Return to Transcripts main page

The Story Is with Elex Michaelson

Trump Postpones Strikes To Iran, Says Tehran Wants To Settle; IRGC Headquarrters, Other Military Targets Hit In Tehran; Investigation Underway After Deadly Runway Collision; I.C.E. Deploys To 14 U.S. Airports To Aid Understaffed TSA; Floods Devastate North Shore In Hawaii, Recovery Efforts Underway; Recovery Efforts Underway Across Hawaii after Flooding; Saudi Arabian Port Preparing for Influx of Shipping Traffic; NBA Board to Meet to Discuss League Expansion. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired March 24, 2026 - 01:00   ET

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

[01:00:00]

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it turns out that Travis Kelce has apparently a lot more football in him. At the end of last season, it looked like the 36-year-old might retire and just have a great life with Taylor Swift and the Sunset. But the Kansas City Chiefs tight end just signed a three-year contract widely reported to be worth nearly $55 million.

Now only 12 million is guaranteed money. Kelce would only get the full payout if he remains on the team through June of 2027. And Kelce and the team will evaluate his future on a yearly basis. Basically what it means is he's going to retire as a Chief one way or another, whether it's the end of this year or two years from now.

Thanks for watching this hour of The Story Is. The next hour starts right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Los Angeles, The Story Is with Alex Michaelson.

MICHAELSON: Welcome to The Story Is. I'm Elex Michelson live in Los Angeles. The story is in Iran where new video posted by state media claims to show missiles being fired at Israeli cities and U.S. military bases in the region.

This comes after reports that Iran had, quote, special plans for Tel Aviv and regional allies. Now, it's unclear from the video or post when the footage was filmed. We do not know of any hits after this video was put out.

Now, footage geolocated by CNN shows projectiles above Tel Aviv earlier after Israeli authorities warned about a launch from Iran towards southern Israel. This comes as President Donald Trump declares a five-day pause on striking Iran's power plants after he claimed the two countries have been talking.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: We have points of, major points of agreement. I would say almost all points of agreement. Perhaps that hasn't been conveyed. The communication, as you know, has been blown to pieces. They're unable to talk to each other. We're doing a five- day period. We'll see how that goes. And if it goes well, we're going to end up with settling this. Otherwise we just keep bombing our little hearts out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: State media is reporting that Iran's foreign ministry says there has been no dialogue. Senior adviser to the supreme leader says the war will continue until Iran receives full compensation for damages. But here's what Trump also said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDEANTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, who are you speaking with in Iran?

TRUMP: A top person. Don't forget, we've wiped out the leadership phase one, phase two and largely phase three. But we're dealing with the man who I believe is the most respected and the leader. You know, it's a little tough. They've wiped out, we've wiped out everybody.

UNIDEANTIFIED FEMALE: Is that the supreme leader?

TRUMP: No, not the Supreme Leader. We don't -- well, nobody's ever -- nobody heard of the second supreme leader, the son. We have not heard from the son. Every once in a while you see a statement made, but we have not. We don't know if he's living.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Monday marked another day of heavy Israeli bombardment in Iran's capital. The video by the Iranian Red Crescent shows rescue workers saving a child from a residential building that was struck. Let's bring a CNN's Mike Valerio live from Beijing. Mike, what do we know about the possible talks between the U.S. and Iran?

MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, we're waiting to see if Pakistan, Elex, emerges as a potential, and I stress potential, potential off ramp for this war and for this conflict and next chapter into how both of these sides could mitigate the military strikes that we're seeing still continuing into this fourth week of the war.

So Pakistan is saying that it is ready to host talks between the United States and Iran with reporting from our Kristen Holmes, a White House correspondent extraordinaire, saying that there is a proposal that's been floated of Vice President JD Vance, who of course notable of expressing his opposition to United States interventionism across the world.

There's a proposal that he could go to Pakistan, to Islamabad for in person talks between American and Iranian officials. It's just a proposal at this point. The Foreign Ministry, according to our Sophia Saifi, our reporter

extraordinaire in Islamabad is saying that it's ready as soon as the two sides say that they're in, Pakistan could hold these talks.

