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Dow Plunges 2,200 Points as Tariff Tumult Rocks Markets; JPMorgan Upgrades Global Recession Risk to 60 Percent; Trump Delays TikTok Ban after Tariffs Kill Possible Deal; U.S. Senate Adopts Budget Blueprint to Advance Trump Agenda; Trump Administration Admits "Administrative Error" in Sending Man to El Salvador Prison; Fed Chair Says Tariffs Likely to Drive Up Inflation; Nintendo Delays Switch 2 Preorders in U.S.; U.S. to Russia, Time Is Running Out for Peace Talks; Russell Brand Charged with Rape; Sports Highlights. Aired 4-5a ET
Aired April 05, 2025 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.
The global economic landscape is dramatically changing as Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs take effect. We'll look at how countries around the world are responding.
TikTok and its millions of American users face another 75 days in limbo. We'll have details on the latest delay in the app's U.S. ban and what happens next.
And parts of the central U.S. are seeing extreme rainfall after already going through a wave of deadly storms. We'll have the latest conditions.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Kim Brunhuber.
BRUNHUBER: It is just past 4 am on the East Coast in the U.S. as president Donald Trump's new tariffs are underway. There's now a 10 percent tax on all goods imported into the United States, set to be followed next week by far larger levies on dozens of other countries.
But already, Trump's decision is upending nearly a quarter of a century of U.S. trade policy, sending the global economy into turmoil. The three major U.S. averages were battered by a steep selloff on Friday. The S&P 500 lost more than $5 trillion in market value over the past two days.
Global stock markets dropped sharply again as investors digested president Trump's new tariffs and the knockon effects. And you can see it there all in the red.
Meanwhile, the president spent his Friday at his golf club in Florida, where the White House says he was taking calls from foreign leaders. The U.S. Treasury Secretary is downplaying the market's reaction to the sweeping new tariffs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT BESSENT, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: For everyone who thinks that this -- these market declines are all based on the president's economic policies, I can tell you that this market decline started with the Chinese AI announcement of DeepSeek.
If I were to analyze in my old hat -- and this is the only time I'm going to talk about it, my old hat -- what's happening with the market?
I'd say it's more a Mag 7 problem and not a MAGA problem.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: The president on Friday also took the unusual step of trying to pressure the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates. The Fed's chairman warned that inflation is likely to increase.
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JEROME POWELL, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: While uncertainty remains elevated. It is now becoming clear that tariff increases will be significantly larger than expected and the same is likely to be true of the economic effects, which will include higher inflation and slower growth. The size and duration of these effects remains uncertain.
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BRUNHUBER: China has retaliated against the new tariffs, announcing on Friday its own countertariffs of 34 percent on all U.S. goods starting April 10th. That's the day after new U.S. tariffs specific to China raise the effective tax rate for Chinese goods to more than 50 percent, alongside many higher tariffs from many other countries.
CNN's Richard Quest has more on the financial fallout.
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RICHARD QUEST, CNN HOST: Another day and another serious market fall, the second in a row. The Dow was off more than 2,200 points. It's now down 12 percent plus since its recent high. That officially makes it into a correction.
The same for the S&P 500, which is down 15 percent or so. But it's the Nasdaq that's really being clobbered. The Nasdaq is now down more than 22 percent since its recent high. And that makes it officially a bear market. These numbers and reactions all make perfect common sense when you
look at the size and scale of what the U.S. has just launched on the rest of the world; the reworking, if you will, of global trade.
True, there may be some countries like Cambodia and Vietnam that manage to do bilateral negotiations that get their tariff down. But the big players -- China, for instance, with its reciprocal tariff of 34 percent; the E.U. deciding what it's going to do -- all of these major trading partners, that's where the improvement has to be.
And so far, there's no indication that they are buckling. And even if they did, even if there was some sort of rapprochement, the truth is the trust has gone. The United States has now beaten up on allies and foes alike. It's made its intentions clear and the market has given its reaction -- Richard Quest, CNN, New York.
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BRUNHUBER: I want to go live now to Rome and CNN's Barbie Latza Nadeau.
So Barbie, take us through how European markets have fared with all of this chaos.
BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, very much like in the United States, they suffered the European -- across Europe suffered the largest losses since the COVID pandemic.
