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One World with Zain Asher
Trump Touts Large Investments, Like NVIDIA And Apple; Heathrow Airport Shutdown Triggers Global Travel Chaos; Heathrow Airport Shuts Down Due To Power Outage; Elon Musk Visits Defense Secretary Hegseth At Pentagon; Trump Announces Sixth Generation U.S. Fighter Jet, The F-47; Israeli Government Votes To Dismiss Head Of Internal Security Service; Man's Quest To Show U.S. Social Security Admin He's Alive. Aired 12-1p ET
Aired March 21, 2025 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[12:00:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Time to have that many news conferences. But I would say so far at least $4 trillion, $4 trillion is
coming in. Car companies, very importantly, a lot of the car companies that were going to build in Mexico or Canada are now building here. Because I
don't want cars from Canada. I don't want cars from Mexico. They want to do it, it's fine. But I want the car companies to build here, not -- you know,
they were building in Mexico three plants, big plants, really big plants and they were going to sell the cars right across the border. We wouldn't
have the jobs, we wouldn't have the profits, we wouldn't get the taxes, we get nothing. All we get is unemployment and empty factories. Those days are
over.
So now those three places are going to build here, but many more than that. We have a big one. Honda is building -- just announced a really big plant
in Indiana. Great state. Smart place to build. And we have many car companies coming here.
The steel -- the steel mills are going to be booming. Going to be booming. And many other things. You know, many other things come with that. But we
need that for defense. You know, you have -- there are certain things you have to have. You have to have steel.
We would have had -- if I didn't do in my first term, tariffs, to stop the onslaught because they were dumping steel in order to destroy our steel
plants, if I didn't do 50 percent and even 100 percent in certain cases, tariffs on steel, you wouldn't have a steel plant in the United States.
And Biden was unable to get rid of those tariffs because they threw off so much money. That his numbers, which didn't work anyway because his numbers
were terrible what he did, the way he spent money was so horrible and what he allowed to happen to energy. That's the other thing.
Energy is going to be like it's never been before. Mr. Vice President is here. Do you have anything to say while you're here? He's a very good vice
president.
J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm just here to watch the show. I think airplanes are pretty cool, so I want to go check this out.
TRUMP: The airplane is cool. It is cool.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just take off the trade war at this point though?
TRUMP: Well, I'll be speaking to President Xi. I have a great relationship with him. We're going to have a very good relationship. But we have a
trillion dollar deficit because of Biden with President Xi. More than that. I mean, I've heard $1.2 trillion. We have a deficit.
And I've explained that to President Xi. We also have a problem where he's allowing fentanyl to be sent into Mexico and then cross the border and, you
know, killing. I think the number is much higher than the 125, 115. I think it's closer to 300,000 people a year. And so that's a problem.
But they have a -- they have a tremendous surplus against the United States. And we don't want that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President (INAUDIBLE) coming to you asking for exemption for tariffs? Is that something that is under consideration by
you?
TRUMP: Well, people are coming to me and talking about tariffs. And a lot of people are asking me if they could have exceptions. And once you do that
for one, you have to do that for all.
I mean, generally -- I did something interestingly during two weeks ago. I gave the American car companies a break because it would have been unfair
if I didn't. And everybody said, oh, he changed his mind on tariffs. I didn't change my mind. I helped our, you know, sort of big three, big four.
I helped some of the American companies.
And instead of taking it properly, they said, oh, he changed it. I don't change, but the word flexibility is an important word. Sometimes there's
flexibility. So they'll be flexible. But basically, it's reciprocal, so that if China's charging us 50 percent or 30 percent or 20 percent, and I
don't mean China, I mean anybody, any country, Canada. Nobody knows that Canada's charging our dairy farmers. They have 270 percent tariffs. Nobody
knows that. Nobody knows that.
They have up to 400 percent. They have a couple of tariffs at 400 percent. Nobody knows that. Nobody talks about that. And remember with Canada, we
don't need their cars. We don't need their lumber. We don't need their energy. We don't need anything from Canada. And yet, it costs us $200
billion a year in subsidy to keep Canada afloat.
So when I say they should be a state, I mean that. I really mean that because we can't be expected to carry a country that is right next to us on
our border, it would be a great state, it would be a cherished state.
The taxes for Canadian citizens would go down in less than half. They don't spend money on military because they think we're going to protect them.
There many things that they do, like icebreakers. They want us to provide icebreakers for them. Oh, that's wonderful.
So the Canada, they've been very tough traders, too. I want to just tell you, all the people, they're tough traders. They trade very tough. And, you
know, the expression I use is, some people don't have the cards. I used that expression about a week and a half ago, right? Somebody was
negotiating who didn't have the cards, who's now, I think, saying that he wants to do it, and he's, I think we're going to have a big deal on that.