Now, why Pakistan? Why are they entering the chat at this moment? Islamabad has very warm ties with Washington, D.C. especially, you know, we talked about it last hour. It's worth mentioning again, Pakistan sees the Trump administration as essentially bringing an end to the war between India and Pakistan about Kashmir, ending it last spring.

India had a little cooler reception to the Trump administration's intervention, very much embraced by Islamabad.

[01:05:02]

Pakistani ships are getting through the Strait of Hormuz. Gulf countries that might have been an intermediary, a host for peace talks. They've been bombed. They've been attacked, so that sort of puts them out of the running.

Tehran and Beijing also have very close ties with Islamabad. So that puts some points on the board for Islamabad, why they might host this in the next coming days. So we're sort of wanting to see if in the next week or so this plan calcifies and emerges as a serious route that these two sides are going to pursue. Something that we also want to say about Pakistan's involvement.

So the 15 points that were talking about in the intro to the show, our sources through our team in Washington have said that this is more of a proposal of expectations, not so much 15 points that Iran has already agreed to. And these 15 points were introduced to Iran through Pakistan. So more and more involvement of this country becoming apparent through our reporting day.

And it's not clear if Iran agreed to any of these points, even though the President said in front of Air Force One that, oh, yes, we have total agreement with all of these points on the part of Iran. So a lot of interesting moving parts with West Asia playing a role, Pakistan specifically, into this war and perhaps bringing it into its next chapter, resolving it. Elex.

MICHAELSON: And a reminder, Mike, that pretty much every country in the world is impacted by this, whether they like it or not. Mike Valerio starting us off live in Beijing. Mike, thank you.

We now want to go to Tel Aviv. Retired Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus is a former spokesperson for the Israeli minister. He's also a senior fellow for the Foundation for the Defense Democracies. Thanks so much for being with us.

We saw Iran earlier warning that they have special plans for Tel Aviv. We've seen video that they put out on state media of, you know, missiles going off. What are you seeing on the ground? What are you hearing? Are you hearing any alerts? LT. COL. JONATHAN CONRICUS (RET.) FORMER ISRAELI DEFENSE FORCES

SPOKESPERSON: Yes, good morning and I hope you can hear me. Well, yes, we've had sirens throughout the night. Millions of Israelis have rushed to shelters as unfortunately has become the norm over the last weeks of this war. Civilians targeted by Iranian missiles.

But I would have to say a bit cynically that it's more of the same. It's the ordinary stuff from the Iranian regime. And I haven't seen anything special. And what this means is that I would chalk this down as just another attempt by the Iranian regime at cheap, low level psychological warfare.

Not the first time, and surely not the last time that the Iranian regime tries to intimidate Israelis into believing that they've got something more special up their sleeves. Luckily today, as with so many cases before, Israeli air defenses were able to effectively protect Israeli civilians. And there are no reports of casualties throughout the night.

MICHAELSON: We are starting to see from IDF putting out on WhatsApp report of search and rescue forces are on their way to several sites in southern Israel where reports of impact have been received. We do not know any more than that and we do not again have any reports of any casualties. Hopefully that does not change in the hours ahead.

So let's talk sort of bigger picture with you. What Israel's goal in Iran? What does victory look like?

CONRICUS: I think long term speaking, if we put this into a regional strategic perspective, I would say that Israel's ultimate objective is regime change. It is to get rid of this regime that has made it a specific goal of the Iranian regime to annihilate what they call the Zionist entity, which today is the modern state of Israel.

And I think Israel wants to get rid of that. Israel wants not to live under the constant threat of Iranian terror organizations in the region firing rockets and missiles at Israeli civilians or launching suicide bombers. And Israel wants to get rid of the specter of nuclear weapons that the Iranian regime was trying to develop and the ballistic missiles. All of that is something that I think Israelis very much would like to live without.

And people understand that the possibility of that happening is by this regime being overthrown by the Iranian people. So there's short term objectives. Get rid of their new or, you know, disassemble their nuclear program, destroy their weapons infrastructure and industry, take out the missile launchers, take out leadership. Those are short term military goals.

