hello, and welcome to all of you here in the united states, canada, and all around the world. i'm kim brunhuber. ahead on "cnn newsroom," a blow to republicans as the justice department signaled it won't hand over documents they've demanded. we'll look at how this impacts both president biden and trump's investigations. plus, huge layoffs at google. the company announcing thousands of job cuts. we'll look at what this signals for other tech companies. and the bills and bengals face off again this weekend just weeks after damar hamlin went into cardiac arrest on the field. sports anchor andy scholes joins me to look at how the team is preparing for the big game. u.s. justice department is signaling that it likely won't cooperate with congressional investigations into president

biden's mishandling of classified documents. that was the message in a letter sent to house judiciary chairman jim jordan. the committee responded by accusing the doj of being, quote, scared to cooperate with the probe into how sensitive paperwork ended up in the president's home in delaware. in democrats are urging the president to be open about what happened. >> i want to see complete transparency on how this is handled and brought to the american people. i'm convince thursday is no intent by the president to do something that was wrong. >> reporter: do you think this hurts him political? are you concerned at all? >> this is a matter that needs to get -- the president needs to get behind. he has to get all the information out. he has to square it away, make it clear that there was no intent here, that it was kept in a place that did not compromise the national security of america and that there are steps in place today to make sure this does not happen in the future. >> the white house is focusing hard on shifting the focus away from the investigation.

chief white house correspondent phil mattingly reports. >> reporter: for president biden on the two-year anniversary of being sworn into office, the issue that had been consuming his administration for the better part of the two weeks was nowhere to be seen. when the president appeared publicly speaking to members of the u.s. conference of mayors, a very lengthy appearance in which the classified documents that are now being investigated by the special counsel never came up at all. what the president wanted to talk about is what white house officials want to talk about -- his success on his agenda items. legislative success in those first two years which has laid the groundwork for the year ahead. that's what they want to focus on. also the political and legislative opportunities they see in that year ahead, even as house republicans hold the majority for the first time since biden has been in office. to some degree there is a critical part of their strategy as it pertains to the investigation. once again not answering any questions about that investigation that's now under way. instead, focusing on the president's agenda, fwoixing on what the -- focusing on what the

administration has accomplished and wants to plush, laying the groundwork for a "state of the union" address that's less than a month away. obviously the investigation is critical to white house officials. at least the team working on it. they know it exists, they know it poses risk. they know they don't have control over where the special counsel ends up taking things. when you talk to senior officials they believe when it's said and done it will show they did the right things in terms of those documents found in two different locations. they believe what people care most about, particularly the people who may be voting for the current president in the 2024 election should he decide to run, is far more about the economy and about the policy issues they've pursued than any kind of investigation. it is a calculation to some degree, a bet. it's one white house officials and as we've heard the president this week say the president, as well, believe is very much the case. phil mattingly, cnn, the white house. meanwhile, republicans in the house say it's irresponsible for the bieden administration t

refuse to move on the debt limit. it was reached thursday at $31.4 trillion. as a result washington is taking extraordinary steps to ensure the government pays its bills. that will hold until around the summer. if capitol hill can't agree on a new limit by then, treasury secretary janet yellen told cnn the effects would be felt around the world. here she is. >> a failure to make payments that are due whether it's to bondholders or to social security recipients or to our military would undoubtedly cause a recession in the u.s. economy and could cause a global financial crisis. >> the election is still more than a year away, but the republican race for the white house is already heating up. in his new memoir, former trump secretary of state mike pompeo accuses former u.n. ambassador

nikki haley of plotting with president trump's daughter and son-in-law to try to become vice president. hailey denies the allegations saying she never had such conversations. the major supporter during the last election indicated she may be joining the race for the white house. >> i had a great working relationship with the president. what i'll tell you is the survival of america matters. and it's bigger than one person. and when you're looking at the future of america, i think it's time for new generational change. i don't think you need to be 80 years old to go be a leader in d.c. i think we need a young generation to come in, step up, and really start fixing things. >> and we'll have more on the 2024 presidential race coming up in the next hour with amara walker and boris sanchez. the controversial u.s. republican lawmaker george santos is facing new and, frankly, bizarre claims this weekend. santos has been under intense scrutiny after making questionable claims about his life and achievements.

