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White House: Iran War will Lower Gas Prices in the "Long Term"; Pentagon: About 140 Service Members Injured, 8 Severely, in War so Far; CENTCOM Says U.S. Strikes Hit Iranian Missile Launchers; CNN's Fred Pleitgen Reports from Inside Iran; Sources: Iran is Laying Mines in Strait of Hormuz; Live Nation Settles Antitrust Lawsuit with DOJ 3- 3:30p ET

Aired March 10, 2026 - 15:00   ET

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

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[15:00:22]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We have breaking news on the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. The Pentagon says that approximately 140 U.S. service members have been injured since it began 11 days ago. That includes eight who were seriously wounded. Also, just moments ago, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt addressed the war's impact on skyrocketing fuel prices here in the United States. What's this.

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KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The U.S. military is drawing up additional options following the President's directive to continue keeping the Strait of Hormuz open. I will not broadcast what those options look like, but just know the President is not afraid to use them. Rest assured to the American people, the recent increase in oil and gas prices is temporary, and this operation will result in lower gas prices in the long term.

Once the national security objectives of Operation Epic Fury are fully achieved, Americans will see oil and gas prices drop rapidly, potentially even lower than they were prior to the start of the operation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Let's go live to the White House with CNN's Kristen Holmes, who was there for the briefing.

Kristen, what more stood out to you from what Leavitt said?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, just on that comment about gas prices alone, she never gave any indication of when those prices would drop. I mean, there's a midterm coming up, and we also know that Americans are hurting. One of the things the White House has actually pointed to since President Trump took office was gas prices. That was their big push when it came to affordability, saying, look how much we've lowered gas prices. Now, they're saying that they're going to be astronomically high, is what we believe. But on top of that, there's no specification on how long that's going to be, and that goes into the larger question of just how long this war is going to take place.

We have heard now from a number of officials, including Pete Hegseth and now Karoline Leavitt, who have essentially said it is up to one man and one man alone to determine the timeline of this war, and that man is President Trump. She listed out a bunch of objectives here, but then said at the end of the day, President Trump is going to be the one who decides when Iran has reached this place of unconditional surrender. That it's not actually about surrendering, but it's instead about not having capabilities to build missiles, and then listed a laundry list of other things that Iran was not going to be able to do or not going to be able to have. But, again, did not give any indication of how long this was going to be, only to say that President Trump would make that determination.

And, one of the things that we have seen over the last several weeks has been President Trump changing his mind and giving different versions of what is happening in these various interviews and press conferences. I mean, I will just give you yesterday as one example, where he said at one point that it was almost over, that he thought it was going to be wrapping up pretty much complete, is what he said, and then shortly afterwards said that we've won a lot, but we haven't won enough.

There are still so many questions even coming out of that, and it seems as though they are intentionally trying to not box themselves in.

SANCHEZ: All right. Kristen Holmes, thank you so much for that update from the White House.

Let's go to Haley Britzky now.

Because, Haley, you have some new reporting on the service members that have been injured so far.

HALEY BRITZKY, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, Boris, so we're hearing today 140 U.S. troops so far have been injured in total in the past 10 days since these military operations began. The vast majority of those service members have since returned to duty. So, Chief Pentagon Spokesperson Sean Parnell says 108 of that roughly 140 number have returned to duty, so likely not very serious injuries.

But eight service members within that number are considered seriously wounded. And an official has told us previously that that means things like being in critical condition, possibly needing surgery, being in the hospital. They say that that category means that death is possible, if not imminent. So, certainly, our -- our thoughts are with those eight service members specifically.

But it -- it does get at what the President has said previously, as has Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, that casualties are expected in this conflict, they've said, that they expect that number to grow. And this is after six service members who have been killed in the conflict were brought home on Saturday. The seventh brought home just last night to Dover. Boris.

SANCHEZ: Haley Britzky, thank you so much for that reporting. Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: As the U.S. military is vowing to unleash a powerful new wave of intense attacks on Iran today, the Pentagon releasing this new video that it says shows American forces destroying Iranian missile launchers. The Pentagon also says the U.S. military recently dropped dozens of 2,000-pound penetrating bombs on Iranian missile sites that were buried deep underground.

[15:05:04]

Iran continues firing back, launching a fresh round of attacks, not just on U.S. assets but on countries all around the Gulf region. New video from northern Iraq shows a large fire burning near the UAE consulate. The foreign ministry says the strike caused material damage but no injuries.

