two reports suggest closer ties between president trump and russia. but mr. trump says even raising such a question is down right insulting. saudi arabia hosts the top u.s. diplomat as the kingdom continues to face outrage over the murder of jamal kashoggi. >> plus, her biggest battle yet. teresa may facing a make or break vote on her brexit plan as she plans to make one more speech to win over opponents. we want to welcome our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i'm george howell. >> i'm rosemary church. "cnn newsroom" starts right now.

♪ u.s. president trump and the republicans are on the defensive after two bombshell articles came out over the weekend. >> mr. trump slammed the "new york times" after it reported that the fbi was so concerned about the president's actions after the firing of the former fbi director james comey that it began investigating whether mr. trump was working on behalf of russia. >> a later "washington post" article reports that he concealed the details of his meetings with russian president vladimir putin. >> these reports certainly raising a lot of questions. our boris sanchez has reaction from the white house. >> reporter: the white house is dismissing reports of both the "new york times" and the "washington post" this week with press secretary sarah sanders putting out two statements. in both of them with press secretary dismisses the details of the reports, in one of them suggesting that the report is

absurd in the other making the case that the liberal media is out to get president trump. in both statements she actually compares president trump to former president obama, saying that trump has been tougher on russia than obama has. we know at least publicly that's not the case. let's not forget that president obama publicly confronted vladimir putin over the issue of russian election meddling, pressing the russian leader in 2016. president trump simply has not done that. the president during that press conference in helsinki failed to really press the russian leader. furth further, president trump was asked about these two reports on fox news over the weekend. he called them insulting. >> i think it's the most insulting thing i've ever been asked. i think it's the most insulting article i've ever had written. if you read the article, you'd see that they found absolutely nothing. >> though new cnn polling shows that a majority of americans blame president trump for the partial government shutdown, the president went on twitter this weekend and attacked democrats over the shutdown yet again,

suggesting they should return to washington to try to hammer out a deal as he waits for them in the white house. meantime we're hearing that there is tension during these back and forth negotiations to reopen the federal government, not just between democrats amid republic and republicans but also between president trump and his acting chief of staff mick mulvaney. the president not only cut off his chief of staff but also cussed at him while mulvaney was trying to negotiate with democrats over the $1.3 billion that they offered to the white house for border security funding. the president said, quote, stop, stop, just stop, what are you doing? you're efing it all up, mick. there is no reaction from anyone else in the room. apparently we're hearing that democrats are giving the acting chief of staff an earful as well suggesting he wants the government shutdown and wants it to keep moving forward. >> let's talk more about all of

this with the chief diplomatic correspondent in europe with the "new york times," joining us now from brussels, belgium. pleasure to have you. these bombshell reports from your newspaper and the "washington post" both cast questions over the president's loyalty and actions with regards to russia. he's been criticized for being too friendly with this long time adversary. president trump would say he is the toughest of any president on russia. do these reports hurt the president or do they come off, as he might describe them, as paranoid or even overreach? >> i do think they hurt the president. we've always wondered about his bromance with vladimir putin. this has been true ever since he became president. even before he became president, he has praised vladimir putin, he trashes everybody else pretty much, right? the question that's always been before he became president, did his company -- was it saved by russian money? did it engage in money

laundering for russians, many of whom bought apartments, at least 86 apartments in trump companies for cash. so there's always been this question somehow of whether the russians have a hold on him. but i think he admires putin as well as a tough guy. now, the reports are trump trying to keep his dealings with putin away from others in the american government, but that's a separate issue, very troubling. though in the meeting, the post said he took away the notes from the interpreter. then secretary of state rex tillerson was also in the room. there might be a private aspect to the talk, but trump was not alone with putin in that meeting, though he was in helsinki. the u.s. government still has no idea what the conversation was like between putin and trump in

helsinki. >> there are different ways of looking at this. some who see it as concerning, alarming. others who say, look, the context matters here. this is a president who's very concerned about leaks. in fairness, not the only president to keep close guard around details with sensitive discussions. is it possible this could be more about protecting against leaks than it could be about allegedly concealing information? >> of course. absolutely right. we haven't heard such reports about trump's meetings with anybody else. that's the problem. it's all about worrying about leaks, why isn't he worried about leaks with everybody? now, when trump says that he's been stronger on russia than obama, that's certainly not true. but the fact is that under mr. trump, american troops have moved back into europe. there's been more money spent for nato. in that sense, mr. trump is