Individual sectors that are especially hit are the financial services and the luxury goods sector. And, of course, that is because so many of these luxury goods companies rely on Asian supply chain companies. So there's just this whole sort of intertwined and tangled mess.
But you've got, you know, panic across the European Union in terms of the stock market reaction, Kim.
BRUNHUBER: And Barbie, so all the eyes obviously are on the various countries and regions as they debate a response to this. Some have already hit the U.S. with tariffs of their own.
So what's the response so far from European leaders?
NADEAU: Well, European leadership says that there will be retaliation and a swift reaction. But individual countries, of course, have a kind of a different relationship with the United States and different reactions to this.
In France, Macron said that it was brutal and unfounded.
We're here in Italy. Giorgia Meloni, who has a warm relationship with Donald Trump, had a very different reaction. Let's listen to what she had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GIORGIA MELONI, ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER (through translator): It is a problem that must be solved. But it's not a catastrophe, as I am hearing these days, which paradoxically worries me more than the fact itself.
Because we must remember that we are talking about an important market, the U.S. market, which is worth about 10 percent of our total exports. We will not stop exporting to the United States. So it is a problem we must solve. But beware of the alarmism I am seeing in ours.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NADEAU: And you know that that alarmism is really across the European Union. But you know, so many times I think people think of Europe as sort of, you know, food and fashion. But the pharmaceutical industry, the machinery industry, the auto industry, all of these are affected.
So you know, very much it's a kind of a negotiation among the European leaders in terms of what they want to do as a bloc, because Europe obviously is, one, a single market. They have to have a reaction that is unified. Individual countries won't be able to act independently.
So it's very much a, you know, sit and wait, negotiate; there's lots of talks going on behind the scenes. You can bet that, Kim.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, absolutely. All right. We'll have to see how it all shakes out. Barbie Latza Nadeau in Rome, thank you so much.
Well, it's a small relief for millions of American TikTok users, thanks to tariffs. President Trump is pushing back today's deadline for TikTok to find a new owner. This comes after Trump's tariffs on China killed a potential deal to sell the app to American investors. CNN's Clare Duffy explains what might be next for TikTok.
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CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: Yes, this will at least be good news for TikTok's 170 million American users. They will be glad to hear that Trump has granted another 75-day extension in the enforcement of this ban because, he says, more time is needed to make a deal to sell TikTok off from its China-based parent company.
But that's interesting, right?
Because both president Trump and vice president Vance had said in the leadup to the Saturday deadline that they did expect there would be a deal before the deadline. Trump now saying that more time is needed to make a deal.
And what CNN is hearing from a source familiar with the deal is that there was actually a deal in place this week.
That U.S. investors, ByteDance, and Trump administration staff had all agreed on this deal that would have handed off majority control of TikTok's U.S. assets to American ownership, leaving ByteDance with just a 20 percent stake in the company. But that deal went off the rails when Trump announced his 34 percent
tariff on China this week. And ByteDance representatives came to the White House and said China is not going to approve of this deal while these tariffs are in place.
Now what's interesting is that ByteDance is publicly acknowledging that it is engaged with the White House in these talks. A spokesperson saying that an agreement has not been executed because there are still key matters to resolve. So I think that is the big question now, is can Trump get this deal back on track?
Can he convince China to agree to a sale of TikTok?
While this trade war is escalating?
My other big question is when we might start hearing from the folks in Congress who passed this law on a bipartisan basis on national security concerns. Those national security concerns were upheld by the Supreme Court unanimously earlier this year.
What did they think about the fact that this ban is now being delayed a second time?
I think those are the big questions about TikTok's future. But for now, good news for American TikTok users -- Clare Duffy, CNN, New York.
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BRUNHUBER: And one expert tells CNN that there are still many questions surrounding a potential buyout deal and only 75 days to sort them out. Listen to this.
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KAYA YURIEFF, "THE INFORMATION": We have some insight into what the White House proposal was going to be. I mean, obviously so many questions about whether that structure will still stay in place.
What will China say?
How will the tariffs play into this?
Of course, lots of questions still about this. But you know -- and we didn't know which employees would roll up into the new TikTok America but we did know that it would be owned roughly half by new U.S. investors.
I mean, so many names have been floated over the past few days, from Amazon to Walmart, to all these other companies. And then 30 percent would be existing ByteDance investors.
But ByteDance would still hold a stake under the threshold of the law. So ByteDance would still be involved. And the plan was for them to license TikTok's algorithm. That has been at the heart of this issue, what happens with that.
