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One World with Zain Asher

Trump Delays Strikes on Iran's Energy Sites by 10 Days; Lebanese PM Expresses Fears of Humanitarian Catastrophe; DHS Funding Bill Moves to House After Passage in Senate; Long Security Lines Remain, Trump Pledges Order Paying TSA; TSA Crisis, Spring Break Rush Causing Long Airport Lines in Houston; Oil Prices Rise as Trump Extends Iran Energy Strikes Pause. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired March 27, 2026 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN HOST, ONE WORLD: President Trump delays his deadline for striking Iranian energy sites. "One World" starts right now. We'll look

at the humanitarian toll on the people of Lebanon as a wave of new Israeli strikes hit overnight. Plus, as the war nears its fifth week, G7 allies are

meeting in France, seeking clarity from the United States on its war plans.

And could the end be in sight for exhausting airport security lines, Congress makes moves to end the partial government shutdown. Hello,

everyone. Live from New York. I'm Bianna Golodryga. Zain is off today. You are watching "One World". President Trump once again extending his own

deadline on Tehran for another 10 days.

The U.S. will hold off on targeting energy sites. The status of negotiations remains unclear. For now, the deadly conflict is heading

towards a fifth week. Iran's Red Crescent reports the country's death toll is nearing 2000. And Israel's Defense Minister warns that the attacks on

Iran will escalate and expand as long as Iran keeps on firing at Israeli civilians.

We're also seeing fresh strikes hit Southern Lebanon, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, Israeli strikes have killed more than 1000 people

so far this month since Hezbollah entered this war. Meantime, officials warn that Yemen's Iran backed Houthi rebels could soon join the war if

things escalate further.

Jim Sciutto is tracking all these developments live for us from Tel Aviv. So, Jim, as I just mentioned, President Trump extending the pause on

strikes against energy infrastructure another 10 days, while Israel's Defense Minister is saying that strikes against Iran will intensify and

expand following continued attacks from Iran, including just yesterday. Tell us how that's being interpreted.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I'll tell you, Bianna, I think it's important to note first that President Trump is really just

pausing an escalation of the war. Right, U.S. strikes on other targets continue, as do Israeli strikes. So, he's just holding back on expanding to

energy infrastructure, which, of course, is rife with its own risk, not just for Iran, but also for the price of oil, the world economy, et cetera.

So many of those things going into the president's calculations, it seems. From Israel's standpoint, because Iran is still attacking Israel, and we

saw that today we had more air raid signals here in Tel Aviv. We had a peak of those air raid signals yesterday really one of the busiest days of the

war for Iranian attacks on Israel.

You hear now from the defense minister saying that because Iran continues to attempt to strike civilian targets here in Israel, that Israel, for its

part, is increasing its attacks on Iran. Here's how Israel Katz put it earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ISRAEL KATZ, ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I warned the Iranian terror regime to stop the missile fire directed at

Israel's civilian population, despite the warnings, the firing has continued, and therefore IDF strikes in Iran will escalate and expand to

additional targets in areas that assist the regime in building and operating weapons used against Israeli civilians, they will pay heavy and

increasing prices for this war crime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: And Bianna, you've been here, you've experienced those air raid warnings. What's been interesting to me this week is that Israeli residents

here in Tel Aviv, they're listening to those warnings. They are heading into the shelters, and that, as Israeli officials say, contributed to the

relatively low number of casualties here in Israel.

But there are also signals that Israel wants to strike more targets in Iran while it has time to do so, that if the U.S. and Iran were to come to some

sort of ceasefire agreement in the near term, Israel wants to do as much damage as it can in the meantime to ballistic missile sites, et cetera.

In effect, squeezing in as many attacks as they can. If this war is going to come to an end or to a pause anytime soon, still very much an open

question. But if that were to be the case.

[11:05:00]

GOLODRYGA: Yeah, we don't know when that would happen. But as you mentioned and those safe rooms have definitely saved millions of lives in Israel, but

this war and the war in Gaza now 2.5 years, the toll on the country is indeed heavy. Jim Sciutto, thank you.

My next guest is a Lecturer on Middle East Affairs at Reichman University. Nadav Pollak joins us now from Toronto with more. Nadav, it's good to have

you on. I've been wanting to bring you on this program for this program for a while. I follow a lot of your posts on social media.

