Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Britain Hosts Virtual Summit for a Possible Strait of Hormuz Reopening; Artemis II Begins Moon Mission. Aired 3-3:45a ET
Aired April 02, 2026 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LYNDA KINKADE, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the U.S. and all around the world, I'm Lynda Kinkade, just ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: We are systematically dismantling the regime's ability to threaten America or project power outside of their borders.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: President Trump makes his case for the war in Iran and plans to escalate attacks before a U.S. withdrawal. Markets and oil spike, we'll have the latest.
Plus, Britain plans to host a virtual summit to assess possible options to open the Strait of Hormuz, as President Trump says he is considering withdrawing from the NATO alliance.
Plus a historic mission to orbit the moon. Artemis II lifts off, sending astronauts towards the moon for the first time in half a century.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Lynda Kinkade.
KINKADE: Well, we are getting our first reaction from Tehran to U.S. President Donald Trump's address to the American people. Iran's military says its foes will face humiliation, disgrace and lasting regret, as well as ultimate surrender, that's according to state media.
President Trump told Americans the war is nearing completion, but that he's still threatening to bomb Iran into the Stone Age if it doesn't agree to a peace deal within the next two to three weeks. The President says Iran's less radical and much more reasonable. He claims success on his main is his main objective, preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Our objectives are very simple and clear. We are systematically dismantling the regime's ability to threaten America or project power outside of their borders.
That means eliminating Iran's navy, which is now absolutely destroyed, hurting their air force and their missile program at levels never seen before and annihilating their defense industrial base. We've done all of it. Their navy is gone, their air force is gone, their missiles are just about used up or beaten.
Taken together, these actions will cripple Iran military, crush their ability to support terrorist proxies and deny them the ability to build a nuclear bomb.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: While President Trump was speaking, new attacks were taking place across Iran and Israel. This video is showing huge explosions in the Iranian city of Isfahan. You can see bright orange flashes and billowing black smoke as flaming debris falls from the sky. It's not clear what was targeted.
CNN has geolocated another video from about 20 kilometers to the south. Witnesses who posted these pictures on social media say the fire was burning in the direction of a military facility.
(VIDEO PLAYING)
Air raid sirens sent residents running for shelter in the Israeli port city of Haifa on Tuesday. CNN crew witnessed large, large booms in Tel Aviv on Wednesday in what one Israeli official described as the most significant Iranian strike since the first days of the war. And officials in Abu Dhabi say air defense systems intercepted a missile near an industrial hub.
CNN's Paula Hancocks joins us now live from the city. So, six weeks in, Paula, still this war is raging. The U.S. President is suggesting he might escalate it over the coming weeks while also saying that military operations are near complete.
Just take us through that very strong reaction from Iran.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN ANCHOR: So, Lynda, it's interesting because we've had two fairly different reactions from Iran. One from the President, who has always been considered more progressive potentially, or at least as the U.S. President would describe that part of the political scene, more reasonable to be able to talk to.
But then you also have the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. This is the element that is believed to be running the show at this point in Iran.
[03:04:58]
We had a statement from the military on state media rejecting effectively what President Trump had said, saying that the military will continue until the U.S. and Israel face, quote, "humiliation, disgrace, lasting regret and ultimate surrender."
Now, this statement also rejected what President Trump had said about the fact that the Navy's destroyed, the weapons caches are destroyed, and pointed out that they still have the production capability that is secret. It is hidden. It is not known about and it will not be found.
So really rejecting what the U.S. President had said. But then when you do hear or read the open letter from President Massoud Pezeshkian to the American people, he has shown that he understands the American political system to start with, but also questions why this war is happening. I want to read you a couple of lines of what he said, quote, "exactly which of the American people's interests are truly being served by this war?"
Also saying, "is America First truly among the priorities of the U.S. government today?"
Also saying that Tehran's actions have been legitimate self-defense, pointing out that and referring to the attacks on neighboring countries in the Gulf region. Lynda.
KINKADE: All right, Paula Hancocks, good to have you across all of that for us from Abu Dhabi. Thanks very much.
Well, the British Prime Minister says he won't let the U.K. get dragged into the war with Iran. But today, Keir Starmer will host a virtual summit with nearly three dozen countries to discuss options for reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Now for weeks, NATO allies have rebuffed Donald Trump's cause to help regain the control of that vital waterway.
