dating all the way back since 1977, and James Earl Carter.

Now, again, you look at the economy, you look at all the issues, how does this sum up to the overall approval rating for Donald Trump? And you can see it here. This is the approval ratings overall at the 100- day mark. You see Trump coming in at 41 percent below Joe Biden, 53 percent, below Donald Trump, and of course, of course, his first presidency at 44 percent, below Barack Obama, 63 percent, below George W. Bush at 62 percent.

And if you look through not just this century, but overall looking all the way back in polling history, Donald Trump's approval rating, according to our CNN/SSRS poll, is the lowest ever for a president through their first 100 days. It's just all terrible.

Lynda, back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: All right. Our thanks to Harry Enten there.

Well, still to come, Spain and Portugal are trying to bounce back from a major power outage. We'll have the latest when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:31:31]

KINKADE: Well, back to our breaking news. Grid operators say power is starting to return to some parts of Spain and Portugal after a mysterious power outage. All of the Iberian Peninsula was impacted, as well as parts of France. The disruption has caused chaos at airports, train stations and on the roads.

Take a listen to the frustration by some stranded train passengers in Madrid.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm very worried because I am trying to get home. I don't know how. I have my two children at home alone. So, it's terrible. I'm trying to get my husband to come pick me up, but I haven't been able to get home, work or do anything.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't understand anything. I just don't know who to turn to. My daughter in Barcelona is giving birth. We're going to miss the connection to get there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: In Portugal, officials have warned people not to travel specifically, not to get into their cars over traffic light failures. And just a short time ago, Portugal's grid operator said power could be restored to Lisbon within 5 to 6 hours.

Well, CNN's Melissa Bell is covering the story for us live from Paris.

Good to see you, Melissa.

So, we just heard from Spain's environment minister saying 35 percent of power has now been restored. That's after some eight hours. Certainly, coming back, but very slowly.

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And this all started very suddenly. You have to understand that it was about lunchtime across the Iberian Peninsula. As you said, in parts of southwestern France, that suddenly all power stopped. That means in homes, at traffic lights, at airports, in hospitals where there were backup systems that they were able to put in place fairly quickly in train stations.

And this very sudden power outage with no explanation even until now, Lynda, that's caused, of course, a great deal of mayhem, travel, chaos, worry. There have been queues of people at supermarkets in Portuguese and Spanish cities stocking up on what they could bare essentials just in case it last. This lasted for longer than this.

As you say, there are parts of Spain and Portugal where this is now coming back, and yet long journeys on trains in Spain are likely to remain impossible for the next few hours. They will take some time to come back online, so it will take a little while for ordinary travel to get back to its normal levels.

Still, there are a couple of reassuring things. First of all, that the power grid is beginning to come back online. Second of all, I think that the initial fear that many people will have had, that this could have been some kind of security problem, some kind of security breach, the result of some sort of cyberattack appears to have dissipated.

We've been hearing from officials in both brussels and from the Iberian capitals, saying that they believe that there was no such cyberattack. We await to hear the cause, but still that that should have been set aside, I think is some sort of relief also that there should have been no consequences in terms of security or relief as well.

So, we've been hearing from the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, urging people to stay calm, to continue to be careful with using their phones and other things that may require electricity. Also, to avoid speculating on what might this -- might have been, even as they await both the return of full power across the Iberian peninsula, but also some kind of explanation on what may have caused this. And of course, you can imagine for the many millions of people who live there, the sense of concern, the difficulties that you heard from for particular individuals trying to get to where they needed to go, that this would have caused a great deal of concern.

[15:35:10]

But still some sense of normality being returned. And I think some sense of reassurance that this wasn't longer than had been feared. Also, that this wasn't caused by any malignant forces, that it does appear to have been set aside for now. Still an extraordinary afternoon for those living in those parts of the world that will have spent unusually many hours unable to charge their phones, unable to get to where they needed to, and unaware of what was happening, or why this was going on, or how long it was going to last -- Lynda.

KINKADE: Yeah, still quite a mystery as to what caused this. Melissa Bell for us in Paris, thank you.

Well, we now know when the process to choose Pope Francis successor is set to begin. The conclave to elect the next pope starts on May 7th.

CNN's Barbie Latza Nadeau reports from Rome.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBIE LATZA NADEAU, CNN REPORTER: The conclave to elect the next pope will begin on May 7th in the Sistine Chapel inside Vatican City behind me. There are 135 eligible cardinal electors, but we won't know if they will all make it for the actual conclave until closer to the event. Those who do make it will be sequestered with no access to phones or news from the outside world, until they reach a two thirds majority.

In the meantime, the cardinals are holding congregations to lay out priorities for the church after Pope Francis and the workers are busy preparing the Sistine Chapel by installing the stove and famous chimney. Once the cardinals are locked inside, they vote up to twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon. Each time they fail to agree, the ballots will be burned with a chemical to turn the smoke coming out of the Sistine Chapel chimney black.

When they do agree, a chemical will be added to turn the smoke white, telling the world that the Catholic Church has a new leader.