[01:10:002]

But the overarching goal, I think strategically, long term speaking, is to see regional change here so that we can really walk into a new age in the Middle East and not have to live under Iranian aggression or the threat of Iranian aggression anymore. MICHAELSON: So if the United States doesn't have the long term

commitment to actually see regiment change through, doesn't want to spend that much money, doesn't want to stay in the region that long, doesn't want to put boots on the ground. Is Israel ready, willing and able to keep this thing going on its own?

CONRICUS: Yes, I mean, we don't have a lot of choices, do we? I mean, as long as the Iranian regime defines a national goal of theirs to try to annihilate us, to destroy the state of Israel is compelled to fight to defend itself and to do what's necessary to ensure its sovereignty and integrity and the safety of its people. If that means to continue fighting as long as it needs, then that is what Israel will do.

Unfortunately, we are used to fighting for ourselves and defending ourselves, but I think we don't want the U.S. or anybody else to spend blood or money in doing something that doesn't pursue the goals of that country, specifically the U.S. and I think currently, and I think for the foreseeable future, US and Israeli targets align, I think it would be very good for U.S. national security.

I think it would be great for the Iranian people. But that's beside the point of Israel and the U.S. it would be great for the Iranian people. And I think a lot of Gulf countries would really join in and say that, yes, we would also like to live in an area that doesn't have this regional bully that fires ballistic missiles and drones at our national infrastructure and at our people at will just because they're not happy.

MICHAELSON: Well, thank you so much for sharing your perspectives and getting up early for us. Jonathan Conricus.

CONRICUS: Thank you.

MICHAELSON: Appreciate you. At least 64 people were killed when a Colombian Air Force plane crashed shortly after takeoff with 125 passengers and crew on board. Video circulating online shows the aircraft's wreckage engulfed in flames and black smoke in a rural field. It happened just two miles from the airport in Puerto Leguizamo that is a town in Putamayo department along Colombia's southern border.

A video geolocated by CNN shows the moments just before the C130 Hercules aircraft went down. Almost all on board were military personnel, apart from two police officers and 11 crew members. Dozens of people were injured. Several survivors were taken to nearby hospitals. Others were flown to the capital, Bogota, for treatment.

Colombia's defense minister says authorities are investigating what caused the crash, adding that there is no indication of foul play.

Federal investigators are now on the ground at New York's LaGuardia Airport after a deadly Runway collision Sunday night. National Transportation Safety Board says multiple teams are sifting through the wreckage and examining every angle of this accident as part of the investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNIFER HOMENDY, CHAIRWOMAN, NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: There is a tremendous amount of debris from taxiway delta across Runway 4 into some other areas. It's pretty expansive.

In order to get to the cockpit voice recovery recorder and the flight data recorder, we, the Port authority and the emergency responders cut a hole on the roof of the aircraft and hopefully we'll have information to share. My hope is that we'll have information to share on that tomorrow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Authorities say the pilot and co-pilot were killed in the landing. Air Canada jet struck a Port Authority fire and rescue truck attempting to cross the Runway while responding to a separate incident.

The FAA issued a temporary ground stop and closed the airport in the immediate aftermath of the fatal crash. FlightAware says more than 600 flights at LaGuardia were canceled on Monday. The airport has reopened, but the Runway involved in the accident will remain closed as the investigation continues. CNN's Jason Carroll has more on the collision.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This video shows the tragic moments when Air Canada Express Flight 8646 landed and then collided at more than 100 miles per hour with a firetruck at LaGuardia Airport late Sunday night.

In slow motion the devastating impact to the nose of the aircraft is more clear. More video captured the moments following the deadly accident. Passengers who frantically evacuated were directed away from the aircraft.

JACK CABOT, AIR CANADA PASSENGER: We went down for a regular landing. We came in pretty hard. We immediately hit something and it was just chaos in there. Somebody said, let's get the emergency exit and the door and let's all jump out. And that's exactly what we did.

