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Dozens Injured In Two Iranian Missile Strikes On Southern Israel; U.S., Iran Trade Threats Over Strait Of Hormuz; Union Leader To Lawmakers: Fund Us, Get Us Back To Work. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired March 22, 2026 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:00]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Hello again everyone, thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

All right, tomorrow is supposed to be a consequential day as President Trump issues an ultimatum to Iran over the Strait of Hormuz and declares ICE agents will begin reinforcing security at U.S. airports.

Let's begin with Iran.

In a social media post, President Trump warned Iran if it does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours, U.S. will hit and obliterate its power plants. Iran's Armed Forces responded saying Hormuz, will be completely closed if Trump strikes its power plants, it also vowed to retaliate by attacking infrastructure and energy sites in the Gulf region.

Meantime, dozens of people were injured in missile strikes in Southern Israel overnight. Iranian missiles struck an Israeli city near a key nuclear site and also hit Arad, which resulted in the highest number of people injured in a single attack in Israel since the start of the war.

Weve got a team of correspondents covering these developments. Nick Paton Walsh is in Beirut, Lebanon. Let's begin with Matthew Chance in Doha, Qatar.

Matthew, how is Iran responding to this ultimatum from Trump ordering them to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, or else?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, hey, Fredricka. Well, they are responding, I think, defiantly with a lot of rhetoric coming from political figures in Iran and military figures as well. You mentioned some of them there, but essentially what it boils down to is that Iran says that it is not going to respond to that ultimatum. It is going to respond to any attacks on its energy infrastructure by unleashing attacks on energy installations across the region.

And it has identified the Gulf states where there are U.S. military bases and U.S. commercial interests in the area as being the legitimate targets, as it calls them in any retaliation if those Iranian power plants are struck as President Trump has threatened to do, I think it would be sort of Monday evening Eastern Time, Tuesday morning here, local time. That's when the 48-hour deadline that Trump set is set to expire.

But I can tell you, Fredricka, there is a great deal of nervousness and anxiety in this part of the world in these Persian Gulf Arab states, which are heavily dependent on oil and gas production for their livelihoods, their economic well-being. Those sort of revenues, which are normally in the area of billions of dollars a day, have dropped, in some cases close to zero because of the fact the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz in particular, has been sort of cut off effectively, except for a trickle of giant oil tankers that Iran allows to pass, really having a massive economic impact on those Gulf Arab states that are so dependent, as I say on energy exports.

But I think there is an additional layer of uncertainty as well, which is that for many decades you know, places like Dubai, glitzy cities like Doha and Abu Dhabi and I am speaking to you from Doha right now, have sort of, you know, carefully crafted this image as being safe havens, financial hubs, tourist destinations in their own right and they have already had that image dented because of the missile and drone attacks that they've suffered over the past couple of weeks from Iran. If that situation escalates, there are concerns that that whole sort of image they have, that they've cultivated could be under permanent threat, and so that's an additional layer of concern here in the Gulf, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Matthew Chance, thank you so much.

All right, let's go to Lebanon now and Nick Paton Walsh is there in Beirut. So tell us more about what you're hearing about these Hezbollah attacks in Israel.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, less concern, I think, in Israel overnight about Hezbollah. It was Iranian rockets that got through and hit Dimona and Arad, causing dozens of injuries in Arad it seems, one of the worst cases of injuries since the start of this phase of the conflict between Iran and Israel.

Hezbollah have fired some rockets into Northern Israel, and I believe there have been some casualties as a result of that, but ultimately, I think Israeli concerns higher about those attacks on Dimona and Arad.

But look, today we've had a significant development in the separate chapter of the conflict here between Israel and the Iranian backed militant group here, Hezbollah. We have seen Israel saying through its Defense Minister that it wanted to demolish many of the villages close to the border in Southern Lebanon and destroy the bridges across the Litani River, that for a number of weeks now, has essentially been the upper northern boundary of a forced evacuation zone that Israel has declared in Southern Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold, but where we've now seen from their hundreds of thousands of civilians on the move, making a million displaced there, the government here inside of Lebanon.

[15:05:08] Today, that chapter took a particularly ugly turn for many Lebanese where Israel, after repeated warnings, said they would destroy bridges between the North and the South along that Litani River.