Thank you so much for taking the time. So here you have President Trump apparently pushing to wrap up the war within the next few weeks. He's

floating a potential diplomatic deal this 10 day pause on strikes against energy infrastructure. At the same time, we're seeing some 10,000 troops

marines deployed to the region as an effort to put continued pressure on the Iranian regime.

How is this playing out, this sort of whiplash of back and forth from Washington in Israel?

NADAV POLLAK, LECTURER ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS AT REICHMAN UNIVERSITY: Yeah, I think right now, the sort of the Israeli decision makers, sort of, are

trying to guess what will happen as well. And you know, he Trump every day comes with a different statement about what do we like to do? Another POWs

and other negotiations around.

And I think they're also a little bit in a guessing game. And I think if they would have known that a ceasefire is sort of soon, they would try to

get as much as they can until that specific point. Maybe that's the first thing that we see today from Minister Katz about escalating Israel's

attacks in Iran.

But I think right now, the Israel decision maker, probably are hoping that the war will prolong, because if you look at it from the Israeli

perspective, the objectives of the war are still not accomplished. You know when we -- when this launched, the sort of join this war, there were three

main objectives.

One of them was the missile program. The second one was the nuclear program, and the third one was toppling the regime. And on all three, you

can see right now that the objectives are still not achieved. And for Bibi himself, when he's going to need to present the accomplishment to the

Israel Republic. Right now, he doesn't have that many accomplishments to show.

GOLODRYGA: Right. And this is an election year in Israel. And so far, I believe the latest polling shows that he hasn't received a bump yet for

launching this war, which, by the way, has the majority of Israelis in approval of, it's just his approval rating hasn't gone up.

And on this point, it was interesting to see Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Israeli television speaking with Yonit Levi of Channel 12

yesterday, saying, quote, Israel is not winning on any front. We've already seen sort of a shift in tactics here, and ultimate goal of perhaps going

from regime change in these first few weeks to then striking now military facilities and going after ballistic missiles and missile launchers.

But to your point, if this war does come to an end in the next couple of weeks, can Israel claim, can Prime Minister Netanyahu claim total victory

if you still have those 450 kilograms of enriched, your highly enriched uranium in Iran, and you still have at least some missile capabilities?

POLLAK: Yeah. So, if we take a two weeks' time from you know, a lot can happen in two weeks, but let's say, in a few days, if a ceasefire begins

and Israel needs to stop firing at Iran, I think that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not going to be able to show much achievement from this war,

exactly for the reasons that you just outlined.

So, first of all, on the missile front, Iran is still firing missiles at Israel. You know, Jim, just said report from Tel Aviv, people are going to

shelter six, seven times a day from Iranian missiles. It's destruction of life. People are at home already for a month with their kids, with no

schools, and eventually Bibi will need to show them.

OK, so what was the sacrifice for? So that's on the missile front. On the nuclear part, as you mentioned, the enriching uranium is still in Iran. We

still don't have a solution for that, something that an agreement at first was supposed to bring a solution for. But one of the reasons to go to war

was the fact that we need to deal with this threat.

And the third one was sort of the toppling of the regime, which the prime minister and other Israel officials have state in the beginning of the war

that this is one of the objectives. And up until now, what we see is that the regime is still stable. You know, they're still are able to make

decisions.

They're still able to sort of remain sort of a cohesive entity. So, I think he was not going to be able to show that much for the public. And let's not

forget that there are still Hezbollah in the north that is firing missiles at Israel. That's also another issue for the prime minister.

GOLODRYGA: Right. You mentioned a lot can happen in two weeks' time. We don't know exactly what these 10,000 marines are sent to the region to do,

perhaps, perhaps it is, to retrieve that highly enriched uranium.

[11:10:00]

Perhaps it is to seize Kharg Island. We see oil now hovering around $110 a barrel. The Strait of Hormuz still controlled by Iran. But I do want to get

to the north, as you just mentioned, because Israel is now fighting two fronts, essentially, you've got the war with Hezbollah that is expanding,

and obviously this with Iran.

Just yesterday, Hezbollah fired over 100 rockets. The human toll is rising. Several Israeli soldiers have been killed. You have said that Israel must

not fall into Hezbollah's trap. We now know that Tehran says that they are demanding a ceasefire with Hezbollah for any sort of broader peace deal

with the United States and Israel. What exactly is the trap that you were worried that Israel could fall into?

POLLAK: Yeah, so just to begin with it, you mentioned Iran is trying to sort of bring together Hezbollah to any possible agreement. And this is

sort of one of the indicators that show that Iran still believes that it's sort of in a position of power to demand those kinds of things.