Very special something. We got to make a deal on that.
[12:05:14]
But Canada has been a very nasty negotiator against the United States, took advantage of the United States for a long time, but nobody knows that they
were getting 270 percent tariffs on dairy products.
PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I don't think I've heard you say this and all to talk about Canada becoming the 51st state.
Are you concerned that if they became the 51st state, they would be a very, very blue state? Very, very big and very, very blue.
TRUMP: No, they might be. But it would --- you know, you have that artificial line that goes, straight artifact that looked like it was drawn
by a ruler. Somebody with a -- I don't mean a ruler like a king, I mean like a ruler like a ruler. This way.
And it's just an artificial line that was drawn in the sand or in the ice. You know, can I tell you, Peter, just you add that to this country? What a
beautiful landmass. The most beautiful landmass anywhere in the world. And it was just cut off for whatever reason. It would be great.
Now, is it liberal? Maybe. But, you know, a conservative, until I got involved, because I don't care who wins up there. I frankly probably would
do better with the liberal than the conservative if you want to the truth.
But just a little while ago, before I got involved and totally changed the election, which I don't care about, probably it's our advantage actually.
But the conservative was leading against, I call him Governor Trudeau, the conservative was leading by 35 points. So, you know, so I don't know about
that.
I think Canada is a place like a lot of other places. If you have a good candidate, the candidate's going to win.
DOOCY: The two astronauts that you just helped --
TRUMP: Yes.
DOOCY: --save from space, they didn't get any overtime pay for all that extra time. They got five dollars per diem. For 286 days that is $1,430 in
extra pay.
Is there anything the administration can do to get them -- to make them whole?
TRUMP: Well nobody's ever mentioned this to me. If I have to, I'll pay that of my own pocket, OK? I'll get it for them. I'll take care of that. I like
that. I'll pay it right out of my -- is that all? That's not a lot for what they had to go through.
And I want to thank Elon Musk, by the way, because think if we don't have him. You know, there's only so long, even though they're in the capsule up
there, that the body starts to deteriorate after 9 or 10 months and gets really bad after 14, 15 months with the bones and the blood and all the
things that you've been reporting on very well.
And if we don't have Elon, they could be up there a long time. Who else is going to get him? And I just want to thank him. He's going through a lot,
what they're doing to him. And these people are going to be caught and they're going to be prosecuted.
And from what they tell me, I see this just by watching your programs and reading the news. But from what they tell me, they could get 20 years in
jail, and they'll get it. I'll tell you. There's going to be no leniency and there'll be no pardons. I can tell you that right now.
DOOCY: You said 20, 20 years in jail and then maybe they'll go to one of these prisons in El Salvador. Do you think with the way that the judges
have been issuing injunctions, it would be easier or harder to send these Tesla domestic terrorists to a jail in El Salvador than these MS-13 or Tren
de Aragua guys?
TRUMP: Well, I view these people as terrorists just like others. These are -- when I looked at those showrooms burning and those cars, not one or two,
like 7, 8, 10 burning, exploding all over the place, these are terrorists. You didn't have that on January 6th, I can tell you. You didn't have
anything like that on January 6th, which is sort of amazing because on January 6th, the Democrats were talking. Nobody was killed other than a
very beautiful young woman, Ashli Babbitt. Nobody was killed.
And you look at what's going on now with these terrorists. These are terrorists. And that's an organized event. You know, take a look at their
signs. Take a look. They're all made by the same sign company. A nice, expensive job.
Now, these are -- the people that finance it are, in my opinion, in just as big a trouble as the people that are setting the match and setting the
fires. So we'll see.
It's under very serious investigation by the FBI and by the Justice Department. These people are terrorists. OK? Yes, go ahead, behind you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, what do you say to American military families where they're seeing Elon Musk at the Pentagon today are hearing
about Defense Department cuts and their thoughts are immediately going to the safety of their loved ones who were employed?
[12:10:00]
TRUMP: Well, we're making our country strong. And when they see a thing like that and they hear that story about Elon and China, what they should
do is realize that "The New York Times" is a corrupt institution because I think they're the ones -- they knew that story wasn't true. Nobody believed
that story.
People that -- when I first caught, they laughed when they heard this story. Nobody believed it. That the Pentagon was giving him a briefing on
what war with China would look like and he has businesses. No, they made that up because it's a good story to make up. They're very dishonest
people.
Look, I have it with "The Times." And you'll see more and more of it.
To me, it's a very, very, you know, a very dishonest organization. But a story like that is made up. It's total fiction.