now we're learning he allegedly has a very flamboyant alter ego. our omar jimenez explains. do you have any comment on the ethics committee? >> reporter: here among the members of congress, he's known as george santos. in brazil, a local performer claims santos was guitaro ravesh, a drag queen, which he denies tweeting the media continues to make outrageous claims about my life while i'm working to deliver results. i will not be distracted nor phased by this. it appears to be just one of the names santos has used over the years. >> i've always known as anthony devalder, never george santos. >> reporter: his former roommate. >> i don't understand, did he go one by one to everybody in the district and literally pull the wool over their eyes? >> reporter: it's not just the name or alleged activities in his free time.

it's the stories he tells which appear to be just that, including one about 9/11. >> i get emotional. my parents were both down there the day of the attacks, and fortunately none of them passed. my mom was a 9/11 survivor. she was in the south tower. and she made it out. >> reporter: his mom was actually in brazil at the time, according to immigrecords and o form she said she hadn't been to the u.s. since 1999. santos also claimed his grandparents survived the holocaust and fled europe to avoid persecution, that's false. during his campaign he claimed he worked at citigroup and goldman sachs later admitting that wasn't true. while running for congress on long island, he claimed he graduated from about rules committee college in nyu and admits he didn't. >> what's your reaction -- >> reporter: despite all of these lies, george santos is now a fisherman congressman. he's been named to two

committees and no immediate signs republican leadership will stop him from walking the halls. >> he hasn't committed a crim. he hasn't been indicted on anything at this point. and in this country, you're innocent until proven guilty. >> reporter: leaving those he's deceived to sit and watch like two military veterans who say santos promised to raise funds for lifesaving surgery for one of their dogs in 2016 but that instead he took off with the money. the dog laterid to. >> that dog -- later died. >> that dog saved my life two times. when i first got out of the service i was depressed, having nightmares, bad, bad memories about some things that happened. not war related, but other things that the military does to you. >> reporter: santos denies this ever happened and told cnn in a statement in part, "anyone that knows me knows i'd go to hell and back for a dog, and especially a veteran." and the veteran's response to santos was? >> he said go to hell and back? then, quote, go to hell, george. as you can imagine, there are a lot of investigations swirling

around santos. federal prosecutors are looking into his finances. a watchdog group filed a complaint against him with the federal election commission. law enforcement in brazil say they intend to reinstate charges against him connected to a stolen checkbook in 2008. a complaint has been filed with the office of congressional ethics. all the while santos has denied any wrongdoing and is proceeding forward with his freshman term of congress, tweeting that these distractions won't stop me. at this point there are a lot of distractions. omar jimenez, cnn, new york. despite intense negotiations among the west's most senior defense officials, germany still won't agree to send its leopard 2 tanks to ukraine. thousands of the heavy tanks are already deployed to more than a dozen nearby european countries, but they can't be sent to ukraine without germany's okay.

even without the big armorer, ukraine still receiving sophisticated weapons and equipment that require training, and much of the defense meeting in germany was aimed at coordinating those shipments. u.s. defense secretary lloyd austin offered no hint whether the u.s. might be willing to send its own top of the line battle tanks to ukraine. here he is. >> we're really focused on making sure that ukraine has a capability that it needs to be successful right now. there are tanks in that -- those offerings, poland, for example, continues to offer tanks and will provide tanks, and other countries will offer tank capability, as well. i don't have any announcements to make on m1s, and you heard the german minister of defense say that they've not made a decision on leopards. >> among the latest security packages from ukraine's allies, the u.s. for first time will be

sending 90 striker armored vehicles, designed to move troops across the bafttlefield n snow, mud, or sand, and they're lighter more agile than the bradley fighting accounts have. this happens as the u.s. turns up the heat on the mercenaries serving as shock troops led by a russian oligarch who is on the right in this video. now the white house is moving to designate them as a transnational criminal organization. >> it will open up additional avenues for us to continue to not only sanction vagner and put more squeeze on their ability to do business around the world, but will assist others in doing the same. >> washington is also releasing new pictures of north korea's alleged arms shipments to mercenaries. u.s. officials believe this train carried the first batch of pyongyang's weapons for wagner

