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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Israel Expands Offensive In Southern Lebanon; President Trump Says He Wants To Take Iran's Oil; Dow Closed Up Slightly, S and P Flat, Nasdaq Down 153 points. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired March 31, 2026 - 04:30   ET

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

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[04:30:11]

BRIAN ABEL, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to Early Start. I'm Brian Abel. Israel ramping up its military operations in southern Lebanon and expanding its so-called buffer zone against Hezbollah. CNN's Jim Sciutto shows us the conflict from the other side of the border in northern Israel.

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NISAN ZEEVI, SECURITY SQUAD VOLUNTEER: Okay, let's go to the --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Okay.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF U.S. SECURITY ANALYST (voiceover): It's a fact of life on Israel's northern border that incoming Hezbollah fire comes frequently and without warning.

SCIUTTO: So this is life up in the north. They say about 40 warnings like that a day. We just had two of them in the span of five minutes. Combination of rockets, sometimes anti-tank missiles, but also increasingly drones. And some of them can't be intercepted.

SCIUTTO (voiceover): The kibbutz Kfar Giladi lies just about a mile from the border with Lebanon. After the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, Israel evacuated communities like these. But during this war, they're staying.

ZEEVI: You know, our children in the shelter for more than 29 days in a shelter, not allowing to go out, you know, all the economic ecosystem collapsed.

SCIUTTO (voiceover): What's different now is that Israeli forces are pushing into southern Lebanon, they say to push Hezbollah further back.

CAPTAIN "M", ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES: At the hills past the wall you would have seen --

SCIUTTO (voiceover): This company commander, the IDF only allows us to identify him as Captain M. regularly leads operations inside Lebanon.

SCIUTTO: What leads you to go across? Is it a particular threat, or is it just establishing a regular presence?

CAPTAIN "M": It's a bit of both. More often than not, it's a concrete threat. That's a -- we'll get from the intelligence that we have. Terrorists that are trying to come near the border, that we have ammunition that is stored somewhere, that there are tunnels that are still around, whatever it is.

SCIUTTO (voiceover): Visiting the north himself, Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Israeli forces would push even further into Lebanon.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (voiceover): In Lebanon, I've just instructed to further expand the existing security zone in order to decisively thwart the threat of invasion and to push anti- tank missile fire away from our border.

SCIUTTO (voiceover): It's a move that Zeevi and other northern residents welcome.

ZEEVI: This time the IDF actually did what us, the civil society that settled here years ago, expect them to do.

SCIUTTO: Which is?

ZEEVI: To go in front of us, not behind us. We cannot be the first line with his bellow.

SCIUTTO (voiceover): The Israeli government now speaks of military operations all the way up to the Litani River, some 20 miles into Lebanese territory, to create this so-called buffer zone. Israel has now forced hundreds of thousands of Lebanese civilians from their homes in the southern part of the country. And yet Hezbollah fire continues. Today, the IDF is prepared to operate inside Lebanon for as long as they are ordered to.

CAPTAIN "M": I can tell you that when we get an order, we will do whatever we need to do. And I think, and I want to believe that the army will make decisions for what is best for the Israeli civilians that live here.

SCIUTTO (voiceover): The questions for Israel are how much further into Lebanon and for how long. For now, Israeli officials leave those questions unanswered. Jim Sciutto, Kfar Giladi, Northern Israel.

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ABEL: Mixed signals from the Trump administration on the war with Iran are keeping oil prices volatile, and that could keep the Federal Reserve from lowering interest rates in the short term. CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich explains the impact for consumers.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENTS: Oil prices rising yet again on Monday as President Donald Trump says that he wants to take over Iran's oil. U.S. crude prices rising north of $100 a barrel, and Brent crude, the international benchmark, hitting about 116 a barrel at one Monday. This is over investor concerns that this war with Iran has no end in sight, and there is actually an escalation of the war rather than a deescalation that they are looking for.

Now of course, this translates directly to gas prices. The national average for a gallon of gas here in the United States, 399, that is up just a few cents from a week ago. So prices rising more slowly, however, up more than a dollar from a month ago. And that means that Americans have paid about $8 billion more in gas prices in just the last month because of that $1 surge in prices, that's about $375 million a day of extra spending for gas prices.

[04:35:08]

Now turning to markets, really sort of a tepid response in response to oil markets taking off again. The Dow closing actually up 50 points, the S and P mostly flat, and the Nasdaq down about 153 points. This is because investors did hear some reassuring news from the president, where he said that they're in discussions with a more reasonable regime in Iran.