And I just wanted to make sure. I called up Chief of Staff and I called up Pete. And I said, is there any truth to that? Absolutely not. He's there
for DOGE, not there for China.
And if you ever mention China, I think he'd walk out of the room. He wouldn't -- he wouldn't take it anyway. So it's just a made-up story.
Nobody's taking better care of the military.
One of the things that I know that Pete's doing is he's talking about a lot of the civilian staff. And we're going to get them other jobs.
You know, we're going have a lot of jobs in this country because -- but we don't want to have wasteful jobs. We want a meaningful jobs. And those are
all wasteful jobs. Those are jobs that not only military, but jobs where people don't show up.
We had -- you -- take a look at Department of Education. I've never seen so many buildings with the names on it. You go past one after another.
Department of Education. And they're empty. The people don't show up. You know why? Because they have other jobs. Because they're playing golf. Or
they're playing something. They're doing something. And we have a lot of great people, but we have to move that back to the states.
We're going to make our country strong and we're going to get people much better jobs. Because we have companies moving into our country the likes of
which we've never seen before. Nothing like this has happened. And it's automatic. They don't want to pay the tariffs. How do you get -- how do you
avoid paying the tariffs? You build your plant in the United States. And it's going to be -- it's a beautiful thing to see. I see it.
So far, I would say $4 trillion. Nobody's ever heard of numbers. No country's ever heard of numbers like that, $4 trillion. And those are the
best ones.
The biggest best chip maker in the world. I don't -- I'm not a fan of the CHIP Act, where you give billions away. Billions of dollars away to
companies that don't need it. And it won't bring them here. I'm giving nothing away. All they're doing is coming here to their building because
they want to avoid.
Remember this on the tariffs, too, because that's going to be, you know, Liberation Day, April 2nd. It's reciprocal. If they charge us, we charge
them. So somebody will say, well, how much are the tariffs? Very fair.
If India, as an example, has been very bad to us on tariffs, they charge 100 percent, 200 percent. Whatever they charge.
Now, Europe just announced they're lowering the tariffs on cars. You know, we charge like a joke, 2.5 percent. That's what this country charges.
Europe just announced that they're reducing their tariffs on cars to 2.5 percent. It's nice. But they also have non-monetary tariffs, where they
make it impossible for the cars to get in, even without the dollars on them and their dollar size. It's called a non-monetary tariff, where they put on
controls where no matter what happens, because they don't want cars. They don't want the American car in their market. And yet they send us millions
of cars. They send us big agriculture. They don't want our agriculture. They don't want anything from us. European Union is very tough. But now,
it's fair. So whatever they do to us, we do to them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAIN ASHER, CNN ANCHOR: You've just been watching President Donald Trump answer a whole host of questions at the Oval Office there. Many topics
covered, including, of course, tariffs. He referred to April 2nd as being Liberation Day. That's when new tariffs kick in.
He doubled down on making Canada the 51st state, saying that they don't spend money on defense because they assume that the United States is going
to protect them, and doubling down on why becoming the 51st state of the United States would actually benefit Canada.
Some other key topics that he touched upon, saying that he was hopeful that the confines of a deal in terms of the Ukraine ceasefire will be laid out.
Obviously, American officials are meeting with Russian and Ukrainian officials separately in Riyadh on Monday.
And just in terms of two other topics that were discussed, the idea of deportations of migrants to El Salvador over the weekend without due
process, without judicial review. A lot of people have been talking about. That's been leading the headlines. He doubled down on the judge who blocked
those deportations, calling him a radical left lunatic.
And, of course, finally, he was asked about Elon Musk being at the Pentagon today, whether or not topics such as a potential war with China was
discussed. He denied that vehemently.
[12:15:09]
All right. I want to turn now to some other breaking news that we have been following.
All planes at London's Heathrow Airport remain grounded. Tens of thousands of travelers are stranded. And the ripple effects are being felt across the
globe. A major power outage overnight has forced the closure of one of the world's busiest airports, which normally handles about 1,300 combined
takeoffs and landings each day.
Officials say a huge fire at a nearby electrical substation knocked out power. London's counterterrorism police are leading the investigation and
say, at this time, there is no indication of foul play.
Britain's energy secretary says the backup supply power for Heathrow was actually also affected by the substation fire. Critics are questioning how
such crucial and critical infrastructure could fail.
A short time ago, the lights inside the main building were switched back on after a British utility company said it restored power to parts of Heathrow
on an interim basis.
CNN's Anna Stewart joins us live now from Heathrow Airport. Anna, what is the very latest here?
ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So as you said, power has returned to Heathrow, at least in parts. In Terminal 4, we believe we're going see
lights. But it remains to be seen whether that will be the case by the end of the day. They've said on an interim basis, and of course, power needs to
be back kind of substantially and not on an interim basis if flights are to take off at midnight, which was the plan.
Heathrow this morning said they hope to reopen at midnight tonight, but that very much relies on the power situation.
Lots of people questioning why this would happen, you know, at fire at an electoral substation. It's one thing. But what about the redundancies? What
about the backups? How could this take out one of the world's busiest airport, indeed, actually Europe's busiest airport?
We've had a comment in the last hour from Willie Walsh, who the director general of IATA, the Association for Airlines, saying, firstly, how is it
that critical infrastructure of national and global importance is totally dependent on a single power source without an alternative? If that is the
case, as it seems, then it is a clear planning failure by the airport.
And, of course, this has impacted some 200,000 passengers already today because Heathrow Airport isn't just somewhere where people, you know, come
to London, travel to and from London. This is an airport where people connect. It's a major hub. People traveling from Asia to the U.S. often
connect through Heathrow. And this has had a big impact on airports all around Europe who have had to take in diverted flights. Over 100 flights
were actually in the air when the airport was forced to close.
The disruption has been huge. The costs will be mounting. And if Heathrow Airport doesn't reopen at midnight, those costs will only get higher. Zain.
ASHER: All right. Anna Stewart, live for us there. Thank you so much.
Let's go straight to our Richard Quest in Sao Paulo for some more perspective on this. So, Richard, you were actually caught up in this
travel mess yourself. Walk us through that.
RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Yes. I had boarded British Airways Flight 240 to go from Sao Paulo to London. I was on my way back
from assignment in Santiago and Chile. And we got on the plane and we waited and we waited. And we all knew what had happened with this fire
because we were looking at online and BA kept us fully informed.
I mean, it was one of those things where the captain kept saying, I'm trying to get more information. There are loads of meetings taking place at
Heathrow. We just don't know.
I think in our heart of hearts, we all knew once we heard that the airport wasn't going to open until midnight Friday night that it was going to be
cancelled, and sure enough, the flight was cancelled.
I've always believed in these situations you just have to help yourself. So I grabbed a cab and I made it down here to a hotel in Sao Paulo.
And now the tough question what to do because the airline is saying that my flight is now rescheduled for tonight at the same time. Essentially,
they've delayed it by 24 hours, but of course, who knows?
Because I have one thing in my favor, as a one thing in my favor. My plane is actually here. All right? The 787 is sitting on the ground out at GRU
and the crew are somewhere else waiting to take it back tonight.
For anybody else, if your plane hasn't left or not whatever, it's a -- who knows? This is going to last days and days and days.
ASHER: It likely will last days. But my producer actually just told me some breaking news that we just got.
QUEST: Yes.
ASHER: Told me in my ear that Heathrow is actually going to resume some flights later on today. So in the U.K., it's about 5.30 in the evening.
QUEST: Right.
ASHER: Right now, they're going to resume some flights. Just give us your perspective on that, because --
QUEST: Right. So --
ASHER: -- obviously, we're about tens of thousands of passengers stranded worldwide.
QUEST: Right. So now you're talking about what they call rebuilding the network. All right? You've got planes in the wrong places, passengers all
over, crew in-hours, out-hours, you've got all sorts of issues. And the computers which are highly sophisticated will start telling BA's
management, do that flight first, do this flight. You need to send that flight out of London because you've got more passengers that need to
connect in two days' time on that one. So the computer will be assisting.
[12:20:18]
Obviously, the dispatchers and the airline controllers will be making the final decisions. For instance, you definitely want to get a New York
service. That's your number one billion dollar route. If possible you want a Hong Kong or an Asia service. You want to try and build the network back
to get flights into the planes and crew where you need them.
But it's going to take days because people, you've got passengers, you've got to get back and you've got the next day's passengers that have to
travel.
So look, I hate to put it in such depressing terms, but if you're not booked and you've got to travel, then you really are going to have a bit of
nasty business. I would be looking at getting to Paris and use Eurostar, finding other ways to get to Europe and then come across.
ASHER: Yes, because, of course, if you get to Europe, at least, there are, of course, other airports that you can rely on beyond Heathrow.
QUEST: Yes. Imagine flight to Manchester, Birmingham.
ASHER: I was mentioning to my previous -- city, et cetera.
QUEST: Yes.
ASHER: And Richard, in terms of --
QUEST: And Manchester. You've got Manchester. Yes.
ASHER: Just in terms of how quickly Heathrow has actually managed to get flights restored. I mean, we were -- I was just talking to Anna Stewart who
was essentially saying that parts of the electricity at Heathrow Airport have been restored on an interim basis.
