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Tsunami Warning Issued After Strong Earthquake Hit Japan's Coast; Iran's Foreign Minister Spokesperson Says There are No Plans for Second Round of Talks; CENTCOM: U.S. Military Fires at and Seizes Iranian-Flagged Ship. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired April 20, 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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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News!

BECKY ANDERSON, CO-ANCHOR, EARLY START: And hello, and welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world, I'm Becky Anderson live from our Middle East programing hub here in Abu Dhabi.

ERICA HILL, CO-ANCHOR, EARLY START: And I'm Erica Hill joining you this morning from New York. We do begin this hour with the breaking news out of Japan, where a tsunami warning has just been issued. It comes after a 7.5 magnitude quake struck off the northeastern coast.

So, we want to show you some of the images that we're just getting into us here at CNN. These window blinds in a Tokyo office swaying -- this is at the time that the quake hit. The National Meteorological Agency is cautioning the Iwate Prefecture and parts of Hokkaido and Aomori to brace for a nearly 10-foot wave.

Other regions currently facing smaller 3-foot wave advisories. CNN's Ivan Watson is live in Hong Kong with more on the very latest. What else are we hearing in terms of warnings at this point?

IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, well, Erica, the quake struck a bit more than an hour ago, about 4:50 something local time. Our producer in Tokyo is on the 18th floor of her building, and said that, that building shook.

Get this for some seven minutes and could hear the building shaking, the elevator service stopped. There were a lot of announcements warning about earthquakes, and she personally felt -- started to feel a bit nauseous from the swaying.

So far, we don't have reports of any real damage or casualties. But yes, tsunami warnings have been issued for a number of regions. The earthquake, according to the Japanese authorities, was 7.5 magnitude. The U.S. geological survey is saying it was 7.4 magnitude.

It was off the coast of northeastern Japan, off of Sanriku. And it is in that area in Iwate Prefecture and Hokkaido and Aomori, that the tsunami warnings have been issued. We've heard from the Japanese Prime Minister who has made statements saying that residents in those areas where the tsunami warnings have been issued, they should immediately evacuate to higher ground and to safer locations such as evacuation buildings.

Already, there have been some reports of tsunamis hitting in some areas, but at a relatively safe height of only 40 centimeters, for instance, in one part of Iwate, 70 centimeters in a part of Kujiko(ph). So, early hours yet, and still waiting to get a full assessment of the potential damage from what was quite a powerful earthquake, but also hitting a country that is accustomed to powerful earthquakes.

It is on that so-called ring of fire of geological activity, and Japan has felt powerful, destructive earthquakes and tsunamis in the past, and has a lot of resilience and emergency measures to respond to these types of things.

Which is part of why the authorities are taking the aftermath of this earthquake so seriously with these tsunami warnings, and we'll be watching and bring you up-to-date on any further developments we find out.

HILL: Yes, absolutely, Ivan, really appreciate it. And as Ivan noted, we'll continue to update you as we learn more on this breaking story. For now, though, I want to hand things over to Becky in Abu Dhabi.

ANDERSON: Thank you very much indeed. Just after 1 O'clock in the afternoon here in the UAE, I want to turn to developments out of Iran, where a Foreign Ministry spokesperson says there are no plans for a second round of negotiations with the U.S. as of now.

This comes as Iran warns of retaliation after the U.S. military fired on and seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship. Now, the U.S. says the vessel was attempting to violate the U.S. Naval blockade of Iranian ports. Night video shows helicopters flying over before U.S. Marines boarded that ship.

Iran's military is accusing the U.S. of engaging in, quote, "maritime highway robbery". Well, all this playing out as President Trump said over the weekend that a U.S. delegation was preparing for more negotiations ahead of a soon-expiring ceasefire.

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It is now unclear whether those talks will take place. Let's get you to our CNN correspondents following the developments. Oren Liebermann standing by in Jerusalem, Nic Robertson is live for us from Islamabad. And Nic, standby, I'm going to get the very latest from you as you understand it there in a moment.

Oren, first, what do we know about the U.S. capture of this Iran- flagged ship over the weekend? And what happens to it now?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: Becky, let's start with the event itself. This takes place over a period of six or more hours on Sunday when the USS Spruance, a guided-missile destroyer issued warnings to this tanker. The Tusca, as it was headed towards the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, trying to run the U.S.-imposed blockade of Iranian ports.