in november, and that there will be more to come. we have more on multiple developments related to ukraine, and we're joined from london. first, on wagner, what's led to the decision, and concrete low what does it mean? >> reporter: it shows how concerned the u.s. is about wagner's expanding role on the ground and the rise of its leader. over the course of the last few weeks and months, he's openly criticized russia's organized army, openly criticized the deficits ministry say -- defense minutes industry saying they're failing to provide weapons that the troops need and is pointing to the mercenary group as being successful, as being behind some of the gains we've seen in recent days and weeks. this momentum that has been regained by russian forces. the united states says there are some 50,000 members of wagner on the ground in ukraine, but about 40,000 of them, according to

u.s. officials, are convicts. so concerns about wagner using the prison system within russia as the manpower on the ground. then of course finally, you mentioned this, the connections to other groups, other organizations in other countries as the transnational part of this designation. it's important to remember wagner does not just operate in ukraine, it operates in the middle east in places like syria and across africa, as well. so in addition to the u.s. making this announcement, it also declassified these images that i know you have that show or the u.s. says it shows these images of russian rail cars going to north korea to pick up arms and weapons that are then used by wagner on the ground in ukraine. of course it's not just north korea that's been providing weapons to replenish russia's arsenal on the ground, iran, as well, has been accused by the united states of giving drones, ballistic missiles, again replenishing that arsenal. had is absolutely significant -- this is absolutely significant at a time that we're seeing

russia regain momentum and make small but significant gains in places like bakhmut. kim? >> all right. one of the other major angles we've been covering these past few days has been whether germany would allow leopard tanks to be sent to ukraine. you've been watching that. what's the latest? >> reporter: a rare moment of disagreement or standoff, if you will, among western allies that really have from the start of the conflict been quite unified, been quite in lockstep. germany showing its reluctance to allow these tanks, the leopard 2 tanks, to be used in ukraine. it is also germany that has is on sign off for some over a dozen countries in europe that holds about 2,000 of these tanks to potentially begin to deploy those tanks on the ground. cnn has reported earlier and i have to indicate germany has denied that this is the reason behind its reluctance. cnn has reported that germany is looking to the united states, as well, to deploy abrahm tanks. now the u.s. has made the argument, u.s. officials have made the argument that those are less practical than germany's

tanks. now germany still continues to review this information. there is a decision that is expected in the coming days. but absolutely for president zelenskyy this cannot come soon enough. he wants to see these tanks on the ground right now. i want you to take a license to what he said. >> translator: today ramstein will strengthen our resilience. our partners are principled in their approach. they will support ukraine as long as necessary for our victory. yes, we still will have to fight for the supply of modern tanks, but every day we make it more obvious that there is no alternative to the fact that the decision on tanks must be taken. >> reporter: now this is ever more important, of course, as i mentioned, gains being made on the ground by russia. this is absolutely important for president zelenskyy's outcomes on the battlefield. >> absolutely. all right, thank you so much from london. facing criminal charges for the death of a crew member on

his movie "rust," but actor alec baldwin saying the movie will continue as planned. the u.s. reporting new details about the suspect in the killings of four idaho college students. that and a conversation with the reporter after the break. stay with us. he's feeling it. yep, them too. it's an invivigorating rush... ...zapping millions of germs in seconds. for that one-of-a-kind whoa... ...which leaves you feeling... ahhhhhhh listerine. feel the whoa! this isn't charmin! no wonder i don't feel as clean. here's the new charmin ultra strong. ahhh! my bottom's been saved! with its diamond weave texture, charn ultra strong cleans better with fewer sheets and less effort. enjothe go with charmin. ♪birds flyin' high, you know how i feel.♪ ♪breeze driftin' on by...♪ ♪...you know how i feel.♪ you don't have to take... [coughing] ...copd sitting down. ♪it's a new dawn,...♪ ♪...it's a new day,♪