Now, it was one particular bridge that ended up being their target. We were close by while that blast happened. The Lebanese military have a checkpoint right on that bridge, and they pulled back ahead of the explosion. I think we can show it to you now.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

WALSH: So very precise there, but what you're seeing is a key artery between the south and the north of Lebanon, used daily by thousands of civilians, many obviously under extreme duress now, true, of course, also a logistical route. I am sure Hezbollah have made use of as well.

But that key artery now gone and leaving one bridge quite close to it, still a way up from the south and raising fears here. Certainly, that infrastructure is now a target, that there is collective punishment. That's the phrase used by the Lebanese president, Joseph Aoun, who said that this was essentially the precursor to the ground invasion of Lebanon by Israel.

Now, Israel's Defense Minister, Israel Katz, talked about destroying these bridges, talked about demolishing villages to the south, and has previously suggested that they would replicate the tactics of demolishing housing that we've seen in Gaza here in Lebanon.

And today, the destruction of that bridge, despite many warnings that preceded it, have many Lebanese deeply concerned that they are about to see the degrading of their infrastructure to essentially force anyone left in the south of Lebanon out -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Nick Paton Walsh in Beirut, thank you.

All right, tomorrow, ICE agents will be deploying to airports across the U.S., President Trump says he ordered the move to help TSA agents who are short-staffed and going unpaid during the partial U.S. government shutdown that standoff over DHS' immigration enforcement tactics is now in its sixth week.

White House border czar, Tom Homan is now in charge of the airport deployment, telling CNN that ice agents will free up TSA officers from, I am quoting now "non-significant roles." One union leader representing TSA agents had this message for lawmakers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE BOREK, UNION STEWARD, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES, LOCAL 554 ATLANTA: Let's get back down to the nitty-gritty. This is -- you know, policy can be worked out later on. Fund us. Get us back to work.

This can be hashed out, but don't let your egos and so forth get in the way. Get these people back to work, get these people so they can travel again. It is unnecessary. It is not un-American and we should not be doing that. They deserve better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: CNN is following these developments. Our Julia Benbrook is in Florida, where the President is spending the weekend, and Gloria Pazmino is at Newark Liberty Airport in New Jersey.

Julia, you first, what is the administration saying about this deployment plan?

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, President Donald Trump, he announced this yesterday on Truth Social. He said that because there is not an agreement to fund the Department of Homeland Security that that short term that -- I am sorry, partial government shutdown is still ongoing, that he is going to deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to airports across the United States. He then placed White House border czar, Tom Homan in charge of those efforts.

But what is clear here is that there are still a lot of details that need to be worked out, and Homan said that when he spoke with CNN's Dana Bash earlier today, he did confirm that, yes, these agents are going to be deployed tomorrow, but said that the discussions are still ongoing as he is working with the leads of those specific agencies involved.

And when this was first announced, there were a lot of questions, a lot of concerns about exactly what these ICE agents were going to be doing since they are not trained in airport security screening, a process that typically takes months.

Now, Homan did say that these agents are going to be taking on less significant roles. He used guarding exits as one example of what might take place here, but he acknowledged that when it comes to how they are going to deploy, how many of them will be deployed and exactly where they will be working, those details haven't quite been worked out.

Now on the location part of it, he did go into some detail saying that he thinks that they should prioritize certain airports. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THOMAS HOMAN, U.S. BORDER CZAR: My opinion is that we concentrate on airports where the longest waits are. We prioritize those, large airports with those long wait like three hours. I think we've got to prioritize what we do like we do everything else.

This is about helping the men and women of the TSA. They've lost several hundred employees. The lines are really slow because of the shutdown.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:10:10] BENBROOK: And Homan was on Capitol Hill on Friday, speaking with a bipartisan group of lawmakers as they look to come to an agreement to bring this lapse in funding to an end.

There is still no clear solution there, but a quick reminder that at the heart of that is a disagreement on reforms when it comes to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as Border Patrol and how they have been used specifically in Minneapolis and other areas.

WHITFIELD: All right, Julia Benbrook, thank you so much.

