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U.S. Envoys Headed to Pakistan for Fresh Iran Talks; Israeli Operations in Lebanon Draw Comparisons to Gaza; Powerful Tornado Hits Oklahoma; Appeals Court Blocks Trump's Attempt to Ban Asylum for Migrants; North Korean Defector Stages Daring Escape; Tillis Vowed to Block Trump Fed Chair Pick over Powell Probe; CBP Estimates Tariff Refunds Will Be Issued 60-90 Days after Approval; Russia Launches Huge Drone and Missile Attack on Ukraine; Hundreds Blocked at Everest Base Camp by Glacier Piece; Curiosity Rover Finds Organic Molecules on Mars. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired April 25, 2026 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Welcome to all of you watching here in the United States, Canada and around the world, I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.
Confusion over ceasefire talks in Pakistan. Coming up, a live report on the state of negotiations between the U.S. and Iran.
Plus a devastating storm system ripping through the Midwest. We'll look at what we know about the deadly impact.
And president Trump dismisses advice from the Duke of Sussex. Why he lashed out at Prince Harry.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Kim Brunhuber
BRUNHUBER: We start with the mixed messages coming from the U.S. and Iran about whether talks to end the war are happening this weekend in Pakistan. The White House says envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are expected in Islamabad today.
Vice president JD Vance is on standby to fly out if there's movement in the negotiations. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt says they've already seen some progress from the Iranians. Here she is.
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KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president has decided to dispatch special envoy Witkoff and Jared Kushner back to Islamabad. The Iranians want to talk; they want to talk in person. And so, the president is, as I've said many, many times to all of you, always willing to give diplomacy a chance. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Tehran is denying their plans for direct talks with the U.S. Iran's foreign minister is in Islamabad to meet with mediators. He's also expected to stop in Oman and Russia.
Meanwhile, the U.S. continues to enforce its blockade in the Strait of Hormuz. The military released this photo, appearing to show a destroyer intercepting an Iranian flagged ship. I want to bring in CNN's Leila Gharagozlou in Abu Dhabi.
So Leila, take us through where things stand right now.
LEILA GHARAGOZLOU, CNN PRODUCER: So in a lot of ways, where things stand are where they stood prior to this war, so February 27th, 2026. You know, the Americans are looking to meet the Iranians. The Iranians are very reticent. There's very little trust between the two parties and fundamentally, nothing has really changed.
The Iranians still have very specific red lines, particularly around their nuclear program, the missile program and now obviously, the Strait of Hormuz. The Americans also have their red lines around their enrichment, the Iranian enrichment. So things really haven't changed. They've actually just gotten more complicated.
Now the Strait of Hormuz, as you said, is continuing to be blockaded on either side by the Iranians and the Americans. This is adding another level of complication. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth actually talked about this and took issue with the European role in the Strait of Hormuz and their inability to kind of get involved. Take a listen.
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PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: We are not counting on Europe but they need the Strait of Hormuz much more than we do and might want to start doing less talking and having less fancy conferences in Europe and get in a boat. This is much more their fight than ours.
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GHARAGOZLOU: Now the role of the Europeans in all of this is very, very tenuous. Obviously, there's a growing rift between the U.S. and the Europeans over the Strait of Hormuz. The Europeans have been very reticent to get involved.
On top of that, the Iranians have had very little contact with the Europeans, seeing them as being kind of unhelpful in this broader issue. So we're kind of at an impasse on all sides and the strait remains closed. So we're going to have to see what comes out of these talks.
But given that neither JD Vance or Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf are at these talks, I don't expect to see very much happening. Kim.
BRUNHUBER: All right. We'll be monitoring that. Leila Gharagozlou in Abu Dhabi, thanks so much.
Well, questions are swirling around Iran's leadership ahead of potential talks with the U.S. president. Trump says his administration doesn't know who the leader is in Iran.
Now earlier, I spoke to political scientist and founder and director of the Center for Middle East and Global Order, Ali Fatollah-Nejad, about who's calling the shots in Iran. Here he is.
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ALI FATOLLAH-NEJAD, FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR MIDDLE EAST AND GLOBAL ORDER: Well, I believe that the one entity that is calling the shots in Iran is primarily the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
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The IRGC, that is the prime military organization that is also in control of the bulk of Iran's economy and who has been part and parcel as the Praetorian Guard of the regime, of the power center before the start of the war.