So that's just one thing that I think is important to highlight. And when I said about the Hezbollah trap, and for me, look, Hezbollah joined this war.

Of course, after Israel, the U.S. attacked Iran and they started this, they again brought Lebanon and into this which the Lebanese people, according to

recent polls, did not want and don't want.

Again, talking about the dragon to a word they don't want. And Israel is trying to sort of come up with solution of what to do about it. The

decision makers in Israel, the minister of defense, the prime minister, ordered a ground operation inside of Lebanon. They're talking in recent

week about the fact that Israel will remain in South Lebanon for a prolonged period of time, which, in my opinion, is a great mistake.

Eventually, Israel did this mistake in the past. You know, after the first and second Lebanon war, him back in during the 80s and the 90s, Israel had

a presence out Lebanon, which basically strengthened Hezbollah and Hezbollah ideology and the support of Hezbollah because they fought against

Israel, the occupier.

And for Israel right now to focus more resources on this, instead of dealing with the main threat, which is Iran, you need to remember,

eventually pays the money for Hezbollah, provides them with their weapons. And we need to focus on that first, while also addressing the Hezbollah

threat.

I also think, you know, after October 7th in the past 2.5 years, Israel really sort of fell in love in the military solution, which, by the way, I

support on many issues, on many topics. But in some occasions, you also need to use the diplomatic tool. You know, there's an expression, if you

only have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

And I think for Israel, decision maker, the military tool sort of became the hammer. And they forgot, to some extent, the diplomatic approach. And

right now, there's a government in Lebanon which is trying to sort of push all -- to put the different restrictions on them.

Again, they're not doing enough, for sure, but we need to come up with ways, along with the U.S., how to help them fight Hezbollah in a more

efficient way.

GOLODRYGA: Yeah, no doubt, the most aggressive rhetoric we have seen, and even some actions expelling diplomats from Lebanon. And yet there still is

the question of, how do you reassure safety for all of those tens, hundreds of thousands of residents of Israel in the north?

We will talk about the human toll of all of this with our next guest, but Nadav Pollak, thank you so much for the time. We appreciate it.

POLLAK: Thank you for having me.

GOLODRYGA: Well, the Lebanese Red Cross says that the country is now facing a humanitarian emergency as the war in the Middle East escalates. Let's

speak to Georges Kettaneh as the Secretary General of the Red Cross for Lebanon, who joins us from Beirut. Georges, it's good to see you sir. Thank

you so much for taking the time.

GEORGES KETTANEH, SECRETARY GENERAL OF LEBANESE RED CROSS: Thank --

GOLODRYGA: We just discussed the military strategy of this war, Israel's push for a broader buffer zone there in the south. For the Lebanese red

cross on the front lines, what is the immediate human toll of these intensified strikes that we've seen?

KETTANEH: Thank you very much for this interview. I think we are -- big challenge regarding -- Israel, the advantage of the debate -- we are

accepted by the -- neutral, independent, impartial -- and to help a human or clearance -- sometimes we get -- so second step we are need -- having

the service -- because then, as you -- we have the --

[11:15:00]

GOLODRYGA: I'm so sorry to interrupt you, Georges, we're having some difficulty understanding you. I think there's an audio issue here that we

want to work out so we can actually listen to all of the important information that you are providing us with. We're going to take a short

break. Try to reconnect with you and come right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GOLODRYGA: All right, let's bring back Georges Kettaneh, the Secretary General of the Red Cross for Lebanon, who joins us from Beirut. Georges, I

think we worked out the audio issue there, and we left off with my question to you about the immediate human toll that this escalation and the recent

strikes have had on citizens there.

KETTANEH: As you know, we the Lebanese Red Cross, we are in all the territory, coordinating with UNIFIL and ICRC, International Committee of

the Red Cross, with the movement of Red Cross stratification. So, we are responding in the red zone. Usually, we will talk to UNIFIL to get a

notification or clearance.

Sometimes we will get from the other side that they are informed. Sometimes there's -- confliction, we can move. There's a risk, but we have to

continue. We have to respond to help the people, to save lives and preserve dignity. This is in the south, in all the border of the south.

So, we are there. We still there since the second of March, and we continue our response also in the north of Bekaa, also in the suburb of Beirut, we

are everywhere to see how we can respond. In parallel, we continue to deliver blood bank, blood units to the hospitals and also for more than 1

million IDPs in coordination with the National Committee of disaster risk reduction and the grand sera to help the IDPs and relief also in -- and

tech with social support and other services.