Let's go to Gloria Pazmino now there in New Jersey at Liberty Airport. All right, so what are travelers saying about the idea of ICE agents being there?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, first of all, the wait time here in Newark is now around less than 20 minutes, and that's actually pretty good compared to many of the other airport wait times that we have been seeing around the country.

Atlanta Hartsfield Airport seeing major delays. Houston, Texas, also seeing major delays. So things here at Newark Liberty International have been actually pretty good. The line is moving. You can see that people are waiting in line, but they are flowing through to the security checkpoints.

Now, we have seen the wait times go up and down as the day goes on and with today being Sunday, usually a lot of people are heading back home if they have been traveling. We do expect to see the wait times tick up as the day goes on, and we have asked passengers here today what they think about President Trump's plan to send ICE officers into airports.

Some of them told me that if it is going to mean getting people moving quicker, they are okay with it. They recognize that TSA officers are not coming in because they are not being paid. They sympathize with them.

But for other passengers, they pointed to the past actions of ICE officers around the country, saying they feel like it is an agency that just works by their own rules, and it concerns them that they would be at the country's airports.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL ADKINS, TRAVELING FROM NEWARK: If it helps the wait times diminish, I am not worried about ICE, actually. If it is just a manpower gap stoppage to make things run smoother, that's great.

TALI SHALOM, TRAVELING FROM NEWARK: A little frightening.

PAZMINO: Yes. Why is that?

SHALOM: Well, we've seen also that they kind of operate by their own rules and no one really knows what to expect. So, even citizens themselves are not really sure what will set them off. (END VIDEO CLIP)

PAZMINO: Now, it is not just passengers caught in the middle, right? We have heard from passengers here today who told me they came in hours ahead of their scheduled flights. A woman told me she came in four hours early, just prepared to wait in line. A lot of people relieved that the lines here at Newark are not so bad.

And then, of course, there the TSA officers who are caught in the middle of all of this. The number of officers that have resigned from the agency is continuing to increase. That number is at over 400 people, according to the Department of Homeland Security and the absentee rate is still hovering around nine percent.

Many of these officers calling in sick, not coming into work again because they're going without their paycheck while lawmakers try to hash out these issues over immigration and DHS funding -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: So many complexities in this equation. Gloria Pazmino, thank you so much.

All right, still ahead, Tehran is warning it will strike back if its power plants are hit. I will talk to a drone and military tech expert about what is actually at risk and how well the U.S. is positioned to defend against Iran's capabilities.

Plus, President Trump says ICE agents are deploying to U.S. airports tomorrow since lawmakers have not reached a deal to fund DHS yet. Our team is on Capitol Hill right now. We will tell you where negotiations to end the partial U.S. government shutdown stand.

And could your teen's social media habits be making them unhappy? What a new report is revealing about the impact on their well-being.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:18:51]

WHITFIELD: All right, as the growing conflict in the Middle East enters its fourth week, countries around the Gulf say they are still facing an onslaught of retaliatory drone attacks by Iran. Well, today, Saudi Arabia's military detected several drones launched toward the eastern part of that country. The UAE says it is also responding to incoming missile and drone threats from Iran, including at least eight unmanned aerial vehicles that were intercepted.

Let's discuss more now with drone and military tech expert Michael Horowitz. He is also a professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania.

Professor Horowitz, great to see you.

MICHAEL HOROWITZ, DRONE AND MILITARY TECH EXPERT: Thank you for having me.

WHITFIELD: All right, so even if the majority of these drones launched by Iran don't end up reaching their target, in your view, how long can defense systems by the U.S. and its allies in the region hold off these attacks?

HOROWITZ: Iran is really putting an enormous amount of pressure on U.S., Israeli and allied missile defenses. They are taking advantage of the fact that we have now entered the era of precise mass and war, where you can use commercial manufacturing to really rapidly churn out these longer range, one-way attack drones.

[15:20:10]

So less the shorter range systems that have been so prominent in the context of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, but these longer range systems like Iran Shahed 136 that they have literally launched thousands of and even if an individual one isn't that hard to shoot down, you have to shoot it down or else it will hit its target, and so what? The U.S. and its allies have been doing here, are you know, taking these Shahed 136 that cost about $35,000.00 and trying to shoot them down one by one and it is just putting a lot of stress on missile defense systems.