Also, investors were initially worried that the Federal Reserve could be pricing in a rate hike because of concerns over this war and where inflation was heading. But we heard from Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, on Monday at Harvard, who actually said that many of the board members at the Federal Reserve, including himself, really don't know where this is going yet. And by this, he means the war with Iran and how Americans are going to be reacting to it, including what's going to happen with inflation. Here he is quelling in many ways, investors' fears.

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JEROME POWELL, U.S. FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIR: I think a situation like the present situation where, you know, there's sort of downside risk to the labor market which suggests keep rates low, but there's upside risk to inflation, which suggests maybe don't keep rates low. You've got tension between the two objectives. And I think to try to expect unanimity at a time like that, where it's really quite historically challenging, it would almost be misleading to be really confident in which way that should go.

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YURKEVICH: Now, the Federal Reserve will meet in late April, where they will make a decision about interest rates. But before that, they will get some more data about the jobs market this Friday, and also inflation news. And of course, they have a month to see just where this war goes, where inflation moves, how consumers respond to and ultimately what oil and gas prices end up looking like in this next month. Back to you.

ABEL: Vanessa, thank you. Since Vanessa's report, AAA now says the national average for a gallon of regular unleaded gas is $4.02.

It took just three minutes, and they were gone. Three paintings by Renoir, Cezanne, and Matisse have been stolen from a museum in northern Italy. Four thieves wearing hoods burst into the museum, grabbed the paintings, and ran out. Combined, the stolen pieces are said to be worth more than $10 million. The heist happened more than a week ago, but was only revealed now. Police are still searching for the suspects.

A tanker of oil is arriving in Cuba, but experts say its effect on the energy crisis there will only be limited. The details ahead.

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ABEL: Dozens of people have been killed in Western Haiti as armed gangs attack civilians and burn homes. Haitian authorities confirmed at least 16 people were killed on Sunday in the country's main agricultural region. Rice groups estimate the death toll had soared up to 70 people Monday. Thousands have been forced to flee the violence. The attacks come ahead of the expected arrival of an international force aimed at combating gang violence.

And a Russian-flagged oil tanker has reached the waters off Cuba after President Trump allowed it to break a U.S. fuel blockade. That tanker is reportedly carrying nearly 730,000 barrels of oil, but experts say that may only offer limited economic and humanitarian relief as Cuba struggles with a deepening energy crisis.

The White House says allowing the ship to reach Cuba does not signal a policy change, but rather was meant to provide humanitarian help for the Cuban people. CNN's Patrick Oppmann reports from Havana.

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A tanker full of Russian oil is the first to come to Cuba in over three months. It is a vital lifeline to a country that has been running on fumes. The issue is, though, is that while this oil is so important to get the economy running again, it will only be running for a short time. Energy analysts tell us that the oil aboard will only supply Cuba's grid for less than two weeks, really.

So, while it is very notable that Russia has been able to get a tanker through the oil blockade set up by the Trump administration, which apparently says that they have allowed this boat to come in, but they're studying whether or not further boats can arrive to this island, it still is leaving this island essentially at the mercy of the oil blockade.

We don't know if other ships will come in. We don't know if other donations will be sent here because at that point, at this point, where Cuba is depending on the generosity of other countries, a generosity that can certainly run into the hunger, hundreds of millions of dollars. And Russia has an outstanding debt that Cuba owes that country going back to the Cold war of about $1 billion.

So, any further oil shipments you would expect would just be added to that bill. But Russia and other countries say that Cuba has been a longtime ally of theirs, that they want to defy this oil blockade, which the Trump administration has put in place to try to open up this island economically and politically. And despite this small bit of good news, that will allow the economy here to survive a little bit longer, Donald Trump has said that Cuba is next, that essentially this island is in his sights, and that one way or another, he expects to change the government here or bring it down. Patrick Ottman, CNN, Havana.

[04:45:33]

ABEL: A Florida airport may soon be renamed after U.S. President Donald Trump. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a bill that could change the name of Palm Beach International Airport to President Donald J. Trump International Airport. If the Federal Aviation Administration approves the change, it will take effect on July 1st.

The bill also calls for the airport code, currently PBI, to change to DJT. And a golden toilet on a marble throne has been placed at Washington, DC's National Mall in protest of President Trump's White House renovations. The installation features a plaque that reads, "A throne fit for a king." But it's unclear who's behind the sculpture being placed there, as well as others that are similar in criticizing President Trump.