correct that he has invested more and spent more american money in a confrontation, if you like, through the nato alliance against russia. that's true. he didn't necessarily like it. it's something mattis did. but he certainly went along with it. >> steven irlinger live in brus te brussells. thank you. we're watching riyadh waiting for a meeting between the top u.s. diplomat there and mohammed bin salman. secretary of state mike pompeo is in the region to shore up support for u.s. policies. he will likely focus on iran and syria, but he's been dogged by questions about the murder of journalist jamal kashoggi. >> he has vowed to raise the issue with saudi officials and says u.s. policy has been consistent. now, that is despite the white house questioning intelligence reports, saying the crown prince

was behind the killing. >> and the other major item on the secretary of state's plate, the agenda that he will have, the war in syria. he's reassuring allies in the region that the u.s. withdrawal will not create more chaos. now some equipment is leaving syria, but the 2,000 or so military personnel there will remain. >> president trump tweeted about the withdrawal sunday along with this message for turkey. don't attack the kurds. mr. trump says the u.s. will devastate turkey economically if it doesn't comply. >> keeping in mind turkey considers some kurdish groups to be terrorists. the president adds the u.s. doesn't want the kurds to provoke turkey either. turkey's presidential spokesperson had a warning of its own. don't equate syrian kurds with kurdish militants. >> let's get the latest now from the region. cnn's ben wedeman is following this story from cairo, egypt.

he joins us now live. how likely is it that u.s. secretary of state mike pompeo there in the region trying to clear up all the mixed messages from the trump administration when it comes to u.s. foreign policy in the region, is he going to be able to do this? >> reporter: it would be very difficult when you consider that one single tweet can sort of turn the table upside down. this tweet from president trump threatening to devastate turkey, a nato ally, economically certainly isn't what one would describe as diplomatic. really that has been the problem going back quite some time. on the 19th of december seemingly out of the blue, he tweeted that the united states is pulling out its forces out of syria now. and since then, really the entire sort of middle east policy of the united states has

been foggy, to say the least. so we know that secretary pompeo is in saudi arabia today. saudi arabia obviously one of the biggest supporters of the united states in the middle east when it comes to its policies regarding iran. that has been one of the cornerstones of secretary pompeo's visit throughout the region. but we did learn yesterday that national security advisor john bolton appears to be pushing for some sort of military confrontation with iran and it might not be the case that all of the american allies in the middle east are so eager for a confrontation with a country of 80 million people, a large military, significant oil reserves and generally more capabilities than most other countries in the middle east. i think when secretary pompeo

finally winds up his trip to the region with a visit to oman, he will be leaving a region probably more confused than it was when his visit began. >> perhaps you're right. as you mentioned, of course, u.s. secretary of state mike pompeo in saudi arabia right now. we're hearing that he will press saudi officials on the issue of the murder of journalist jamal kashoggi. but of course given the very strong u.s./saudi relationship, is this more about looking like he's doing the right thing while really maintaining a very normal relations with saudi arabia? >> reporter: rosemary, i think we can go back to the 16th of october when secretary pomp met mohammed bin salman, the crown prince and the man the cia believes probably did issue the order to murder and dismember jamal kashoggi in the saudi consulate on the 2nd of october.

the image of their meeting gave you a good idea of the importance the united states government holds when it comes to the murder of a u.s. resident, mr. kashoggi, by saudi arab arabia. it was all smiles and handshakes and i think we can probably expect the same. the trump administration has made it very clear from the beginning of the aftermath of jamal kashoggi's murder is that as far as saudi arabia is concerned, it's the money the saudis pay the united states for the purchase of weapons and other goods that is far more important than the murder and dismemberment perhaps by a bone saw of this saudi journalist. it just doesn't matter that much. we've already heard secretary pompeo saying that the united states expects saudi arabia to

hold those responsible for the murder of jamal kashoggi. there is an ongoing trial in saudi arabia of 11 unnamed individuals. the prosecution is calling for the death sentence for five of them. clearly among those 11 is probably not crown prince mohammed bin salman. >> we will continue to watch this story very closely. ben wedeman joining us live from cairo in egypt. our teams of course following that meeting as it takes place. we'll bring the images to you live. will there be handshaking and smiles? we'll have to see. the u.k. now beginning a historic week with no idea of how this week will end. britain's prime minister scrambling to save her brexit deal as the clock ticks down on this critical vote come tuesday. in just a few hours time, lawmakers will start debating that vote in parliament. >> teresa may will make a last ditch attempt to convince them