[01:15:00]

CARROLL (voice-over): The regional jet inbound from Montreal carrying 72 passengers and four crew was cleared to land.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 646 number 2 clear to land 4.

CARROLL (voice-over): 11:36 p.m. also cleared on the LaGuardia's Runway 4 an airport fire truck that was responding to a separate incident.

UNIDENATIFIED MALE: Truck 1 and Company, LaGuardia Tower requesting to cross 4 at Delta.

CARROLL (voice-over): The realization they were on a collision course came too late.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop truck one. Stop truck one. Stop. Jazz 646, I see you collide with vehicle. Laser pole position. I know you can't move. The vehicles are responding to you now.

CARROLL (voice-over): The nose of the aircraft destroyed. Both pilots, including Antoine Fore, were killed. One flight attendant strapped in her jump seat, ejected during the crash. She was among the 41 people injured and taken to area hospitals. Aviation experts say as bad as the accident was, it could have been much worse.

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: That truck been 40 feet further or 40 feet back then that it would have struck against the wing, the fuel cells, the engines, and would have created a huge fire and would have had many, many fatalities.

CARROLL: It can take investigators a year or longer to determine the exact cause of these types of accidents, and they often involve multiple contributing factors. Eighteen minutes after the crash, an air traffic controller told a Frontier Airlines pilot saw the aftermath. He messed up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That wasn't good to watch.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I know. I was here. I tried to reach out to my stuff. We were dealing with an emergency earlier. I messed up.

UNIDENATIFIED MALE: No, man, you did the best you could.

CARROLL (voice-over): Investigators, including the National Transportation Safety Board, are on the ground and will conduct interviews with air traffic controllers to help determine exactly what happened.

GOV. KATHY HOCHUL (D) NEW YORK: Yes, it was an aviation disaster the likes of which we have not seen here in over three decades. But is a deeply human story where two young pilots left their homes expecting to return to their families, and they will not.

CARROLL: The NTSB has 25 specialists out here on the ground, but they've made it very clear they haven't been able to have a real full day of being able to do what they need to do on the ground. In short, the NTSB chairwoman says it's going to take a while before they'll be able to come to any firm conclusions as to what exactly went wrong here. Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAELSON: To better understand what the pilots may have seen on their approach to LaGuardia, a flight simulation expert walks CNN's Erin Burnett through the conditions at the time of that collision.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AARON MURPHY, CANADIAN COMMERCIAL PILOT AND FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR: We're ready to go. All right, I'm going to pause the sim. Unfreezing the sim. I'll just give you some color commentary here. It is nighttime as it was. It's dark like last night. We're coming into land 04 and the visibility was about four or five miles.

There were some low clouds and rain, so visibility is an issue for sure. Windshield wipers are going. And off to the left side of the Runway, there's an accumulation of emergency vehicles because of the other aircraft emergency at the time. We're just coming in over the threshold now.

Claudia (ph) is doing an amazing job on the papi (ph) lights here. You can see them on the right side. We're touching down and Delta taxiway is about halfway down the Runway. I don't know if this helps, but we're going to be somewhere about halfway down the Runway here. Right about here the fire truck pulls out and I would expect that the flight crew saw it maybe at the last second as it pulled out.

And on the video that you're showing, I can actually see the fire truck turning slightly or more than slightly to the left because I think they saw that aircraft at the very last second as they plowed right into it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Wow. Interesting perspective there. Still to come, the TSA gets help from ICE. Some airports across the U.S. will take you to one of the airports where they've been deployed. What exactly are they doing? And do people find it helpful? Ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:23:18]

MICHAELSON: Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been deployed at 14 different airports across the U.S. they're just meant to help the understaffed TSA, which has experienced massive numbers of call outs due to the partial government shutdown.

Department of Homeland Security declined to answer how many agents in total were mobilized, but officials suggest there are plans to expand the number of airports getting help.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM HOMAN, BORDER CZAR: We got 14 right now and there will be more. Their number one mission there. As the president said, it's helped TSA with security, help move the flow of people through those lines.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: The plan has been met with mixed response. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer says ICE agents who are unfamiliar with TSA responsibilities aren't going to make airports any safer.

