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Connect the World
Trump Delays Threat to Bomb Iranian Power Plants to April 6; Gulf Nations Want Security Concerns Addressed Before War Ends; U.S. Senate Sends Bill to Fund Homeland Security to House; IDF Says It Killed Senior Hezbollah Commander in Lebanon; Lebanese Medics Risk Lives to Save Others Amid IDF Strikes. Aired 9-9:45a ET
Aired March 27, 2026 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST, CONNECT THE WORLD: The U.S. President has announced another pause in his threat to hit Iran's energy infrastructure.
So, no escalation, but no end in sight either. It is 09:00 a.m. Friday in Washington. It is 05:00 p.m. here in Abu Dhabi.
I'm Becky Anderson from our Middle East programming headquarters. You're watching "Connect the World". Well, the stock market in New York opens in
about 30 minutes from now. This is the futures picture after the worst day of trading on the S&P since the war began.
Worth noting that Trump announced that pause moments after markets closed on Thursday. We'll have a look at that timing with a market analyst at the
bottom of this hour. Well, resetting the clock on his threat to obliterate Iran's power plants. U.S. President Donald Trump says it was Iran that
requested the reprieve.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: They said to me very nicely, through my people, could we have more time? They asked for
seven. You're going to say, oh, Trump is a terrible negotiator. They asked for seven, and they said, I'm going to give you ten because they gave me
ships.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: President pushing his deadline for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz back to April the sixth, while he says these talks are ongoing. In
Iran though state media reporting that the government has grave doubts that Washington is serious about negotiating. And as the war reverberates
through global financial markets and disrupts energy supplies around the world, there is a sense of urgency at the G7 meeting near Paris.
U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio sitting down with European allies and others who are looking for solutions to the conflict, but standing firm on
their refusal to be drawn in militarily. Meanwhile, Israel launched a fresh wave of deadly strikes against Tehran and other Iranian cities.
The Iranian Red Crescent says at least 1900 people have been killed and 20,000 injured since the U.S. and Israel began their joint assault almost
four weeks ago. Right, as we have been for a month now. We are covering every angle of this conflict from points across the globe.
CNN's Chief U.S. Security Analyst, Jim Sciutto with us out of Tel Aviv. Our Chief Global Affairs Correspondent, Matthew Chance is in Doha in Qatar.
Melissa Bell covering the G7 talks in Paris. And Matthew, I want to start with you, Trump's latest announcement.
Apologies. Melissa, let me start with you. Just gives get us up to speed, Melissa, on what exactly we can expect out of G7 there in Paris.
MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well likely not a great deal of agreement. What's remarkable about this G7 is when you
consider the positions of these normally steadfast American allies, none of the other G7 countries have come out and clearly spoken in favor of the
American war against Iran that is fighting with the Israelis.
What they're going to be looking for the G7 partners is a lot more clarity from Marco Rubio today on the outskirts of Paris, about what Washington's
strategy is the end game, what's happening the talks -- with the talks that have been so far, not a great deal of detail has been given.
So, they're going to be looking for a lot of that from their counterpart. He explained, as he was even Washington, what he would be asking them for,
which is help opening the Strait of Hormuz, really explaining again, Washington's frustration with what they see as allies failing to step up.
So, you can almost see the disconnect even before Marco Rubio had arrived, that meeting is ongoing, they made the G7 format. Then they're going to
speak with Ukrainians. And then there's an enlarged format with their counterparts from Brazil, India, South Korea and Saudi Arabia.
Of course, at the heart of this is these energy prices, the economic fallout of all this, several European countries now announcing measures to
help their businesses taxpayers weather this storm. A lot of pressure on all of them to try and fix this. But perhaps in the biggest sign that it's
going to be difficult to find any compromise.
Normally, at the end of these things, you have a joint communicate. What we understand from the French is there will be no such thing today. Instead,
there will be a declaration from the French as -- in their capacity as presidents of the G7 not the usual joint communique.
