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Trump Ramps Up Pressure on Allies to Help Secure Strait of Hormuz; Drone Strike Hits Fuel Tank Near Dubai Airport, Suspending Flights; Sprawling Storm Sparks Thunderstorms, Tornado Warnings and Blizzards. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired March 16, 2026 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump is no longer asking for help. He is demanding other nations send ships, warning NATO now this morning that it faces a very bad future if they don't help him secure the Strait of Hormuz.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Tornadoes, blizzards, and bears, oh my. An extreme weather system hitting half the country this morning, what's more? This one could last days. We've got the very latest on the shifting forecast.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: And it was one battle after another at last night's Oscars. A look at the winds, the snubs, and, of course, the fashion for Hollywood's biggest night.

I'm Sara Sidner with Kate Bolduan and John Berman. This is CNN News Central.

BOLDUAN: Let's get to the breaking news this morning. President Trump is now demanding that European and Asian countries send ships to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The president going so far to say NATO members should get involved or they'll face what he calls a very bad future. All the while oil prices continue to climb, that critical shipping channel remains effectively shut down.

Yesterday, the price of oil hit its highest level in nearly four years. So far today, we're seeing it tick back down just a bit. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: We are talking to other countries about working with us for the policing of the strait, and I think we're getting a good response.

It'd be interesting to see what country wouldn't help us with a very small endeavor, which is just keeping the strait open.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: The president also saying in a new interview that he may postpone his much anticipated trip to China, his summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, over all of this.

China's Foreign Ministry sidestepped questions overnight about the call to send ships. So far, South Korea has said it will carefully review Trump's request. Australia says it will not send ships. Japan says that it doesn't plan to currently. And from the U.K., the prime minister, Keir Starmer, says that his country was working with allies on a, quote/unquote, viable plan to reopen the strait.

CNN's Kevin Liptak is at the White House to start us off this hour. And how is the White House going to read all of those statements this morning?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Listen, I'll tell you, administration officials do appear relatively confident that they'll be able to announce at least sometime soon a new coalition of countries who will work to police the Strait of Hormuz. But the question remains who those countries are, when that will happen, a lot of these countries have either been non-committal or have flat out said that they can't go into the strait while hostilities are ongoing despite this enormous amount of pressure that's now coming from President Trump. And you really start saw it escalating over the weekend.

It's really the first time that President Trump has appeared eager at all to bring other countries into the effort here. Many U.S. allies said that they were totally caught off guard when the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran roughly two weeks ago. The president now saying that, quote, this should have always been a team effort. and essentially arguing that because other countries rely more on the Strait of Hormuz for their energy supplies, that they should take responsibility for using naval vessels to escort tankers through the strait.

Now, the president did speak last night with the British prime minister, Keir Starmer. The conversation did not appear to a result in a commitment by the Brits to send their tankers to the strait. Here's what the president said about Starmer last night on Air Force One.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: He said we'd like to send our aircraft carriers. I said, I don't want them after we win the war. I want it before. So, whether it's -- whether we get support or not, but I can say this and I said to them, we will remember.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIPTAK: So, that's quite an ominous warning from a president who in the past has mused about withdrawing support from NATO. He said in an interview with the Financial Times, quote, if there is no response or if it's a negative response, I think it will be very bad for the future of NATO.

So, even despite that pressure, many of these countries stopping well short of saying what they would do to support the president here.

[07:05:03] The German foreign minister saying this morning he does not see NATO assuming responsibility for the Strait of Hormuz. Keir Starmer, of course, said in a press conference earlier today that the U.K. won't be drawn into the wider Iran war. And it extends well beyond NATO. You know, the Japanese prime minister prime, Sanae Takaichi, is coming to the White House on Thursday. She said that no decisions on dispatching naval vessels had been made. And then, of course, you have China, which is the world's largest purchaser of Iranian oil now contain -- contending with a much more complicated summit in Beijing. That was supposed to happen in two weeks time.

All of this, I think, underscoring the dilemma that the president faces here. Even as the U.S. and Israel have been enormously successful in wiping out Iran's missile arsenal, it's still showing its capabilities to cut off the Strait of Hormuz, and it's leading to all sorts of questions again about what the president's endgame is in all of this. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Yes. And you can tell the import of the Strait of Hormuz is taking now. Just -- you can track that by the escalating rhetoric coming from the president as we're seeing now this.

Kevin, it's great to see you, thank you so much. John?

BERMAN: All right. Happening now, flights in Dubai are beginning to resume after a drone incursion sparked a fuel tank fire and shut down operations for hours at the main airport there. This morning, five people were wound by rockets that hit the Baghdad International Airport and one person was killed after a missile landed on a vehicle in Abu Dhabi.