that rejecting her plan would be catastrophic for the united kingdom. she will say all this in a speech to a group of factory workers in a pro brexit city on monday. >> so despite the prime minister's attempts to gain more support for this deal that remains resoundingly unpopular among mps, what are the implications if parliament, as expected, fails to approve this plan? >> reporter: good morning. that's right, we have just over 24 hours before that vote is to take place in parliament on tuesday night. it doesn't look as though the numbers are in teresa may's favor. she may lose by 100 to 200 votes. it's more of a question by how much how much she will lose, not if she will lose. what will happen if she loses that vote is a few things. she has to come back within

three days with a new option to the members of parliament because of a recent amendment that was passed that sped up that process. at the same time we're going to see a lot of things happening in the background, including likely a no confidence vote tabled by the opposition led by the labour party and jeremy corbyn. they're trying to cause a general election and kick teresa may out of pair so they can then negotiate a different brexit deal. this is talk about other sorts of votes, even possibly a second referendum. what teresa may is doing is she's trying to convince enough members of parliament to get onto her side. part of what she's going to say is that if members don't vote for her deal, they risk brexit not happening at all. that would cause people to question the foundation of british democracy because in 2016 they voted for brexit and that's what she's trying to deliver. what if we found ourselves in a

situation where parliament tried to take the united kingdom out of the european union. we all have a duty to implement the result of the referendum. why she's saying there could be no brexit is because of all those options i laid out. a no confidence vote or a general election takes time. it's unlikely something like an election could be wrapped up by then. >> i want to show our viewers a clock. we're keeping track of exactly how many time remains. 74 days, 14 hours, 40 minutes. is there a way for teresa may to extend the clock here? is she able to go back to brussels. can she ask for an extension to article 50? and would eu members even go for something like that? >> reporter: that's the big question. because it's not just the u.k. who gets to say, hold on, guys,

we need a little bit more time. it's up to the rest of the european union as well to agree to that. this has already been a very long extended process. as the leaders of the european union like to say, we're not the ones who wanted this divorce. it's the u.k. who initiated it. we have seen reports that european leaders are trying to help teresa may, issuing letters to support her brexit deal. it's not clear that's going to work and we're definitely headed into uncharted territory. >> it is the only deal, they've said. thank you for the reporting. we'll take a short break here. there's no break in the shutdown stalemate. ahead, u.s. hamas look for ways to reopen the government even if the border debate isn't over. and unlimited is better with a phone included.

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welcome back, everyone. more than two months after the crash of lion air flight 610 off indonesia, authorities now have a critical piece of the puzzle. the flight's cockpit voice recorder, dives found it buried under 8 meters or 26 feet of mud

on the bottom of the sea. >> investigators are hoping that the audio of the pilots' conversations is still intact. they already have the data recorder which shows the pilots fought to override a safety system that kept pulling the plane's nose down. all 189 penople on that flight were killed. as americans struggle with the longest government shutdown in u.s. history, it seems a majority are putting the blame squarely on trump. >> 55% say the president bears more responsibility for the shutdown. the president's disapproval rating has climbed five points since last month, now up to 57%. >> the possibility remains that president trump could declare a

national emergency to use military funds to build his wall. >> republican senators are still looking for alternatives to end this impasse. >> before he pulls the plug on the legislative option, and i think we're almost there, i would urge him to open up the government for a short period of time, like three weeks before he pulls the plug, see if we can get a deal. if we can't at the end of three weeks, all bets are off. see if he can do it by himself through the emergency powers. that's my recommendation. but i think the legislative path is just about shut off. >> beyond that, assuming that the shutdown still continues, would you support president trump, yes or no, declaring a national emergency? >> i would hate to see it. using that act would be in this instance would be a far larger act than has ever occurred in the past. i'd prefer not. primarily because if we do that, it's going to go to court and the wall won't get build.

i want to keep pressure on democrats to come to the negotiating table in good faith and fund what they have supported in the past. >> there are mixed opinions in border communities about whether there is an immigration crisis and who should be done about security. >> reporter: south texas diana into the river that divides the u.s. and mexico. this stretch of the rio grande is the busiest sector in the country. since the start of the shutdown, a new challenge for the agents. answers phones, processing paperwork, even helping care for

detainees. some agents have had to leave the front line to perform administrative tasks. >> we have agents engaged in our humanitarian mission. >> fortunately we do have i think sufficient amount of personnel out in the field. like i said, we were able to bring in 75 officers from the northern border from some of the oh s other sectors to help us out. >> reporter: santana and her husband say they feel at ease. >> we feel safe. i don't think there's any danger. you might see it in the news sometimes, you know, they caught people. we've never seen that.