[09:05:00]
I think that speaks to the fact that we don't expect a lot of common ground to be found, Becky.
ANDERSON: And I note that you report there on those who are invited, in addition to G7, Melissa, India, Brazil, South Korea and Saudi Arabia, all
of whom will be intently, sort of focused on getting the Strait of Hormuz opened again. And I'm sure those discussions sort of front and center at
G7.
What does a multinational maritime task force look for, look at or look like, and what would its mission be? Let me bring you in, Matthew. I want
to just get our viewers to listen to the UAE Minister of State speaking to MS NOW about the idea of a coalition. Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LANA NUSSEIBEH, MINISTER OF STATE OF UAE FOREIGN MINISTRY: We're not asking the U.S. to do this alone. We are actively defending our countries, and we
have a broad coalition of partners who are helping that -- do helping us do that. Today we have the French, the UK, the Italians, the Australians, and
a number of other countries.
The G7 are meeting this week in France. You have over 30 countries, NATO partners and allies, who have come out with a strong statement saying that
they will join any efforts to keep the Straits of Hormuz open.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Matthew, what else are you hearing from Gulf countries?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, as you know, Becky, Gulf States do not speak with a single voice when it comes
to what action should or should not be taken with regard to Iran. You heard there from the United Arab Emirates, along with Saudi Arabia and Bahrain
they're much more hard line in terms of what the next step should be in this Iran war to prevent Islamic Republic from posing a threat in the
future.
When it comes to states like the Qataris, and I'm talking to you now, of course, from Doha, they're much more on the conciliatory side of the fence.
And so, we've seen the Qatari Prime Minister, who's also the foreign minister in Washington, throughout the course of the last few hours.
He's been speaking with U.S. Vice President JD Vance, talking about how important it is to ensure energy security and to ensure maritime
navigation. And he's talking about the Persian Gulf in the Strait of Hormuz is guaranteed. But what he's really concerned about is the possibility of
this war escalating even further.
They warned, the Qataris said the United States about the consequences of going to war in Iran well before the United States took the decision to
actually do that. And since then, the Qatari Foreign Ministry says the country has suffered catastrophic economic losses as a result, and they
want this conflict to stop as soon as possible.
Even you get this impression, even if that means leaving the Islam republic in its current form in power across the Persian Gulf in Iran. It's a fact
of geography, the Qataris say, that whoever is in charge in Tehran is a government, a regime, that this Gulf state, at least, is prepared to do
business with.
ANDERSON: Let me bring in Jim, while the world focuses on the straight and you hear the sort of different perspectives from the Gulf nations. Jim,
what's happening inside Iran with the latest strikes as we understand it?
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF U.S. SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we're seeing is that Iran, despite having been hit very hard by U.S. and Israeli
strikes, still maintains an ability to strike out against its neighbors. We had a number of air raid warnings just in the last two hours here in
Israel, incoming fire from Iran.
Again, as usual, most of those intercepted, but still demonstrating that Iranian capability remains, as well as strikes targeting with drones and
missiles. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan says that it had three come its way was able to shoot two of them down, though one landed on its territory.
Again, the math goes against Iran when you hear from U.S. officials and Israeli officials, given how many targets they have hit, many thousands of
targets. But that does not mean it's brought that Iranian capability to zero, and it seeks every day to demonstrate that as best it can.
Meanwhile, in the strait Iran, continuing to demonstrate that it has the ability, at a minimum, to disrupt traffic there. Reports that two Chinese
container vessels were turned away from the Strait of Hormuz, unusual given they were Chinese, another ship that was attacked earlier in the war has
run aground on an island near the strait.
And again, it hasn't closed the strait, but that shows the concern that nations sending their oil and other goods and containers through there
have. They don't consider it safe.
[09:10:00]
And for now, it remains Iran's prerogative it seems to shut it down when it can. And this then presents to President Trump the choice as to whether he
wants to take further military action to attempt to open that up, and at what cost, you know, including boots on the ground. And from Iran's
perspective, they continue to have somewhat defiant rhetoric.