The last we were getting was that they were trying to restore it more permanently. Just in terms of how quickly they're actually able to get some
flights up and running back to Heathrow, are you surprised by how quickly this appears to be resolving itself?
QUEST: No, no, I'm not. Because there's nothing wrong with Heathrow. All right? Heathrow is OK. It's not like the incident is at Heathrow. All
that's happened is, I mean I say all, is that Heathrow doesn't have power.
The moment you restore power. Now, yes, there will be some systems that will have to be rebooted. There will be some uninterruptible power systems
that may have been come off. There'll be some computers. Yes, there will be a lot of rebooting, re-engineering. But once that's up and running, it's
not as if any infrastructure has to be replaced at Heathrow.
What I think is crucial is this -- is what Willie Walsh has been saying, which is, how does Heathrow fall over? How do three, four, five terminals,
actually three, but you know what I mean, how do they all fall over? How does so much chaos?
We've now got airports all over Europe filling up to the brim because of it. Why did the backup systems fail?
And we've had this before in the UK. Is it a cost-cutting issue? Is it an infrastructure? Not enough money was spent in the first place.
Willie Walsh is right. A fire at one substation, however close to Heathrow, should not have crippled the airport at this magnitude. And that will be
the focus of attention.
ASHER: Yes, of course, there's going to be an investigation. Questions need to be answered, as you point out, and as Willie Walsh said, this obviously
cannot happen.
Again, Richard Quest live for us there. Thank you so much. We'll actually have the latest from airport officials in terms of giving more information
to the public later on today. We're to take a quick break. And we'll be back with more news right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:25:20]
ASHER: All right. Now, back to Washington. President Donald Trump announced a new F-47 fighter jet moments ago, and he answered questions from the
press, including several about Elon Musk and his visit to the Pentagon earlier today.
Pete Hegseth says, the two men discussed ways of finding more efficiency and cost savings. It comes as the tech billionaire makes drastic cuts to
the federal government.
And as critics question possible conflicts of interest, Musk's two companies Tesla and SpaceX have contracts, rather, with the Department of
Defense, estimated to be worth billions of dollars.
Let's go live now to the Pentagon, where we find CNN's Oren Liebermann.
So, Oren, just in terms of what Donald Trump said at that brief press conference with reporters, he essentially said, we don't want to have a
potential war with China at all, but we are ready if we do.
And by the way, I would never show any of those secrets or information to Elon Musk. He's a businessman. He's got business in China. And, of course,
it would be a conflict of interest.
Obviously, slamming the reports that we saw in "The New York Times." Just walk us through what we learned from Donald Trump earlier.
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, the administration has obviously come out very hard against those reports from the White House to
the Pentagon, and we got more of that here today.
"The New York Times" had reported that Elon Musk was to get a classified briefing on war plans for China, which would be incredibly sensitive
material shared with only or only at the highest classification level.
There was immediate pushback. And you see that pushback here continue with Musk being in the Pentagon here for right about 90 minutes. He showed up
just before nine o'clock and left right around 10:20 this morning.
There was supposed to be a meeting in the tank and that's a room where there are classified meetings with members of the chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff. We saw the crowd waiting outside there. We saw the acting chairman of the Joint Chiefs go in, as well as the Chief of Staff for
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
But then Musk never showed up. He ended up going upstairs for his meeting with Hegseth and left a short time later.
We had a chance to ask him a couple questions. We asked him how the meeting went. He says it's always a great meeting. I've been here before, you know.
He didn't really address questions on what the meeting was about or whether it was about China. Instead, it was Trump who was asked about that.
He says he saw the initial report. It then says he reached out to Hegseth and asked what Musk was doing here, whether it was related to China. And he
says his defense secretary told him, he's there for DOGE. He's not there for China. So you see the continued pushback on that as Musk made his visit
to the Pentagon today.
ASHER: All right. Oren Liebermann at the Pentagon live for us there. Thank you so much.
Well, let's bring in CNN military analyst Cedric Leighton, who joins us live now. He's a retired U.S. Air Force intelligence officer.
So you are the perfect person to speak to about the initial announcement that we got from the White House, from the Oval Office in terms of Donald
Trump and Pete Hegseth speaking to reporters.
They announced a brand-new contract with Boeing for a sixth generation of fighter jet, which they called the F-47. Of course, no coincidence. Donald
Trump is the 47th U.S. president.
And just a couple of things that President Trump mentioned. He said America's enemies will not know what hit them. This is the next generation.
Hopefully, we won't have to use it. Pete Hegseth also coming out and saying that this military vehicle, this jet, was really about projecting power on
the international stage. It was about military dominance. And it was also about reestablishing deterrence.