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a source close to alec baldwin tells cnn the actor/producer intends to finish the movie "rust" despite facing involuntary manslaughter charges for the shooting death of a crew member. the film's cinematographer halyna hutchins was shot when a supposedly prop gun that baldwin was holding fired a real bullet killing hutchins and wounding the director. nick watt has more. >> reporter: elaria baldwin created a diversion while one slipped out of their manhattan apartment. this afternoon, the press pack caught him coming home. he is not talking. baldwin's lawyers say he was blindsided by the criminal charges, baldwin himself told cnn -- >> they're not going to charge

anybody in my mind. criminal charges are things you avoid unless you know you can make a case. >> reporter: baldwin was a producer on "rust" and an actor. he was pointing the gun, not knowing it was loaded, toward cinematographer halyna hutchins when it went off killing her. >> he's being charged as both. he was the actor that pulled the trigger, so certainly he's charged as an actor. >> reporter: baldwin denies he pulled the trigger and an actor charged for an accident on set is raising some eyebrows. >> actors cannot be expected and are not expected to do final safety checks. >> my job is not to concentrate on whether the gun is safe. we have people there for that. >> reporter: like the armorer who is charged with involuntary manslaughter along with baldwin. baldwin says the first assistant director, dave halls, actually handed him the weapon. told him it was safe. >> we stand very firm that he did not hand the gun to alec baldwin. >> reporter: halls has signed a

plea agreement for the charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon. still unanswered, how did live ammunition even get onto this set. >> we have an idea. >> reporter: so can she share that idea? >> i can't. and the reason i can't is we have given that information to the district attorney, and they need to do their own followup. >> reporter: accidents like this are very, very rare. brandon lee, son of bruce, was killed on a film set nearly 30 years ago, hit by a bullet fragment fired from a prop gun that should have been empty. criminal charges were never filed. this actor was holding the gun. >> what happened to brandon was a tragic accident, and it's something that i'm -- that i'm going to live with. >> reporter: however, this criminal case against alec baldwin plays out, he will live with what happened to halyna.

>> the toughest part is we can never bring her ban never. i'd give anything to do that, and we can't. >> reporter: now a civil settle. was reached with halyna hutchins' family months ago. part of the deal, her husband matthew will serve as an executive producer on "rust" if filming resumes. now at the time matthew hutchins said that he had, quote, no interest in recriminations or attribution of blame that his wife's death was a terrible accident. but now the family says that these charges are, quote, warranted, and by the way, if alec baldwin is convicted, jail time is a possibility. nick watt, cnn, los angeles. >> both alec baldwin and the armorer say they weren't aware the prop gun had live ammunition. the film's line producer was on location in new mexico when the tragedy happened. she joined anderson cooper for an exclusive interview in which she was asked about the live

ammunition, and her reaction to the criminal charges. here she is. >> i don't know that i can speak to that. i don't know what the d.a. has. i feel awful for everyone involved. yeah, my heart goes out to them. >> i think a lot of people obviously want to try to understand how live ammunition ended up on the set in the first place. at this stage, are you, is anybody any closer to understanding how that actually happened? >> i have been asking that question for 15 months. it is so mind blowing to me. i didn't believe it honestly for for months, this it was live ammo. once the fbi ballistic report came back, there was no disputing it. but it was absolutely unfathomable. had i known about it, it would have been immediately addressed. it's a fireable offense, huge

safety violation. and had any crew or cast member known, i'm fully confident they would have also reported it and shut it down immediately. >> "people" magazine reports that the suspect in the murders of four idaho college students visited a restaurant where two of the victims worked in the weeks before the killings. citing a former employee, the outlet claims bryan kohberger went to the mad greek restaurant at least twice to order vegan pizza. madison mogen and xana kernodle were servers there. the restaurant denied the report in a facebook post. a reporter who worked on the story described to erin burn whaet he was told. >> he had certain dietary requirements. he was a strict vegan, and he wanted to make sure that none of his food had touched animal products. this is obviously a pizza place that has vegan options that are far beyond like a pineapple pizza but are actual vegan

pizzas. and he was always ordering those. >> yeah, but that kind of bizarre obsession with it stood out. all right. so the instagram -- i mentioned after the technical issues that you reported there was an instagram account that authorities believe belonged to kohb kohberger. we haven't confirmed this, but you've reported this, that sent a series of messages to one of the victims saying, hey, how are you? and kept doing it. what more have you learned about that? >> none of those messages were strange, none of those messages were aggressive or threatening or anything like that. but yeah, he was trying to make some sort of contact with this person. so he was sending notes saying, hey, how are you? but police believe that those actually went into another folder because she wasn't following him back. and so she may not have ever seen them. >> now cnn hasn't been able to verify the reporting. a gag order prevents parties in the case from commenting beyond what's in the court record.