They call both the U.S., one Iranian official called both the U.S. and Israel nuclear bullies today, but Israeli officials do say that Iran is at
least open to discussions. The big question going forward, Becky, means is, where do those discussions go, and how much does each side -- how much is
each side willing to compromise to get to some sort of agreement, or even just some sort of interim ceasefire?
ANDERSON: Yeah, we bring Matthew back in here. The IAEA warning is interesting and important, and so I just want to discuss this. Rafael
Grossi, the Head of the IAEA, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, reiterating his deep concern about recent military strikes reportedly occurring near Iran's
Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant.
DG Grossi warns that damage to the facility could result in a major radiological accident affecting a large area in Iran and beyond. That has
to be concerning for people in the region where the country, where you are, in the region where we are, here in the Gulf. What's the latest?
CHANCE: Well, I mean, you're right, of course. And Mr. Grossi is also right, that any kind of strike on an active nuclear reactor like the one at
Bushehr, which is on the Persian Gulf Coast of Iran, would obviously result in a sort of radiological catastrophe. You see, it's very different
fighting and striking active nuclear reactors compared to, for instance, uranium enrichment facilities that were struck by the U.S. and Israel at
the beginning of March.
Uranium, before it's been enriched, isn't very radioactive at all, and enrichment facilities don't have a great deal of radiological radioactive
material that can be dispersed into the atmosphere if they're smashed, that's not the case for nuclear reactors. They've got various large
quantities of radioactive isotopes, large quantities of other kinds of radioactive material.
And if they are damaged, if they're blown up, not only you talking about a sort of plume of radioactive dust that could spread across the entire
region, not just Iran, but into these Gulf states as well, but also something along the similar lines as we saw 40 years ago in Chernobyl, when
the reactor core melts down, causing a much greater, much longer running nuclear catastrophe as well.
And so yes, it is never a good idea, I think is the lesson from this, to bomb in areas around active nuclear reactors. You know that's been
underlined now by the Head of the IAEA.
ANDERSON: Good to have you all on board this hour. Thank you very much indeed. And the American military is the mightiest in the world. They say
so, why is it having so much trouble reopening the Strait of Hormuz? A very insightful piece up now on CNN Digital which names two key reasons Iran has
the upper hand there.
It also discusses a major motivating factor for Iran to maintain its blockade money. You can find that article on all of CNN's digital
platforms. Well, there is hope of a possible breakthrough for U.S. airports where the security lines are still brutally long, it has to be said.
More than 40 days into a partial U.S. government shutdown, there is progress on a deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which
includes the Transportation Security Administration or the TSA. Hundreds of those TSA offices have quit, and thousands more have been calling out sick
effectively because they haven't been paid in weeks, sparking massive lines at some of America's busiest airports.
But it is far from clear if the Republican controlled U.S. House will vote to allow funding to go through that will allow TSA agents to be paid. This
comes after a rare overnight session for the U.S. Senate. It voted unanimously to fund most of DHS, right before Congress is set to begin its
recess over Easter and Passover.
Well CNN's Annie Grayer is reporting from Capitol Hill. Ed Lavandera, live at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas. Annie, let's
start with you. This was a mammoth session overnight. Is this a genuine breakthrough? What are you hearing, for example, from the White House at
this point?
[09:15:00]
ANNIE GRAYER, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, it was a major breakthrough for the Senate to finally get this deal passed, because Republicans and
Democratic Senators were negotiating for 41 days and were not making any meaningful progress. Senate Democrats wanted reforms to I.C.E., and
Republicans wanted all of the Department of Homeland Security to be funded.
They wanted more money for I.C.E. And it wasn't until President Trump came out and said that he was going to use his emergency powers to pay TSA
agents that all of a sudden, a Senate deal came together, and that's how we saw that late overnight session where the senators finally passed that.