But again, so many questions of whether this plan will go forward and whether that will be OK with China hawks in Congress as well.
I think we're going to be in limbo for a while. I think we're -- I think Trump is going to try to just punt this for as long as possible. But I think it's really going to be really hard to find a solution that satisfies everyone and satisfies the law.
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BRUNHUBER: About 4 million people are under flash flood warnings from Texas to Kentucky and severe thunderstorms and heavy rain could trigger once-in-a-generation flooding into the weekend. Storms already have killed at least eight people across Tennessee, Missouri, Indiana and Kentucky.
The victims include a 9-year-old boy, who was swept away by flood waters while he was walking to a school bus on Friday.
Drone video shows buildings, cars and roads partially submerged by floodwaters after rain pounded one town in Kentucky. President Trump has approved an emergency declaration for the state.
Communities are also grappling with widespread devastation after the storms spawned dozens of tornadoes this week. Kentucky's National Guard and support teams from other states are helping residents who have been impacted. One business owner has been using sandbags to keep floodwaters out of his store. Listen to this.
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TONY KIRVES, BUSINESS OWNER: We definitely are very concerned that it could get a lot higher and if that's the case, I could have a greater loss than I have right now. We're just trying to do the best we can with maintaining this. But if we get more coming on, it's definitely going to be a challenge to deal with it.
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BRUNHUBER: Authorities expect the flooding to continue and could get worse into Sunday.
The U.S. government admits it deported this man by mistake as president Trump's immigration push stokes fear in communities across the U.S.
Plus, there's concern Vladimir Putin is stalling on Ukraine war, peace talks and Washington may be losing its patience. We'll have more later in the program. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: The U.S. Senate adopted a new budget blueprint a short time ago and a key step toward advancing president Trump's agenda. It now has to survive the much more conservative, Republican-led House.
Several House Republican lawmakers and senior aides told CNN they remain skeptical that the Senate's plan can survive their chamber. Hardline conservatives in the House are seeking at least $1.5 trillion in cuts, compared to the Senate's $4 billion.
Speaker Mike Johnson has said he plans to bring the Senate proposal to the House floor next week.
Civil rights organizations in El Salvador are asking for the release of Venezuelans held in one of their prisons. The men were transferred under heavy security after being deported from the U.S. in March. The organizations have filed a constitutional appeal for the release of the 238 Venezuelans now in the notorious Terror Confinement Center.
The Salvadoran Supreme Court of Justice has accused the Venezuelans of being members of a criminal gang. But a number of families say the charge is false and that their family members are being held illegally. They're also asking judges to suspend the deportation agreement with the U.S.
CNN has reached out to their lawyers and the Salvadoran government for comment.
A federal judge on Friday ruled that the U.S. must bring back a man mistakenly deported to El Salvador by the end of the day on Monday.
The Trump administration admitted for the first time it made a deportation mistake with the father of three but it says it can't do anything about it. CNN's Polo Sandoval has more on the fear being spread by the Trump administration's deportation policies.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): Well, then, I'm not going to step out. If I don't step out --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. No.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking foreign language).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. If it's against -- no.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mommy.
POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is Salvadoran Elsie Noemi Berrios (ph) behind the wheel detained by federal agents in Maryland earlier this week. Her daughter shot the video.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wait. don't grab her like that.
SANDOVAL (voice-over): DHS said in a statement, "This individual has been identified as an associate of the vicious MS-13 gang. Americans can rest assured that she's off our streets and locked up.
Berrios' family was shocked by the allegations, saying their mother has no ties to MS-13 or any gang, adding that she held a valid work authorization while her immigration proceedings were pending. Her daughter saying simply, it's not true.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my God.
SANDOVAL (voice-over): The images are sending shockwaves to Maryland Salvadoran community, which is still reeling from the deportation of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a husband and father who was sent to a notorious mega prison in El Salvador. The Trump administration admitted it was an administrative error.
The government claims that he was associated with the violent Salvadoran gang Mara Salvatrucha or MS-13. DHS said in a statement, "he should be locked up."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everyone.
ALL: ICE out of Maryland.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When we want it?
ALL: Now.
SANDOVAL (voice-over): Abrego Garcia's wife disputes the administration's claim and read a statement before a judge ordered her husband be returned to the U.S. no later than Monday.
