Fragile US-Iran Talks, Anthropic’s White House Visit, Storms Hit Central US and more | CNN 5 Things

From CNN, I'm Erin Mathewson with the five things you need to know for Friday, April 17th.

President Donald Trump said Iran has quote, agreed to everything in talks with the US, including working jointly to remove enriched uranium from the country and bringing it to the US.

And he told CBS the effort wouldn't require American troops on the ground.

But Iranian officials say they have no plans to forfeit their stockpile of enriched uranium.

Now, Trump's comments come after Tehran reopened the Strait of Hormuz for the duration of the ceasefire with conditions from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

This includes that all transit requires its permission and that military vessels are still prohibited.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond is in Tel Aviv and says there are questions about how long this will hold.

President Trump has indicated that this naval blockade is going to remain in effect, blocking any ships leaving Iranian ports or going to them.

And even though the president says that Iran is going to quote never close the Strait of Hormuz again, saying that's a commitment that he secured from Iran, A different message is being given on Iranian state TV, where Iranian officials are indicating that if the blockade isn't lifted, then they could shut the Strait of Hormuz once again.

So all of this could obviously be resolved if there is an ultimate diplomatic deal here between the United States and Iran, but it does point to just how fragile things are.

And, of course, we are also still monitoring this ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, which so far appears to be holding.

Mornings coming up, including why the Justice Department is shaking up its investigation into a prominent Trump critic.

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The Justice Department has just removed the career Miami federal prosecutor leading the investigation into John Brennan.

He's a former CIA director and prominent critic of President Trump.

Now the move comes after the prosecutor, Maria Long, resisted pressure to quickly bring charges against Brennan.

That's according to people briefed on the matter.

Though sources say Long notified the attorneys involved in the case she was no longer handling the investigation after leading the politically sensitive probe for months.

The investigation into Brennan centers around one of the president's longest-standing political grievances.

That's the 2017 intelligence assessment that concluded Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to help Trump.

The Miami U.S.

Attorney's Office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

CNN also reached out to Long, who referred CNN back to the Miami office.

The Justice Department said in a statement that it's a routine practice to move attorneys around on cases.

Quote so offices can most effectively allocate resources.

Congress has extended a critical foreign surveillance law known as FISA through April 30th.

That law, which was set to expire on Monday night, allows US officials to monitor phone calls and text messages from foreign targets.

But they can also scoop up data from Americans in the process.

GOP leaders struggle to secure a longer-term extension because of disputes over privacy protection reforms.

It's now headed to President Trump's desk, who's expected to sign the bill.

A series of severe storms is slamming the Midwest and central US today, which could bring intense tornadoes and damaging wind gusts to 90 miles per hour.

CNN's Derek Van Dam is here.

Derek, that sounds so intense.

Will the storms last through the weekend?

Yeah Aaron, the next few hours are going to be critical for places like Milwaukee to Chicago Peoria, south into Springfield, as well as St.

Louis.

The storms that have formed across the Midwest and the Great Lakes region.

They have been known tornado producers that have already created damage on the ground.

So that's of particular concern tonight.

Further south and west, we're talking Missouri into parts of Kansas and Oklahoma.

This is more of a straight line wind and large hail threat.

We're talking about three inch in diameter sized hailstones falling from the sky.

Cold front responsible for the severe weather marches eastward tomorrow.

We have a lesser threat of severe storms, but still exist across the Ohio Valley.

Coming up.

We'll tell you about a high-stakes meeting between a blacklisted AI company and the White House.

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Anthropic CEO, Dario Amede, has a meeting at the White House today with the president's top advisor, Susie Wiles.

That's according to two sources familiar with the meeting.

Anthropic declined to comment.

The visit comes as the government weighs its hardline approach to the company against the national security risks of cutting off access to its technology.

President Trump recently announced that the government will sever ties with Anthropic after it refused to allow extensive military use of its systems.

This includes autonomous weapons and mass surveillance.

Until recently, Anthropix Cloud was the only AI model available in the Pentagon's classified network.

That's all for now.

We'll be back tomorrow with the 5 Good Things podcast.

It's highlighting an artist who made history at Coachella.

Some unlikely climate heroes and a fun debate that will probably never end.

Check it out wherever you get your podcasts.

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I'm CNN tech reporter Claire Duffy.

This week on the podcast, Terms of Service.

What do we know about how much AI is contributing to energy consumption, energy demand right now?

And how does that compare with other industries?

The best resource for that is the International Energy Agency, which is sort of the global energy think tank that collects data on all of this.

And what they predict is that about 8 of the additional electricity that we're going to need by 2030 that will be for data centers.

Other 92% is for other things, industry electrification, electric vehicles.

And AI is really only driving part of that increase in demand.

Listen to CNN's Terms of Service wherever you get your podcasts.

[Daily Briefing: US-Iran Tensions, DOJ Investigations, and AI Policy Shifts]-[Fragile US-Iran Talks, Anthropic’s White House Visit, Storms Hit Central US and more]

📋 Summary

Executive Summary: Key Developments in US Policy and Global Affairs

1. US-Iran Diplomatic and Military Standoff

2. Justice Department Personnel Changes

3. FISA Extension and Privacy Debates

4. Severe Weather Across the US

5. AI Policy and National Security

🎯Key Sentences

📝Key Phrases

📖 Transcript