GOLODRYGA: Georges, if my notes are correct, you literally built Lebanon's EMS system. How is that holding up at this point?

KETTANEH: At this point, there's a risk, because sometimes you don't have a humanitarian corridor. It's a question of international humanitarian law

and protection of the volunteers and medical staff.

[11:20:00]

This is a negotiation between all the actors with the states and others to see how we can maintain the service, to protect the emblem and to protect

the mission and to help the people who need us. This is the challenge. It became riskier. We are trying our best with the contact, as I mentioned,

with UNIFIL and ICRC and others, to see how can maintain, you maintain a corridor and how we can help the people who need us in all the territory,

especially in the south.

GOLODRYGA: As we noted in our -- with our previous guests, the Lebanese government has actually been quite firm and aggressive in its renunciation

and criticism of Hezbollah for bringing Lebanon once again into a war that the Lebanese people did not ask for. But in terms of what the Lebanese

government itself can assist with, we know that their military is not as strong as it could or should be to fight against Hezbollah, its services to

provide humanitarian aid.

Where does that stand? Are you able to work at all with the Lebanese government on that front?

KETTANEH: Look, we are members of the national responsive plan with the government, even we are neutral, independent and impartial. We are

coordinating with Lebanese army forces and with the local authorities and with governor aids to respond to the people who need us.

We try to be only humanitarian as Lebanese Red Cross to be accepted and trusted by the community, by all and protected. So, we have to continue our

mission in coordination with the movement of Red Cross certification and with UNIFIL to help the people, with the government, we have a very close

coordination and cooperation together, we complement the role of the government.

We cannot duplicate or compete. According to the National responsive plan, we are responding in ambulance service and also in the blood bank, and we

are supporting in relief, cause, primary health and mobility clinics and psychosocial support.

GOLODRYGA: We're seeing reports of U.N. peacekeepers that have been fired upon the chaos of you've got Hezbollah that's operating and fighting in

civilian areas. You've got the IDFs, heavy air strikes. Just talk about the risks that this puts your volunteers, those workers that are there to help

civilians, the risk that this puts them in.

KETTANEH: Look, there's a risk in each war you have, there's a risk. We are trying to be transparent and open and to present to our act, especially as

I mentioned, love and UNIFIL and ICRC, how we are moving, how we are responding, if we can respond to the emergency, especially to the -- and to

evacuate and transfer the dead bodies.

This is what we are doing as a priority. So, we still are in the border, continuing our mission, with clear mission and with the clear protection

from we try to have this protection in coordination with all the actors in the field. This is what we are trying to do. We have to give hope to the

people who need us, and we continue with transparency, as I mentioned, to respond to these people.

GOLODRYGA: Quickly as obviously, the top priority is to see this fighting end. But barring that, what is it that you need most right now to help

people on the ground?

KETTANEH: The first of all, the protection and respecting the international humanitarian law. This is something very important any human being in all

the countries, especially in Lebanon. Secondly, the medical supplies. We have a contingency plan, contingency stock.

But we are trying, also with the movement, to launch an appeal to the International Federation of Red Cross, Red Crescent, to see how we can have

collect more fund to help the people in food parcels, hygiene kits and chronic medicines and wash and water and sanitation and other services who

need it.

The aim is to preserve the dignity of the human being and to save lives. This is what we are trying to do, and how we can give hope. As I mentioned,

I repeat it to these people who are suffering, are leaving their house and needs the support.

GOLODRYGA: Georges Kettaneh from the Lebanese Red Cross, thank you. Thank all of those aid workers who are there putting their lives on the line

every day to save others. We appreciate it.

KETTANEH: Thank you.

GOLODRYGA: And for more information about how you can help civilians impacted by the Middle East conflict, go to cnn.com/impact.

[11:25:00]

All right, turning now back here to the U.S., where time is running out in the House of Representatives to pass a bill to fund most of the Department

of Homeland Security. They're due to go on a two-week recess later today, and if they don't come to an agreement, the long lines at airports

nationwide will continue as TSA agents continue to work without pay.

The Senate unanimously passed the bill in a rare overnight session. Now despite the president's push, it's unclear when those TSA paychecks will

come through, and how soon TSA staffers will return to the job, if at all. The most recent DHS numbers show nearly 500 officers have quit.