WHITFIELD: The use of these drones by Iran, has it put Iran in a certain advantage over the U.S. and Israel by the use of its arsenal of drones?

HOROWITZ: So the way that missile defense systems generally were created over the last 20 or 30 years is they were designed to shoot down exquisite, expensive kinds of ballistic missiles, the kind either the best of what Iran could build or the missile or missiles from countries like China, North Korea, Russia, et cetera.

So American air defense systems tend to say like the patriot missile is a great system, but each missile cost $4 million and if you're using a $4 million missile to shoot down a $35,000.00 Iranian Shahed, you know, that's a bad cost exchange ratio, and essentially there just aren't enough of them.

And so Iran has achieved something of an advantage in their ability to put pressure on these air defense systems, which is why the U.S. and its allies are now scrambling to try to figure out what are lower cost ways to take out these systems, whether lasers potentially, even though most of those systems are experimental or starting to think about importing systems from Ukraine that might be able that that Ukraine now has experience in, in shooting down these exact same missiles that that Russia has been firing at them.

WHITFIELD: You've said before that the U.S. needs to be investing other defenses for these drones. Given how, you know, war has changed over the years, including all of the drone attacks that we've seen Russia launch against Ukraine, you know, since that war started.

I mean, is this really a long term goal for the U.S.? I mean, at this point its playing catch up as it is in the midst of this conflict in Iran.

HOROWITZ: The U.S. really needs to do more in this context. The U.S. has the best weapon systems in the world, pound for pound, and the best soldiers in the world, I mean pound for pound. But America's arsenal is built entirely on exquisite, expensive, difficult to produce systems on the offense and the defense and that fundamentally needs to change in an era of precise mass.

On the defense, what it means is that the U.S. needs to be scaling much, much lower cost interceptors, including using drones to shoot down drones and on the offense, instead of $2 million tomahawk missiles, we still need them, don't get me wrong, incredible system. But for about 400 the U.S. has fired so far, which costs $800 million, the U.S. could buy 23,000 offensive precise mass strike missiles called the Lucas in response. It is America's first precise mass system. We actually copied it from Iran's Shahed.

It is the first time the U.S. has copied another country's military technology since the 1970s, which illustrates kind of the whole the United States ends. But the way that American ingenuity and innovation means we are never that far behind, we just need to invest the resources to catch up for this new era of warfare.

WHITFIELD: All right, Professor Michael Horowitz, great talking to you. Thank you so much.

HOROWITZ: Thank you for having me.

WHITFIELD: All right, now, the U.S. Senate is in session over the DHS funding standoff. What President Trump is threatening to do if no deal to end the shutdown is reached, and how lawmakers are responding, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:28:29]

WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back.

As wait times and frustrations continue to grow at airports across the country today, Democrats say they are digging in on their demands for ICE reforms to end the ongoing Homeland Security shutdown.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): We believe that taxpayer dollars should be used to make life more affordable for the American people, not brutalize or kill them, or violently target law abiding immigrant families, which is what we know ICE agents have been doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: CNN's Camila DeChalus is in Washington on Capitol Hill there, following all of this for us.

Camila, I mean, talks between The White House and Capitol Hill are picking up. But where do things stand in negotiations?

CAMILA DECHALUS, CNN REPORTER: Well, Fred, we are being told that there is still a long way to go in order for lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans, to agree on some sort of deal around reforms to federal agencies under DHS in order to end this partial government shutdown. Now, we've been kind of asking, okay, where do these talks stand? We've been told that The White House and Republicans sent their counterproposal over to Democrats, and they are still waiting for Democrats to now send their proposal, just talking about what reforms that they are really adamant about seeing.

And so right now, we are kind of hearing that, yes, we are making progress. They have been having meetings on Capitol Hill just in these recent days now, with the border czar, Tom Homan, and they are saying that this is really productive, that this is a step in the right direction.

But at this point in time, there is still no end date on when they are going to schedule a vote to pass funding for the Department of Homeland Security. Now, some Democrats have mentioned trying to do more of a piecemeal approach where they are passing funding separately for just each individual agencies like TSA and the Coast Guard. Those agencies are not really related to immigration related activities, but Republicans have immediately shut this down, calling it a nonstarter and saying that if we are going to pass funding for the Department of Homeland Security, it is going to be in its entirety, not just this piecemeal approach.