But now it is up to the House, and all eyes are on House Speaker Mike Johnson this morning about how he's going to navigate this, because he has
some conservatives in his conference who are not happy with this deal. They want to see more funding for I.C.E. And also, there were a lot of
conservatives and Trump even who wanted any DHS deal to include an attached bill that would be of Trump's voter ID bill that would change a lot about
U.S. elections.
A lot of conservatives have been pushing that. Republicans were not able to get that through in the Senate. So now, Speaker Johnson is having
conversations with his Republican lawmakers to see if they can pass it, not having to rely on any democratic votes today.
And if they are going to need Democrats in the House to help deliver this over the finish line, then that could take more time, potentially over the
weekend, potentially early next week, but all the while, TSA agents are not being paid. The airport lines are continuing to get longer.
And I think both parties are asking themselves, what did they get out of this deal? Now that the Senate has passed this DHS funding deal without
I.C.E. Democrats were not able to get the reforms that they were hoping for. The next bill that Republicans in the Senate want to do would be a
Republican only bill, meaning they're not going to have to rely on any Democrat votes, which means that the window for Democrats to be able to
negotiate future reforms to I.C.E. could have closed, could be eliminated.
But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is happy with how this process ended up, because the final deal in the Senate was something that Democrats
have been pushing for, for a long time, and he's pleased that his moderate Senate Democrats did not fall out of line from the rest of the party, and
that the party was able to remain unified.
I'm told there are some moderate Democrats in the House who support this deal, which could help Johnson chances on getting this passed, but really
it is a timing issue. The clock is ticking. The pressure is on. Lawmakers know that TSA agents need those paychecks at the airports.
Need to get some help. And we'll just be waiting to see how today plays out.
ANDERSON: Yeah, that's the bottom line, isn't it? Ed, let me bring you in. How long will it effectively take to get TSA agents paid put into these
massive lines at U.S. airports, if they can get enough of those agents back to work?
ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we've been digging into that and trying to ask various people. We're not getting a lot
of clarity just yet. It has taken some time in previous shutdowns to get the TSA employees paid, missing a paycheck today, and so it's not clear how
quickly that would happen.
And then, you know, we do know that the call out rates for TSA employees at places like George Bush Intercontinental Airport, where I am has been
around 40 percent, and because of that, airport officials have told us that they've, at best, they have about half of the security lanes open
throughout the airport.
That's why many of the passengers are being funneled through just two of the terminals here at this airport, and so that's a great deal of concern.
Houston is kind of a unique place. A lot of these TSA employees come from great distances to get here, to come to work, given where gas prices are.
I've heard from officials that that could be a factor into the call out rates, because Houston is such a sprawling city that a lot of these
employees come from great distances to come work here at the airport. But the bottom line is, is that if this is, if there's some sort of deal reach,
it's not exactly clear how soon these TSA employees are going to get their paychecks.
ANDERSON: Good to have you, Ed. To both of you, thank you. I'm Becky Anderson from our Middle East headquarters in Abu Dhabi in the UAE. You're
watching "Connect the World" folks. Still to come, Israel's fight with Hezbollah causing hundreds of civilian casualties and frankly,
heartbreaking losses in Lebanon.
A closer look there ahead. Plus, Thailand's Foreign Minister tells me the government is trying to calm public sentiment as it deals with the rise in
energy prices.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:20:00]
ANDERSON: Well, you are looking at a live shot of the Beirut skyline. It's about 20 minutes past 03:00 p.m. there. Israel's military says it has
killed a Senior Hezbollah Commander in Lebanon. The IDF says Hassan Mohammad Bashir was killed as Israel expanded its deadly assault against
Hezbollah into Southern Lebanon on Wednesday.
But as we've been reporting, it is civilians who are still taking an enormous toll in this conflict. Overnight, Israeli strikes today targeted
Beirut's southern suburbs. It's not clear yet who was targeted in that strike, but officials say more than 1000 people in Lebanon have been killed
since Israel launched its operations against Hezbollah inside the country.