On Wednesday, more than 3100 TSA officers did not show up to work. At Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport. Wait Times reached four

hours before 05:00 a.m. this morning. CNN's Ed Lavandera is at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.

We'll get to you in just a moment. But first to CNN's Annie Grayer on Capitol Hill. And Annie, we know that Congress is the House's meeting right

now. Any sense on when voting can begin?

ANNIE GRAYER, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: It's still an open question, because House Speaker Mike Johnson is dealing with a lot of pressure from his more

conservative members to not accept the deal that the Senate sent over in the early hours of Friday morning. They want to see Border Patrol added

back to the Senate DHS funding deal.

They want to see money for I.C.E. added back to this deal, and they also want a voter ID bill, which President Trump has been pushing, added back

in. So that really throws a wrench into these plans, because the Senate has left for a two-week recess, and if the House were to make any changes to

the deal sent over, then the Senate would have to come back into session.

So, it could really be opening up a whole new can of worms. But conservatives are holding firm. They were just meeting with Speaker Mike

Johnson to make their case about why they will not accept the deal in its current form. So now Speaker Johnson has a decision to make.

Can he -- should he embrace these changes that the conservatives want to make, or can he pass this bill relying on Democratic support? And if that

were to happen, there are a lot of procedural steps that would have to play out and making it less likely that that vote could happen today.

Now I was asking the conservative Republicans who were outlining their demands on this deal, you know, what happens to the TSA agents who are

receiving their pay not just vote on this deal that the Senate passed over today, and their argument is, President Trump has announced that he will

use emergency funds to pay TSA agents that, that can go through while these other negotiations continue.

Now there's a lot of questions about how the president can make that funding possible, how soon it would kick in, but that's really where things

stand right now. House Democrats just had a meeting. We're going to look try and learn from that whether they have the consensus around this deal,

because a lot of what the Senate passed is what Democrats in both the House Senate had been pushed for, funding the rest of the Department of Homeland

Security without funding for I.C.E.

Now Republicans, but Democrats didn't get those meaningful reforms to that they were negotiating. Republicans -- the deal of taking out I.C.E.

funding. They didn't get to add more -- into this deal. So that is the dynamics that what the House is now trying to process, and a lot of

different possibilities the speaker is exploring.

GOLODRYGA: Yeah, and these TSA agents are just hoping for one possibility, and that is to finally get their paycheck now 42 days without one. Annie

Grayer thank you. Let's go to Ed Lavandera at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, an airport I know very well.

Ed, you have been there for a number of days. We still see lines in the wait time hours now, but what is the response been this morning, just

knowing that these TSA agents are perhaps one step closer to starting to see their paychecks come through?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I was just kind of thinking of listening to Annie's report. That is -- if this doesn't get

across the finish line in the next few hours, I could just see all of the passengers, like, just heads exploding here would be just, I think people

would just lose their minds, because there's a great deal of frustration with the passengers that we're talking to here, trying to figure out, like,

why can't this just be resolved?

Pay the thing, what we hear over and over, like, pay the TSA employees, and get these lines out of here, because the lines are dramatic. This is

actually kind of deceiving. We're in one of the best lulls we've seen in terms of the amount of traffic here at the airport. If you look out this

way, the lines are still filling up the main part of the terminal here in Terminal E.

But if you look down below, where the lines have been filled have been spilling down into this area, a dramatic difference, at least here

temporarily. This can change very quickly. It only takes the closure of a few of the TSA security lines for this to kind of dramatically fill up.

[11:30:00]

Yesterday, we saw it fill up in about half an hour after some -- after a shift change here at the airport. So they could be, you know, like that's

what people are dealing with. And they are spending so much time, when you talk to the passengers, spending so much time trying to figure out when

they should get to the airport.