[15:30:25]

And so now, we are really hearing that this is -- they are very adamant, both sides, about sitting down on the table and really passing this. But as you know, on the Senate side, the House has already passed their spending bill for funding the Department of Homeland Security. So right now on the Senate side, even those Republicans are in the majority, they still need some Democrats to come on board in order to pass this spending bill.

And so they know that right now, it is really incumbent upon them, to both sides, to really agree on some sort of deal around these reforms in order to really get this process going to passing funding for the Department of Homeland Security.

WHITFIELD: And then today, Camila, GOP Senator Markwayne Mullin, President Trump's nominee to replace Kristi Noem at Homeland Security, cleared a key hurdle before his final confirmation vote.

So, what more can you tell us about that?

DECHALUS: Well, that's right, just here in the Senate just earlier today, lawmakers, senators really passed advancing his nomination and that is really pivotal. This is really indicating towards now them setting up to try to vote to confirm him into this position early next week. And what we are hearing from Democrats when asked if okay, now this means that there could potentially be a change in leadership at the Department of Homeland Security, will that really change your position on now passing funding for the Department of Homeland Security? And they say, hey, listen, we still want to know what his position is on certain issues if he does take over this department, but this doesn't change our main position and that is we want to see reforms around federal agencies like ICE, CBP, and that is really the only way that they are going to move forward with passing and supporting a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security.

WHITFIELD: All right, Camila DeChalus in Washington, Capitol Hill, thank you so much.

All right, Israel is ramping up attacks in Lebanon, destroying homes and bridges along the southern border. The military says it is targeting Hezbollah. But more than a million people have been displaced. I will speak with an aid leader working to help the children and families caught in the middle.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:37:00]

WHITFIELD: All right, Israeli leaders say they have ordered the military to speed up the demolition of homes along the southern border with Lebanon. Officials say Israel is also planning to destroy the remaining bridges that link Southern Lebanon with the rest of the country. New video shows the moment a strike hits a key bridge over the Litani River earlier today.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

WHITFIELD: According to Israel's Defense Minister, the goal is to sever Hezbollah's supply lines and prevent the group from moving its weapons.

The enormous human toll of the U.S., Israel war has been especially high in Lebanon. Officials say one in five people have now been displaced. At least a thousand people have died, including more than 100 children, since the war began three weeks ago. That's about a classroom of children every week.

CNN's Isobel Yeung met with one Lebanese family caught in the war and suffering the devastating consequences.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(UNIDENTIFIED FEMALES speaking in foreign language.)

TRANSLATION: Oh! Yasmina and Malika.

I swear, she was like the moon, her face so bright.

ISOBEL YEUNG, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This mother is carrying the body of her six-year-old daughter, Yasmina. Israeli bombs pierce her grief.

(UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE speaking in foreign language.)

TRANSLATION: May God destroy you, Israel.

YEUNG (voice-over): She's also burying her three other daughters, nine-year-old Malika, Zara, 12 and Zaynab, 13, along with their cousin, 11-year-old Sadiq.

YEUNG (on camera): Just absolutely heartbreaking scene. Just body after body after body. Just tiny little bodies. These ones having to be carried on the bed because there's just only parts and remnants and pieces of them left.

YEUNG (voice over): These are just five of over 110 children killed this month.

The IDF say that targeting Hezbollah infrastructure and that Hezbollah are using civilians as human shields.

CNN obtained permission from Hezbollah to film in Southern Lebanon.

YEUNG (on camera): It is just apocalyptic around here. And to think that, I mean, just a couple of weeks ago, this was a buzzing, lively neighborhood with shops and these were people's houses, and now it's just all been turned to rubble. It must be so eerie staying here, and yet you still do see people, you see people in their homes.

What are you still doing here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I stay here.

YEUNG: Why are you staying?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I go where? This is my house.

YEUNG: Are you the only person who stayed or is there other families who stayed as well?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I no get family. I no marry. You want to marry me?