I want to get the latest from the region. CNN's Oren Liebermann live in Jerusalem this morning. What are you hearing, Oren?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Iran had promised that if its own energy and oil infrastructure came under attack, it would, quote, set on fire the energy and oil infrastructure around the region. And that may well be what we're seeing over the course of this morning and this weekend in terms of where we are seeing these fires.

You saw that video in Kevin's live shot, Oman, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, a number of places where we are seeing this energy and oil infrastructure come under attack. And now that includes a fuel tanker fire at Dubai, where the airport called it a drone-related incident. Flights were shut down there for four hours. Passengers tell us that there were evacuations at the airport itself. And just a short time ago, they began resuming in, in a limited capacity, some of the flights there.

Of course, Dubai, not the only location. Baghdad's International airport also coming under attack from Iran or its proxies there with a strike there with a drone on a U.S. embassy-linked facility. Five Iraqis were injured in that attack. And we see these throughout the region, not to forget the attack on two oil tankers that were in Iraqi waters just a couple of days ago. So, we see Iran using its specific military capabilities, that is drones and shorter range missiles, to carry out strikes that are being felt, the impact of those strikes being felt around the world and particular on oil prices. And that, of course, couples into the questions about the Strait of Hormuz.

As Kevin pointed out right at the end there, the U.S. and Israel have gone after Iran's ballistic missile capability, and yet they still, at least in some capacity, retain the ability to launch. That's because over the course of the past hour, we actually heard incoming sirens here in Jerusalem for the first time in a couple days, and heard a loud explosion possibly from an interception over the city.

And then we see repeated waves throughout the day in Tel Aviv, that has been one of the key targets for Iran and its ballistic missiles, particularly with cluster warheads. So, even with the targeting of the ballistic missile capability, Iran has been able to fire back, not only here, John, but throughout the Gulf as well.

BERMAN: Yes. Iran clearly focused primarily on the Strait of Hormuz, but occasionally getting salvos off in other directions. Oren Liebermann for us in Jerusalem this morning, thank you very much. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Thank you, John. The war touching Americans one way or another. Gas prices steadily climbing. How high the national average has now gone with, quote, no guarantees that prices will fall?

Storms rip across the United States, severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, even blizzard conditions, depending on where you live, where it is all headed today.

And a skier is rescued, pulled from underneath seat of snow. We'll take you to this rescue ahead.

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[07:10:00]

BOLDUAN: An enormous multi-day storm is making its way across the country right now, bringing everything from severe thunderstorms and tornado warnings to blizzard conditions. So far, there has been at least one reported tornado in Arkansas. Nearly 11 million people across the Midwest and Great Lakes are under blizzard warnings, as we speak, and more than a foot of snow has already buried parts of Southern Minnesota and Central Wisconsin.

CNN's Derek Van Dam is tracking the latest forest. I was just on the other side of the country where it was like 80 to 90 degrees, and I come over here and it's freezing and it's driving me nuts. Where is spring?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: The odds of March. This storm is expansive, Sara. We've got blizzard conditions on the cold portion of the storm throughout the Great Lakes and tornadoes active across the southern flank of this storm. Just to talk about how expansive it is, over 500,000 customers already without power, many of which are coming from the state of Michigan, and we've had 90 tornado warnings and over 385 severe thunderstorm warnings issued in the past 24 hours across over 20 states making this the most expansive and busy stretch of severe weather going back basically a year.

[07:15:06]

So, severe thunderstorms are on the march this morning. You can see all the reports of wind, hail, and even a few confirmed tornadoes. Let's get right down to the current radar because this is where we're most active, central portions of Georgia into Western South Carolina. We have an active tornado warning. This is radar indicated south of Atlanta, south of the Peachtree City area. But with this line of storms that's been known to produce winds in excess of 60 miles per hour, it doesn't take much to get those brief spin-ups. So, that's what we're concerned about.

Further north into Greenville and Asheville, this particular location about to get hammered with a 60-mile-per-hour winds, there's an active tornado warning just north of Asheville as well. These are typically short-lived tornadoes, but certainly the threat being there. And we have our tornado watches and severe thunderstorm watches valid through about 11:00 this morning for many of these locations, they'll start to get re-upped as we get the daytime heating from the sun.

And then we focus on the Mid-Atlantic. This is the area today with our greatest risk of tornadoes, some of which could be EF-2 or greater damaging winds, strong long track tornadoes, according to the storm prediction center, I see this hatched area stretching basically from the Mid-Atlantic all the way to the Florida Panhandle. That's where we're looking out for those potential of some more powerful tornadoes that potentially could form later today.

