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The Situation Room

Diagnosis Crisis; Israel Pushes Into Lebanon; Gas Prices Hit $4 a Gallon; Russian Oil Tanker Arrives in Cuba. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired March 31, 2026 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:01]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: And pilots were able to turn around and fortunately land that plane safely, but how scary. Can you imagine?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Thank God it landed safely. And it's really frightening.

BROWN: Thank God is right.

BLITZER: And we're also following breaking news in Cuba right now. A Russian-flagged tanker carrying nearly 730,000 barrels of oil has docked. This comes after President Trump broke his administration's fuel sanctions on the island as its energy crisis is deepening.

But the White House insists the move was -- quote -- "not a policy change."

CNN Havana bureau chief Patrick Oppmann is joining us right now.

Patrick, you're there at the port where this Russian tanker is docked. What are you learning?

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN HAVANA BUREAU CHIEF: Just arrived a few hours ago, Wolf.

And they're beginning of the process of taking in this oil, oil that Cuba needs so badly, to this island to power the energy grid here, which has been crashing, as you know. So let's take a look at this ship, the Anatoly Kolodkin, that has arrived here with this Russian crude, enough, Russian crude to eventually power Cuba's electrical system, failing electrical system, for perhaps a week or two only.

So this is not a long-term solution by any means, but it's incredibly significant for Cubans that they have received the first shipment in over three months of oil that will essentially throw them a lifeline for a while.

And, of course, Wolf, you know the history here. This is significant that it's not Mexican crude or Venezuelan crude. It is Russian crude. They're old Cold War era allies. This is a gift from Vladimir Putin to the people of Cuba. He has defied the Trump administration. Of course, officials in Washington say they allowed this boat in, that it's perhaps a one-time donation. But it's very significant for Cubans that the oil that is going to

keep them afloat, keep their economy going is Russian oil. Of course, the Trump administration has called on this island to open up politically and economically. This donation will probably give them some reason to think that they can hold out.

BLITZER: Patrick, whatever happened to the oil that Cuba has been receiving over these many years from Venezuela? That was their main supplier.

OPPMANN: It was. and they received oceans of it over the years. They received hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil in exchange for sending doctors and intelligence officials, and, of course, we now know, soldiers who were guarding Nicolas Maduro when he was taken by U.S. special forces.

But ever since that attack on Caracas in January, Venezuela has not sent any oil here. There's, of course, new leadership in Venezuela that is much closer to the United States. Some would say in the region that they're taking orders from the United States. But, for whatever reason, they're not giving any more donations of oil to Cuba anymore.

There are very few countries that are willing to step up and supply a country that is essentially bankrupt with oil. Of course, Cuban officials say that it is Washington that is bankrupting this country and is strangling them and keeping oil from flowing.

BLITZER: And as we're looking at these live pictures of this Russian tanker at this port in Cuba, give us a little sense, Patrick, how people in Cuba, all over the country are suffering now as a result of the lack of oil and energy that's arriving.

OPPMANN: Wolf, it was absolutely incredible.

It's about a two-hour drive from Havana to where I am now. And we saw maybe a dozen cars on the road in that entire period. I have never seen the streets here so empty. I have never experienced blackouts like this that go on for more than a day here. Matanzas, Cuba, where the oil is coming off, people say that a common blackout now lasts two days without any power at all.

It is causing hospitals not to be able to perform surgeries, schools to be closed. Of course, people counter and say, well, the hotels still have lights. The police still have gas in their cars. But for regular Cubans, they are suffering in a way that, frankly, I have never seen before.

BLITZER: Yes, it's amazing what's going on.

All right, Patrick Oppmann in Cuba for us, thank you very, very much -- Pamela.

BROWN: And back home, Wolf, the average price of gas passed $4 per gallon this morning. That's the first time since 2022.

And it's the most expensive it's been during either President Trump's terms in office. So diesel, for its part, is also climbing to $5.45 per gallon, about 40 cents shy of its all-time high.

So, here in the U.S., we get relatively little crude oil from the Middle East, but we're still feeling the impact of losing access to the Strait of Hormuz because prices are set in a global commodity market.