And while some travelers appreciate efforts to reduce waiting, they're more concerned with TSA officers still going unpaid.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN HOFFMAN, TRAVELER: The lines are shorter today, I guess, but in my mind we could fund TSA a lot less expensive than we can send ICE here and put them up in hotels and all the things that go along with that.

LARRY PITTS, TRAVELER: TSA agents, they're not getting paid. So who wants to work without getting paid? They're not getting paid. They're not going to come to work. I understand completely. I would be the same way. And that's what's affecting everyone. You know, they're not here to process everybody through the lines quick enough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: CNN's Ed Lavandera is in Houston, where wait times have been surging.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It has been a nightmare travel day here at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston kind of give you a sense of where we are. We are in terminal E, and most of the people we've been talking with in line say they have spent, in many cases, more than five hours waiting in these TSA pre-lines.

[01:25:05]

One point, this sign here said that the wait was 270 minutes long. That sign has since disappeared with this airport alert. But this is the end of the line. This Terminal E is where thousands of people, tens of thousands of people have been coming through today. It snakes all the way through this upper lobby and then it goes down. You have to get on the other side of the terminal, go down an escalator where it winds around again, and then it goes down another set of escalators to get to this subterranean level where there's a subway tram that connects the airports.

That's where the line that you see behind me begins. And because of that, it has been a dreadful day.

We have seen federal agents at this airport as well throughout the day. We don't know exactly how many by my count. Throughout the course of the day, we've seen close to about two dozen or so. But we must say that it's not exactly clear what they are doing. There are nine security checkpoints here at this airport. Only two of them are opening. One here in Terminal E, the other one in Terminal A.

We have been getting as close as we can to the security checkpoints. We don't see any federal agents up there. Where we have seen them is around the tail end of these lines helping people navigate exactly where to go and that sort of thing.

But it doesn't look like the federal agents are involved in any way in trying to spread speed these passengers through the security checkpoints in any kind of way.

On Sunday, 39 percent of the TSA agents who work at this airport called out, did not show up to work. We don't know the exact figures for Monday. We will get those on Tuesday. But clearly a significant number of employee TSA employees did not come to work. Perhaps we've received similar numbers, which explains why these long lines.

But a great deal of frustration, anger among many of these passengers, but also a lot of people just taking all of this in stride, trying to make the best of it. In fact, people have told us that they've spent so much time in line next to those around them, they've made new friends. Ed Lavander, CNN, Houston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAELSON: At least there's that. Ed, thank you. The top Republicans in the U.S. Senate appear to be coming together in support of a plan to end the partial government shutdown and make some of those lines stop. It calls for restoring all Homeland Security Department funding except for a small portion of the immigration enforcement budget.

Now, President Trump rejected a similar plan over the weekend. He said he wants DHS funding tied to his Save America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote. President Trump's pick, meanwhile, to lead the DHS was approved by the Senate on a vote of 54 to 45. Senator Markwayne Mullin will now become one of the faces of the contentious immigration enforcement effort and that ongoing shutdown that we've been talking about. Now Mullin has taken over from the embattled Kristi Noem, who was ousted earlier this month.

Recovery efforts are underway in Hawaii following the state's worst flooding in more than 20 years. Look at this, satellite images showing Oahu's North Shore with neighborhoods and fields submerged underwater from the Kona storm. The state's National Guard has been deployed to help stranded residents. More than 230 people have been rescued so far. CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: The governor of Hawaii believes that this could amount to another billion dollar disaster for the state. Look at the flooding that they've had to contend with. This is from the second Kona low that moved through lots of low lying areas being inundated by water. And of course, we've seen the water rescues that have been ongoing, especially across the north shore of Oahu.

So here's the water vapor satellite imagery. The actual Kona low, this is the second of this series of storms, has brought kind of a south to southwesterly wind to the Hawaiian Islands. And the difference and why I mentioned that is because about 90 percent of our winds are come from the east to northeast. That's the relative trade winds that impact the Hawaiian Islands.