kohberger hasn't entered a plea, but a pennsylvania attorney who handled his extradition to idaho told nbc news that he, quote, believes he's going to be exonerated. a weapon that kyiv describes as a must-have remains off limits for now. still ahead, why ukraine still isn't getting what they say they need to win the war against russia. plus, for the first time since the coronavirus outbreak, millions of people in china are traveling for the lunar new year holiday. right after the break, fears jamming people into buses and trains could spark a new covid surge. stay with us. being together. celebrating together. ♪ ...without letting anything keep you apart. walgreens pharmacists are here to help you stay well. and stay...together. ♪

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watching here in the united states, canada, and around the world. i'm kim brunhuber, there is "cnn newsroom." let's get you up to speed with the latest developments related to ukraine. the u.s. is turning up the heat on russia's wagner mercenaries whose boss is on the right in that video there. washington is moving to declare wagner a transnational criminal organization which will be followed by new sanctions on the group and its global network of supporters. the u.s. is also releasing pictures of north korea's alleged arms shipment to wagner. officials believe this train brought in rockets and missiles for the mercenary army in november and then more shipments will follow. ukraine's deputy foreign minister is still hoping germany will come around and support sending leopard tanks to kyiv. they failed to reach an agreement with other allies on friday. germany says it will make a decision as soon as possible. ukraine's other supporters are growing impatient. in the meantime, the allies are trying to downplay the rift and talk about the other firepower

that's on the way. nic robertson has that story. >> reporter: amidst rare disagreement, ukraine'sal lice at a u.s.-led meeting in germany failed to agree on their biggest challenge yet -- whether to send german- made leopard thanks to ukraine. >> all the pros and cons have to be weighed carefully. we cannot all say today when a decision will be made, nor will that decision on the leopard tanks will be. >> reporter: ukraine's president zelenskyy concerned about a russian spring offensive, told the meeting allies need to speed up or more ukrainians will die. >> time remains a russian weapon. we have to speed up hundreds of tanks. >> reporter: the meeting's host tried to paper over the cracks, talk tough urgery and unity, not differences over tanks. >> there isn't really about one single platform, and so our goal

and i think we've been fairly success at doing this and bringing together capability is to provide the capability that ukraine needs to be successful in the near term. >> reporter: ukraine says it needs 300 of the leopard 2 tanks, about 2,000 are current leap in use with its allies. those allies need german permission to reexport them. ministers of some of those nations met on the margins at ramstein. one of them poland. [ speaking non-english ] >> translator: i'm convinced that building this coalition will be successful. just as the issue of transferring patriot systems to ukraine was successful. >> reporter: but despite disagreement over tanks, the threat of a russian spring offensive has triggered a surge in military hardware pledged to ukraine recently. the u.s. alone committing 90 stryker combat vehicles, 59 bradley fighting vehicles, and

350 humidmers thursday. portugal, france, germany, sweden, denmark, finland, and others together sending multiple battalions worth of offensive capability. the talks friday trying to sync it all up. >> for all these different nations that were here today, to assemble all of the equipment, get it synchronized, get the ukrainian troops trained, et cetera, that will be a very, very heavy lift. >> reporter: the analysis even if ukraine can't sync up its forces with all the armaments coming their way they still won't be able to retake all their lost territory this year. the issue of ukraine needing modern battlefield tanks is far from over. nic robertson, cnn, london. fears are growing that china could see a new surge in covid-19 infections as more than

five million people are expected to travel by train and air to their hometowns today alone to celebrate the lunar new year holiday. there are more than nine million travelers on friday. the government estimates there will be more than two billion trips across china this holiday season. a huge uptick after beijing's strict zero-covid policy was lifted last month. officials say the virus is what they call a relatively low level, and the number of covid patients in hospitals is declining. but many doubt the official government assessment. lockdowns have taken a toll on chinese society which is only now starting to come to grips with the enormous costs of the government's failed policy. cnn's ivan watson reports from hong kong. >> reporter: a population on the move. >> attention, please -- >> reporter: after three years of restrictions due to their government's war on covid, chinese can finally travel again just in time for the upcoming lunar new year holiday. in pre-pandemic times, this was described as the world's largest