But now, with the war, their standing has been certainly elevated. But it doesn't mean that IRGC in itself is also a monolith.
BRUNHUBER: OK. So that would explain perhaps some of the mixed signals that the country is sending. I mean, just one example. We heard Iran's foreign minister declare the Strait of Hormuz was open. And then the IRGC basically overruled him within hours.
So what does that tell us about how much authority Iran's civilian officials actually have at this point?
FATOLLAH-NEJAD: Well, first of all, it's clear that the government that is headed by president Pezeshkian is not playing an important role. Pezeshkian has never been a part of the power center in Iran.
Now within the IRGC, I believe there are different camps. Even Araghchi, the foreign minister has an IRGC background. the chief negotiator from the Iranian side during the first round of talks with the United States in Islamabad, also has an IRGC background.
Ghalibaf, the speaker of parliament, was an IRGC navy commander. But there is also another camp, that, you know, is composed of the new generals into, you know, after the reshuffling of the power structure, after there have been important military decapitations and who view diplomacy with more skepticism.
So there is an -- there has been some kind of a factional infighting between a kind of pro diplomacy camp, but still connected with the IRGC, and another one that has been skeptical and also skeptical vis- a-vis Ghalibaf, that he might abuse the situation to elevate his own standing in Iran's domestic politics.
So there is some kind of infighting going on. BRUNHUBER: All right. So you're describing these camps and factions
that have these different views on diplomacy. Some of them are hardliners, some of them are more centrists who have a more positive view of diplomacy. Some of those things are quite specific in terms of the personalities that you're describing.
But I was talking to an expert in the region yesterday and she said this dueling, good cop/bad cop thing from Iran's leadership isn't new. They've been doing that for years.
What's your take on that?
FATOLLAH-NEJAD: No, that's absolutely true. I mean, this is not new. So one should not exaggerate the divisions because, after all, they are part and parcel of this same regime. They're, you know, also part and parcel of the IRGC.
But still there are different, you know, different ideas how to go about diplomacy. There are different, you know, for instance, the more hardline camp is seeing that Iran is winning the war. So this should be translated into onto the negotiating table so Iran could get maximalist, you know, concessions out from the United States.
Whereas the other one may be more realistic. So there are divisions but it doesn't mean that, you know, they are totally, wide apart from each other because, they do have the same kind of interests in having the main pillars.
The Islamic Republic is still there. They're going to -- they're both going to rely on the iron fist of repression against their own population. They have this kind of revolutionary belief of power projection. They want to rely on Iran's missile program, on the nuclear program, on Iranian regional proxies. So there are a lot of commonalities.
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BRUNHUBER: Global oil prices are rising again as the timeline for resolving the U.S. conflict with Iran remains murky. Brent crude is currently up about 0.5 percent at more than $105 per barrel. WTI, the U.S. benchmark, is also up about 0.5 percent, nearly $95 a barrel.
Brent crude settled above $100 a barrel Wednesday and Thursday as well, breaking a two-week spell of decreasing prices.
Some analysts say they haven't seen any real progress in ending the war between the U.S. and Iran. Fighting persists between Israeli forces and Hezbollah in Lebanon, despite the extension of a ceasefire.
The Israeli military says it struck Hezbollah rocket launchers on Friday, a day after the three-week ceasefire extension was announced and Hezbollah says it targeted an Israeli armored personnel carrier.
Israel's prime minister says his country will continue striking any threat in Lebanon, as the terms of the ceasefire allow all necessary measures in self defense. Hezbollah says the agreement, quote, "has no meaning" due to Israel's
continuing attacks.
Now Israel's operations in Lebanon are drawing comparisons with how its military conducts itself in Gaza. CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports.
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ISRAEL KATZ, ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER (through translator): All houses in villages near the border in Lebanon will be destroyed. According to the Rafah and Belt Hanoun model in Gaza. In order to permanently remove border area threats from the residents of the north.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: After leveling homes, neighborhoods and entire cities in Gaza, Israel is exporting that model to Southern Lebanon.
Razing civilian infrastructure in towns and villages near the border to carve a buffer zone out of Lebanese territory, which the Israeli military says is aimed at distancing Israel's northern residents from the threats posed by Hezbollah.