Barbie Latza Nadeau, CNN, Rome.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: Well, the conclave is held within the Sistine Chapel and usually takes less than a week. On Saturday, Pope Francis was laid to rest with dignitaries and hundreds of thousands of people attending his funeral in St. Peter's Square. He died exactly one week ago from a stroke and heart failure.

CNN's Christopher Lamb spoke with Cardinal Michael Czerny about what the pope meant to the faithful.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARDINAL MICHAEL CZERNY, PREFECT, DICASTERY FOR PROMOTING INTEGRAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT: Pope Francis is not interested in having his legacy continue. He's interested in a pope, in that sense, like himself, who responds to the -- the needs of God's people and the life of the church.

CHRISTOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Because we have heard some voices saying that the focus of the next pope should be unity. To which the question would be, well, was there not unity under Francis? What -- why?

CZERNY: No, no, I agree that unity is a wonderful, beautiful gift of the Holy Spirit, and we will enjoy unity in our dedication to the mission and including in the diversities. So, unity itself is not a program. It can't be a policy.

LAMB: But what's behind that emphasis that we're hearing on unity. Is that -- is that code for something else, perhaps?

CZERNY: No, it's not very coded. It's quite -- it's quite obvious. It's quite obvious that we have we suffer. We suffer from divisions and disagreements. And if you want the strong word polarization.

But who doesn't? I mean, in other words, it's part of life and the terrible dangers that if you make this your obsession and if you try to promote unity as your primary -- primary objective, you end up with uniformity. And this is exactly what we don't need. We spend decades now trying to learn to get beyond uniformity to a to a true Catholicity, a true pluralism.

LAMB: Unity, but not uniformity.

CZERNY: It's interesting. The words are so close, but the difference is huge, huge, huge, huge.

And one is, I think one is the kiss of death, and the other is life and abundant life.

LAMB: So, the next pope needs to be a risk taker.

CZERNY: Of course, life is risky. The world is very risky. And in fact, our living tradition is risky. Thats why we have martyrs.

LAMB: But what about this idea that the cardinals don't know each other very well?

CZERNY: It's a -- it's a relatively small group. When you think of other groups that we know, for example. So , yeah. No, no, I think, you know, it's a very traditional process and it's puzzling -- despite the good movie, it's still puzzling. And it will remain puzzling or mysterious.

But we -- I think every one of us trusts it. And we will each give our best. And the result will be what God wants.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: Well, the conflict over the Kashmir region has raised tension between India and Pakistan. Now the U.S. and China are calling for a resolution and restraint.

Our Kristie Lu Stout has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tensions between historic rivals India and Pakistan are rising once again following last week's deadly militant attack on civilians in Indian administered Kashmir.

[15:40:12]

On Sunday, the Indian navy carried out test missile strikes, signaling a show of strength. And in a statement on X, the Indian navy said that the tests were carried out to, quote, revalidate and demonstrate readiness of platforms, systems and crew for long range precision, offensive, strike, unquote. Now, relations between India and Pakistan are on the brink after more than two dozen tourists were killed last Tuesday in Pahalgam, in the disputed region of Kashmir.

Both nuclear armed rivals control parts of Kashmir but claim it in full. Three wars have been fought over the Himalayan territory, which is one of the most militarized places in the world. Now, India has not officially blamed a group for the attack, but it has accused Pakistan of providing support for cross-border terrorism.

Islamabad has denied this. Since the attack, India and Pakistan have made a number of moves against each other. India has already suspended its participation in a crucial water sharing treaty with Islamabad, stating that any attempt to stop or divert water belonging to Pakistan would be considered an act of war. It has also revoked the visas of Pakistani nationals and closed a land border crossing.

Pakistan responded with reciprocal visa revocations and closed its airspace to Indian planes. All eyes now remain on what will follow India's test strikes, with analysts fearing a potential for military escalation.

Kristie Lu Stout, CNN.

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KINKADE: Well, in Yemen, Houthi militants say a U.S. airstrike has killed dozens of detained African migrants. We must warn you, the video we're about to show you is graphic.

It was aired on Houthi-run television and appears to show dead and injured bodies inside the prison that was hit. Houthi officials say around 115 migrants were being held there. Yemen is a major migration route to Saudi Arabia. The U.S. military says it's conducting an inquiry into the incident.

Well, Iran has still not said what caused a deadly explosion at a major port in the country's southwest on Saturday. Surveillance video shows a small fire among containers in the lead up to the blast at Bandar Abbas. There are unconfirmed reports, chemicals used to make fuel for missiles may have been present at the time of the blast. The death toll has now risen to at least 65, 1,000 others were injured.

State media cited one official as saying the explosion was likely set off by containers of chemicals. But the official did not identify the type of chemicals.

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[15:46:04]

KINKADE: Hello. I'm Lynda Kinkade.

I'm going to return now to our top story. Power slowly being restored after a mysterious outage that's caused chaos across Spain and Portugal. The country's grid operators say electricity is gradually being restored in some areas. In Spain, more than a third of energy demand is now met, and half of the substations there have been restored, according to the environment minister.

In Portugal, officials are warning people not to travel and not to get into their cars because of traffic light failures.