But this area, the Mid-Atlantic, Maryland into Virginia, southward into North Carolina and South Carolina, that's where we have these hurricane force gusts that will proceed this line of storms that is currently going through Central Georgia. It is going to race eastward, and then by this afternoon and evening, places like D.C. into Baltimore, that's where we'll get the strong winds and the tornado threat from this storm.

Behind it, we've got a lot of cold air. In fact, a 40-degree temperature difference separates this cold front and the wind that will march eastward across this area as well dropping temperatures and, wow, just really reminding us that winter is not quite done with us just yet. Sara?

SIDNER: A March mega storm and winter is still definitely here for some parts of the country.

Thank you so much, Derek Van Dam, for that report. John?

BERMAN: All right. That is a tough map.

SIDNER: It is. BERMAN: Major disruptions expected at airports across the country today. Hundreds of TSA agents walking off the job after their first weekend without full pay due to the partial government shutdown.

And get your brackets ready. The stage is set for March Madness. We will give you the surefire tips you need to win.

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BOLDUAN: Happy bracket Monday, everyone. It is that special time of year, that special season where we all dream of a perfect March Madness bracket that will never happen. And all the while our bosses across America are wondering why is no one working?

Let's go to CNN's Andy Scholes. Andy, what do you got for me?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Well, Kate, it's time to dive into this bad boy ride and start filling out these brackets. And, you know, we all are competitive, right? We all want to do well. And, you know, picking upsets in the early rounds is fun and being able to brag about it. But if you want to do well in your bracket competition, you know, the most important thing is trying to get that final four. And really, if you want to win your competition, you need to get the champion correct.

And there are some trends that can help you do so. One of them is called KENPOM. So, it measures the team's offensive and defensive efficiency. And every single champion since 2002 has been top 40 in offense and top 22 in defense.

So, who qualifies for that right now? You got Duke, Arizona, Houston, Florida, Tennessee, Michigan State, Iowa State, Virginia, Gonzaga, and UConn. You can expect all of these teams to do well in the bracket. But there's some good teams, you know, not on this screen. You got, you know, Perdue just won the Big 10, best offense in the country, defense though 36th ranked, according to KENPOM. But you look at that, Arkansas with Darius Acuff, sixth ranked offense, but according to KENPOM, their defense not good enough to go all the way and win a championship.

Now, this trend, it never fails. So, every single champion of the last 21 champs have been in the top 12 of the week six A.P. poll. There is a team noticeably absent from this poll. That is Florida, Tennessee, Virginia. Also, we're not in this poll. So, if we go back to this screen, we can see start crossing teams off. We get rid of Florida, not in the poll, neither was Tennessee, neither was Virginia.

And if you want to dive even deeper into those KENPOM rankings, 19 of the last 21 champions were top nine in offense, so we can cross off more teams that are not top nine. UConn not top nine, neither is Gonzaga, neither is Iowa State, neither is Michigan State, neither is Houston.

So, we are left with three, Duke, Arizona, and Michigan. They're all one seeds. Makes sense, right? Who do you want to pick to win at all in your bracket? You want to pick a one seed. They win an overwhelming majority of the time. 28 times a one seed has ended up winning.

And, Kate, I always love showing this map every single year, right? Look at this red line, right down the middle of the country. Every single champion since 1997 has come from east of that line. So, who do we got left? Michigan's over here. Duke's over here. Arizona's on the wrong side of the line, right? But who won back in 1997? It was the Arizona Wildcats. Kate, I think a 29-year drought is long enough for the West. I'm picking Arizona Wildcats to go all the way and win the title.

BOLDUAN: Wow.

SCHOLES: Now, I would say to put that in your bracket. If it doesn't work out, don't blame me. Blame the numbers.

BOLDUAN: Yes. No, we're definitely blaming you. I mean, Berman came out and we've been saying, huh, this entire time.

BERMAN: It's the best thing ever.

BOLDUAN: Sara wants to fight with you about Florida.

[07:25:00]

Where are you? There you are.

SIDNER: He's been waiting for at least a year to cross Florida off because of his Houston Cougar people.

BOLDUAN: But still --

SCHOLES: Yes. Look, I had to sit next to Sara in the championship game last year when my Cougars were up 12 and the second half and blew it. So, you know --

BOLDUAN: So, there's that. And that was -- I'm not to say that you're not helpful every day, Andy, but you are super helpful today.

BERMAN: Yes, exactly. I got to get to commercial so I can go backstage and replay that because I got to get to my bracket right now.

BOLDUAN: Taking the notes, exactly.

BERMAN: We're moving out here. Andy, thank you very much for that. That was fantastic.

All right, a new high for gas prices this year and last year and the year before that, and we have new warnings that they could go much, much higher.

And then who are you calling a dummy? The driver who could not fake his way into the carpool lane with an imaginary passenger.

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