And this is some new video in from Dubai. It is over a beach. It shows a fighter jet firing a missile at what appears to be an Iranian drone, though the video ends before we see whether the missile made impact. CNN's Erin Burnett is in Tel Aviv for us with the very latest there.

Erin, what are you learning?

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR, ERIN BURNETT "OUTFRONT": Well, you know, Brianna, as we were all watching the White House Press Secretary give her press conference here as well, of course, we're in the midst of the heaviest round of strikes, according to the Pentagon, going on in Iran, which our team on the ground is experiencing here over the past hour. Just over an hour, we've had a couple of rounds of sirens with missiles intercepted, some of them quite loud, as they are in -- in closer proximity than others.

And it comes in the context of President Trump saying, and I think it's just important to say what she did there, Karoline Leavitt, when she shifted the definition of surrender to unconditional surrender, not being what Tehran says it's going to do, but Iran's unconditional surrender will be what Trump says Iran is doing, regardless of what Iran says.

A hugely significant and massive shift in the definition of what that word is. And it also comes, as she talked about, the energy situation, the Strait of Hormuz. Our Nic Robertson just arrived in Kuwait, come from Saudi Arabia, where you've seen, you know, obviously the embassy in Saudi, obviously one of the key air bases there also has been hit now where you are in Kuwait. But the Strait of Hormuz and the energy situation that you are in the midst of, Nic, obviously central. And the Energy Department had briefly put up a post that stopped everyone in their tracks because they said a U.S. Navy vessel had escorted a ship successfully through the canal -- through the Strait of Hormuz, I'm sorry.

They then took that down and said, no, that had not happened. And talking to shippers there that have ships stuck there, none of them saw anything like that happen either. But, you know, the energy situation is at the edge of a catastrophe, Nic, no matter who is defining what surrender, you know, hypothetically looks like.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, absolutely. And I think one of the definitions we heard from the press secretary there as well was that unconditional surrender as the President determines it. But part of that determination is when Iran can no longer fire missiles back, whatever they say. And I think a lot of focus will go on the Strait of Hormuz.

Of course, here in Kuwait, the streets are relatively busy, but not as busy as they would be normally during Ramadan. Literally standing here, we're 50 miles away out in that direction to Iran. And I can see lights of ships on the horizon there. Earlier on, they -- we could see them. There were oil tankers out there. These are the tankers that can't get out through the Straits of Hormuz. This is a city that's living on the edge. It is so close to Iran. It has less time than probably most of the other Gulf states to intercept missiles, more than 200 ballistic missiles, more than 400 drones, more than 90 people here injured, four service personnel killed. Of course, six U.S. service personnel died here in an Iranian strike as well.

So, this city is on edge. Government workers, because the government ministry was hit, they work from home. The parties that children should be going to these evenings for this time in Ramadan, the government's canceled those. They're not having those.

So, life is not as it was. And tonight, people will literally be on the edge of their seats because they will be waiting to see whether Iran can get those missiles here or not. Last night was the quietest night so far, two ballistic missiles, one drone. But tonight, again, people will be watching, and they don't know what time the missiles will come. They normally come at night. But they've hit anything from U.S. bases to the civilian airport to oil infrastructure to government buildings. It is a scary time for people here, as it is all along the Gulf.

I'm looking down. I do see the cars out there, but people are telling me that's just not -- not what it would normally be during Ramadan on a normal year.

BURNETT: Yes. No, and obviously, you know, you break fast, and then at night, you know, people are going out to see their family. They're going out to do that, seeing so much less of that. Obviously, not -- not much of that in -- in Israel, but the quiet is palpable. And the extent that there are people on the street, they run immediately for shelter when those sirens sound. We did, Nic, also here have fewer of those today than yesterday. But often during the night, as you indicate, is when more of them come, and that's more disruptive to people, to their sleep, to their ability then to -- to function normally, and -- and obviously has a real cost on civil society.

Nic, I'm just curious what -- what the feeling is there of intervention, right? I know over -- over the weekend, we had talked so much, all of us, to our sources, senior sources in government in the region, that they were going to remain on defense, that they were not going on offense, whether that was Saudi Arabia or the Emirates or Qatar or Kuwait. [15:10:10]

But now, how are they feeling from what you're learning where you are?