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But in one town after the next in Southern Lebanon, rows of homes have been flattened, shops torn to the ground, entire neighborhoods erased.
Over six weeks of war, the Israeli military systematically demolished the town of Aita al-Shaab, now practically wiped from the map. Along this street in the border town of Adaissah, which once held a pharmacy and auto repair shop, one building after the next has been reduced to rubble. Even the local mosque was not spared.
Steps away, an excavator and alongside it, a multi-story building, not yet destroyed. To Hassan Rammal, it represented plans for the future. A building he erected in his hometown, apartments on top with shops on the ground floor.
It had been partially damaged in a previous Israeli strike. Construction was underway just one month before the current war broke out. Those dreams dashed the moment that Rammal saw this video confirming the worst.
HASSAN RAMMAL, RESIDENT OF SOUTH LEBANON (through translator): Somebody sent me images and I saw that the building I was renovating has been destroyed. I felt that the hope that once existed had diminished. For you to build, only to be demolished. Build, demolish.
DIAMOND: There are countless stories like Rammal's in South Lebanon, a Shia majority area where many, like Ramal, support Hezbollah. In the town of Bint Jbeil, fierce fighting with Hezbollah militants soon gave way to controlled demolitions, razing the city's old quarter and buildings beyond.
Such massive destruction of civilian infrastructure is considered to be a violation of international law and a potential war crime. The aftermath is both apocalyptic and yet terrifyingly familiar, revealing the same kind of systematic destruction Israel carried out to create a buffer zone in Gaza.
And like in Gaza, the fragile ceasefire in Lebanon doesn't mean Israel will cease demolitions. Israeli officials say they will continue. In videos filmed by nearby residents post ceasefire, the ruins of this Lebanese village give way to more destruction.
Excavators working to tear down more buildings. Lebanese communities within this roughly five-mile wide buffer zone now controlled by Israeli troops are facing more of the same.
That buffer zone means Rammal hasn't been able to return home but he remains defiant.
RAMMAL (through translator): Israel can say whatever it wants. There will not be a further buffer zone.
DIAMOND: And refuses to give up on his dreams of homecoming.
RAMMAL (through translator): This land is dear and precious. Even if we only build a tent I will return, so I can smell the sole of my village. This is my village. Until I buried there, until my last breath.
DIAMOND: Jeremy Diamond, CNN.
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BRUNHUBER: All right. I want to show you live images of Gaza. Palestinians in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza are heading to the polls this weekend in the enclave's first vote of any kind since 2006. Palestinian officials say the city was chosen because it suffered less damage than most other parts of Gaza.
Roughly 70,000 people are eligible to vote at a dozen polling centers, including makeshift sites in open fields and tents, as part of Palestinian municipal elections happening simultaneously in the West Bank.
Analysts say Gaza's first election in two decades is seen as a barometer of public opinion on Hamas. While the militant group isn't explicitly fielding candidates, at least one group has several regarded as pro-Hamas.
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BRUNHUBER: All right, we have breaking news coming into CNN. Reuters reports two loud explosions and sustained gunfire were heard early this morning near Mali's main military base outside the capital, Bamako. It's not clear what caused the blasts and no group has claimed responsibility for an attack.
Reuters, citing a witness, says soldiers are blocking off roads in the area. Mali has been battling insurgencies by the West African affiliates of Al Qaeda and Islamic State. It's also grappling with a much longer history of rebellion in the north. We'll bring you updates as soon as we get them.
The threat of multiple severe tornadoes is expected to continue in the coming days across the central U.S.
And here in Georgia, nearly 1,000 homes are being threatened by growing wildfires that have been fueled by an ongoing drought. Jenn Sullivan has more on the extreme conditions.
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JENN SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This massive tornado, caught on camera by a weather chaser in Enid, Oklahoma, about 65 miles northwest of Oklahoma City.
BRANDON CLEMENT, STORM CHASER, WXCHASING: You start feeling the ground start to move and shake.
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And you can hear the roar outside and you start getting hit with debris. It's a harrowing situation.
SULLIVAN (voice-over): This powerful twister was on the ground for more than 30 minutes, shredding dozens of homes and tearing down trees. Multiple people were hurt. This was just one of several tornadoes reported Thursday night across several states as a band of storms stretched across the central U.S.