i have never seen that. >> reporter: santana has lived here all her life and says she doesn't agree with the picture of a crisis painted by the president. she feels border fencing already in place is sufficient to protect against human and drug smugglers. >> crisis is something big or major. but i don't see that here. >> reporter: santana does agree the partial shutdown has gone long enough. >> i wish i had a crystal ball, be able to tell somebody that yeah this is going to be solved tomorrow zblchblts he s tomorrow. >> reporter: the flow of drugs and people remains constant, he says. still ahead here on "cnn newsroom" an indictment on corruption charges. ahead the president of japan's olympic committee denies the allegations. what's ahead for tokyo 2020. these folks, they don't have time to go to the post office

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my name is tito, and i'm a tech-house manager at comcast. we're working to make things simple, easy and awesome. welcome back to our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. you are watching "cnn newsroom" live. >> i'm rosemary church. >> divers recover the cockpit voice recorder from the lion air flight that crashed off indonesia in october. investigators hope that it will reveal what the pilots were saying before that crash. that crash killing all 189 people on board. the flight data recorder was already found back on november 1st. it showed the pilots fought to override a safety system. that system that kept pulling the plane's nose downward. the u.s. and latin american governments are condemning the

arrest of venezuelan opposition leader. intelligence agents stopped his car and briefly detained him sunday after he said he was prepared to temporarily replace nicolas maduro. an official says the agents acted on their own. the opposition calls it a kidnapping. the u.s. president and republicans are on the defensive from the latest article by the "washington post," reporting that the president went to extraordinary lengths to conceal details from his private meetings with the russian president. one republican senator, ron johnson, says mr. trump's actions, not his word, show that he's been tough on russia. >> let's get more on all of this with former cia operative and security analyst bob bear and cnn u.s. security analyst shawn turner, who is a former director of communication for u.s. national intelligence. thanks to both of you for joining us. >> thanks for having us.

>> bob, i do want to start with you. first, of course, the "new york times" reported that the fbi was so concerned about the u.s. president's behavior that it began investigating whether he was secretly working on russia's behalf. then the "washington post" writes that mr. trump allegedly went to extraordinary lengths to conceal details of his five face to face meetings with russia's president vladimir putin. what is your response to these two incredible reports? >> you're right. they are explosive. you have to look at trump's history with the russians, which goes back to 1986, connections with the kgb, money going into trump properties, russian money and on and on and on. we know the whole story, but the fact the fbi opened an investigation is extraordinary. >> shawn turner, why would there be no details from any of the five meetings, face to face meetings between the u.s. and russian presidents? how would that even be possible?

>> yeah. you know, it's extremely unusual. it's a very good question as to why there wouldn't be any details. if the reporting is correct on in this that the president took deliberate actions to make sure that none of the details from those meetings came out, that's particularly troubling. there is a significant amount of intelligence value in understanding what happened in these conversations between president trump and vladimir putin. for the first part it is the case that if we know what vladimir putin said to the president, then it gives the u.s. intelligence community and the president an opportunity to understand whether or not what putin says in private is consistent with what we know that he says and does based on our own intelligence collections efforts. that would give the president the opportunity to at least know whether or not he could trust him. essentially what the president has done here, and this is unfortunate, is he has decided that he will trust vladimir putin without any verification.

anyone who knows anything about the kremlin and vladimir putin knows that that is at best naive. >> president trump responded to reports in the "new york times" and "washington post" when he went on fox news, saying the suggestion that he had ever worked on behalf of russia was the most insulting thing ever said about him and he wasn't hiding anything. i want to listen to a portion of that interview. let's bring that up. >> why not release the conversation that you had with president putin in helsinki along with some other stuff that might involve fisa, bruce orr and the whole lot of them? >> i would. i don't care. i had a conversation with the president like every president does. we had a great conversation and i'm not keeping anything under wraps. i couldn't careles less. >> why not release the transcripts from his