And in many cases, people are telling us they're showing up seven to eight hours ahead of their scheduled flight time. And airport officials here in

Houston put out a video, kind of, describing some of the challenges that they're up against, trying to manage this crush on this, on the security

lines with so few lines open.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM SZCZESNIAK, DIRECTOR OF AVIATION FOR THE HOUSTON AIRPORT SYSTEM: What we're seeing right now is the TSA staffing ability has been in the below 50

percent range. So, what we're dealing with is 100 percent spring break traffic trying to squeeze through 50 percent or less of our TSA

checkpoints. So that the math does not work, and that's why we're seeing these extended lines.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: And they can't keep that many lines open, because the call out rate for TSA employees here at George Bush Intercontinental has been

hovering around the 40 percent mark. So that's, you know, approaching nearly half of the usual number of TSA employees that work at this airport

have been out, and that is why you're seeing security lines only working at two of the main terminals here at this airport, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: It is just a nightmare. Thank goodness you're there covering it all for us, so the world the country, can really get a picture of what

these past few weeks have been like for us. Ed Lavandera, thank you. Well, the top U.S. diplomat had a big job today, to convince the G7 nations to

sit with the U.S. war plan in the Middle East. Can he do it? We'll ask Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO, after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GOLODRYGA: Welcome back to "One World". I'm Bianna Golodryga in New York. Here are some headlines we're watching today. A bill that would partially

fund the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has advanced to the House after passing the Senate overnight.

[11:35:00]

House Speaker Mike Johnson is facing pressure from some conservatives to make changes to the deal ahead of a vote that could happen as soon as

today, before lawmakers take a two-week recess. President Trump is pausing his threat to hit Iran's energy infrastructure. That deadline for Tehran to

reopen the Strait of Hormuz now being pushed to April 6th.

This as negotiations remain unclear after Tehran rejected an initial 15- point proposal. For now, the deadly conflict in the Middle East is heading towards a fifth week. Nationwide protests have taken place in the

Philippines as the country feels the squeeze of rising energy costs.

Since the war in Iran began, the price of diesel and petrol has more than doubled. Earlier this week, the country became the first in the world to

declare a state of emergency due to fuel shortages. Foreign Ministers of the G7 are meeting in France with de-escalation in the Middle East and the

reopening of the Strait of Hormuz as the top of the agenda.

Secretary Marco Rubio will be pressed by European members over America's strategy as President Trump continues to shift war aims and blames allies

for doing nothing to help. For more on what we can expect out of this G7 meeting, I'm joined by Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker.

Ambassador Volker, thank you so much. Good to see you again. So, as we noted, Secretary of State, Rubio there meeting with his colleagues and

aggressively pushing Europe and Asia to send allies to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz and send potentially even warships to do so.

I'd like to play sound for you for what he said yesterday, before he departed Washington for this trip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: A couple of the leaders in Europe who said that this was not Europe's war. Well, Ukraine is not America's war,

and yet we've contributed more to that fight than any other country in the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: So, this comes as President Trump continues his attack on NATO, calling NATO a paper tiger, explicitly accusing allies of abandoning the

United States during this conflict. What are you hearing from European colleagues and leaders right now in capitals? Are they abandoning the

United States?

KURT VOLKER, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO NATO: Not at all, but they're a bit confused as to what the U.S. is doing. They have a vested interest, a vital

interest, in the secure flow of energy out of the Strait of Hormuz. They want to see that. They're ready to help in an operation that would open the

strait, secure that, if it were clear what the goal is, what's happening.

And it's still very unclear to them, is Trump escalating? Is he going to launch a ground invasion? Is this regime change? Is it really just about

weakening Iran's defenses and escorts of vessels through the strait alone are not good enough because the ship still won't sail.

They are too vulnerable to being attacked. So, if Secretary Rubio can dispel some of that confusion and say, here is what we are actually

thinking of, here is what we are asking you to do, I'm pretty sure allies are willing to help.

GOLODRYGA: Do you think that it actually took two weeks, three weeks now, if time passing with Europe, perhaps not understanding what the ultimate

goal is, but seeing the consequence of this war, and that is a significant rise in energy prices? Do you think it had to take this long for them to

come up with some sort of plan to, at the very least, have to address their own economic concerns?

VOLKER: Well, we have to start at this from the beginning here. No one knew that President Trump was going to launch this attack, and so they were

unprepared. They had not been consulted. They had not been asked for anything. Republics were not on board. So, for them to step up immediately

would have been impossible.

As they see this war continue, they're trying to gather a little bit more information about what the U.S. war aims are. And how you get from the

situation we are in today to a situation that is more stable and where energy is flowing through the Gulf again. And that's still not very

apparent to them.

They indicated they did a statement about a week ago saying that they are prepared to support an operation and basically offering. Let's talk about

it. Let's see what we can do. Hopefully, that's what Rubio is going to do today is to try to lay out, what an operation would be that the U.S. would

lead, what requirements there would be for allies to participate, how this would all work, and how it fits into a bigger plan? But right now, again,

that is still very opaque to our European allies.