So here to help us break it all down and better understand all of this is CNN national security correspondent Kylie Atwood. Also joining us, Clayton Seigle, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

All right, so there's been different messaging here, Clayton. Karoline Leavitt says that these rising gas prices are short-term fluctuations for long-term benefits. She, of course, is the White House press secretary.

But "The Wall Street Journal" is reporting that Trump is willing to end the war without reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Given what we know about the energy market and how long it takes to recover, do you believe these elevated prices really are short-term?

[11:35:00]

CLAYTON SEIGLE, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Well, the length of the disruption really depends on whether there's a settlement in the Gulf that restores maritime security.

And, right now, we have a situation, Kylie, where we have a real blockage in the Gulf. I think we can illustrate some of the points here.

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, let's look at the region as a whole.

SEIGLE: Absolutely.

So, before the crisis, the reason why this region is so important is because it's responsible for 20 million barrels per day of oil exports to world markets. But what's happened since the crisis has started is, we have seen a dramatic reduction in those flows, down to only two million barrels per day.

Most of them are from Iran. They're letting their cargoes out while everyone else has stayed stuck. That's a reduction of about 90 percent. That's what's driving prices higher and concerns for shortages in Asian markets.

ATWOOD: And then to Pam's question of specifically the Strait of Hormuz, and President Trump now floating the possibility that the U.S. could exit this conflict while that key passageway is still closed and saying to allies that they may have to reopen it, until there is any agreement between the U.S. and Iran or between these other players in Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, can you explain to us what it is like for the actual shippers who are trying to get their energy assets right now through this strait? SEIGLE: Yes, that's the key, because as long as this blockage takes place -- and, remember, it's been going for five weeks now -- you have more than 100 full tankers in the Gulf that can't get out to world markets.

So this is offline right now. And you also have a large collection of ships over here that are empty and can't get in to refill. So this whole place stays blocked until there's a security arrangement that makes ship owners and operators feel like it's safe again. Each one of them is going to be making an individualized decision about whether they should go for it and try to transit this dangerous area.

That's a prescription for disruption lasting for longer.

ATWOOD: And there's a trickle that's getting through the strait right now, but, just quickly, how many ships per day were getting through the Strait of Hormuz before this conflict began?

SEIGLE: More than 60 when it comes to oil tankers. When you think about commercial shipping generally, more than 100. So it's a real blockage to supply chains around the world, not only oil and not only liquefied natural gas, but important commodities like fertilizer too.

ATWOOD: It's also not just the Strait of Hormuz, right? There are these attacks that we have seen on energy infrastructure. Throughout the course of this conflict, it's ramped up. Can you speak to us about how the impact on these energy infrastructure sites is compounding the effect of the Strait of Hormuz being closed?

SEIGLE: Absolutely, because it's not only the shipping that has to be secured. It's also the installations, and especially those export terminals that load the oil and gas onto the ships, which have come under fire, and substantially, in all of these countries.

Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates have all seen facilities come under attack. We're going to have to do the battle damage assessment once the smoke clears in order to understand how soon those flows can resume from the damaged facilities.

ATWOOD: But this specific facility, speak to us about what we know in terms of this LNG facility in Qatar and how long they're saying it could take to get their resources back to where they were before it was hit.

SEIGLE: So, first of all, the context. Ras Laffan in Qatar is responsible for 10 billion cubic feet per day. And that's about 20 percent of global supply.

QatarEnergy, which operates the facility, is saying that the damage could take anywhere between three and five years to be fully repaired. So that means a tighter liquefied natural gas market for longer even after the dust has settled on this conflict.

ATWOOD: Even reopening the Strait of Hormuz is not going to fully solve this problem. We don't know how long it's going to take, though -- back to you, Pam and Wolf. BROWN: All right, that was really informative. Kylie, Clayton, thank

you both -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And just ahead: Israel now pushing even deeper and deeper into Lebanon as it fights Hezbollah militants.