It goes on to criticize Trump for prioritizing White House renovations at a time of, quote, "unprecedented division, escalating conflict, and economic turmoil." Visitors to the mall gave their take on the installation.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, it is so artistic. The Grecian marble, the gold-plated from Hobby Lobby. It is just the finest and a testimony to United States greatness. We're truly exceptional.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Very, very similar to the Oval Office. And I'm sure this is maybe just outside the Oval Office, perhaps as well.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The golden throne, probably.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Golden Throne, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, it's inspiring.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, he likes to stir up the -- so anyway, this is very appropriate. I hope they keep it up here.

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ABEL: No sarcasm at all from that first couple. The future of artificial intelligence is pushing past. Just chatbots. Just ahead, how AI agents are shaping the future.

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ABEL: Artificial intelligence is advancing beyond just chatting or answering a person's question. The latest shift is for the boss to complete task. CNN's Hadas Gold has more details.

HADAS GOLD, CNN AI CORRESPONDENT: When a lot of people think of artificial intelligence, they think of an AI chatbot like chatbots that you have a back-and-forth conversation with. But the future of artificial intelligence is really with the agents. An AI agent is an AI bot that can complete a complex task with multiple steps completely on its own on your behalf. And this is something that's not just for super technical people and software programmers who are writing code. This is something that a regular, everyday person can use today.

I want to show you an example. I have a Claude extension on my Google Chrome browser. Claude is an AI system from the company Anthropic, and it can do things on my browser that I could do with my permission. So I'm going to send it to Whole Foods to do some grocery shopping for me.

I can give it a list. I say, go to Whole Foods, get me a gallon of milk and two dozen eggs for pickup today from the Upper West Side. I approve its stated plan. And then from here on out, it's on its own. It is clicking, it is typing, it is scrolling all by itself. You can see actually, its work. It lists out exactly what it's doing. I've even seen it make a mistake, realize it's making a mistake picking the wrong item, and replace that with the correct item.

Now, it will go all the way until the final step before you actually click purchase. That's just because that's a safety guardrail that Anthropic puts in. These systems are actually completely capable of being able to do financial transactions on your behalf. I could have also given it more parameters. I could have said, only find me the cheapest options of this entire list. I could have given it a much larger list.

I could go to a makeup website and say, find me the highest reviewed, best moisturizer out there and it would do all of that research on my behalf and even put it in a basket for me with all of my personal details up until the final step. And this is really where the future of retail is headed.

A lot of retailers now, instead of optimizing their websites for a search engine like Google, they're now optimizing their websites for artificial intelligence, changing their descriptions, making sure that they're something that an AI could read and could be able to bring back to the consumer. Some of them are even offering AI agent-only discounts, knowing that might incentivize the AI agent, the AI bot to return it back to user, making it more likely to be the product that is chosen.

So this is something that you can try yourself today. You can go and download some of these. There are different options. Anthropic has one. Google has one called Mariner. You just want to make sure that you're using one that's from a reputable source, and know that there's still some risks involved, and that these are AI and that they can make a mistake. So you always want to check their work.

But they can do some pretty useful things. They can help clean up your email inbox. You can say, you know, go through all my emails, delete anything that I haven't opened since a certain date, delete anything that I haven't received, responded to since a certain date, or even further. And this is really where a lot of people see the future is going. It's going from AI chatbots to agents now. Hadas Gold, CNN, New York.

ABEL: The U.S. Army is investigating a video posted by the senior Kid Rock last week. It appears you see here to show two Army Apache helicopters hovering outside his home in Tennessee. Kid Rock captioned the video, saying in part that it was a level of respect the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, will never know. Newsom jokingly banned Kid Rock from California earlier this year in a social media post.

[04:55:14]

The U.S. Army says it's now looking into why the helicopters were there and if the flyby violated regulations or safety standards. A spokesperson for the 101st Airborne Division told CNN, quote, "Appropriate action will be taken if any violations are found."

It is official. Celine Dion will make her long-awaited return to the concert stage later this year. There's a clue of where it will be. The Eiffel Tower was part of the splashy reveal in a video posted online. The French-Canadian singer confirmed that she has 10 shows coming up in September there.

This follows her show-stopping cameo at the Paris Summer Olympics in 2024. Dion had previously been forced to halt performing live due to struggles with stiff person syndrome and an incurable autoimmune disorder.

Thank you for joining us. I'm Brian Abel. Early Start continues after a quick break.

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