According to U.C. Central Command, which governs U.S. military operations in the region, sailors on board the Spruance issued warnings over a period of six hours, telling the Tusca to turn around when it refused to listen, they warned the sailors on board the ship to evacuate the engine room and then use the 5-inch gun on board the destroyer to disable the ship.

That's when, according to CENTCOM, marines from the USS Tripoli; an amphibious assault ship flew by helicopter to the Tusca and boarded the ship itself and seized it. This played out again over a period of hours, and CENTCOM released video not only of the Tusca in the distance from what appears to be the USS Spruance, but also helicopters going towards the Tusca as marines seize the ship itself.

Well, what happens to the ship now? According to Naval experts with whom CNN has spoken, the ship, the Tusca, the tanker that is, could be held by the Americans as effectively spoils of war. As for the crew, if they are Iranian, they could be detained if they are affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

They could be held if they are members of third countries, such as Filipinos or Indians or others, they could simply be repatriated. CNN has asked CENTCOM what the nationalities of the crew are. So, that is one of the scenarios that could play out here.

Of course, the seizure of the ship has far-reaching consequences on the viability of the talks themselves that are scheduled to take place, and we'll wait to see. And I suspect, Nic Robertson has much more on this on how this could affect what our critical talks to try to keep the attempts at a ceasefire moving forward here, Becky.

ANDERSON: Let's bring in Nic then. Nic, what is the very latest where you are there in Islamabad?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Look, the streets and security in this city are still as locked down as it was last night shortly after the White House announced that J.D. Vance, Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff would be heading here for talks.

So, the city remains sort of on a security profile with the hotels ready, the venue is ready for an Iranian delegation for a U.S. delegation. But timings at the moment are anyone's guess. And as you just said, what we heard from the very latest from the Iranians at a very official level, the spokesman of the Foreign Ministry saying there are no plans for delegation to attend yet.

There is a huge trust deficit on the Iranian side of the Americans. They say even if we come, what happens? We make a deal, and then, does that get broken? There's also the anger at the targeting of their tanker overnight.

They're accusing, you know, the United States of landing terrorists, not marines, but terrorists on board the tanker. So, there's a huge amount of anger about that. There's a backlash that says, you know, Iranian military could take a military response. But I think let's just pause that because escalation, real escalation

would be much bigger than what we're witnessing so far. So that -- if you want to -- if you want to have a semi-positive box, put that in the semi-positive box.

Talks last night -- so, Pakistan's Prime Minister had a 45-minute phone call with the Iranian president. That was -- that was a long diplomatic phone call last night. We don't know the precise details. Obviously, talking about the current situation.

Pakistan's Foreign Minister -- and again, Pakistan, the mediators here, Pakistan's Foreign Minister having a phone call with Iran's Foreign Minister, who is the number two in their negotiations team. So, that diplomacy was playing through late into the night.

And then this morning, you have Pakistan's Interior Minister visiting the U.S. charge d'affaires. So, you know, an opportunity there for the Pakistan negotiators or mediators rather, to update the U.S. side. So, we're also hearing from state media in Iran that they prefer diplomacy or nobody wants war.

We're trying all the diplomatic tracks. So, are the talks on or off? I don't think anyone is saying that they're off. We just don't have a time for when they're on yet.

ANDERSON: And briefly, we're some 36 hours away from the back end of this ten-day ceasefire. Is it clear what happens as that expires?

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Is the sense that we will see an extension at this point, given that there is still some possibility of talks this week?

ROBERTSON: Very briefly. President Trump clearly intended to use the expiration of that ceasefire as pressure on Iran. The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman today said, we're not giving in to pressures. It doesn't -- it's not clear what's going to happen to that deadline.

But in all of this, in all the maneuvers we've seen over the past couple of days, it appears as if the Iranians also trying to wrong- foot the U.S. about that deadline by not saying that they're coming to the talks when the U.S. was expecting to be here for talks and bringing it potentially over when that ceasefire would expire.

The Iranians are flipping the pressure back on the Americans to extend that ceasefire, rather than coming into talks where the ceasefire is literally hours away and they feel pressured into something. It is diplomatic maneuvering ahead of potential talks. At the moment, it could get --

ANDERSON: Yes --

ROBERTSON: Military quickly, but this is where we're at right now.