Well, now, President Trump is once again threatening to leave NATO and suggesting its members are bad allies for not supporting the war effort and suggesting the U.S. gets nothing out of the alliance.
Well, CNN's Clare Sebastian is covering all of this live for us from London. Good to have you with us, Clare.
So, you know, we've heard President Trump criticize European allies for weeks now and even tonight in his address, again, saying that European allies need to do more to pretty much either buy U.S. oil or, you know, find the courage to take it from the Strait. Just talk to us about how that rhetoric is being received there.
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, look, I think to an extent, Trump's NATO allies in Europe have been around this merry-go-round before. It's not the first time, it's not even the first time in his second administration that we've seen this kind of rhetoric towards NATO.
So we do see in some quarters people trying to sort of rise above it to keep a calm exterior. Obviously, given this is a defensive alliance whose unity is part of its deterrent, it's in their interest to not make this a two-sided spat. So, for example, the Polish defense minister coming out on Wednesday and saying amid the emotions surrounding Donald Trump's words, we must keep a cool head, making the point that not only NATO, but the U.S. is stronger with its allies.
But we do see, I think as well, a hardening of the stance from these European countries. Obviously, we saw Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who's convening the summit today, saying in his speech on Wednesday that he would not be drawn into this war. He would not bow to pressure.
His chancellor, the finance minister here, came out later and said openly in an interview that she was angry about this war. Obviously, we know that it's going to blow back on European economies, including the U.K. economy.
And the issue of sort of fact-checking his claims that it's NATO's obligation to come to the U.S.'s aid is also a topic for discussion. Take a listen to the French deputy defense minister on Wednesday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALICE RUFO, FRENCH DEPUTY DEFENSE MINISTER (through translator): I will remind you what NATO is. It is a military alliance concerned with the security of territories in the Euro-Atlantic area. It is not intended to carry out an operation in the Strait of Hormuz, which is not in accordance with international law, we must remember that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SEBASTIAN: So it's a rock and a hard place in many ways for these European countries, right, because they don't want to be drawn into this war, which they were not consulted about and did not ask for. But equally, the closure, the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz is causing Europe massive economic problems, which are only going to worsen.
The European Central Bank President warned recently that this was going to be a real shock that was probably, she said, beyond what we can imagine at the moment. And so we see action being taken as far as they are willing to go. This summit that Keir Starmer here in the UK is convening today of 35 countries to discuss political and diplomatic means to get this open.
They do see this as very much in their interest to try to do something, although obviously there are now clear red lines, Lynda.
KINKADE: Yes, there certainly are. We will be watching that meeting closely. Clare Sebastian for us from London, thanks so much.
Well, I want to bring in Fabrice Pothier, who is the former director of policy planning for NATO and is now the CEO of Rasmussen Global. He joins us live from Madrid. Good to have you with us.
FABRICE POTHIER, CEO, RASMUSSEN GLOBAL, AND FORMER NATO DIRECTOR OF POLICY PLANNING: Good to see you.
[03:10:04] KINKADE: So, Fabrice, President Trump has called NATO a paper tiger and said he's absolutely considering withdrawing the U.S. from the alliance if European members won't meet his expectations, specifically over support related to the Iran conflict. Just how serious are NATO members taking those threats?
POTHIER: Well, first, I think it's important to note that he has not repeated his threat yesterday in his address to the American people, even though he did talk about Europe and allies having to step up both for their own security and there I think we can only agree with him, but also we'll have to take care of patrolling the Strait of Hormuz. So it looks like if he's walking back on the threat, but the problem with this threat is that being having been repeated for this is the second time he had done that in his first mandate.
Every time you have the U.S. President casting doubt on U.S. commitment to NATO, even if there is no pullout, legal pullout, military pullout from NATO, it obviously undermines the very fabric of the alliance, which is the U.S. political commitment to support European allies for their security.
KINKADE: You're right to mention that Donald Trump didn't mention NATO by name, but he did direct comments towards European allies saying that they should take the lead on securing the Strait of Hormuz. I just want to play some of that sound.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: So to those countries that can't get fuel, many of which refuse to get involved in the decapitation of Iran, we had to do it ourselves. I have a suggestion.
Number one, buy oil from the United States of America. We have plenty, we have so much.
And number two, build up some delayed courage. Should have done it before, should have done it with us as we asked. Just go to the Strait and just take it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: How realistic is that option for European states to simply just take it?