But when the wind comes out of the southwest, we start to see the rain accumulate on those windward sides, this case being the western side. So we got a lot of precipitation over those areas, especially as it reaches up and over the mountain ranges.

And some of these rainfall totals have been impressive. We've topped three feet in some of the mountainous regions. This is just incredible. Portions of Oahu experiencing above 37 inches of rain. This is going back towards the first Kona low that impacted the area.

Now, we do have more precipitation in the forecast, but I want you to notice that the winds are going to change direction again, that predominant east to northeasterly wind. So there is some light at the end of the tunnel.

We'll get through about another 1 to 3 inches of rain locally, especially in those higher elevations, through about midweek this week. And then we should start to see things kind of simmer down in terms of the precipitation.

The other big story we've been monitoring is the excessive heat that has been breaking records. We've talked about hundreds of March records set at multiple locations over the Western US.

[01:30:00]

This one stood out to me, though. 109 degrees in Yuma, Arizona. It's never been that warm in the continental United States in the month of March. It's all thanks to this heat dome that has been oppressive this entire winter and it's continuing into the spring.

It'll kind of fluctuate a little bit to the east temporarily and then build once again as we round out the end of March and then enter into the early parts of April.

So here's the forecast high temperatures. We're still running 20 degrees above average for many of these locations. I mean, look at Albuquerque, should be 65 by the second half of this week, it will top near 90 degrees.

But I talked about how the fluctuation in the heat kind of moving things east sometimes with this heat dome that's been persistent over the west. And so we'll see those record highs also spread across the Mississippi Valley and into the southeastern parts of the U.S.

So look at the temperature increases for places like Atlanta and into the nation's capital as we round out the second half of this workweek.

So yes, we've got quite an impressive amount of heat over the country. And of course, were still monitoring the potential of some additional flooding in Hawaii. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: Derek Van Dam, thank you.

With Iran choking off the Strait of Hormuz, shipping companies are being forced to reroute and ports along the Red Sea are seeing an uptick in traffic as a result. We'll show you how Saudi Arabia's largest port is preparing, just ahead. [01:31:15]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELSON: Welcome back to THE STORY IS. I'm Elex Michaelson.

Let's take a look at today's top stories.

At least 64 people were killed when a Colombian Air Force plane crashed shortly after takeoff. Dozens of others were injured. 125 people were on board, almost all were military personnel, apart from two police officers and 11 crew members. It happened just two miles after departure in Colombia's southern Amazon region. Authorities are investigating.

Federal investigators are on the ground at New Yorks LaGuardia airport. They're trying to determine how a landing Air Canada jet collided with a Port Authority fire and rescue truck on a runway. Both of the pilots were killed.

The National Transportation Safety Board says multiple teams are examining the wreckage, reviewing airport operations and air traffic communications.

President Trump said the U.S. and Iran held productive conversations over the weekend but Tehran is refuting those claims. On Monday, Trump claimed the two countries had reached major points of agreement to end hostilities. State media reports Iran's foreign ministry is dismissing Trump's claims as an attempt to lower energy prices and buy time for his military plans.

U.S. stocks rallied after President Trump said he would postpone strikes on Iran's power plants. Here's a look at where Wall Street finished on Monday with the Dow, Nasdaq and S&P all solidly in the green; all up more than 1 percent.

Let's see how the Asia-Pacific markets are faring right now as we take a live look at that. They're all up as well. Not quite as much as the U.S. depending on where we're looking.

Oil prices also dropped sharply after President Trump's announcement. That's good news to see it moving down. Brent Crude, the global benchmark, fell nearly 11 percent on Monday, just under $100 a barrel. Now, we see it over $100 a barrel, but still moving in the right direction.

Ports along the Red Sea are seeing an influx of cargo shipments as Iran keeps a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz. And Saudi Arabia's largest port is preparing to play its part.