We want to go to Atika Shubert in Valencia, in the eastern coast of Spain.

So, Atika, you're in an area impacted by this. We couldn't connect at the top of the hour because of that. Just explain what you've been witnessing.

ATIKA SHUBERT, JOURNALIST: Yeah, it's been such a crazy day. It happened at around 12:30, 12:33, to be exact, because I could see exactly when the clock went off. And, you know, at first all, it was traffic lights went out and nobody here was sure what exactly was happening.

And then little by little, people got word that it wasn't just this one building or this one neighborhood. It was, in fact, the whole city and the whole country. In fact, more than one country. So, it just threw everything into chaos. Trains stopped, of course, as you can imagine, some people were trapped in the metros or in elevators.

Fortunately, here in Valencia, emergency services were able to get everybody out. Police immediately deployed because there's no traffic lights to direct traffic and even to escort some busses, because busses were the only way to get around. The train station was absolutely jammed with people wondering what to do because they couldn't get to where they needed to go.

There was no power and no communication, so nobody was really able to tell anybody what was going on. And this was the worst part. I actually went to the airport because it was the only place to get power and Wi-Fi, and for a brief few hours, we were able to finally be connected and find out what was happening. Since then, I've come back here. Power is back on. Some life is

returning to the city. You can see that with people cycling by. But it's actually super quiet.

I don't know if you notice this, but most of the time you'd have people out at night having dinner, going out. But because the local government and the emergency services have told people to stay at home, don't travel just in case those traffic lights don't hold on. You know, they're saying just for the night, stay at home. Let's see how it goes tomorrow.

But either way, as you can imagine, relief. The power is on. But a lot of concern and questions. What exactly happened?

KINKADE: Yeah, it's a complete mystery at this point in time. Atika Shubert, good to be connected with you right now. Thanks so much for your time.

I'm going to stay on this story and welcome David Lund. He's the president of Public Safety Communication Europe. He joins us from Lancaster in England.

Good to have you with us.

DAVID LUND, PRESIDENT, PUBLIC SAFETY COMMUNICATIONS EUROPE: Thanks, Lynda. Pleasure to be here.

KINKADE: As we're just hearing from Atika, really, this power outage caused disruptions right across two countries, from train stations to airports to grocery stores. Even traffic lights are out. Phone networks were down. Just explain how hard it is to get information and give information, and therefore the risk to public safety.

LUND: Yeah, it's a really tricky situation when the power goes because everything goes. And even the -- the communication systems. You know, we're all used to using mobile phones. People need to use their mobile phones. We get really distressed without them, you know?

And so, you know, the governments and local authorities, their first task in a crisis like this is to get communication out there, to say everything's okay. And as you can hear, you know, there's a lot of panic there.

People are resilient. You know, as soon as they get a little confidence, it's all good. They get better. And they know how to deal with this. As you can hear from the previous talk, the emergency services are able to operate, you know, they can come out there and operate.

[15:50:06]

The communication systems that the emergency services use -- police, fire, medical, they all have battery backup and generator backup. They're all resilient in this, in this respect. So, they're able to go out there and go out there and help pass out that message to the public. And the good news is, once you tell one person, they'll ten -- tell ten, they will tell ten other people. And then the news spreads.

The worst thing that can happen is miscommunication. Or somebody spreading a rumor and causing panic. But that's good. That's good that we can mitigate those things nowadays.

KINKADE: So, David, the E.U. published an internal security strategy report just a few weeks ago. Was this problem addressed? And if so, what were the recommendations?

LUND: Well, what we're doing here in Europe is creating this European critical communication system. And so, it's about making sure these mobile phone networks are more resilient so that the public safety can not just talk to each other, but it can communicate with data like we do with smartphones.

And so, the protect E.U. internal security strategy of Europe includes this big push now to establish this European critical communication system by 2030. Not all countries, but certainly Spain.

I know in Spain, they're working hard on this. It's in the test bed stage right now. So, it's not operational right now, but they're existing. Radio communication systems for public safety have clearly worked here because they're operational, you know? So, this is -- it's good news. And this will what we will do is create this communication system so responders can actually roam across borders from Spain to Portugal. That's quite crucial in this situation.

And up the Pyrenees to France and back. You know, this is where the collaboration of, first response is, is needed. And this is where we're improving the communication systems across Europe, across the whole of Europe.

KINKADE: Yeah, certainly a much more work is needed at this point in time.

David Lund, appreciate your time today. Thank you.

LUND: Okay. Thank you.

KINKADE: We are going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.

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[15:55:02]

KINKADE: Well, finally tonight, a letter written on board the Titanic before it sank has sold for almost $400,000. It was written by one of the ship's best-known survivors, Archibald Gracie, and sold at auction to a private collector in the U.S. Gracie sent it to the great uncle with to his great uncle with a postmark of April 10th, 1912 from Queenstown, Ireland. He survived the disaster and was eventually rescued, but Gracie never fully recovered and died nine months later.

Well, that does it for this edition of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Lynda Kinkade. I'll be back in about two hours with much more news.

But stick around right now. "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" is up with Richard Quest.