TYSON SCHMIDT, LAKE KAHOLA, KANSAS, RESIDENT: The wind was already blasting. We really had very little warning that it was coming in that fast.
SULLIVAN (voice-over): Multiple homes were destroyed in this neighborhood outside of Wichita, Kansas. And more severe weather is on the way for many of the areas already recovering from Thursday's storms.
Meanwhile, the Southeast is grappling with the worst spring drought on record and it's fueling wildfires and water shortages. In Georgia, crews are battling two major fires that together have singed nearly 40,000 acres of land.
GOV. BRIAN KEMP (R-GA): We believe that these two fires have created the most lost homes ever in the history of our state.
SULLIVAN (voice-over): The flames torching hundreds of homes, charring businesses and cars. So many families say they have lost everything.
GINGER HUNTER, BRANTLEY COUNTY, GEORGIA: My brain's like, oh, I want to go live in a room and get in a recliner and watch TV. Well, there's no living room.
SULLIVAN (voice-over): With both fires barely contained, at least 4,000 homes remain under evacuation orders. I'm Jenn Sullivan, reporting.
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BRUNHUBER: The Trump administration could be facing a Supreme Court showdown ahead. How a federal appeals court just blocked their latest immigration policy.
Also, suspected gang members have their day in court all together. Still ahead here, citizens react to El Salvador's largest mass trial as it cracks down on gang violence. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: An immigration policy backed by president Trump has been shot down in a federal appeals court. The administration had been trying to unilaterally remove the right for migrants to claim asylum at the southern border.
The three judges rejected the plan by a 2-1 vote; the Trump appointee the sole judge supporting the president. So the administration is left with two options: either have the case heard by the full appeals court or appeal to the Supreme Court.
Venezuela's acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, met with her Colombian counterpart, president Gustavo Petro, to discuss increasing security along their shared border. This new security objective comes amid new pressure from Washington to stop transnational trafficking groups in the region.
The two leaders announced plans to establish joint military operations on their border, as well as begin sharing intelligence. Rodriguez assumed power after former president Nicolas Maduro was removed in a U.S. operation earlier this year.
Hundreds of suspected MS-13 gang members are on trial at the same time in El Salvador; 486 alleged members of the gang were at a hearing on Thursday, accused of more than 47,000 crimes, including extortion, arms trafficking and homicide.
It's part of president Nayib Bukele's crackdown on gang violence. Salvadorans have mixed opinions of the trial.
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LUIS PEREIRA, EMPLOYEE (through translator): No, I don't think it's right, because there could be problems due to the lack of due process for people who have not committed any crime but who are within the group of people being tried or in an open judicial process. I don't think it is right to do in that way, in that manner.
ALFREDO MENDEZ, SHOPKEEPER (through translator): I don't know whether they did it or not. But if they're guilty, that would be fine.
But if they're innocent, they should be let go, right?
Because an innocent person should not pay for something they haven't done, right?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: President Bukele has used emergency powers to suspend constitutional rights since 2022. More than 91,000 people, primarily suspected gang members, have been detained.
North Korea is one of the most isolated countries in the world, with travel in and out heavily restricted. But for 10 years, two brothers plotted a daring escape for themselves and their families. CNN spoke with one of them. Mike Valerio reports from Seoul.
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MIKE VALERIO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This small fishing boat carried Kim Il-hyeok, his pregnant wife and seven other family members, hoping to survive one of the most dangerous escapes from North Korea, a journey they say they planned for more than a decade.
As Kim settles into his new life in Seoul, he told us how his escape began with his father and his brother.
KIM IL-HYEOK, NORTH KOREAN DEFECTOR (from captions): My father said, "There is no hope in this society. There is no way to change it. There is a vast, free world out there. Let's go to South Korea." That's how it all started.
And my father sent my younger brother to the sea. While working at sea, my brother built close relationships with local security officers, to prevent any suspicions. He bribed them and eared the trust of party loyalists.
VALERIO (voice-over): For more than 10 years, Kim and his brother practiced their plan, sailing near the closely watched sea border between North and South Korea. It's a boundary called the Northern Limit Line or NLL.
KIM (from captions): We disguised ourselves as if we were going out to fish to make it less suspicious. When we got near the NLL, a patrol boat started following us like it was chasing us. We always calculated the time it would take for them to catch up.
We would say, "We're not trying to defect. We're just out here to make money."