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JENNIFER STEFANIA VASQUEZ SURA, WIFE OF KILMAR ARMANDO ABREGO GARCIA: If I had all the money in the world, I'll spend it all just to buy one thing, a phone call to hear Kilmar's voice again.
JORGE BENITEZ PEREZ, COMMUNITY ORGANIZER: My biggest question is why?
Why was he a target?
Were you guys trying to make an example?
Were you targeting the Salvadoran community?
SANDOVAL (voice-over): Local activist Jorge Benitez Perez fears that speaking out comes with a risk.
PEREZ: Even doing this interview, I thought about it before I came here because I am someone that is not a full citizen. I am someone on a, you know, permanent status but what is permanent now? SANDOVAL (voice-over): Beyond his personal concerns, Benitez is deeply worried that members of the Salvadoran community will be mislabeled as gang members detained or even deported by mistake again.
PEREZ: Now things can just turn like that, where a narrative of gang members, Mara Salvatrucha is being sent and I'm doing this because I want people to know that's not the reality. That's not who we are and that's definitely not who my people are.
SANDOVAL (voice-over): Like Benitez, elementary school teacher Yakie Palma has noticed heightened fears in the eyes of her students.
YAKIE PALMA, ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHER: Children are scared as well and it's really impacting their performance in school.
SANDOVAL (voice-over): As a first generation Salvadoran American, Palma says she's formed bonds with migrant parents of her students, many from El Salvador. She recalls a recent conversation with a seven- year-old student.
PALMA: She told me that she was very terrified that she would get deported. Her parents have told me that she is a U.S. citizen. She was born here but still it's that widespread fear that if you're Hispanic or if you're Salvadoran, you're going to get deported, right?
Because of that racial profiling happening and that affiliation with MS-13.
PEREZ: All throughout like --
SANDOVAL (voice-over): Back in his old neighborhood, Benitez remains hopeful but also fiercely protective of his community.
PEREZ: This is not the first time our communities have been under attack. We survived four years in the past and we can do it again.
SANDOVAL (voice-over): Polo Sandoval, CNN, Prince George's County, Maryland.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: A U.S. federal judge has denied the government's jurisdiction claim in the case of a detained Tufts University PhD student. Rumeysa Ozturk, a student from Turkiye, was taken by masked ICE agents and kept overnight in Vermont before being transferred to Louisiana.
In a loss for the Trump Department of Justice, the judge denied the government's motion to transfer the case to the southern state and ruled that the order to stop her deportation stands.
A similar jurisdictional fight has been taking place over a Columbia University student, Mahmoud Khalil.
More international students at American universities have had their visas revoked or their legal status terminated. A spokesperson at the University of Cincinnati said students had their F1 visas revoked. They allow international students to pursue full time studies here in the U.S.
The school's president called it deeply alarming. He said no specific reasons were given for the actions.
At the University of Texas at Austin, staffers found out about legal status determinations through a federal database. At least 40 international students and faculty members in the U.S. have been detained by federal agents or had visas revoked. Some experts fear it's part of a crackdown on dissent.
All right. When we come back, president Trump's new tariffs are fueling fears of a global recession, with JPMorgan raising their recession risk.
Plus, the high cost of striking the Houthis. The U.S. has spent nearly $1 billion in less than three weeks ahead. Why it could soon spend much more. That more coming up. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.
The head of the Federal Reserve is warning that president Trump's wave of new tariffs is highly likely to drive up inflation and unemployment. Chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank's best move amid the turmoil is to hold interest rates for longer.
But president Trump on Friday took the unusual step of trying to pressure the Fed to lower rates soon.
There is a bright spot for the U.S. economy; 228,000 jobs were added in March, far higher than expected. The unemployment rate did go up slightly to 4.2 percent. Now this data doesn't reflect the aftermath of president Trump's tariffs.
Meanwhile, Canada is slamming the Trump administration's plan to overhaul the economy. As a response on Friday, Canada enacted reciprocal tariffs of 25 percent on all U.S. vehicles that don't fall under the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The Canadian ambassador to the U.S. tells CNN that the trade war is having a terrible impact on both sides of the border. Listen to this.
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KIRSTEN HILLMAN, CANADIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S.: We used to have 99 percent tariff-free trade. A couple of months ago now, a big portion of the trade between our two countries are under tariffs.