We have a special report from Israel's northern border. Our Jim Sciutto is on the scene.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:43:29]

BLITZER: Breaking news in Israel today, fragments from an intercepted Iranian missile set several cars on fire.

An Israeli military spokesman told CNN the fragments appeared to come from a cluster munition. And, in Northern Israel, the defense minister repeated plans to keep control over parts of Southern Lebanon after the current military operation ends.

CNN anchor and chief national security analyst Jim Sciutto just returned from Northern Israel, where he spent time along the border with Lebanon, as air raid sirens went off all around him.

This is a SITUATION ROOM special report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(SIRENS BLARING)

NISAN ZEEVI, SECURITY SQUAD VOLUNTEER: Let's go to the...

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: OK.

(voice-over): It's a fact of life on Israel's northern border that incoming Hezbollah fire comes frequently and without warning.

(on camera): So this is life up in the north. They say about 40 warnings like that a day. We just had two of them in the span of five minutes, combination of rockets, sometimes anti-tank missiles, but also increasingly drones. And some of them can't be intercepted.

(voice-over): The kibbutz Kfar Giladi lies just about a mile from the border with Lebanon. After the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, Israel evacuated communities like these. But, during this war, they're staying.

ZEEVI: You know, our children in the shelter for more than 29 days in a shelter, not allowing to go out. You know, all the economic ecosystem collapse.

[11:45:10]

SCIUTTO: What's different now is that Israeli forces are pushing into southern Lebanon, they say to push Hezbollah further back. CAPTAIN M, ISRAEL DEFENSE FORCES: At the hills past the wall, you

would have seen...

SCIUTTO: This company commander -- the IDF only allows us to identify him as Captain M -- regularly leads operations inside Lebanon.

(on camera): What leads you to go across? Is it a particular threat or is it just establishing a regular presence?

CAPTAIN M: It's a bit of both. More often than not, it's a concrete threat, that's we'll get some intelligence that we have terrorists that are trying to come near the border, that we have ammunition that is stored somewhere, that there are tunnels that are still around, whatever it is.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): Visiting the north himself, Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Israeli forces would push even further into Lebanon.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): In Lebanon, I have just instructed to further expand the existing security zone in order to decisively thwart the threat of invasion and to push anti-tank missile fire away from our border.

SCIUTTO: It's a move that Zeevi and other northern residents welcome.

ZEEVI: This time, the IDF actually did what us, the civil society that settled here years ago, expect them to do.

SCIUTTO (on camera): Which is?

ZEEVI: To go in front of us, not behind us. We cannot be the first line with Hezbollah.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): The Israeli government now speaks of military operations all the way up to the Litani River, some 20 miles into Lebanese territory. To create this so-called buffer zone, Israel has now forced hundreds of thousands of Lebanese civilians from their homes in the southern part of the country.

And yet Hezbollah fire continues. Today, the IDF is prepared to operate inside Lebanon for as long as they are ordered to.

CAPTAIN M: I can tell you that, when we get an order, we will do whatever we need to do. And I think and I want to believe that the army will make decisions for what is best for the Israeli civilians that live here.

SCIUTTO: The questions for Israel are how much further into Lebanon and for how long. For now, Israeli officials leave those questions unanswered.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: We are getting more and more clarity on what those answers are. The Israeli defense minister today, Israel Katz, said that Israeli forces will -- quote -- "maintain security control" inside Lebanon up to the Litani River, 15, 20 miles into Lebanese territory after the current operations end.

And, Wolf, to be clear, he said that those 600,000 Lebanese civilians who have been forced to evacuate their homes, they will not be allowed to return to their homes until, in his words, the safety of Israel's northern residents is ensured.

BLITZER: All right, Jim Sciutto, thanks very much for that excellent, excellent report.

And we will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:52:37]

BROWN: Welcome back to THE SITUATION ROOM.

Millions of Americans live with medical conditions that may evade a proper diagnosis, and that makes finding the right health care even more challenging.

Our next guest says that a correct diagnosis is a lifeline that opens doors to treatment options and financial support for people and communities, but it's not always so easy to find that diagnosis.