ROBERTSON: Yes, look, I -- I think it's really a feeling of stay out of this if they can. Saudi Arabia is the biggest Gulf state. If they join the fight, then probably others would likely follow the words that we heard from the Emir of Kuwait yesterday saying to the Iranians, look, we are your friends. You know, we've worked with you. Why are you hitting us? You know that the bases here, the U.S. bases in the north of Kuwait and the south of Kuwait, they're used defensively. They're used to intercept the missiles and drones that you're firing. A, why are you firing them? B, these bases are not being used in an offensive capability. This is breaking international humanitarian law, breaking the norms of international law. That's the language that is being used from here.

It does not seem that countries like Kuwait want to get into the fight. They have so much at stake. It's not just their service -- the lives of their service personnel or the citizens here who are so close to Iran and so vulnerable. But wait, when you -- and I'm -- you've done this many times, Erin. I'm absolutely sure you drive through Kuwait, not as a dense urban environment, but everywhere you look, there's an infrastructure of oil refining, production, everything to do with the oil industry.

Their equipment, their -- their -- everything that -- that builds their economy is so precious and it's so vulnerable. And that's why they really want to stay out of this if they can.

BURNETT: All right, Nic Robertson in Kuwait. And we said he had come from Riyadh, so seeing this across the Gulf, Brianna, back to you.

KEILAR: All right, Erin, thank you so much for that update from the region.

And still to come, the world's top oil exporter warning of catastrophic consequences if access to the Strait of Hormuz is not restored.

Plus, the U.N.'s World Heritage Agency expressing concern after Iran's historical landmark suffered damage from airstrikes.

And then later, several state attorneys general say they were blindsided by DOJ's new legal settlement with Live Nation and Ticketmaster. We have that and much more coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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[15:16:41]

SANCHEZ: In the midst of the U.S. and Israel's unrelenting strikes on Iran, CNN's Fred Pleitgen and photojournalist Claudia Otto were filming the aftermath of a previous day's airstrike when they heard jets overhead and ran for cover. We should note that CNN is operating in Iran with the permission of the Iranian government, but we do maintain full editorial control over what we report. Here is the report.

(Begin VT)

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): There's been heavy bombardment in Tehran over the past 24 hours as we both heard and felt. This morning, we visited a site when all of a sudden it was targeted again.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, I think we should go.

PLEITGEN (off camera): Yes, we should go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We should go, go, we -- go.

PLEITGEN (on camera): Yes. Okay, we're hearing jets overhead. There's anti-aircraft car going up. They told us we got to get out of here as fast as possible.

So, that just goes to show how fast things can turn bad here. We were filming at a site as apparently -- look at this mess -- it's struck yesterday.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PLEITGEN (voice over): Earlier we'd spoken to folks caught in the attack.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (through interpreter): I was in the basement and was thrown against the opposite wall. I was under the rubble. That's it. I don't know what else to say. I'm sorry.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Our thanks to Frederik Pleitgen for that. Brianna?

KEILAR: Now to some of the other headlines that we're watching this hour. Three brothers, including two high-profile luxury real estate brokers, have been found guilty on sex trafficking charges. Oren, Tal and Alon Alexander were accused of drugging and sexually assaulting women who they had invited to luxury vacation spots around the world. The brothers also faced some two dozen lawsuits filed by their accusers. Sentencing is set for later this year.

And the Food and Drug Administration reversing course on a vitamin B drug that its own officials recently touted as a potential treatment for children with autism. The new label update for Leucovorin approves it for treatment of a rare type of cerebral folate deficiency. Last fall, HHS Secretary RFK Jr. called the drug an exciting therapy that could benefit kids with autism, triggering a huge spike in sales. An FDA official now says there's not enough data to prove it's an effective treatment for autism. And a close friend of the Georgia teacher who was killed during a

prank outside his home says the victim's family wants the charges against the teenagers allegedly involved dropped. The friend told CNN affiliate WSB that Jason Hughes knew the teens, that he actually went outside to confront them in a lighthearted way. Police say while doing so, Hughes tripped and fell into the street where he was hit by one of the teens' pickup trucks. The 18-year-old driver is charged with vehicular homicide. The other teens face lesser charges.

Attorneys General for 26 states are expected to continue their lawsuit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster even though DOJ announced it had reached a settlement with the company. We'll have the very latest next.