ANDERSON: Thank you, Nic, let me just bring you back in, Oren, briefly. What is the Israeli perspective currently at this point. LIEBERMANN: When it comes to the talks between the U.S. and Iran?

Israel is clearly watching very closely, but also being relatively quiet here. They know that this is the decision of President Donald Trump here, and they're not going to try to get in the way of that.

They might have some conversations behind the scene, but this is not the vocal opposition to talks between the two countries. Israel is poised and ready. That is the military is ready to resume the war if the talks break down.

But it's different than it was before. Before the war, Israel expected the talks between the U.S. and Iran to break down, and that negotiations would fail. It's unclear here Israel sees that Trump wants to make a deal, and that's why Israel is watching this, ready for it to fall apart. But aware that Trump may see this one through.

ANDERSON: Good to have you both, thank you very much indeed. Oren Liebermann is in Jerusalem, Nic Robertson in Islamabad. Joining me now from London is Gregg Carlstrom; he's the Middle East correspondent with "The Economist".

And Greg, I just want to start by sort of piecing together everything that we've just been discussing from the U.S. capture of this Iran- flagged Tusca ship to the uncertainty around these talks and the deadline, you know, self-imposed, of course, at this point, by the -- by the U.S. if not the Iranians of sort of late on Tuesday.

And just get your analysis of the ceasefire. Just get your analysis of where you see things standing right now.

GREGG CARLSTROM, MIDDLE EAST CORRESPONDENT, THE ECONOMIST: I think the Iranians have three options in front of them in the wake of this American seizure of the ship. I mean, there are three things they can do. They can choose to react militarily against the U.S., against U.S. warships in the region.

They've claimed to do that in state media or state-linked media. But there's no evidence it's actually happened. The problem is, if you do that, the ceasefire is almost certainly over, and then we are back to what will be, I think an even more destructive round of fighting.

So, that is not a great option from the Iranian side. The second thing you can do is, you can attack other shipping in the gulf. You can attack vessels at anchor in the Persian Gulf. You can attack vessels that are docked at ports in Arab gulf cities.

I'm not sure what you accomplish by doing that, though, because Iran has already carried out those sorts of attacks in the past. They've deterred commercial shipping from sailing through the Strait. So, they've enforced their own blockade, and there's no more deterrent value, I think, from carrying out an additional strike on shipping.

All you do is tick the box for retaliated. The third thing you can do is, you do nothing, and you realize the only way to resolve this mutual blockade now of Hormuz is at the negotiating table. And you come to talks on Tuesday. But that is politically very difficult for a regime that is now dependent on a shrinking base of hardliners.

ANDERSON: Yes, and you've got some analysis on these talks. You point out the ongoing power struggle, as you see it, between Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps and its government leaders. Mohammad Ghalibaf; the parliamentary speaker, and Abbas Araghchi, of course, who is the Foreign Minister.

There seem to be some sort of tensions last week in Islamabad, you write, quote, "their arguments were so ferocious that Pakistani mediators are reported to have spent as much time refereeing the Iranians as engaging the Americans."

What does that tell you about whether Iran will ultimately come to the table and can even come to some sort of consensus internally if they do?

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CARLSTROM: And I think it's not just tensions, maybe between the political side and the military side in Iran. Clearly, the military side is in the driver's seat right now. They are the ones who have the power. But there are also splits within the IRGC by all accounts.

I mean, everyone that you speak to who has dealt with the Iranians over the past few weeks, will tell you that there are some more pragmatic figures in the IRGC. Nationalists. They're certainly not moderates or liberals, but they're pragmatic, and they recognize that this might be a moment to try and trade in their leverage.

Their control of Hormuz, their stockpile of highly-enriched uranium, trade that for concessions, particularly economic concessions from the Americans. And then, you have more hardline figures, of course, who don't want to do any of that, and want to keep the war going.

So, whether it's the delegation that came to Islamabad ten days ago, which was unusually big, 80 people from the Iranian side came. And as you say, they didn't all agree, or whether it's the reports that have come out from when the Pakistani army chief visited Tehran a few days ago, met with different factions of the military, I don't think the IRGC itself is speaking with one voice on this, which will make it very difficult to reach a binding agreement.

ANDERSON: And how do you read the U.S.' intentions going into what is this incredibly pivotal week?