Joining us now is Alexandra Sifferlin. She is a health and science editor for "The New York Times" opinion column and the author of the brand-new book out today "The Elusive Body: Patients, Doctors, and the Diagnosis Crisis."

I have the book right here.

So tell us why it was so important for you to write this, because I think a lot of people would wonder, did you have a personal experience? Were you hearing from readers?

ALEXANDRA SIFFERLIN, AUTHOR, "THE ELUSIVE BODY: PATIENTS, DOCTORS, AND THE DIAGNOSIS CRISIS": Definitely.

So, as a health journalist, I was regularly hearing from readers who were going on very long diagnostic journeys, and they would reach out to me very desperate, asking, do you know a doctor I could go to? Do you know a clinic I could go to? I have been on this journey for weeks, months, sometimes decades.

I also know people in my personal life who have had experience with very long diagnostic journeys and just how -- and I knew how excruciating that experience could be.

BROWN: And I think also, just for a woman now in my 40s, I know a lot of women with perimenopause go on this journey thinking something could be wrong with them and getting dismissed from doctors, or getting -- we spoke to one woman who had an unnecessary, really painful procedure, she said, worse than childbirth, and it turns out nothing was wrong. It was perimenopause.

I mean, I'm sure you have heard all kinds of stories. Tell us more about that.

SIFFERLIN: Yes, so I have heard from a lot of people who have had similar experiences. Perhaps they have something that their physicians couldn't identify quickly.

But I spoke to people who had both rare diseases, so a lot of parents of children with illnesses that went undiagnosed for a long period of time because they had something rare, as well as people who have more common conditions, perimenopause, cancer, and, for whatever reason, the diagnoses take a very long time to reach.

BROWN: And how much of this is also just the broken medical system we have in this country?

SIFFERLIN: One of the most interesting things to me was, when I spoke to both patients and doctors for this book, they often cited many of the same frustrations when it came to getting a diagnosis. They talked about how doctors feel rushed, they're drowning in paperwork.

[11:55:03]

And then patients experience the opposite side of that. It can be really hard to get an appointment with a primary care doctor. As soon as you get one, sometimes, that appointment feels very, very short. And people end up going long periods of time without a diagnosis, or they get an incorrect diagnosis.

They end up cycling through ineffective treatments. And everybody's frustrated. And people don't have relief.

BROWN: And they have spent lord knows how much money.

SIFFERLIN: Exactly.

BROWN: I mean, there's all kinds of problems with it.

Who suffers the most when it comes to an incorrect diagnosis or no diagnosis at all? Is there a certain group of the population?

SIFFERLIN: I mean, I really think anybody who has experienced this, which it's millions of Americans, so we all know somebody who has been through this if we haven't ourselves.

And I think what the problem is, is that the longer that you go without an accurate diagnosis, the more your symptoms can evolve, the more complications that can arise. But, definitely, people with rare diseases typically experience a very long period of time without a diagnosis.

BROWN: And how about artificial intelligence? How much can it help with diagnosis? There's a lot of talk about how it can really help with diagnosing cancer and other issues? SIFFERLIN: So, many of the doctors I interviewed are actually very optimistic about the ability of A.I. to help with diagnosis. Sometimes, it can suggest diagnoses that perhaps the physician hadn't considered.

It can also take on some of the administrative burden that takes up so much of doctors' time. On the other end, there is worry about de- skilling, which is a concern across industries, just this idea that, in this case, maybe a physician could become overreliant on A.I. and perhaps some of their own clinical skills could suffer for it.

But I think it's a matter of finding the right balance.

BROWN: Or even a patient going on their A.I. and always looking up symptoms. I know I'm guilty of that myself.

SIFFERLIN: Definitely.

BROWN: All right, Alexandra Sifferlin, best of luck with your book just out today, "The Elusive Body."

Thank you so much.

SIFFERLIN: Thank you.

BLITZER: A very important book, indeed.

And, to our viewers, thanks very much for joining us this morning.

BROWN: "INSIDE POLITICS" with our friend and colleague Manu Raju starts after a short break.