annual human migration. "i haven't been home in three years," says this man at the main beijing train station. millions of chinese people are traveling as covid-19 spreads out of control. chinese officials say covid infections have passed their peak in many parts of the country. but there are clearly still concerns about the scale of the outbreak. for example, here in hong kong, authorities require all of these travelers arriving on high-speed trains from mainland china to get negative covid tests first before they can cross the border. last month beijing abruptly scrapped its strict zero-covid policy. the ensuing surge of sick people putting a strain on hospitals and health workers. several social media videos showed nurses sick with covid collapsing on the job. "i felt unwell," says this nurse. "it had been hay week that i had

covid-19 until that day when i finally collapsed." over the weekend, health officials who once prided themselves on keeping covid out of china abruptly raised the covid death toll since early december from several dozen covid deaths to nearly 60,000 people killed by covid. the official u-turn on covid has had others unintended consequences. at a factory, workers pelted police are what appeared to be boxes of covid tests. some biotech companies withholding salaries or laying off workers after the government suddenly stopped demanding the population take millions of covid tests a day. >> the implementation of zero covid and the abrupt and unprepared manner in which it was abandoned speaks to a chronic government's failure. >> reporter: one of the richest provinces spent around $22

billion over three years on pandemic prevention. >> lot of these local governments are highly indebted, they've got big cash flow problems. this is a big problem that the central government and local governments will have to sort out in this coming decade. but covid kind of made it worse really. >> reporter: for now, uncertainty over public health and government finances has done little to dampen a palpable sense of excitement. understandable as chinese emerge from pandemic lockdown to celebrate the year of the rabbit, the biggest holiday of the year. ivan watson, cnn, hong kong. new zealand will soon have a new leader. the country's education minister, chris hipkins, set to replace jacinda ardern as prime minister following her shocking resignation announcement earlier this week. the ruling labor party says it will meet sunday afternoon to endorse the nomination and confirm hipkins as prime minister. ardern said thursday she doesn't have the energy to seek

re-election in october's general election. at least 15 people have been injured after a bomb blast derailed a passenger train in southwestern pakistan. the explosion knocked eight carriages and the engine completely off the rails. a provincial government official added the mountainous area where the attack happened has made the search and rescue operation difficult. a militant separatist group which wants independence for the re region has claimed responsibility for the bombing. still ahead, google is the latest in the tech industry to be hit by layoffs as parent company alphabet says it will let go of 12,000 employees. that's next. with olay hyaluronic body wash 95% of women had visibly-better skin from dry to moisturized

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unfortunately there's no letup in the tech industry layoffs. google's parent company is among the latest to announce job cuts. alphabet says it's letting 12,000 employees go, about 6% of

its work force. the ceo says alphabet overhired when the economy was hot, and that's been a trend in silicon valley. more than 200,000 tech jobs have been lost since the start of last year. our business reporter explains the mass tech layoffs. for all of the tech giants, that's why we've seen layoff announcements at amazon, at facebook parent meta, at microsoft, now you have alphabet joining this unhappy parade of companies that realize that when times were good, they ramped up. times aren't necessarily as good as they were a few years ago, and everyone's bracing for the most telegraphed recession probably in modern history. so we have job cuts. it's not surprising. it's very unfortunate, though, and it wouldn't surprise me, though, if we see further job announcements, layoff announcements from other big

tech companies. >> for more on this, i'm joined by margaret o'mara, a university of washington tech historian, and joins me from seattle, washington. thank you so much for being with us. we just heard the reporter there, is the explanation as simple as that? tech companies grew too quickly during the good times? >> yeah. i mean, it's been a time of really extraordinary growth. particularly the last years, three years of the pandemic when everyone was moving to working at home or many people were moving to work at home and to learn at home and ordering things in from places like amazon and other tech companies. and that stimulated incredible demand that caused the growth of these companies, for them to hire like crazy, and they kind of followed suit. as one company would hire a lot of people, so would others. and now the reverse is happening. >> interesting. so is there a certain type of tech worker who's been more

vulnerable to these layoffs, or is it all across the board? >> yeah, it's across the board. look, tech -- people who have the really highly specialized engineering skills are always the most in demand. and i think will continue to be. look, these companies are -- they're trying to refrench a bit and to prioritize. the very big platforms do a lot of things, and they're having to select what are the things we're going to double down on and focus on. a real emerging trend is ai. you see it with -- both with microsoft and google out of a concentration on how do we kind of stay at the cutting edge and compete with that. and maybe moving away from some other projects that were moonshots or products that weren't going as well as they hoped. but there's -- you know, it's going to be a real variety across the sector. >> so according to one report,