[15:40:01]

YEUNG: These kids obviously have been out of school for the last two weeks since the beginning of the war and this group now is trying to do some activities with them, try to have some semblance of normalcy.

(UNIDENTIFIED GIRL speaking in foreign language.)

TRANSLATION: I feel like we are scared and terrified and displaced.

YEUNG: What are you scared could happen?

(UNIDENTIFIED GIRL speaking in foreign language.)

TRANSLATION: I'm scared one of us will be killed.

(UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE speaking in foreign language.)

TRANSLATION: Lebanon used to be prosperous. The whole of Lebanon is finished. There is no Lebanon anymore.

Hopefully, what happened in Gaza doesn't happen to us.

YEUNG: What would you say to the people who have power over this war right now?

(UNIDENTIFIED GIRL speaking in foreign language.)

TRANSLATION: What do you want from us? Children can't continue their education or do anything. You've ruined our lives.

YEUNG (voice over): It's a pain no child should know, a generation who should have their entire lives ahead of them now pulled into a war they never chose and crushed beneath the violence that engulfs them.

Isobel Yeung, CNN, Beirut.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: The IDF has said that they will look into the incident CNN documented in that report.

All right let's continue the conversation. Now with us is Basma Alloush. She is Deputy Director of Public Affairs and Communications for the Middle East at the International Rescue Committee. Great to see you. I mean, sadly, under these circumstances, because it is just so heart wrenching.

By your group's estimation, how many children in Lebanon have been displaced by this war?

BASMA ALLOUSH, DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND COMMUNICATIONS FOR THE MIDDLE EAST AT THE INTERNATIONAL RESCUE COMMITTEE: Thank you for having me. And like you said, unfortunate circumstances.

According to the International Rescue Committee, and from what we are hearing from colleagues on the ground, about 300,000 children have been displaced out of the one million people displaced across Lebanon.

WHITFIELD: Wow. That's a significant number.

And then we just heard from some of the children who are trying to make sense of what is happening around them. What are you hearing from your workers on the ground who are dealing with the displaced people in Lebanon? What are the inquiries? What are people doing? How are they managing?

ALLOUSH: I was there, I was in Beirut last week. I spent about a week there and just kind of talking to people and interacting with people, you can see the severe distress that they are under, especially the children.

We were in a classroom, a space where kids used to go and play and learn and have fun with other children. They are now living in these spaces. They are, you know, hearing the sounds of the Israeli airstrikes going off in their areas. They are, you know, terrified and scared.

One of the kids, while I was in a school in the Bekaa Valley, the door slammed and he immediately started shaking. Another child, her name was, Adish (ph), she is two years old. She fled in the middle of the night with her family, and as soon as her father was able to just go back home and check on their house, she insisted that he bring back some of her stuffed animals.

And at the school where she was displaced, where I met her, she was walking around with all five of her stuffed animals in her tiny little hands, just walking around, making sure that they were like her children and she was protecting them.

So this is really the sights that we are seeing. Both the impact on kids, but also the parents that are under severe distress and trying to help their children while, you know, trying to pull through themselves.

WHITFIELD: And then, I mean, what kind of aid, you know, is in greatest need and then how would it get there?

ALLOUSH: So, the greatest need is, frankly, for everything. People fled, as I said, in the middle of the night, they barely left with the clothes on their back. I mean, we, the International Rescue Committee, have been helping distribute mattresses and pillows and blankets to people that are either sleeping in overcrowded shelters or even those that are in tents or sleeping in their cars.

We are also hearing from people that they need everything from clothes to prescription medication that they fled without, or they need refills. So, trying to make sure that they have access to healthcare so that they don't have to risk their lives to go back to their areas that are being under, you know under attack, but are able to access primary health care centers in their areas of displacement, so they can get the checkups and the medication that they need.

WHITFIELD: Your group has called for an immediate ceasefire. I mean, how do you make that plea to and what has been the response?

ALLOUSH: So we are calling on all parties involved in this conflict. We are calling for anyone that has influence with the parties to basically really end this cycle of violence. For many children, this is their second time displaced. And so we really feel like this is a very important step in order to be able to address some of the long term needs that are even going to persist despite a ceasefire.

[15:45:16]

And so I think what we are hoping is that, you know, there is increased support and humanitarian assistance to make sure that families in need continue to get the services that they require.