And we're seeing it. Stellantis shuttered a plant, suspended operations; 900 Americans lost jobs because of that and many more in Canada. So these are real-world consequences to these actions.
And again, what we are looking forward to and hoping we will see soon is a comprehensive discussion around the Canada-U.S. trading relationship, which is changing. It's clearly changing.
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BRUNHUBER: U.S. secretary of state Marco Rubio acknowledged the brutal two days on Wall Street but claimed markets will adjust. Here he is.
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MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I don't think it's fair to say economies are crashing. Markets are crashing because markets are based on the stock value of companies who today are embedded in modes of production that are bad for the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: JPMorgan now believes a global recession is more likely than not. They're upgrading the chances of a recession this year from 40 percent to 60 percent. The managing director and head of economic research at JPMorgan explains what's behind the new assessment.
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BRUCE KASMAN, MANAGING DIRECTOR & HEAD OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH, JPMORGAN: Let me say first off that I think the economy is actually doing reasonably well as we move through the first quarter. I think something you see in today's employment report.
However, first and foremost, what we saw with liberation day was an extremely large tariff increase. And we should understand that a tariff increase is a tax on U.S. households and businesses. It's roughly 22 percent cumulative tariff increase we see; would be the largest U.S. tax hike we've had since 1968.
It's a big hit to the economy in a direct sense. The second thing is the design of the tariff was not meant to tactically go against unfair practices abroad. It was basically putting tariffs on countries based on their bilateral deficit with the U.S.
And in doing so, what you're doing is effectively creating a situation where you're targeting those things that Americans buy, regardless of the cause of that. You're creating an opportunity for large disruptions and I think significant retaliation as well.
And perhaps as important as anything, we think what's going on here, not just with trade policy but with other policies as well, is we're seeing an administration that is shifting the sentiment of the business sector away from its view, which I think was in place at the beginning of the year.
That this administration cared about near-term growth, cared about the business sector. And that momentum shift in terms of sentiment is what's reflected in the markets this week.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: U.S. Republican senator Ted Cruz, a vocal Trump supporter, is questioning the administration's approach. He says the Trump tariffs could be so bad for the American economy that Democrats could take control of the House and Senate in 2026.
Now Cruz spoke on his podcast Friday, saying he wants to see the tariffs succeed but wants them to result in lower tariffs overall. But he says he thinks there are some in the White House who want the tariffs to be permanent. Cruz says that would be very bad for the economy. Here he is.
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SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): And it's terrible for America. It will hurt jobs and hurt America. And there is a very real risk of that if we go into a recession.
Particularly a bad recession. 2026, in all likelihood politically would be a bloodbath. You would face a Democrat House and you might even face a Democrat Senate.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Americans may soon be paying even more for a cup of coffee. President Trump's tariffs are hitting the world's largest coffee producers. That includes Colombia, which shipped at least $1.4 billion worth of coffee to the U.S. last year, according to the Census Bureau. CNN's Stefano Pozzebon reports from Bogota.
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STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Colombian coffee farmers are concerned after the White House imposed a 10 percent tariff on Colombian imports. Most of that include coffee.
Now here I am at the warehouse where the Colombian Coffee Federation stores its beans before they are ready to be exported to the United States. About 40 percent of these sacks that are just behind my back are destined for the United States.
And, of course, an import tariff of 10 percent can create havoc for the many people that depend on coffee here in Colombia. There are about 500,000 small coffee farmers that are part of the Colombian Coffee Federation. About 3 million people depend on coffee.
So an increase of prices because of these tariffs could spell really bad for their bottom line. And that's why many here in Colombia are sharing these concerns.
Now one thing to notice is that the United States cannot just replace imports of coffee. It's not like America can start growing coffee in Arizona or California.
They will still have to purchase coffee from the traditional exporting countries, such as Colombia, which got a 10 percent tariff; such as Brazil, which got a 10 percent tariff; or Vietnam, who got a 46 percent tariff.
Who will pay that extra bill, however, remains to be seen. And that's why there is so much concern here in the global south that those tariffs might impact the bottom line -- just down here for CNN, this is Stefano Pozzebon, Bogota.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: The Trump tariffs are already impacting the video game industry. Nintendo says it's postponing U.S. preorders for the new Switch 2 in order to assess the potential impact of tariffs.