POTHIER: Well, first, the United States is also dependent on whether the Strait of Hormuz is operational or not for the simple reason that your gas price in the U.S. is dependent on global oil prices. So I think it is a very short-sighted view to think that, oh, we are not a major importer of Gulf oil and gas. Therefore, this is for the Europeans to take care of.
Second, how easy?
The problem with the Strait of Hormuz is that it is very easy and relatively cheap, as we have seen with Iran, to be able to block it with quite cheap and asymmetric means from the coast, but also from the sea, and much harder to defend and assure free access. So I think this is why the United States Navy has not even properly tried to do this, because the cost would be quite high if Iran wants to do it. So probably the solution is not a military one.
The solution is a diplomatic one. And this is where Donald Trump has to deliver. And this is where I think some European allies are trying to pressure the United States to come to a resolution with Iran.
KINKADE: Yes, you're right to point out that the U.S. is feeling the pinch in terms of oil prices. And of course, fertilizers is the other big issue that will be felt here across many supply chains and the food industry.
I wanted to get your perspective on how the Iran war is placing pressure on munitions stocks, particularly when it comes to high-end air defense interceptors and other weapons.
Some manufacturers, we've already heard, are trying to boost production. Some of these weapons take many months to build, test before they can be deployed. What are your concerns when it comes to Ukraine, given that U.S. officials have already had some discussions about the impact for supplying weapons there?
POTHIER: Well, I think this is a very bittersweet situation for Ukraine. Sweet because I think Ukraine sees that there is a realization, including in the United States, that you cannot fight your way through highly exquisite and expensive weapons. You need to develop very kind of cheap and at-scale systems to be able to shoot down drones that are worth a few tens of thousands of dollars and not use $3 million or $4 million a piece missile.
Bitter because, as we see, Donald Trump has no shame in blackmailing the Europeans on U.S. supplies to Ukraine, saying if the Europeans were not to support a mission in the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. might actually curtail some of its supply that is actually bought by the Europeans that are meant to go to Ukraine to defend Ukrainian cities and population.
[03:15:10]
So for Ukraine, this is a really tough spot to be in. And I think the only conclusion to a drawing is to accelerate their own home production of interceptors and air defense systems. But of course, U.S. ones, especially the Patriot systems, is hard to replace.
So Ukraine is in a really difficult situation. And hopefully, the Europeans can play and drive a harder bargain with the U.S. administration and maybe initiate a maritime operation in the Strait of Hormuz after a peace agreement or end of hostility agreement with Iran. And in exchange for the U.S. to continue supporting via a weapon sale the Ukrainian defense.
KINKADE: Yes, interesting option to be considered. Fabrice Pothier, immeasurably appreciate your time. Thank you.
POTHIER: Pleasure. KINKADE: The four astronauts are now one step closer to reaching the
far side of the moon. We're going to get a report from Florida where Pete Muntean watched history unfold with the launch of Artemis II.
Plus the U.S. Supreme Court takes up the highest stakes birthright citizenship debate. Hear what some of the justices said about the President's efforts to change the centuries old practice.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:20:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KINKADE: You are looking at the Artemis II launching from Florida, sending four astronauts on a historic journey around the moon. It's the kind of mission that we haven't seen in more than 50 years. And the next 24 hours are crucial.
Mission controllers are conducting an in-depth review of the spacecraft systems. Any significant issues could force NASA to change its plans. More now from CNN's Pete Muntean, who was there for liftoff.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: For the first time witnessing a launch here at Kennedy Space Center for me, this was incredible to see the space launch system and the Orion capsule essentially rip through the air here over Kennedy Space Center. You could feel the rumble in your chest as the rocket plume really brightened the sky here at Kennedy Space Center. An incredible thing to witness for a launch that we weren't quite sure was going to happen.
There were a few last minute hiccups. Problems with batteries on the capsule's abort system. Problems with erroneous readings that turned out to be not all that big of a deal.
The clock stopped at 10 minutes until launch, but the mission control here at Kennedy Space Center picked up the time pretty quickly. The launch only about nine minutes late, 6:35 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Wednesday. An incredible thing to witness as these four astronauts set out on this 10-day voyage around the moon.
They'll go behind the far side of the moon, harnessing its gravity to then point at the Earth. Earth's gravity takes over and then they'll splash down somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.