GOLODRYGA: At the same time, we are seeing unprecedented cooperation. We had reports early on in this war that Russia was providing Iran with

intelligence about U.S. assets, specifically in the region there, there's technological cooperation between Moscow and Tehran.

[11:40:00]

Do you think that Vladimir Putin or European leaders now firmly in the view that Vladimir Putin is actively trying to help Iran in this war?

VOLKER: -- without question. They, as you said, they are helping with targeting. They have provided improved Iranian licensed drones that were

manufactured in Russia, made some improvements in the electronic warfare, and the tech that goes with them sent them back to Iran.

They are definitely helping the Iranians in this. And I think we need to recognize that we are not in a bunch of different conflicts, that Ukraine

is something else, Taiwan is something else. Iran is something else. These are all connected. We have authoritarians in the world who are working

together to try to disrupt a U.S. led and a Western led world order.

And they're going after us. We need to understand that it is all one conflict. It's all one battle.

GOLODRYGA: Right. And then it just begs the question about what Europe is prepared to do now if, in fact, Vladimir Putin's goal is to put the United

States and perhaps Europe, if they do get involved here, in a position where they are reallocating their resources and using them quite rapidly.

It's very difficult to procure the number of weapons needed, as we've discussed for so many years in the war in Ukraine. And now that's the same

scenario we're seeing transpire in Iran. Do you think if, for that reason alone, perhaps it is urgent that Europe do what they can to help the United

States, at the very least, reopen the strait and bring this war to an end as soon as possible.

VOLKER: Right. Well, I do think that they are prepared to help, and I think it is urgent that they do so, but as I said, they've got to have a goal in

mind that, what is it that the U.S. is doing? What is the operation that's going to achieve that? How is that going to work? That is still very

unclear.

And so, I think they are prepared to do that. And I think they're, as I said, they're also very confused. I mean, they see the U.S. allowing Russia

to sell its oil and gas on the high seas and have that landed as netting Russia about $5 billion a month. Why would we do that when Russia is

helping Iran, or just recently letting Iran sell some of its oil, bringing in more cash for them than even the Russians are getting?

This doesn't make a lot of sense to them, but as I said, they want to help. They just need to understand what the U.S. is trying to do here.

GOLODRYGA: Yeah, and President Zelenskyy making that trip to Saudi Arabia also trying to get some sort of deal and security deal struck with the

Saudi's, while also offering to help the United States with drone production and technology. The president has rebuffed that offer. Was that

a mistake on Trump's part?

VOLKER: Well, I'm not sure that it was really a rebuff. I think he was downplaying it because he doesn't want to appear that the U.S. doesn't know

what it's doing, or that we need help from Ukraine. He doesn't want that image. But the reality is, the Ukrainians have figured out how to knock out

these drones in large numbers, at very low cost.

The way the U.S. has been doing this is with very expensive weapon systems. So, this is where I think the Gulf states in the U.S. can benefit from this

kind of support from Ukraine to learn how to do this cheaply, because it doesn't cost much to build and fire a Shahed drone like $30,000 and yet to

spend a million-dollar missile to knock it down.

That's not sustainable. So, I think we do need to learn that those techniques, that technology from the Ukrainians. And honestly, I think we

are doing so as well. I think maybe President Trump was just focused more on the image. But the reality is that the two sides are, in fact, working

together.

GOLODRYGA: Ambassador Kurt Volker, always good to see you. Thanks for joining the program. Have a good weekend.

VOLKER: Pleasure. Thank you.

GOLODRYGA: And when we come back, we'll take a closer look at how the war is affecting oil markets. That's after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:45:00]

GOLODRYGA: Oil prices have edged up slightly despite President Trump saying he would pause strikes against Iranian energy sites for 10 days. For more

on how global investors are managing this volatility. Let's bring in CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich. So continued concerns about the spike that we're seeing,

I believe that crude is again hovering around $110 a barrel.

We see gasoline prices continue to rise. Just give us the latest numbers, Vanessa.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So, what I'm hearing from investors is that there have been some headlines about de-

escalation, but ultimately, they are looking for some sort of messaging towards a long-term resolution.

And that is why you see oil prices right there on your screen. That's U.S. crude hovering back up close to $100. And as you mentioned, the

international benchmark for crude is look at that back up to 110. So that is rattling investors in terms of where they see this going. They clearly

don't see an end in sight.