The advance orders in the U.S. were originally set to begin this coming Wednesday but the new tariffs heavily target Asia, where many tech supply chains are based, including Nintendo's.
[04:35:00]
The Switch 2 is Nintendo's biggest console launch in nearly a decade and it's still on track to debut in June.
Let's go to a small country surrounded by South Africa was hit with the highest tariff rate, despite being one of the poorest countries in the world. CNN's Larry Madowo reports.
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LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sewing machines whirl in a garment factory in Lesotho. But that's not the biggest buzz in this textile shop, which makes apparel for many popular clothing brands.
Workers say they are worried for their jobs after the U.S. imposed a 50 percent reciprocal trade tariff on the tiny African nation, which could upend Lesotho's economy.
TEBOHO KOBELI, QUANTUM APPAREL: The direct impact is reduction of employment immediately, reduction of employment, which we are trying by all means to avoid.
MADOWO (voice-over): Lesotho is one of the poorest countries in the world and exports nearly half of its products to the U.S., which are mostly diamonds and textiles.
So to be hit with the White House's highest tariff rate is a crippling blow, especially for factories that supply U.S. brands, like this LEVINSON: 's factory, which makes hundreds of thousands of jeans a month.
TSEPANG MAKAKOLE, ECONOMIC FREEDOM TRADE UNION: Investors now.
They might look at it other way if the government do not take an immediate action. Maybe to kneel before the American government.
MADOWO (voice-over): Lesotho says it's planning to send a delegation to the U.S. for crisis talks, something one economist says could help to avoid financial disaster in the country.
THABO QESI, ECONOMIST: If the closure of the factories were to happen.
And the industry.
Is going.
To die and there will be. Multiplier effects, you know those sectors will be adversely affected. Those are the implications. So Lesotho will be dead.
You know. So to say.
MADOWO (voice-over): Last month, Trump mocked Lesotho.
TRUMP: The African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of.
MADOWO (voice-over): Now it's on top of his tariff list, a standing Lesotho is both struggling to understand and afford -- Larry Madowo. CNN.
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BRUNHUBER: In Ukraine, at least 19 people have been killed and nine of them children in Russian missile strikes on the Ukrainian president's home town. The strikes also reportedly injured nearly 70 people. The first one hit near a playground in a residential area. Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has offered his condolences.
Washington is now warning Moscow that time is running out over Ukraine peace talks. Ukraine was a main topic of discussion at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers on Friday. But as CNN's Alex Marquardt reports, another issue loomed over their talks.
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ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: There was no avoiding the subject of tariffs here at NATO, even if it wasn't part of the official conversations, it did loom large.
The Canadian foreign minister, for example, telling me that it was difficult to focus on these important NATO issues when there's a trade war going on. But at the end of these two days of meetings, the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, defended the tariffs from the Trump administration. He pushed back on questions about whether economies around the world are collapsing. He said that, yes, the markets are crashing but that they are reacting to what he called a dramatic change.
He said that there has to be a reset in the global order of trade and that businesses and markets would readjust once they got used to what he called the new rules.
There was also a lot of discussion, of course, about Ukraine here at NATO, the future of Ukraine, a lot of praise for the United States, for the efforts that it is undertaking to try to get to a ceasefire and a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.
And Rubio actually revealed that before coming here to Brussels, he had sat down with Kirill Dmitriev in Washington. That's the Kremlin aide, the Putin ally who went to Washington earlier this week.
And the message that Rubio said he gave to Dmitriev was that they need to see concrete steps that the U.S. wants to be convinced that Russia does indeed want peace. Here's a little bit more of what he had to say when I asked him about that meeting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUBIO: Well, we're not interested in -- and I'm not accusing them of this. I'm just telling you what we're not interested in is negotiations about negotiations, that we're not going to continue this forever. So none of it was threatening. I think it was more an explanation of this is our timeline.
And at some point, it will be clear whether you want peace or you don't want peace. And that time is coming. It's pretty short.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUARDT: That timeframe is just weeks, Rubio said, not months. And that's the message that he said he wanted Dmitriev to take back to Putin in Moscow.
Meanwhile, NATO allies have been telling Rubio and other U.S. officials that they believe that President Putin is stalling, that he's playing for time and really that the only kind of peace deal that he would go for is one that is on his own terms -- Alex Marquardt, CNN, at NATO headquarters.