The crowd behind me here went wild as the rocket lifted off from pad 39A here at Kennedy Space Center.
Now this is an incredible test flight as this crew tests Artemis II to pave the way for Artemis III and the landing on the lunar surface of Artemis IV sometime in 2028.
Pete Muntean, CNN, Kennedy Space Center.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE: President Trump has become the first sitting President to attend oral arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court. He was there Wednesday while the justices voiced skepticism about his executive order to end birthright citizenship. He sat in court for about 90 minutes, leaving shortly after the government concluded its arguments.
Birthright citizenship, codified in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, establishes that nearly every person born in the U.S. becomes a citizen. But the Trump administration argues citizenship should not apply to children of non-citizens or unlawful residents. Several justices questioned the President's effort to reimagine the law.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
NEIL GORSUCH, SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: Do you think Native Americans today are birthright citizens under your test and under your friend's test?
D. JOHN SAUER, U.S. SOLICITOR GENERAL: I think so. I mean, obviously, they've been granted citizenship by statues.
AMY CONEY BARRETT, SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: I can imagine it being messy in some applications. What if you don't know who the parents are?
SAUER: I think there are marginal cases. That one, I think, has the benefit of being addressed in 1401 F, where it talks about yes.
BARRETT: But what about the Constitution?
(END AUDIO CLIP)
KINKADE: The court's decision is not expected until June.
We are keeping a close eye on global markets and the price of oil following President Trump's speech on the war with Iran. We'll have the latest numbers in a live report ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:25:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KINKADE: Welcome back to "CNN Newsroom," I'm Lynda Kinkade. Let's check today's top stories.
The historic Artemis II mission has successfully launched from Florida. The four astronauts on board Orion will now orbit the Earth twice before attempting the risky journey to fly around the moon. It's a test flight designed to prepare future Artemis missions to land on the moon by 2028. President Trump says the U.S. is nearing completion of its objectives
in the war with Iran. In a primetime address to the nation, Trump threatened to bomb Iran back to the Stone Ages if it didn't make a deal within the next two to three weeks, he assured Americans Tehran is no longer a threat.
It appears Trump's address on Iran did little to calm energy markets following his speech the price of oil actually climbed higher. At last check, Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was up more than six percent, taking it to more than $108 a barrel.
CNN's Eleni Giokos is following the story. Eleni, good to have you with us. So, you know, before Trump's speech, oil prices dipped. You know, there was an expectation that we were going to hear an exit strategy for the war in Iran.
[03:30:09]
But the opposite has happened, prices are spiking. Consumers around the world are feeling the pinch, right?
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, exactly. I mean, dare I say there was like a small dose of euphoria in yesterday's session. It was really indicative in the way that the markets were performing.
And many people I spoke to saying there's a bit of hope they will get some concrete plans. That all evaporating during President Trump's speech. And then you had initial shock on the oil price that increased immediately after Trump stopped talking, it went up around five percent.
And now we're seeing significant increases on WTI and Brent crude as well. I was looking at the Asian markets, deep losses coming to the fore. You've got European markets now on the back foot and also U.S. futures showing a much lower start to the day.
This is because the war is going to be extended by two to three weeks. No real news about the opening of the Strait of Hormuz.
President Trump's still asserting that the Strait will open naturally when the war comes to an end. But a lot of scenarios are being modeled right now, Lynda, and this is really important that there's an expectation the Strait is going to remain closed until the end of April. Then perhaps go to 50 percent of traffic in the next few months and oil prices are estimated to hit $150 a barrel.
I just want to quickly mention Fatih Birol, the executive director of the International Energy Agency, saying this in a podcast yesterday. He said April will be much worse than March and even with modest estimates, we have the loss of oil in April will be twice the loss of oil in March. So that's just a dose of reality because of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Then you have industrialized nations talking about stimulus into the market, worried about inflation. I want you to take a listen to what the Australian Prime Minister had to say. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTHONY ALBANESE, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: Today I announce that under our economic resilience program, we will make available one billion dollars in interest free loans for manufacturing and fuel businesses dealing with the economic costs of this conflict. Truckies, freight companies and fuel and fertilizer producers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: And the economic cost of this conflict far extends what we're seeing here in the Gulf. It's touching everyone around the world. And so many countries have also come out and try to put caps on fuel prices, tapping into their fiscal reserves to see how they can try and mitigate the longer term impact.