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Then we would be released. We went through this process several times.
VALERIO (voice-over): Kim says he finally decided his family needed to leave when the regime became even more repressive and COVID spread across the country.
KIM (from captions): Things became extremely difficult during COVID. People focused on survival. Many people starved to death. Every day, we would wake up to stories of deaths and robberies.
VALERIO (voice-over): Kim later picked the precise timing for their defection: May 6, 2023, 10 pm
KIM (from captions): We specifically chose a day with tidal warnings. As the warning was issued, the waves grew higher and a typhoon came in, so the North Korean patrol boats retreated. My sister-in-law, my brother's mother-in-law, my mother and my wife passed through a minefield and hid by the rocks on the shore.
My brother's two children were also with us. When we put them in sacks, we told them to stay silent and not move at all. To avoid detection, we moved at a slow speed. Even the engine sound was low, like "thump, thump, thump."
The children didn't fall asleep and stayed completely quiet. When I opened the sacks, their eyes were wide open.
With the GPS on our boat, we confirmed we'd crossed the NLL. Then we saw Yeonpyeong Island. It was lit up like daylight, while we were in total darkness.
When we were rescued, the navy came and talked to us with a loudspeaker, asking if the engine had broken down. They must have wanted to check our intentions.
"No, our engine isn't broken. We're North Korean fishermen and we've come to defect to South Korea."
My wife was very emotional, because we had left her family behind. Her eyes were swollen from crying so much.
It felt like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. I was filled with relief, thinking, "It's finally over," and my tension just melted away.
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(from captions): Kim and his wife now have two children, both in South Korea. Kim is working hard to support his family as they build a new life in Seoul. He's sharing his story to help the world understand what life is like for North Koreans.
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BRUNHUBER: The DOJ has dropped its investigation into Fed chair Jerome Powell. We'll have details on that. Plus the Trump administration's new focus as the end of Powell's term approaches.
Also just ahead, the U.S. government will soon have to reimburse billions of dollars it collected under president Trump's sweeping tariffs. We'll talk to an expert about how the tariff refunds will impact small businesses. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Welcome back. I'm Kim Brunhuber. Let's check some of today's top stories.
The White House says Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are traveling to Pakistan in the coming hours, as Iran's foreign minister is in Islamabad visiting mediators. His spokesperson says he has no plans to meet with Witkoff and Kushner, who were there for peace talks.
The severe weather threat is expected to continue through the weekend and early next week. The storms began Thursday night with more than a dozen tornadoes in Oklahoma. The greatest threat will be from northwestern Louisiana into central Kansas today and on Sunday. The threat extends from northern Texas to southern Nebraska.
The U.S. military carried out a strike against an alleged drug trafficking boat in the eastern Pacific on Friday. U.S. Southern Command says two people were killed. The strikes were carried out as part of the Trump administration's Operation Southern spear. At least 182 people have now been killed over the course of the operation.
Tonight is the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington, D.C. Journalists, government officials and public figures will gather to celebrate the First Amendment and America's legacy of press freedom.
While presidents have traditionally attended the dinner, this will be the first time president Trump will be there as commander in chief. Now Trump's decision to attend this year's event comes at a time when his relationship with the press is more combative than ever.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt offered this preview of his speech.
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KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Without getting ahead of the president, he is going to give a very entertaining speech not just for all of those journalists in the room tomorrow night but for the entire country.
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BRUNHUBER: A U.S. Special Operations soldier accused of betting on the ousting of former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro has been released on bond.
Federal prosecutors say Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke used his knowledge of the classified raid to place bets on the production site Polymarket. They say his long shot wager on Maduro being out of power netted him $400,000. Van Dyke is facing five criminal charges and is expected back in court on Tuesday.
The Justice Department has ended its criminal probe into Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell. The DOJ launched the inquiry in January amid criticism from president Trump for not lowering interest rates fast enough. Powell's term as chairman ends next month. CNN's Evan Perez has more.
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EVAN PEREZ, CNN SR. JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: The Justice Department's investigation of Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell is over, yielding to political and legal reality that it really wasn't going anywhere.
Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, says that she's ending the investigation that began earlier this year and instead will rely on an inspector general's investigation that's been ongoing since last year.