[15:20:00]

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[15:24:39]

KEILAR: We have some important breaking news and that is that CNN is learning Iran has begun laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz. This is according to two people familiar with the matter. It's another major complication as the world's top oil exporter warns there could be, quote, catastrophic consequences for oil markets if the conflict keeps disrupting ship and oil tanker traffic through the Strait.

He says beyond upending shipping and insurance, the ongoing disruption could snowball, threatening aviation, agriculture and other industries.

A short time ago, the White House repeated President Trump's promise to provide government-backed insurance as well as naval escorts to keep tankers moving. So far, those shipping companies are resisting traveling through the region while the fighting goes on.

Let's talk about this now with CNN Business Editor-at-Large, Richard Quest. He's also the anchor of "Quest Means Business."

Richard, what first do you make of this ...

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR & EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Yes.

KEILAR: ... breaking news, mines in the Strait of Hormuz, happening amid the backdrop of the Trump administration threatening to, you know, sort of rain down on Iran if they do anything in the Strait?

QUEST: What it shows clearly is how relatively, note I use that word, easy it is for Iran to cause absolute mayhem, havoc and chaos with the -- with the global shipping. You see, they threaten of whether they actually lay the mines or not. We'll only have to wait and see. You've got the perspective of the drones and or missiles. You've got an entire choke point that you're looking at.

And all that the West can do, all that President Trump and others can do, is offer these rather poor substitutes, insurance for escorting of vessels. I spoke to the CEO earlier of Maersk shipping, the largest in the world, and he basically said, look, you can give me all the insurance you like, but if it's not safe, I ain't sending my ships, my container ships through the Strait. And he said, and as for escorting, it's just too difficult.

Now, they've got 10 ships stuck in the northern Gulf. They've got many more on the way. It gives you an idea of why what the President said yesterday might sound good in sound bites, but is very difficult to actually put into play and terribly easy to overturn.

KEILAR: So, I mean, taking a look at the effects of this, Richard, you have several industry experts saying if the Strait remains as it is, and I mean, I know we hear the Trump administration threatening if they do anything with the Strait. Well, the Strait is paralyzed, right? But these experts ...

QUEST: Yes.

KEILAR: ... are saying with very little traffic moving through, crude could reach $150 a barrel by the end of the month. If oil is going to go that high, what kind of impact does that have on the world economy, not just gas, but anything that's petroleum dependent?

QUEST: Oh, well, let's just go through the list. Besides gasoline, transportation, fertilizer, plastics, all sorts of manufacturing, transportation, I mean, heating just for homes, pays you money, it takes your choice. Most of the oil in that part of the world goes east towards China and Southeast Asia, but the global market sets the price, and that's why, as you and I were talking yesterday, it's highly unlikely there'll be massive lines in the United States, but the price is set globally, and therefore the U.S. will feel the effect.

Consumers in the U.S. will be noticing it today. It will get worse. This idea of $150, by the way, could it happen? I have no idea. Is it possible? Absolutely. Is it likely? No-one knows. That is the reality here. It is simply a mass of knowns of unknowns.

KEILAR: All right, Richard Quest, thank you so much for that. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Live Nation and Ticketmaster quietly reached a settlement with the DOJ over claims the ticket giant's business practices created a monopoly on live music events. The deal would give consumers more options and lower prices, but it doesn't break up the two entertainment powerhouses, which was a key demand from dozens of states that sued the company. Now a judge is scolding Live Nation and the DOJ for holding secret settlement talks. CNN's Kara Scannell is here with more.

And, Kara, several states say that they plan to continue this lawsuit.

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Boris, the states say that they want to continue to bring this case against Live Nation over their allegedly anti-competitive practices, and the judge called everyone into court today because the states are saying they want a mistrial since the Justice Department attorneys were the ones that were really forward-facing in front of the jury in this case, and they said that's not fair.

The judge called the head of DOJ's antitrust division and the CEO of Live Nation into court today because he said he was blindsided by the secret deal that was struck, and he only learned about it at the last minute. So, the judge is saying he's putting this trial on hold right now, and he's told everyone that they need to stay in the courthouse this week to see if they can hash out a deal with the states so that that can be resolved. If not, then the case, he will decide this motion on whether there should be a mistrial or whether the trial will go forward.

[15:30:09]

But the judge saying that the ...