Well, for a closer look just how dangerous cities there right now. Let's turn to CNN's Nick Paton Walsh, he's been speaking to paramedics who say
they fear their lives as they work to save others.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Shaken awake all night by blasts, the days aren't much better.
WALSH: A town like here, Nabatieh kind of caught in limbo, a lot of the civilian population have left. You can see why, and still, it's something
of a hub for rescuers, the injured from all around brought here as the front lines get closer and closer.
WALSH (voice-over): A drone strike visible from the hospital on the hill, but the rush to help here comes with a huge caveat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drone, not airstrike.
WALSH (voice-over): Medics killed across the country just two days ago here by an apparent Israeli strike mean they have to consider there not just the
victims, safety too.
WALSH: It's tough call for the medics when they respond after the recent deaths, but still heading in fast and still over there too, despite the
rain, some shelling picking up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Artillery, that was artillery.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They may have hit it from afar because the sound was long. It had a long sound, no, it's not a drone.
WALSH (voice-over): Three units head down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Full of risk.
WALSH (voice-over): Nobody left to rescue here, though, two men killed and stuck beneath the rubble.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About two homes are fully damaged. Two houses.
WALSH (voice-over): Zeina (ph) lives with her father, doctor in the hospital, has her toy slime for fun, but knows what she fears.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The darkness.
WALSH (voice-over): The elderly ferried out.
ALI HARIRI, MEDIC: There are some people yeah. They're trying to leave and they didn't find any shelter to go. The drones are flying over us, but we
don't have any options. We have to go.
WALSH: Must be harder after the loss of your friend's son.
HARIRI: Yeah, it's very hard but we don't have choices. We don't have choices.
WALSH (voice-over): His friend, this rescuer here on Tuesday, lost his son, one of two medics killed by an Israeli strike on a motor bike. Israel
hasn't responded to our request for comment.
[09:25:00]
They buried Jude Suleiman (ph), age 16 on Wednesday, fearing it won't be the last. Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Nabatieh, Lebanon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: And more reporting from Lebanon in the hours to come. Well, it is a volatile moment in financial markets around the world, and most Asian
markets fell overnight. Hong Kong, Hang Seng was one exception this Friday. Asian countries are feeling the impact of fuel shortages as traffic through
the Strait of Hormuz, of course, is mostly at a standstill.
In Thailand, long lines and out of stock signs have started to appear at gas stations. Thailand, along with many of its neighbors, relies on energy
imported from the Middle East. The country's fishing industry is in danger of coming to a halt.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOONCHOO LONLUY, FISHERMAN: What we do know is that if we are at a standstill, we will get nothing. Normally, we pay for a certain amount of
fuel, and now that the price has gone up, we've been trying to sell slower, which in turn resulted in lower catch. We can't live like this.
JUMPOL KANAWAREE, FISHMONGERS' ASSOCIATION: This crisis has been the worst in the 30 to 40 years of my career, even during the COVID outbreak, it
wasn't this scary, because each province could manage on their own. However, this is at an international level, which we feel at a loss as
well, and can only hope for the government to help us. This is very scary.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: I spoke earlier with the Thai Foreign Minister. I asked him what he was doing to mitigate the impacts.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SIHASAK PHUANGKETKEOW, THAI FOREIGN MINISTER: Of course, I think we have to avoid panic among the people. As you mentioned, we have 100 days of our
reserve, and we are trying to manage that wisely. But of course, because of the concern among the people, there has been some panic buying.
And right now, we're trying to calm down public settlements that the government has policies to deal with the situation.
ANDERSON: What's the damage to your growth forecasts at this point? And has this war exposed just how vulnerable Thailand and other Asian countries
energy security really is at this point?
PHUANGKETKEOW: Yes, that's very important these days. I think energy security, and in fact, there was this meeting, a special meeting of the
Asian Foreign Ministers that was proposed by Thailand a week ago. And during that meeting, we expressed concern about the situation.