And if we see more inflation, we see high inflation, it could impact economic growth. And then we could be mentioning the R word recession. Lynda.
KINKADE: That's how we don't get to that point, but it's certainly not looking good right now. Eleni Giokos in Dubai, thanks very much.
Well, Lebanon says its civilians are paying the price as Israel pushes ahead with its military operations against Hezbollah.
Lebanese health officials said Wednesday at least 50 people were killed in Israeli strikes in a 24 hour period. The United Nations says more than a million people, that's about 20 percent of Lebanon's population, have now been displaced. Many of them won't be able to return home right away, even after the war, because Israel plans to set up a security zone in much of the south of Lebanon.
The Lebanese health ministry says more than 1300 people have been killed since March 2nd, including 125 children.
The world's richest person, Elon Musk, is apparently making moves that could make him even richer and make his SpaceX company the most valuable in the world. We'll have those details next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:35:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KINKADE: Welcome back to CNN, this is your business breakdown. As you can see, all the markets across Asia are down right now. The Nikkei down almost 2.5 percent and South Korea's KOSPI down almost 4.5 percent right now.
Well, these are the business headlines.
New data shows U.S. retail spending rose more than expected in February. The Commerce Department says retail sales rose six tenths of a percent in February compared to the month prior, and that's after three months of decreased spending. Retail sales climbed across nearly every category except at the grocery store and furniture retails, which saw consumer spending decrease by about one percent.
Police are blaming a system failure after a number of robo-taxis stalled in the middle of a street in central China. Reuters says it happened in the city of Wuhan on Tuesday night, they say there were no injuries. Local media reported that some passengers were trapped in their vehicle for almost two hours.
Australia is cracking down on gambling ads with strict new guidelines that are set to take effect next year. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the changes are heavily aimed at reducing children's exposure to those ads. Some of the changes include a ban on any promotion featuring a celebrity or famous athlete, ads will also be restricted online to logged in users over the age of 18.
Elon Musk's rocket and satellite company SpaceX has reportedly filed confidential plans for an initial public offering.
[03:40:03]
Published records say the filing will lead to a sale of shares by June or July. And it could make Musk, already the world's richest person, even richer, CNN's Clare Duffy reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH REPORTER: This filing was reportedly made confidentially, which is something that is typically done to give regulators and investors more time to look through the details before they're made available to the public.
So we have not yet seen this filing. We don't know for sure how much SpaceX is looking to raise with this IPO, but reports indicate that SpaceX could be looking to raise up to $80 billion, which would make this the largest IPO in history.
And of course, this is a massive company, both in the space industry, but also in the artificial intelligence industry. You'll remember back in February, Elon Musk's SpaceX acquired his A.I. company, X A.I., the combined value of that company is estimated to be over $1 trillion. So we could see the company's valuation and also Elon Musk's wealth grow even more as investors look to get in on the space industry and the A.I. industry.
This could also help SpaceX to raise money at a time when the company is trying to fuse those two ambitions. Elon Musk has talked about wanting to send a network of one million satellites to space to host A.I. data centers. This is something that people in Silicon Valley have talked about as a way to address the space limitations and energy needs of building out massive A.I. data centers on Earth, potentially by putting them in space.
Of course, that is going to be a very expensive endeavor that the fundraise from this IPO could help with. We will be watching closely for that public filing, which importantly could give us a better sense of the financial performance of this company. Those are details that have been very closely held in recent years and watching closely as the company prepares for this IPO, which is expected to happen in June or July of this year.
Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE: Well, it is almost Easter Sunday and Pope Leo XIV is set to perform his first foot washing ritual of his papacy during the Holy Week. The ritual will take place in the coming hours during the Mass of the Lord's Supper as the world's 1.4 billion Catholics commemorate Jesus' last meal and the founding of the priesthood before his crucifixion. Now, the Holy Thursday ritual begins four intense days of events leading up to Easter Sunday.
Well, Belgium, of course, is known for its chocolate and the country's top chocolatiers have come together to showcase intricate masterpieces all centered around the Easter egg theme. Now, these edible artworks aren't just for show, they're on sale for about 900 euros or about $1,000.
All proceeds will be donated to a Belgium cancer research organization. Yum.
Well, that does it for this hour of "CNN Newsroom," I'm Lynda Kinkade live in Atlanta. Stay with us, "World Sport" is up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:45:00]
(WORLD SPORT)