CNN's Nic Robertson reports from Jeddah.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Saudi Arabia's biggest port, Jeddah, is gearing up for its busiest times yet. On Saudi's west coast, the Red Sea. It is about to pick up much of the trade Iran has choked off, locating the Strait of Hormuz. More than 700 miles from the beleaguered gulf, it will be helping keep them alive.

Saudi officials are saying that already since the war began, cargo traffic through their Red Sea ports is up by one-third, and they're predicting that here in Jeddah, the traffic is going to go up by 50 percent next month.

While most of that one-third uptick is Saudi oil exports, millions of extra barrels pumped hundreds of miles across the Arabian Desert. It is ports like Jeddah that will carry the bulk of imports.

So all this comes off here, gets stacked up over here. And then it's going to get on trucks and head eastwards across Saudi Arabia to the Gulf.

Officials here say they are ready with enough docks, workers, cranes and trucks lined up. But even so, analysts say they won't be able to make up all the Gulf imports shortfall.

CHARLES VAN DER STEENE, REGIONAL MANAGING DIRECTOR, MAERSK: Food and medicine are the priority. And of course, we continue to assess this together with our customers. But it's clear that whether it is for the UAE, whether it's for Saudi, whether it's for Bahrain, Kuwait and any other country within the Gulf, these are the prime priority to make sure that the population can receive what they need as part of their daily life.

[01:39:43]

ROBERTSON: Major haulage contractors like Maersk say they and regional governments have been planning a land bridge trucking goods from the Red Sea to the Gulf for years, and with good reason.

The World Economic Forum says about 85 percent of the Gulf's food is imported.

VAN DER STEENE: It's safe to say that the Saudi government has been extremely involved in making sure that whatever roadblocks that might exist, roadblocks in terms of the actual capacity in the terminal in Jeddah, roadblocks in terms of potential capacity of available trucks, but also roadblocks in terms of potential customs challenges that you might have so that the flow is optimized.

ROBERTSON: But for all the planning, there are no guarantees. Last week, following an attack on its own energy infrastructure, Iran targeted Yanbu oil terminal and a drone hit a nearby refinery.

And then, there's Iran's partial proxy, the Houthis, further down the Red Sea and Yemen. Until a few months ago, they were attacking international shipping and could restart.

So far, the Red Sea has mostly been outside of the bounds of this war. But if the war escalates, all this vital lifeline to the rest of the Gulf, all that could become vulnerable.

Nic Robertson, CNN -- Jeddah Port, Saudi Arabia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAELSON: Our thanks to Nic.

A newly-released global study from IQ Air is sounding the alarm on the global rise in air pollution. It's ranked Loni, India as the most polluted city on the planet. The study notes a significant jump in air pollution there last year by nearly 23 percent.

And researchers say one of the most polluted regions in the U.S. was right here in southern California. More specifically, southeast L.A., where wildfire smoke, heavy traffic and industrial emissions all contributed to poor air quality last year.

Thanks so much for watching THE STORY IS. For our international viewers, "WORLDSPORT" is next. For our viewers in North America, I'll be back with a look at the return of the Seattle Supersonics.

[01:41:54]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELSON: THE STORY IS growing excitement among basketball fans for a possible NBA expansion. The league's board of governors will begin a two-day meeting on Tuesday to discuss potential new franchises in Las Vegas and Seattle.

Fans of the Supersonics have been waiting nearly 18 years for the chance. The team moved from Seattle to Oklahoma City in 2008 and became the Thunder, and that left basketball fans in the Emerald City heartbroken.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our kids are going to grow up and going, ok, how come Seattle doesn't have a basketball team, you know. And that for me it would be kind of something that would be kind of tough to explain.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Joining us now is Tim Booth, sports reporter for "The Seattle Times", who has covered Seattle sports for decades. Tim, welcome to THE STORY IS for the first time.

TIM BOOTH, SPORTS REPORTER, "THE SEATTLE TIMES": Thank you for having me on. I appreciate it.

MICHAELSON: So as your article about this points out, tomorrow has the possibility of being a historic date in Seattle sports history. Sort of break down what's happening tomorrow.