We enforced our call for peace and peaceful resolution. But most importantly, we discuss seriously about the need for the Asian countries,
the 11 countries of Asian too, to think about how we can cooperate in terms of energy security, especially in an emergency situation like this.
ANDERSON: Does this emergency, this moment, deepen Thailand's economic reliance on China?
PHUANGKETKEOW: No, I think we have to rely on countries in the region. You know, it's a time where, you know, all of us will have to help each other.
It's not about being dependent on any particular country. Even China is also facing an energy emergency as well. So, it's not about relying on any
particular country. It's about working together as a region and where we can help each other.
ANDERSON: -- I realize this is very tough. A Thai flagged vessel was struck in the Strait of Hormuz on March the 11th. The crew is missing. It's now
run aground on an Iranian Island. What can you tell us about that vessel and the status of its crew. And does Thailand now see itself as directly
exposed or involved?
PHUANGKETKEOW: Well, the vessel came under attack from Iranian side. We don't know the exact circumstances of what happened. The ship became
incapacitated, and the Omani authorities help with the rescue of 20 crew members. We still have three crew members that are unaccounted for on
board.
Now, I think the main thing is to bring the ship to the coast and try to rescue the three remaining crew members, and we're not sure about their
faith right now. And, of course, we are in consultations with the Iranian authorities. We have protested strongly because we think that, you know,
Thailand is not a party to the conflict.
[09:30:00]
And the ship, the vessel in question, was carrying normal cargo, commercial cargo, and usually when you're not a party to the conflict, you know under
international law you have the right of safe passage.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Well, most of those Asian markets lower in their Friday session. This is the bell on Wall Street ringing in that trading day, Friday last
week, day of the week for trading. Let's see how these markets get on. Certainly, the future is indicating a lower start for U.S. Equities.
More on that coming up. Still ahead the war with Iran driving up those global gas prices, a look at the impact, is after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: Let's see how stocks are getting on then on the open. This is the state of play just couple of minutes into the trading day. We look at these
markets every day, of course, at this time, as traders react to news headlines and presidential posts, some analysts argue these markets aren't
reacting strongly enough to what is going on at present.
My next guest told Yahoo Finance, there are those who say that we haven't priced in enough of what this could possibly mean in the markets, but I
think it's all about your time frame. If you're a long-term investor, you shouldn't be playing geopolitical events, right? So, if you did the same
thing at the beginning of any war, you've actually lost money.
Art Hogan is Chief Market Strategist at B. Riley Financial, and he joins me now from Boston, Massachusetts. Art, I take your point, but let's have a
listen to the President of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde. Stand by.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTINE LAGARDE, EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK PRESIDENT: Maybe they are overly optimistic and determined to stay optimistic in the hope that the positive
scenario will materialize and we will be back to normal in relatively short time, which is not what the technical experts are telling us in terms of
capacity, extraction, refinery, distribution, because too much has already been damaged and there is no way that it can be restored in a matter of
months. Most people are actually talking about years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: So is Christine Lagarde thinking that it is suggesting that it's going to get a lot worse for a lot longer than some investors are
acknowledging. Your reaction?
ART HOGAN, CHIEF MARKET STRATEGIST AT B. RILEY FINANCIAL: Yeah, interesting. Take there. And I think everything's really hovers around
duration. So, it's the duration of the Straits of Hormuz being closed, for example, where we're losing around 15 million barrels a day.
[09:35:00]
And unfortunately, you can't make that up, although Saudi Arabia has done a pretty good job of increasing their capacity into the Red Sea, can't make
that up. So, the compounding of that is, how long does that last before we actually see traffic flowing through the Strait of Hormuz and then you have
some normalization.
That's not to say that energy prices are going to go back to where they were at $65 WTI from the $95 is trading at now before this war started, but
I certainly think that a normalization of traffic patterns of hydrocarbons is certainly going to be beneficial. But the longer we are in this place
where we have a shortage of energy product which cascades down to all sorts of other products that are dependent on petroleum, then the more economic
damage we're going to do, and that's going to take longer to repair.