Give us your take on what you heard earlier.
CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes. Zain, that's very interesting. It's, you know, the F-47 is basically what they call the Next Generation
Air Dominance aircraft.
So the -- normally, we divide aircraft into fighters and bombers. Well, that distinction may be a little bit hard to make in this particular case.
It sounds like this aircraft is going to be a multi role fighter slash bomber.
[12:30:08]
So that gives it a lot of capabilities that the current multi-role fighters, the F-22 and the F-35, may not have at least to the extent that
they're advertised for the F-47.
The F-47 is supposed to be a replacement for the fifth generation F-22 Fighter. But, you know, as you mentioned Secretary Hegseth did talk about
the different types of threats that are out there. He alluded to them.
One of the things to keep in mind is that the Chinese have revealed some prototypes that appear to be their version of a sixth-generation fighter.
So we'll see, you know, how close those aircraft compare to each other and if the F-47, you know, has that dominance that they are seeking.
If it does, then the United States will be in a good place to project its power continuously, at least through the Indo-Pacific region. Whether or
not that extends to other parts of the world remains to be seen, of course.
ASHER: Pete Hegseth, when he spoke, said that this was a program that the previous administration had considered basically stopping. What does it
tell you about the administration's priorities, especially when you think about the fact that earlier in that press conference, you talked about the
fallout from dismantling the Department of Education.
And, of course, there have been numerous cuts across the Department of Defense that Elon Musk is continuing. What does this announcement tell you
about where their head is at in terms of priorities?
LEIGHTON: Certainly, this seems to be one of the top, if not the top priority, Zain. And one quick note on what the previous administration, the
Biden administration, did with the Next Generation Air Dominance aircraft, they actually had been testing this aircraft for over five years. There
were flight tests for this aircraft.
And in the summertime, the Air Force took a look at the requirements for the NGAD, or the Next Generation Air Dominance airplane, and decided to
defer the decision to the next administration. They thought in December that they could resume the production and the testing of this aircraft. And
that, in fact, turned out to be the case because the Trump administration then obviously has now approved the development of this-- of this plane.
So there are -- you know, this is one of those continuous streams, but, of course, they're seeking credit for developing this airplane and then, of
course, bringing it into the U.S. Air Force's inventory.
ASHER: All right. CNN military analyst Cedric Leighton, thank you so much. Appreciate it.
LEIGHTON: Thanks, Zain. OK.
ASHER: All right, still to come.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Israel will fight and Israel will win.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: A warning for Hamas as Israel doubles down on its offensive into Gaza.
And as we've been talking about air travel upended all over the world, as Heathrow Airport says, it will resume some flights later today after being
closed for hours. We've got an update for you just ahead.
And later.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We recently received notification of Ned's passing. We offer our sincerest condolences.
PAMELA JOHNSON, HUSBAND DECLARED DEAD BY SOCIAL SECURITY: Well, it was a little weird because he was sitting next to me drinking coffee.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: Roughly 9,000 people are mistakenly declared dead by the U.S. Social Security Administration every year. We'll speak to one without his mission
to prove that he's still alive.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:35:06]
ASHER: All right. Welcome back to ONE WORLD. I'm Zain Asher.
Good news for travelers. Heathrow Airport will resume some flights later on today. This comes after chaos and cancellations because of a power outage.
Tens of thousands of travelers are still trying to figure out what to do next, including a teacher stranded with her students in Dubai.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JANE DAVIS, PRIMARY SCHOOL HEADTEACHER: We were just leaving the apartment this morning around about six o'clock, and a news flash came up on my phone
to say that Heathrow Airport was closed. It'd be closed the whole day until midnight. And your heart just sinks because you know that it's going to be
a tough day.
It's bad enough for you with your family, but when you're responsible for eight children and you just -- who are ready, who've had an amazing week,
but are just ready to be home, you know, you've got a heavy day in front of you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: For more insight into all that's happening with Heathrow, I want to bring in Sally Gethin from London. She's a travel and aviation expert, a
journalist and a commentator. Sally, thank you so much for being with us.
So we just got some good news earlier that some flights are going to be resumed just in terms of being able to travel and land in Heathrow. Just
explain to us how the flights are prioritized, just in terms of who gets to be at the front of the queue, in terms of the route that are prioritized
landing at Heathrow.
SALLY GETHIN, TRAVEL AND AVIATION JOURNALIST AND COMMENTATOR: Yes, so obviously, thousands upon thousands of passengers will have been disrupted
today, regardless of whether the airport is going to reopen, possibly in a limited way in the next few hours.