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BRUNHUBER: Now for his part, Ukraine's president now says the U.S. is ready to pressure Russia into a ceasefire and more pressure on Moscow is something Zelenskyy is urging. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): A ceasefire could have already been reached. But Putin rejected it. Since March 11th, Moscow has refused to agree to a ceasefire. They need this war.
And it is clear that Russia will not be forced into peace through mere conversations or waiting. I am grateful to everyone in the world who helps make diplomacy and efforts for a just peace effective. We count on America, Europe and other partners on their ability to pressure the real cause of this war, Russia's desire to destroy and kill.
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BRUNHUBER: This comes as President Zelenskyy says Kyiv will be ready to present a new draft of a minerals deal with the United States next week. He says Ukraine will choose a law firm to represent it in negotiations and that a technical team will be prepared to travel to the U.S. for talks. Zelenskyy says he won't take part in this trip.
Sources tell CNN that the U.S. has spent a staggering amount of money on strikes against the Houthis in Yemen over the past few weeks. And as Natasha Bertrand reports, the results haven't been encouraging.
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NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: The total cost of the U.S. military's new offensive against the Houthi terrorist group in Yemen is nearing $1 billion in just under three weeks.
A really monumental cost of this massive military operation that comes even as officials tell us that the military impact of this operation against the Houthis has actually been fairly limited. It is unclear at this point just how much of the Houthis' weapons stockpiles have been degraded in these daily strikes by U.S. Central Command.
The U.S. military has had difficulty coming up with a consistent battlefield damage assessment about just how much of the Houthis' weaponry and stockpile have actually been destroyed, because so much of it remains underground.
But officials did tell us that, even amidst the daily, relentless really campaign that the U.S. has been waging against the Houthis' very expensive campaign, the Houthis have still been able to largely continue with the strategy that they have been doing over the last year.
Plus, when it comes to withstanding attacks from the U.S. military, they are fortifying their bunkers; they are staying underground. They are keeping their heads down. And that has made it more difficult for them to communicate and more difficult for them to launch attacks precisely, according to a U.S. Defense official.
But still, they are continuing to launch missiles and drones into the Red Sea. And as recently as last week, they actually shot down yet another MQ-9 Reaper drone that is operated by the U.S. for intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance over Yemen. And so they are continuing to launch these missiles. And at the same
time, U.S. Central Command has moved a ton of assets into the region. There are soon going to be two U.S. aircraft carriers in the Red Sea. There are currently more air defense systems being moved into the region.
Additional fighter squadrons also being moved into the region and B-2 bombers, that have been designated and deployed to hit the Houthis in Yemen. A massive, massive cost that is only going to increase as the weeks go by and there is no end in sight.
In fact, one congressional official told me that ultimately the Pentagon may have to actually ask for additional supplemental funding to fund this massive operation against the Houthis and all with a very limited impact so far -- Natasha Bertrand, CNN, at the Pentagon.
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BRUNHUBER: Comedian and actor Russell Brand faces multiple sexual assault charges, including rape. We'll have more on that story coming up.
Plus, astronauts splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on a space mission that completes its journey. We'll have the details on those stories coming up. Please stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Heavy rains in northern Peru have left dozens of homes flooded. A river in Aguas Verdes, near the border with Ecuador, broke its banks Thursday. The fast-flowing waters reportedly caught people off guard in the early hours of the morning.
Members of Peru's army rescued nearly 130 families. One resident said the water came all the way up to his neck. The latest flooding comes just three weeks after a similar round of intense rains.
Sean "Diddy" Combs is facing two new charges just a month before the music mogul is set to stand trial in New York. Federal prosecutors have added one more count of sex trafficking and one more count of transportation to engage in prostitution.
That means he's now facing five federal charges. Prosecutors allege that Combs and those around him used his fame and power to coerce women into sex acts, often under the pretense of a romantic relationship. Combs has pleaded not guilty.
British actor and comedian Russell Brand has been charged with rape and sexual assault. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz has more from London.
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SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Actor and comedian Russell Brand has been charged with rape and multiple counts of assault by British Police over a number of allegations between 1999 and 2005.
[04:50:00]
Now to remind our viewers, Russell Brand was at one point one of Britain's most high-profile comedians and actors, of course, former husband to pop singer Katy Perry. But in recent years, he has repositioned himself as a social commentator, at times being accused of spreading conspiracy theories on his platforms.