CARLSTROM: Also somewhat divided, you could say. I mean, I think Donald Trump wants to find a way out of this. That much is clear. And he thought this war was going to be over a long time ago. And so, he needs an off-ramp here.

Now, there are some people around him who are trying to make the case for a deal, that sounds an awful lot like the JCPOA, the nuclear deal that Donald Trump abandoned back in 2018. If the agreement is that Iran will swear off uranium enrichment for a certain period of time and accept some other restrictions on its nuclear work in exchange for sanctions relief. We're talking about an updated version of the JCPOA. Some people

around Trump want to go for that. I think there are some more hawkish figures in Washington, both in and around the administration who don't want that sort of deal, who want to keep the war going.

I think at the end of the day, Trump's main interest here is becoming increasingly political as we get closer and closer to the midterms. What he's hearing from his economic advisors is that, if you want gas prices to come down a bit, if you want to start unwinding the economic damage of this war, you need to wrap it up sooner rather than later, which should give him an incentive to make a deal, even if it's the sort of deal that he scorned eight years ago.

ANDERSON: It's good to have you, Gregg, thank you very much indeed. And I'll make just two notes here. Firstly, the price of oil has gone higher, we need to keep an eye on that since we saw this attack by the U.S. on an Iranian ship over the weekend.

And looking at the bigger picture, regional leaders met in Antalya in Turkey this weekend. The UAE, where I am, saying about it, quote, "it is unacceptable to accept tension, threats and aggression as a new reality." And we will look further at these regional positions in the hours to come.

I'll be back later this hour with more coverage for you. Let's get you back to Erica Hill for the time being in New York. Erica.

HILL: All right, Becky, thanks. Also, when we return, we have new details out of the U.S. here about a gunman who killed eight children in Louisiana this weekend, marking the deadliest mass shooting in this country in two years.

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HILL: A community in Shreveport, Louisiana, is in mourning after eight children were killed in the deadliest U.S. mass shooting since 2024, the children between 3 and 11 years old. The shootings happened early Sunday. Police have now identified the gunman as the father of seven of the eight children who were killed.

Authorities say the gunman also shot and critically wounded two women, one of them his wife. More details now from CNN's Reid Binion.

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CHRIS BORDELON, SHREVEPORT POLICE DEPARTMENT: We can confirm the suspect in these eight homicides is Shamar Elkins. He is believed to be the man responsible for this heinous act.

REID BINION, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): Authorities in Louisiana identifying the gunman they say shot and killed eight children, seven of them his own across three Shreveport homes Sunday. The slain children included seven siblings and a cousin. The three boys and five girls ranged in age from 3 to 11. The gunman's wife, the mother of his children, was the first person

shot Sunday, sustaining very serious injuries, according to authorities. The shooter then went to a separate residence and shot the children and another woman who was the mother of the eighth child killed.

BORDELON: There's another female that was in this resident -- residence that has life-threatening injuries.

BINION: The gunman carjacked a vehicle and led police on a chase into a neighboring parish.

BORDELON: The vehicle was chased into Bossier Parish on at which point in time Shreveport police officers did discharge their firearm, and that individual is deceased.

BINION: Police said the shootings were, quote, "domestic in nature".

TABATHA TAYLOR, COUNCIL MEMBER, SHREVEPORT CITY: These are the tragedies when there are domestic violence or domestic disturbances in our community.

BINION: The community in mourning and traumatized by the killings with many calling for a concerted effort to prevent anything like this from ever happening again.

TAYLOR: Please, utilize every resource that the sheriff has brought forth. Now, this family and this community needs you. I need you.

BINION: I'm Reid Binion reporting.

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HILL: Still ahead here, how the Iran war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz will continue to cost you at the gas pump and potentially beyond. Stay with us.

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ANDERSON: Well, just want to update you on the breaking news this hour from Japan where tsunami waves observed so far have been thankfully well under the warning criteria. This comes after a 7.5 magnitude quake struck off the northeastern coast.

Now, the National Meteorological Agency had cautioned the Iwate Prefecture and parts of Hokkaido and Aomori to brace for a nearly 10- foot wave. So far, eight-tenths of a meter is the largest that has been seen. More on that, of course, as we get it.

Well, global markets reacting to the latest instability in the Strait of Hormuz. Gas prices are expected to.