And already, Heathrow has said that it will prioritize the disrupted passengers. So that means that as flights resume, they will be working very
closely with the airlines, firstly, to use up all available seat capacity on the flights that were on the seats that were previously booked for
flights that were going to operate normally for tomorrow.
Each airline will be lobbying in its own way to get its passengers on those flights back into Heathrow because they do not want to have to divert more
flights or reroute them any more than they need to. So it's a discussion that the airport has with the airlines. Heathrow is very capacity
constrained and there's only so many slots that can be operated on any given day.
ASHER: So, how does it also affect, not just Heathrow but some of the other airports around London, be it Luton, be it City, be it Stansted? Because,
obviously, you're going to have some passengers who saw their flights were cancelled earlier today and decided to take a different route, perhaps via
Europe, via a layover somewhere else in Europe, Germany or Switzerland, et cetera, and then who sort of chose to go to Luton or Stansted. Doesn't it
affect those airports as well?
[12:40:11]
GETHIN: Well, we need to remember that here in the U.K. that airlines are obliged by law to actually ensure the safe passage of their passengers to
their destination. So passengers, if they want to, they can dig into their own pockets to pay for their own flights, but then they're not obligated
to. It's their chosen carrier that has that obligation and will put those passengers on any available flight and be diverting those flights,
obviously, but they have this obligation to look after them, even if it means the passengers stranded and need a hotel for the night, unless those
passengers ask for refund and rebook their own way.
I mean, in terms of the spillover airports, you're absolutely right. I mean, there are a number of airports in the -- in the Southeast area, but
they're also busy as well. So the spillover will have gone to those airports.
But what we're actually seeing is many airports further away, perhaps in Scotland, in the north of England, in Ireland, taking the disrupted
passengers. And really, many airports around the world are having to take passengers as well, because obviously a lot of the inbound traffic, which
was coming from Asia Pacific, North America, from, you know, the Middle East, for example. They will have had to turn back or find alternative
spillover airports in their regions.
ASHER: And so you talked about the sort of spillover and the knock-on effect. I mean, this is going to cost airlines hundreds of millions of
dollars, if not more, because obviously, aside from the fact that you've got these flights delayed and they are having to pay for passengers to be
able to sort of rebook at a later date, if they want to.
On top of that, the passengers who are forced to stay the night in the country of their origin, airlines are going to have to pay for their hotel
and their accommodation, their transportation to those hotels and potentially their food as well.
GETHIN: Yes. Now, this is for U.K. and E.U. airline operators. This rule does not necessarily affect the U.S. or other parts of the world. So it's
those passengers on those, the European and U.K. airlines that are entitled to those -- to those options.
But, yes, so airlines really do have to do that. And obviously it will leave them out of pocket. Unfortunately, that's why airlines, you know, are
so keen on profitability because they operate in such no margins. It's even said that airlines only make the equivalent of the price of a cup of coffee
in profit per passenger, in actual fact.
And it really hurts them when they have to, you know, cover the cost. And that's without thinking about the rerouting, the diversion of those
flights, which, you know, can run into thousands upon thousands of dollars per flight as well.
Ultimately, it will take a long time for passengers as well to be truly compensated for the disruption, because obviously in some cases, those
airlines may not be able to cover all necessities for passengers and they might have to use their own credit cards, for example, to do to do that.
But they are eligible for getting that reimbursed later.
ASHER: All right. Sally Gethin, live for us there. Thank you so much for your perspective. We appreciate it.
All right. Still to come. Benjamin Netanyahu fires a top security official as the Israeli military ramps up its attacks in Gaza. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:45:42]
ASHER: Israel's defense minister is instructing his forces to seize more territory in Gaza and evacuate its residence until all Hamas hostages are
released. Israel Katz says until then, the IDF will intensify its airstrikes and ground operations in the enclave. Warning, the seizures
could be permanent.
The Palestinian Health Ministry reports more than 500 people have been killed just this week alone. The overall death toll in Gaza, since the war
began in October of 2023, is nearly 50,000.
Meantime, Israelis took cover as air raid sirens blared into the night sky on Thursday. The Israeli military says it intercepted one rocket fired from
Hamas toward Tel Aviv, while two others fell into an open area.
In Jerusalem, protesters calling for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's resignation scuffled with police outside his home.
Demonstrators tried to get through the police barriers, as you can see here, some of them holding signs saying, time to overthrow the dictator. It
comes as the Netanyahu government voted to dismiss the head of Shin Bet, the country's internal security service.
CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: The reasons for the firing of the Shin Bet director depend on who you ask. The Israeli prime minister and
his allies have insisted that it is because the Shin Bet director lost the confidence of the prime minister, that the prime minister no longer trusts
him.