Now let's look at what exactly he is charged with by British Police and that is one count of rape, one count of indecent assault, one count of oral rape and two counts of sexual assault. Now these charges relate to four separate women. And the Met says that its investigation remains open.
And detectives ask anyone who has been affected by this case or has any information to come forward and speak with the police.
Now this investigation was launched in 2023 after Channel 4 aired a documentary where four women had accused Brand of sexual assault including rape. Now Russell Brand has previously denied these allegations against him and accused the British government of trying to censor him -- Salma Abdelaziz, CNN London.
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BRUNHUBER: An American tourist has been arrested after allegedly attempting to make contact with one of the world's most isolated tribes.
The 24-year old, Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, made the illegal journey to North Sentinel Island. It's around 750 miles off the coast of India. He did so at the end of March.
The island is home to the Sentinelese tribe and visiting the island is illegal under Indian law in order to maintain the tribe's way of life and protect them from modern illnesses. Although Polyakov managed to reach the island, it is not believed he made contact with the Sentinelese tribe.
The hunt is on for a masked pair of villains who robbed a store in southwest England for its soft, plush toys. They smashed their way into the store with a car and used a wooden plank as a battering ram.
They grabbed several hundred toys, including valuable Jellycat collectibles. Jellycats are known for being so squeezable, the company says they're magic. The owner of The Gorge Bear Company says the haul is worth $25,000. The store closed for several days but has now reopened.
Four private astronauts are back on Earth after a four-day mission aboard SpaceX Dragon capsule. The international crew became the first humans to orbit the Earth pole to pole. The crew included an Australian polar explorer, a German electrical engineer and a Norwegian film director.
They performed 22 experiments but focused on how the human body changes in microgravity. Cryptocurrency billionaire Chun Wang funded the mission. Their Dragon capsule splashed down Friday off the coast of California.
A big homecoming on Ecuador's Galapagos islands. Dozens of giant tortoises bred and raised in captivity are now back in the wild. The young reptiles spent years in a breeding center growing strong enough to survive on their own.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): This week, 170 tortoises were returned to their natural habitat to fulfill an extremely important ecological role within the protected areas of Galapagos.
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): The tortoises had health checks before their release. Park rangers say that thousands of them have been returned to their natural habitat thanks to these initiatives.
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BRUNHUBER: All right. The matchup is set for the women's college basketball national title. South Carolina will face UConn on Sunday. The Gamecocks are looking to repeat as national champions after they defeated Texas 74-57, in Friday's Final Four.
South Carolina guard Te-Hina Paopao scored a team high 14 points in the win. The Huskies secured their return to the title after they dominated number one-ranked UCLA 85-51. Their dynamic frontcourt duo of Sarah Strong and Azzi Fudd lit up the Bruins.
This match will give the college games' most profile player, UConn senior Paige Bueckers, another chance at the championship, one last shot before she is expected to move on to the WNBA.
Well, get ready to move over, Great One. Washington Capitals star forward Alex Ovechkin now shares Wayne Gretzky's all-time hockey goals record.
The Washington captain scored twice last night to equal Gretzky's NHL record of 894 goals, as the Capitals defeated the Chicago Black Hawks, 5-3. Gretzky's mark was once considered unreachable.
Now play in the game came to a halt as the overjoyed home crowd soaked up the moment. And look at that, also applauding, Gretzky himself. Generous. He was in the arena to see Ovechkin tie his record. Ovechkin said that made it a special moment for him, along with the new memories for his own family. Here he is.
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ALEX OVECHKIN, WASHINGTON CAPITALS STAR FORWARD: My wife here, my mom, my father in law, kids.
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And you know, for the future, my kids are going to remember this for -- and it's going to be on TV. You know, it's not going nowhere.
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WAYNE GRETZKY, HOCKEY HALL OF FAMER: Alex has been so. Great for. City of Washington. He's been so great for the national hockey. League. And he's encouraged so many kids in his home country of Russia to play the sport of hockey.
He's been nothing but a champion. And I'm so proud that we're tied. I can live with that for 24 more hours. I can still say I'm tied for the most.
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Always next chance to break his record is on Sunday, when the Capitals take on the New York Islanders.
I have to say, I have mixed feelings about that as a Canadian.
All right, that wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. I'll be back with more news in just a moment. Please do stay with us.