On the reverse, you see equity markets. So, the DOW, the NASDAQ, the S&P, actually falling because investors are trying to de risk because of these

higher oil prices. The DOW down about 300 points right now. So, the mental state for investors is they're very much in extreme fear mode.

Just about over the summer, they were in extreme greed, but a year ago, they were in extreme fear. That is exactly where we are today, as investors

are trying to see an end in sight to this war, but are just not hearing that from the Trump Administration. In terms of U.S. consumers gas prices,

yes, oil prices may be up in the last 24 hours, but gas prices actually have leveled in the last day or so.

That is encouraging for consumers filling up at the pump. So, the average today, 398, a gallon. Just yesterday, that same price, that is largely,

Bianna, because of some price cycling that happens with gas stations, that means that gas stations are looking to edge out the competition.

So maybe they'll drop their price about one cent to three cents a gallon. But also, as I mentioned before, the last 24 hours, oil prices were

hovering closer to $90 and they had been for a little while, so there was some leveling there. Of course, these gas prices that you see on your

screen, Bianna, could dramatically change as we're now back over nearly $100 a gallon for both U.S. crude and Brent crude, that international

benchmark.

GOLODRYGA: Yeah, it does appear that investors are growing quite numb to President Trump's attempts for so long now to try to quell concerns and

bring down oil prices and bring up the stock market by making announcements that are pegged somewhat around the closing and opening of trading.

But back to what I think, but arguably the most important factor in all of this is how consumers are feeling, because that typically then leads to how

they act and behave.

YURKEVICH: Yeah.

GOLODRYGA: Tell us about the latest information and figures that came out about consumer sentiment here in the U.S.

[11:50:00]

YURKEVICH: Yeah, just this morning, we got consumer sentiment numbers from the University of Michigan. And it showed that in March, consumer sentiment

fell by almost 6 percent that is the lowest level since December of 2025 and on an annual basis, consumer sentiment still down over 6 percent, 6.5

percent.

You can see there, on the right-hand side of your screen. Usually in these reports, we hear a little bit more that lower income consumers are feeling

the pain of higher prices or feeling worse about the economy. But actually, in this report, what we saw was that middle to higher income Americans.

Sentiments fell more dramatically with them, because a lot of middle to higher income Americans have money tied up in the stock market. They are

potentially investors, so they're seeing that day to day movement and pressure of this war. So ultimately, they found the University of Michigan

found that middle to income Americans exhibited particularly large drops in sentiment.

Obviously, we don't know where this is going. Many Americans when they start feeling the pain at the pump, that directly translates, as you said,

Bianna, into how they're feeling and then ultimately, how they're spending. The question is, do Americans keep spending through this time?

That is the number one driver of the U.S. economy, we will get, you know, the jobs report next week and then inflation coming up in the next couple

weeks. So that will be interesting benchmarks of how Americans are spending, but also how businesses are reacting with those big jobs report

coming next week.

GOLODRYGA: Yeah, and a lot of questions and concerns about what this war, and particularly the Strait of Hormuz the closure there the spike in oil

prices, what that all means for inflation as well. Vanessa Yurkevich, always good to see you. Thank you.

YURKEVICH: Thank you.

GOLODRYGA: We'll be right back after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GOLODRYGA: Donald Trump's signature will soon appear on newly printed dollar bills. That's according to the U.S. Treasury, which adds it's the

first time a sitting president's signature has been on paper currency. The move is in honor of the 250th anniversary of the United States.

Trump's likeness will appear on a number of anniversary items issued by the government. Well now to "March Madness", where the Elite Eight lineup is

starting to take shape.

[11:55:00]

Arizona will move on to the next round after a blowout win over Arkansas and Illinois defeated my Houston Cougars to advance. Take a look at this

dramatic ending in the matchup between Purdue and Texas. The Boilermakers have the ball. The score is tied with six seconds to go.

Purdue manages to tip in to seal the victory. They will face Arizona on Saturday. And Iowa is celebrating its first trip to the Elite Eight in 39

years. The number nine seed upset number four, Nebraska, 77 to 71. They will take on Illinois on Saturday. Well, Twilight star Taylor Lautner and

his wife, also Taylor, have announced that they are expecting their first child.

Posting on Instagram on Thursday, the couple shared a carousel of images, including their baby scan photos. The caption read, what's better than two

Taylor Lautners, in a not-so-subtle nod to the potential name of their new edition. Congratulations to them. All right, do stay with CNN, I'll have

more "One World" after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

END