President Trump has said this is about hundreds of millions of dollars in cost overruns on a multibillion-dollar renovation of the historic Federal Reserve headquarters here in Washington and whether Powell misled Congress about that.
Powell and some congressional Republicans say it's more about pressure by the president to force Powell to lower interest rates. Senator Thom Tillis has blocked the nomination of Kevin Warsh, Powell's successor as a result of all of this.
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SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): I'm going to talk about what's preventing me from being in a position to vote for you.
There were a variety of reasons why this building went over budget.
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As a matter of fact, if we put everybody in prison in federal government that had had a budget go over, we'd have to reserve an area roughly the size of Texas for a penal colony because of the way government projects work.
Let's get rid of this investigation so I can support your confirmation.
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PEREZ: What's clear is that this hasn't been a normal investigation. The FBI has not been involved, which isn't how criminal investigations usually work. Instead, political appointees in Pirro's office have been conducting the investigation. And they showed up recently at the Federal Reserve headquarters and
were denied entry. A federal judge threw out subpoenas that were issued by Pirro's office, citing prosecutors' own statements that they didn't have evidence of a crime.
Pirro had vowed to appeal that ruling but never actually did. So now we anticipate that the end of this investigation means that the Warsh nomination can move ahead before Powell's term ends next month -- Evan Perez, CNN, Washington.
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BRUNHUBER: The roommate of one of two missing doctoral students in Florida is now under arrest. The 26-year-old former University of South Florida student is facing several charges, including tampering with evidence and failure to report a death.
A SWAT team was called to his family's home after he barricaded himself inside on Friday. He eventually walked out with a bath towel tied around his waist.
Two Bangladeshi doctoral students at the University of South Florida, Zamil Limon and Nahida Bristy, were reported missing last week. Limon's body was found on Friday on a Tampa Bay bridge but the sheriff's office says Bristy is still missing. Detectives are conducting searches in multiple locations.
Sweeping layoffs across the tech sector raising new concerns about the impact of AI on jobs. On Thursday, Meta said it would cut around 8,000 positions. That's about 10 percent of its workforce. And Microsoft is offering voluntary retirement buyouts for about 7 percent of its employees.
The two companies aren't outliers. Since January, Amazon has eliminated some 30,000 positions. And the downsizing may just be beginning as companies invest in artificial intelligence.
Starting this week, American import companies can use a new online portal to begin applying for refunds from billions of dollars in tariffs. They're seeking their part of the $166 billion plus interest that the U.S. government collected.
Donald Trump is lashing out at companies looking for financial relief from his tariffs. In a Truth Social post Friday, he also railed against the Supreme Court.
Two months ago, the justices struck down Trump's sweeping tariff policy, stating that his use of Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs unilaterally was unconstitutional. And now the government has to pay for hundreds of small businesses hit by the tariff policy. This refund can't come soon enough.
Dan Anthony is the executive director of We Pay the Tariffs, a new coalition created to highlight the impact of tariffs on small businesses. And he joins us now from Washington, D.C. Thanks so much for being here with us early this morning. Really
appreciate it. So this refund portal just went live. You've surveyed your small business members about how it's going.
So, you know, what are you hearing from them?
DAN ANTHONY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WE PAY THE TARIFFS: Yes. Well, first off, thanks for having me. The process has come pretty quickly and it's really been a mixed bag. We've had a number of companies who have said, we sailed right through, took a couple minutes. No problem.
We have others who have told us they're still just trying to figure out how to access their accounts after, you know, first flagging this as an issue and reaching out to customers six weeks ago.
So it's a lot of really mundane stuff. Like you don't know how to get into your account or the email address is wrong, things like that, that are preventing folks.
BRUNHUBER: So, you know, for a small business owner who doesn't have, you know, a trade compliance department or a customs broker on speed dial, I mean, what does this process actually look like when they sit down at their computer to try and get their money back?
ANTHONY: Yes. It's, you know, the process itself is fairly streamlined. All they're asking for is entry numbers. But it's again, it's really just having access to your account, being set up in the system, having linked your bank accounts.
And, of course, with all of the interest this week, when they first launched it, delays, trouble submitting just based on that flood of people trying to all do it at once.
And so, there's some of those issues that should resolve itself as time goes on. You know, you're not going to have that initial crush of everyone trying to do it at the same time over the coming days and weeks. But so I think there's some hope there. But it's a lot of just waiting and then, you know, waiting for the refund itself.