conversations with mr. putin? will any effort be made to force him to do that, or could the translator perhaps be questioned about this? how likely is it that any of this is going to happen? >> well, i don't think it will. first of all, he took the translator's notes from the meeting, which is unusual. you have to go back to what shawn said. this is a humiliation of the intelligence community and the state department for the president to trust an adversary like putin but not his own employees, not the federal government. whose side is he on? i find this all disturbing. and frankly, if i were in the government and he weren't president, he would not have a security clearance. it's amazing that this goes on and on and on and there's no -- no one's coming up with -- you know, i can't wait until the mueller report comes out. that's really going to tell us. so far what we've seen, it's

damning, his relations with russia. if he has a one on one conversation with putin and hides the notes, he's hiding something and we all have to be suspicious. >> we just heard that bob doesn't think we're going to see any of this, we won't see the notes from the translator, there won't be a push to get more information on this. what do you think what push should be made to get some of these details from these five face to face meetings between mr. trump and mr. putin? >> you know, i think that it is certainly the case that what the president just said with regard to not caringcaring, he's goingt the opportunity to prove whether or not he really believes that. because i do think that members of congress are certainly going to want to talk to that translator and certainly are going to want to push tho get this information. i don't know that it will ever

come out. i tend to agree with bob on that that it's unlikely that it will. but i think the president also has to be concerned because there's an optics issue here. you have vladimir putin and you have the president of the united states sitting down together. because there's no one else there, you essentially have the president and putin who have secrets with just each other, secrets that the intelligence community doesn't know, that his senior advisors don't know and certainly that the american people don't know. considering everything that's happened with regard to people in the president's atmosphere, the people in his circle who have been found to be engaged with russians,s that an absolutely startling revelation at this particular period in time. for anyone out there who is looking at this objectively, at a minimum we understand that the president has every right to meet one on one with a world leader, but considering everything that's going on we don't want president trump and vladimir putin having secret

conversations that no one else knows about. now to the president of japan's olympic committee denying accusations of corruption in connection with tokyo's successful bid to host the 2020 games. >> french authorities have placed takeda under formal investigation over the bidding process. the international committee says its ethics committee has opened a file on the case. ta takeda said he would cooperate with the investigation. what's the background to this? what level of corruption are we talking about and how strong is the evidence against him? >> reporter: that's what we just don't know right now, because this formal investigation was just announced by the french financial crimes prosecutor last month. they've been doing this really wide-ranging investigation into sports corruption for a couple

years now. one of the things they are looking at is the bidding process for the olympic games, including the 2020 summer olympics. there's this $2 million payment that french prosecutors have flagged as suspicious. they are now investigating japan's olympic chief. it's the timing that has a lot of people on the ground here in tokyo suspicious given the fact that the investigation was announced just a matter of weeks after a french businessman was arrested and remains in kusa here. of course i'm talking about carlos ghosn. let's take a look. >> tokyo! >> reporter: tokyo's winning bid for the 2020 olympics came just when japan really needed a win. still reeling from 2011's earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown, tokyo 2020 symbolized a new beginning, but that new beginning could be tarnished by accusations of financial crimes on top of concerns over the bloated multibillion dollar budget. paris prosecutors are investigating the head of

japan's olympic committee, scrutinizing his role in the bidding process amid reports of a suspicious $2 million payment made right around the time tokyo beat out istanbul and madrid. takeda denies any wrongdoing. in a statement he says the payment to a singapore company was fair compensation based on a consultant agreement, insisting there was no improper action that can be recognized as bribery. tokyo's governor said she's bewilders by the paris probe. the international olympic committee says takeda is presumed innocent until french authorities find otherwise. the timing has some people in japan suspicious, wondering if another high profile case right here in tokyo may be motivating french authorities. nissan's exchairman carlos ghosn, who's the most famous businessman in france, is facing a growing list of financial must

conduct charges in japan. french investigators began their formal investigation of takeda within weeks of ghosn's arrest. it's so similar to ghosn's case. it's like china and canada. something similar seems to be going on between japan and france. the timing of these allegations is so sudden. i just wonder why now. it's a common question in tokyo these days and just the latest embarrassment for olympic organizers. the original logo, accused of plagiarism, replaced. the first stadium design declared too extravagant, scrapped. and now the olympics chief himself under formal investigation. with just 18 months until tokyo 2020, many are wondering what's next pep japan is spending an incredible amount of money to host these olympics. the budget could be up to three times the original pitch. we're talking about $20 billion. the fact that this $2 million

payment and potential charges against perhaps the most important figure at the center of the entire event bringing it to tokyo, it is incredibly frustrating and upsetting for a lot of people here in tokyo, who very much would like to see all of this be resolved in a favorable way. >> we'll watch to see what sort of impact this has. will ripley joining us live from tokyo, many thanks to you. we'll take a short break. how beauty is big business in south korea. why more and more women are choosing to say no to makeup and why that's such a game change. i realize i love you, but as long as you're with jessica, there can never be anything between us.