And -- but Shin Bet, head, Ronen Bar, and critics of the Israeli prime minister have offered an entirely different narrative, which is that the
Israeli prime minister has sought to dismiss him in particular because the Shin Bet is now investigating Netanyahu's closest aids over alleged to ties
to Qatar, accusations that they -- that some of those aids inappropriately lobbied on behalf of Qatar including receiving payments from the Qatari
government.
Netanyahu has insisted that that investigation was only opened after Netanyahu began to lose confidence in Bar and effectively suggesting that
this a form of blackmail by the head of the Shin Bet.
But it is important to note how incredibly unprecedented this current crisis is in the Israeli government. Shin Bet has never been dismissed
before. And the attorney general of Israel has said, that the way in which he was dismissed was simply not legal.
And now we have this injunction by the Supreme Court until at least a hearing can be held, certainly something to watch as this develops, as it
is causing enormous tensions within Israeli society.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ASHER: The Sudanese army is celebrating major battlefield victory after retaking the presidential palace in the capital of Khartoum. The place has
been under the control of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces since the early days of the country's civil war.
The Sudanese army says it will now continue to push to retake the rest of the capital. Much of it is still held by the RSF along with huge parts of
the country.
[12:50:05]
All right. Still to come. We speak to a man who was mistakenly declared dead by the U.S. government and what he did to prove that actually he's
still alive and kicking.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ASHER: A judge in California is under scrutiny for posting a pretty unusual video expressing his frustration over a court ruling. This is Judge
Lawrence VanDyke holding a gun as he lashes out against his appeals court colleagues, seven to four decision, to uphold California's ban on gun
magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition.
Van Dyke's colleague, Judge Marsha Berzon, called the video, quote, wildly improper amounting to VanDyke appointing himself essentially as an expert
witness.
All right. Despite being very much alive, Ned Johnson was actually declared dead last month by the U.S. Social Security Administration. He's one of
around 9,000 Americans mistakenly reported to have died each year. And the onus is on them to prove that they're still alive.
CNN's Nick Watt has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm glad you're alive.
NED JOHNSON, DECLARED DEAD BY SOCIAL SECURITY: Yes. So am I.
WATT (voice-over): He's living, he's breathing, but 82-year-old Ned Johnson was declared dead.
WATT: The first you heard was this letter February 19th from the bank saying, we recently received notification of Ned's passing. We offer our
sincerest condolences.
P. JOHNSON: Well, it was a little weird because he was sitting next to me drinking coffee.
WATT (voice-over): Is there a connection to the cost-cutter-in-chief?
TRUMP: There is one person on Social Security who's 316 years old.
WATT (voice-over): And his dogged DOGE lieutenant. Claiming tens of millions of dead people over 100 years old are receiving Social Security
checks. They're not. No matter.
TRUMP: We're going to find out where that money's going and it's not going to be pretty.
WATT (voice-over): February 13th, a DOGE employee began working within the Social Security Administration, analyzing improper payments and the death
master file.
February 18th, Ned's dead.
WATT: You were declared dead just a few days after DOGE started working in the death data at Social Security.
N. JOHNSON: That is a curious coincidence.
P. JOHNSON: It: is. So there's a lot of unanswered questions, but I think that maybe we'll never know.
[12:55:59]
WATT (voice-over): Ned was among the 73 million Americans receiving monthly Social Security checks. He says not only did his checks stop, but they also
clawed back all his payments since his alleged last day on Earth, November 23rd last year.
WATT: Social Security told the bank the dollar amount they wanted back.
N. JOHNSON: Take just the amount out of it, out of this account. And they said, OK.
P. JOHNSON: They just take it without permission, but apparently, they can do that because they have gotten this form from whatever hospital or --
WATT: Right. The form that no one can say where it came from or actually what it is.
P. JOHNSON: Yes. Yes.
WATT (voice-over): This is not a new phenomenon. Roughly 9,000 people are mistakenly declared dead by the SSA each year. And?
WATT: It's down to you to prove you're not dead?
N. JOHNSON: Right. Somebody's disabled, they can't get out of a wheelchair or whatever, and they live 100 miles from the nearest Social Security
office. What are they going to do?
WATT (voice-over): Ned says he waited eight hours at this federal building in Seattle to prove he's alive. Now this building appears to be earmarked
for closure.
WATT: I presume you've asked Social Security how, why this happened?
P. JOHNSON: No answer. And we have really no way of communicating with them again.
WATT: An apology?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ASHER: All right. That does it for this hour of ONE WORLD. I'm Zain Asher. Appreciate you watching. "AMANPOUR" is up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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