BRUNHUBER: Well, yes, waiting for the refund.
I mean, customs is saying it'll take, what, two or three months after acceptance to get the money?
I mean, for businesses that took out loans to pay these tariffs, I mean, what does that mean?
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ANTHONY: It's just more time. I think it's nice that the refunds will include interest.
But if you took out a high interest loan or you paid with a credit card, you know, getting that smaller percentage back from the government three months from now for something you may be paid a year ago is still not going to cover a lot of those costs that you're actually incurring day to day.
BRUNHUBER: Yes. Now the problem is, I mean, even though, you know, there is this portal, you might be able to get your money back, the Trump administration has made it pretty clear it wants to reimpose tariffs under different legal authorities.
So are these refunds just basically going to get wiped out by the next round of tariffs?
ANTHONY: In a lot of cases, yes. And so I think it's something that everyone needs to keep in mind, is the tariffs haven't actually stopped. The tariffs that were being collected through February were immediately replaced with a new tariff authority.
So everyone is still paying today for something that comes in while waiting for those refunds for maybe a year ago. And the Trump administration, as you noted, has said they intend to impose more tariffs in July.
And so a lot of the folks we hear from, you know, this is going to be a bit of a nest egg. They have big plans on things they would love to do with that money. But instead it's going to sit there. It'll pay for future tariffs. it'll pay off those past loans. It's not going to be that real objection to their business that some maybe hope for in February.
BRUNHUBER: Yes. All of this process. I mean, it's been frustrating for many businesses also for customers, I have to say. You know, people at home are probably watching this, wondering whether they'll see any of this money, too, since they're the ones who pay the higher prices at the store when it gets passed down.
I mean, is there any, you know, pathway realistically for shoppers to get anything back in the way of lower prices?
Because many skeptics would say, once prices go up, they generally don't go back down.
ANTHONY: Yes. And I think part of what really affects that is that lack of a hard stop to the tariffs themselves. And so, you know, it's -- it makes sense to say if the tariffs end, then prices should go down.
But as noted, these tariffs aren't really ending. And so you're getting some relief on the company side. A lot of it's really being earmarked for things like paying off loans, bringing, you know, bringing back inventory if they weren't bringing in as much product, rehiring workers that were laid off.
And I think the other thing to keep in mind, you saw tariff rates of, you know, sometimes up to 145 percent. No one saw price increases like that. And so in a lot of these cases, you know, companies might have been paying 15 percent, 20 percent, 30 percent more and raised their prices 2 percent or 3 percent to recoup that.
You know, what they could. But you haven't seen the price increases at the level of the cost increases. And so a lot of that was really just borne by the companies themselves in the hopes that this would go away.
BRUNHUBER: Yes. And as you say, it isn't going away down the line. Maybe we can reconnect with you a little bit later once we know how this is working out for all those businesses that are trying to get their money back. But appreciate your take on this. Dan Anthony, in Washington, D.C., thank you so much.
ANTHONY: Yes, thanks for having me.
BRUNHUBER: Coming up, Ukraine is reeling from the largest Russian air attack in recent months. After the break, we'll have a look at why civilians are bearing some of the worst pain of the war again. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Ukraine says Russia has launched a wide scale attack overnight, primarily targeting the city of Dnipro, as well as critical infrastructure. It's the largest assault in recent months, involving more than 600 drones and nearly 50 missiles. That's according to Ukraine's air force.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy says at least four people have been killed and more than 30 injured. Rescuers have been searching for people thought to be buried under the rubble. People were also wounded in Kyiv and Odessa. Romania reported the debris from a Russian drone even damaged property there.
Meanwhile, Britain's Prince Harry continues his visit to Ukraine. He toured the capital city of Kyiv, where he tested military equipment, including drones. I want to bring in CNN's Barbie Latza Nadeau from Rome.
So Barbie, take us through this visit, what the prince has been saying and president Trump's reaction as well.
BARBIE LATZA NADEAU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. You know, this was an unannounced visit. And he said he's there as a fellow soldier. We saw him, of course, with those drones. He also visited an anti-landmine organization.
That was, of course, very dear to his mother, Princess Diana. And he talked to a security group but he also gave some unsolicited advice, first to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in which he said it was time to stop the war.