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tech tear secretary of stat pompeo has met with crown prince mohammed bin salman in riyadh. we don't know what they discussed exactly, but pompeo has vowed to press the saudis on

the murder of jamal kashoggi. he says he wants those responsible held accountable. but many u.s. lawmakers and intelligence officials say the saudi crown prince ordered that killing. they're also talking about those mixed messages coming out of the trump administration when it comes to syria particularly and iran. he's there to clear up some of those mixed messages and get some support from the region for u.s. foreign policy. south korea's beauty industry is one of the richest and most popular in the world. >> many women feel suffocated by pressure to look a certain way. now there is a new movement to take back the culture, one bare face at a time. alex field reports. >> reporter: in south korea, she's known as baylina, a youtube star. part of a generation of beauty bloggers showing other women their tips and tricks.

this is just part of the two-hour makeup routine she turned to every time she left the house. showing her bare face grabbed more attention than any video she posted before. the title is i'm not pretty. she unmasks herself. she reveals her personal pain and she shares just some of the hate-filled messages she regularly receives. the viral video has made her face one of the most visible in a growing campaign called escape the kor set. a movement that's seen women in south korea smashing their makeup and posting the evidence. images like these take aim at south korea ya's big bucks beauty industry. the pressure to look perfect making elaborate makeup regimes the fashion. but escape the corset is more

than skin deep. these women are part of a feminist club at their university. like others, they've chopped off their hair. >> reporter: the movement stems from a mounting feminist backlash against harassment and assault. activists say escaping the corset now is about bringing feminism into women's daily lives.

bae says she's gained time and money from quitting her makeup routine. she's studying new languages, feminism and studying a future in acting. thereas big drama over brex plays out, one theater group is putting their own spin on it. egd 4in1 packs more omega-3 power into one small softgel. it supports your heart... brain... eyes... and joints. megared.

one could say the issue of brexit has played out like a shakespearean play. >> nick glass has our report. >> reporter: a weekend off for the politicians in westminster, well, at least a brief pause in the brexit debate. but elsewhere no rest for the wicked. 100 miles to the northeast, the eye liner was being lathered on. in the great cathedral city of n

n n n noritch it was definitely show time. ♪ >> reporter: johnny woo, london drag queen and indubitable superstar has been deviadvising th this show for months. >> for me it's a reason to wear this eu dress. ♪ welcome to the other side >> we're trying to tell a story that it's a shared story. this is something we share. regardless of the conflict, we all are part of it. ♪ >> reporter: the composer richard thomas wrote the music. ♪ >> what i think it is for me, it's a musical celebration of a terrible mistake. ♪ it's all right, it's okay,

take it easy, keep it this way ♪ >> reporter: this time perhaps more than ever politicians seem fair game for lampooning. ♪ >> reporter: richard thomas has been absolutely gripped by the west smminster drama. >> order. all those points of order and just taken on the chin, boom, boom, boom. >> reporter: the predictable show stopper on the night was an impersonation of the prime minister. ♪ my name's teresa may ♪ there's one thing i want to say ♪ ♪ when oh when will this end

>> how would you like the reality to end? >> that we went back in time and it never happened. but that's not going to happen. >> reporter: what are you doing on tuesday? >> i'm going to be ripped to the testify. i wa i want to see all of it. it's going to be incredible. ♪ >> reporter: until then, we'll have to make due with this witty distraction from dramas ahead. nick glass, cnn. >> i'm rose mary church. >> i'm george howell. for our viewers in the united states, "early start" is next. you're watching cnn. (danny) let me get this straight.

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. a weekend full of stunning headlines. was the president acting against american interests? did he destroy notes from talks with ploouvladimir putin? how the president responded. they have the vacation, but they don't have to use their vacation days. in some sense, they are better off? >> what? no paycheck, no problem? but the pain is growing for people with the government shutdown. no cuts in contraceptive coverage in women in more than a dozen states. a federal judge says