BOOTH: Yes. So the NBA owners are meeting in New York, and the expectation is that they are going to give approval to Commissioner Adam Silver to begin having conversations with potential ownership groups about possible expansion of the league, adding 1 or 2 teams, looking specifically at Seattle and Las Vegas as their landing points for these possible two new teams that would come on board.

For Seattle, it's obviously been a, you know, 18-year wait since the Supersonics left for Oklahoma City. So there's been a lot of, you know, pent up excitement and frustration that it's taken this long to get to this point. But also a lot of optimism that if the vote goes as expected from the owners that we could be seeing maybe the most significant step in the possible return of the NBA since the team left in 2008.

MICHAELSON: Seattle is a great sports town. The Seattle Seahawks just won the Super Bowl and almost everybody you talked to said Seattle is the loudest stadium when it comes to football.

Seattle loved the Supersonics. Talk about how important this team is to that community.

BOOTH: Well, they were the first ones here, and I think that's where the relationship really started. Seattle didn't have a professional sports team until the Sonics arrived in 1967.

They were kind of this outcast, you know, maritime city out in what some people consider to be southeast Alaska. And the arrival of the Sonics gave the city some validity to it. Gave it -- gave it something to rally around.

And that really started this love affair that fans had with the franchise for the 41 years that it was here. And subsequently after that, you had, you know, the Seattle Pilots came for one year before they moved to Milwaukee and became the Brewers in baseball. But then the Mariners came back in 1977. The Seahawks came in 1976. And later on, you added franchises like the Sounders and the Storm, and now the Kraken, and the Torrent of the PWHL.

And you really have this very robust sports portfolio that lands within a city and a region that really loves its teams as you were pointing out earlier with the Seahawks.

But it all started with the Sonics. And there's this incredible sense of nostalgia that comes with mentioning the name, the Sonics, mentioning the Supersonics, talking about the green and gold. And so that's what gets fans excited about the -- about the thought of the franchise returning.

MICHAELSON: So when are we going to get basketball in Seattle and in Las Vegas?

BOOTH: This seems like the question I keep getting for the last two weeks. The likely timeline is, is 2028 and 2028 -- '29 season.

[01:49:48]

BOOTH: That's assuming that everything goes to plan with the owners giving the thumbs up on the negotiations starting. And then everything getting vetted and approved in time, either for the owners to give a final approval at their meeting this summer in July, or at their meeting in September. One of those two times is expected to be when some sort of final vote on approval is to be taken.

So as long as the NBA and the potential ownership groups are able to meet that timeline --

MICHAELSON: Yes.

BOOTH: -- then the likelihood is that you'll have a two-year run up and the teams starting in '28 and '29, which for Seattle makes a nice round number because that will be 20 years since the Sonics left for Oklahoma City.

MICHAELSON: And if they expand, that means more money for all the owners. And we know that NBA owners really like more money. So it's most likely --

BOOTH: Yes. Yes, they do.

MICHAELSON: -- that they are going to approve this because it helps everybody's bottom line. That will mean an expansion draft and more NBA basketball across the country.

Tim Booth, thank you for your great writing on this. I'm sure you'll be thrilled when that moment comes. We'll check out your reporting on this tomorrow.

In the meantime, we'll be right back with more of THE STORY IS.

[01:54:03]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELSON: Looking an awful lot like Celine Dion is planning to return to the stage. The Canadian superstar posted on Instagram just one phrase in French that translates to "I don't know how to tell you," along with a string of photos of her posing in Paris over the years.

A French-Canadian newspaper reports she'll perform two concerts a week at France's famous La Defense Arena this September and October.

Meantime, posters are popping up across the French capital featuring the names of her songs such as "Power of Love". The queen of the power ballads has been battling a rare neurological disorder called stiff person syndrome that kept her sidelined for years before she made a surprise appearance at the 2024 Paris Olympic opening ceremony.

Be great to have her back.

Thank you so much for watching THE STORY IS. I'm Elex Michaelson. I appreciate you being with us for a new week.

We'll be back tomorrow with another new episode. See you then.

[01:56:18]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)