And he also gave advice to the U.S. administration, saying that they should do more. And that did not sit well with U.S. president Donald Trump. Let's listen to what he had to say.
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TRUMP: Prince Harry?
QUESTION: Yes, sir.
TRUMP: How's he doing?
How's his wife?
Please give him my regards. OK?
No, no, I don't know. I think I know one thing, Prince Harry is not speaking for the U.K. that's for sure. I think I'm speaking for the U.K. more than Prince Harry.
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NADEAU: And you know, Kim, he does not speak for the royal family or for the United Kingdom but he does align himself quite closely to his father, King Charles, of course, and his support for the Ukrainian people. So we've seen that mirroring of that support there.
All of this, though, comes ahead of a very, very important trip to the United States by King Charles and his wife. And that's scheduled for next week. And we, you know, we're looking to see just exactly what the British monarch says to the U.S. president, if they'll discuss any of the politics globally or in the United States and around the world.
So you know, Prince Harry's trip to Ukraine right ahead of this meeting is probably not a coincidence. But it's very, you know, anyone's guess if it's going to have any impact or not. Kim.
BRUNHUBER: All right. Appreciate that. CNN's Barbie Latza Nadeau in Rome, thanks so much.
Well, it's a milestone for the Hubble space telescope as new images are released to commemorate 36 years in space. That story and more coming up. Please stay with us
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BRUNHUBER: Well, there's a traffic jam at the top of the world. Have a look here. Hundreds of climbers and Sherpas are at Mt. Everest base camp for the start of the climbing season. They hope to summit the world's tallest peak but they're perched in limbo more than three miles above sea level.
They're being blocked by some enormous glacial ice. So-called icefall doctors are working to clear away the obstruction but it's not clear how long that could take. The ice doctors say they hope the ice block will collapse by itself.
NASA's Curiosity rover has uncovered the most diverse set of organic molecules ever found on Mars, the same carbon-based building blocks that helped spark life here on Earth.
The groundbreaking discovery comes from a first-of-its-kind experiment, where the rover dissolved a rock sample to reveal its chemical makeup. The results were reported in the journal "Nature Communications."
Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity project scientist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told us earlier what they did and why it could tell us whether the Red Planet once harbored life.
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ASHWIN VASAVADA, CURIOSITY PROJECT SCIENTIST, JET PROPULSION LABORATORY, NASA: One of the interesting things that we did was use the same experiment that we did on Mars, on a meteorite that's been -- that had been formed very early in the solar system.
And, you know, currently we think that meteorites carry around these complex carbon molecules that are formed naturally. There's no life on the meteorites but they may have seeded the raw materials of life all throughout the solar system.
We did the same experiment on Mars and -- as we did on the meteorite and the same sorts of chemicals were produced by that experiment.
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So we think that the organics that we're seeing on Mars may have been seeded by these meteorites and life on Earth may have once been seeded by those meteorites, too.
We're going to keep climbing a mountain that we've been climbing now for 14 years. Every layer we climb is younger than the one below it. And so we can read the history of Mars as we climb through these layers.
We're going to keep looking whether Mars had those conditions that could support life more, you know, later and later in its history.
The thing that should follow is that we'd love to return rocks from Mars to Earth, to do the kind of definitive experiment. Curiosity doesn't have the laboratories needed to prove that life took, you know, took hold of these environments that could have supported life.
We need to return rocks to Earth, use the best laboratories on Earth to really answer that question.
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BRUNHUBER: And researchers believe that organic material was preserved on Mars for billions of years.
Well, new images of the Hubble space telescope have been released to celebrate the 36th anniversary of its launch. Released by space imaging company Vantor, the new pictures show Hubble from 38 miles from the Earth's surface.
Launched in 1990, the orbiting observatory has given us astonishing views of nearby planets and far-off galaxies. Scientists say it's revolutionized our understanding of the universe.
All right, well, I'll leave you with this. A newborn fawn is making her public debut in California. Have a look.
The little cutie is a pudu, the world's smallest species of deer. She was born last weekend at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Pudus are native to South America and will stay small as adults. A fully grown pudu will stand just about 17 inches or 43 centimeters high. Right now, this female pudu is exploring her new habitat with mom, Posey.
All right, that wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber for our viewers in North America. "CNN THIS MORNING" is next. For the rest of our viewers, it's "AFRICAN VOICES."