So, it's a function of how long you think this last. If we're going to go a couple of quarters instead of a couple of weeks or a couple of months,
we're certainly going to see some degradation in economic activity. And that's not just domestically. That'd be globally.
I don't think the markets pricing that in yet, because it appears as though this is the administration driven by a lot of factors, not the least of
which are how much money they're spending on this, how unpopular this is, and how soon mid-term elections are coming up that are really moved to try
to find an exit ramp on this war highway.
ANDERSON: Let's be quite clear about this. Donald Trump, I mean, he makes no bones about being focused on these markets and the impact that anything
that he does might have on these markets. This week's market headline is that the S&P's worst day of the war so far was Thursday.
11 minutes after its close, Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social announcing a 10 day pause to his threat to target Iran's energy facilities. What do you
make of the timing of the president's announcements? And do you see the evidence of a connection to market performance here?
HOGAN: Well certainly, we went through this last April when we had the rollout of Liberation Day and unrealistic tariffs were talked about, and
then that was pulled back five days later. So, you know, commonly referred to as the taco trade, meaning, let's throw this test balloon out here, and
if it doesn't react, well, especially in capital markets, then we'll pull back.
The problem with that is, you can put out tariffs and then pull them back, but you can't start a war and then end that war with both sides not
agreeing to that. So, it takes two to taco and that's a difficult part of trying to manipulate markets in a war that you've started when the other
side firmly has stated that they're not ready to negotiate.
ANDERSON: Well, if that was the idea today, these equity investors are not having any of it, because these markets are off by 1 percent as they get
out of the gate, let's see how they fare through what is the last day of the trading week. Of course, it's good to have you, sir.
Thank you very much indeed for joining us. Let's get you all up to speed on some of the other stories that are on our radar right now. A 25-year-old
Spanish woman has died by assisted suicide after a 20-month legal battle for that right. Noelia Castillo says she suffered a turbulent childhood
sexual abuse and mental health problems and attempted suicide in 2022 left her paraplegic and in a wheelchair.
Castillo's story has been controversial in Spain, and her father fought in court to keep her alive. Well dozens of Ukrainians have been deported from
the U.S. by Immigration and Customs Enforcement or I.C.E. agents under the second Trump Administration.
Many men who've been forcibly returned to Ukraine tell CNN on arrival they were immediately conscripted into the military and sent the front lines of
the war with Russia. Under Ukrainian law, men aged between 25 and 60 are subject to conscription. Well, for the first time ever, a sitting U.S.
President's signature will appear on U.S. paper currency.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says, Donald Trump's signature is in honor of the upcoming 250th anniversary of the United States. The president's
hand-picked Fine Arts Commission is also reviewing a proposed $1 Trump coin, which is not allowed under current law. And take a very short break
back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:40:00]
ANDERSON: Well four-time champions Italy dreams of a World Cup return remain after exiting in the playoff the last two times. Victory over
Northern Ireland on Thursday means just one more victory stand between the Italians and the World Cup. Amanda Davies joining me now. And a World Cup
is just not World Cup, as far as I'm concerned, without the Azzurri. But it does happen, of course.
AMANDA DAVIES, CNN WORLD SPORT: Yeah. I mean, it is four-time champions, as you said, European champions in 2020, but Italy haven't been at a World Cup
final since 2014 and talk about a long, painful, drawn-out process. We're now only 76 days away from the tournament kick off.
The draw, of course, conducted in December last year, but we've still got those six remaining spots. It is nerve shredding for the Italians. It's
this playoff stage that they've missed out the last two tournaments. But as far as they're concerned, it's one game down, one to go next week.
And Gennaro Gattuso, their coach, brought in for this express purpose to get them back to the tournament, which he won as a player, has been
brilliant in terms of talking about the nerves, and we've got that coming up in just a couple of minutes.
ANDERSON: Superb. That's on "World Sport". We will be back with more "Connect the World" in 15 minutes. Stay with us.
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