WHITFIELD: All right, Basma Alloush, thank you so much, Deputy Director of Public Affairs and Communications for the middle east at the International Rescue Committee.

All the best.

ALLOUSH: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:50:17]

WHITFIELD: All right, could social media be at the root of why some young people are unhappy? Its impact on well-being was one of the targets of this year's World Happiness Report and while the report didn't name social media as a dominant factor of youth unhappiness, it did note that many people are aware of the sad and anxious feelings social media can create.

Here to help us understand the findings is Harvard Law School Professor, Cass Sunstein.

Professor, great to see you.

Look, I have teens and I bet most parents right now are trying to figure out, you know, are you happy? Are you really happy? You know, so what is the gauge? Are American teens happy? You know, how do they define happiness first off?

CASS SUNSTEIN, HARVARD LAW SCHOOL PROFESSOR: Well, they are less happy than they were a few years ago and social media seems to have something to do with that.

So, one way to measure happiness is just to ask people, how happy are you to measure depression, to measure anxiety, to measure life satisfaction by asking people. There are also more independent measures, by seeing therapy and objective signals of distress. But people seem to be on a downward curve, not horrific, but very concerning.

WHITFIELD: If social media is a component, what is it about social media that might trigger a certain level of unhappiness?

SUNSTEIN: There are a few things. One is just staring at a screen for a long time in the course of a day can deprive you of social connections, and that can reduce life satisfaction. It is also the case that if you're comparing yourself to others who are posting amazing accomplishments online that can introduce feelings of less self-worth, or it can be that just people are addicted to the rush or zoom that comes from some exciting thing that might be on the screen 10 seconds from now.

WHITFIELD: And so what did this study have to say? Or what did it discover about what why American kids' happiness is different from a lot of other teens around the world?

SUNSTEIN: Well, one thing we know about Americans and Canada seems pretty similar, New Zealand and Australia seem pretty similar is that a lot of Americans wish the opportunity to be on social media were taken away from their entire peer group. So, what we know is many people say, given the fact that social media is available, they are going to be on it, but they would like it better if they could take the whole opportunity away for them and their peers. That's a remarkable finding.

It suggests that American people are very aware that this isn't helpful to them. It is actually hurting them. But if their friends are all on it, they're going to be on it, too.

WHITFIELD: And then, I mean, another differentiation, according to this study is social media is more toxic for girls than for boys.

SUNSTEIN: Yes, absolutely. So, we do find it is not great for boys, but for girls it seems to be worse. We are not sure exactly why. It may be that the social comparisons and the agitation that comes from seeing how am I compared to other people is at least right now, for social media users, worse for girls.

WHITFIELD: Wow. I mean, so much of this is every parents' struggle right now if you have teenagers. So, what should we be doing as parents, you know, to address and encourage our kid's happiness?

SUNSTEIN: That's an issue, I, as a parent of a girl, also face. So, two ideas for you. One is just to give hours and limits of hours. So, less than one hour seems to be fine as the hours spike, that's not fine. So to have a limit of an hour or less.

The other thing to do is to try to work with parents in your community, to have a group effort to reduce usage, because the group pressure to be online is what is creating the worst problems boys particularly, but also for young men.

WHITFIELD: Wow. And then it says parents are also role models, meaning parents, get off your social media, you know, chill a little bit with the dependency of your electronics.

SUNSTEIN: Yes, absolutely. Read books together, even watch T.V., that's better. Maybe even spend some time together on an outing. That's the best.

WHITFIELD: All right, great advice. Okay, let's all get it together. Let's get our kids happy again.

Professor Cass Sunstein, thank you so much.

SUNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.

WHITFIELD: All right, straight ahead, long lines, ICE agents. That's what is waiting for airline passengers at some airports tomorrow. Will the agents alleviate those long waits? Talking about the ICE agents or just make the situation worse? I will ask the former acting director of ICE about this, next.

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[15:59:56] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

WHITFIELD: Hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I am Fredricka Whitfield.

All right, Monday is shaping up to be a consequential day as Trump issues an ultimatum to Iran over the Strait of Hormuz and declares ICE will begin bolstering airport security across the U.S.

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