the number of layoffs in the secondtor were the -- sector were the highest since the dot com crash of more than 20 years ago. as a tech historian, put what we're seeing now into context. >> yeah. well, this is different than the dot com crash. look, there's some similarities then in 2000, 2001 you had rising interest rates, you had macroeconomic conditions that were affecting the flow of capital into the tech market, startups and big companies. there was a lot of froth and hype around certain things. we could say a good parallel to the dot com hype was crypto, which even before the layoffs of recent months was already entering its winter. but i think what's really different is the scale of tech. in 1999 and 2000, the industry was much smaller. it was important and agreeing and exciting, but it was not the thing on which everything else ran. the companies were not as large.

so the scale is quite different, and the variety of things that these companies do and provide and the backbone that they provide for other companies is much greater. >> so i mean, tech forms such a huge part of the infrastructure, as just said. but as a sector it only makes up about, what, 2% of jobs in the american economy. but even though it's small relative to the rest of the american work force, obviously the big worry for the rest of us is a ripple effect. so is what we're seeing now the canary in the coal mine, or could it actually eventually lead to broader downturn do you think? >> yeah. it -- it's hard to see. you know, i'm a history professor, so i don't like predicting the future. i know it can be a dangerous game. you know, there is going to be a ripple effect. look, if tech is a highly geographically concentrated industry, a concentrated in my city in seattle and the bay

area, but also other cities around the world have significant tech sectors, they're going to feel that pain more sharply. it's not just the layoffs in companies, it's the retailers that depend on these tech workers to come and buy their lunch there or -- and significantly commercial real estate which already was getting up ended by the pandemic and so much white-collar work going in. you know, tech companies were releasing a lot of square footage over the last three years. now they're pulling back. so that's going to have a big effect. >> appreciate your time and your historical perspective on what we're seeing now. margaret o'mara, thank you so much. >> thank you. still ahead, buffalo bills safety damar hamlin has been back at the team facility, but his recovery is far from over. new details on his condition coming up. please stay with us. yeah. i respect that. but that cough looks pretty bad. try y this robitussin honey. the real honey you love, plus the powerful cough relief you need.

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lengthy recovery. andy scholes joins me now. listen, the question everybody is asking -- how's he doing? >> reporter: you know, it's just been remarkable to see how well hamlin has been doing less than three weeks since he suffered that cardiac arrest on the field against the bengals. his friend jordan rooney reminding everyone he's not even close to 100%. he said damar still requires oxygen and it having his heart monitored regularly, saying he's visited with the team a few times but gets winded very easily. there's a lot of anticipation about whether he may attend the emotional rematch. the game in cincinnati was canceled after hamlin chanced. the bills' coach sean mcdermott saying yesterday it was going to be up to hamlin if he wants to attend the game. now the division am round of the playoffs gets started later today with jaguars and the chiefs. kansas city's trying to make it back to the afc championship

game for a fifth straight season. jacksonville, they've won six in a row including the third biggest comeback in playoff history last weekend. the chiefs beat the jags back in week nine of the regular season. but patrick mahomes says he knows he's going up against a team with a lot of momentum right now. >> i think the only difference is they might have a little bit more confidence just because they're winning football games right now. they're a talented team. i knew that the first time we played them. you could see the talent that they had. they were flying around to the football. made a few mistakes here and, there and that's how we got the win the first time. we understand how good this football team is and how much of a challenge it will be to find a way to get a win. and we're trying to prepare ourselves the best way paossibl that we can find a way to win it saturday. >> reporter: the other game saturday features an old nfc east showdown between the eagles and the giants. the big question for this game is, is eagles quarterback jalen hurts at 100%. he's been dealing with an injured shoulder, and he says he

knows the giants are going to be coming for him. >> it's football. you know, i got a bounty on me every week i go on the field. i'm going to go out and play my game. you know, whatever happens happens. >> reporter: there's good news and bad news for eagles fans. they beat the giants both times they played this season. bad news is the eagles have never beaten a team three times in one season. the good news is a team that won the two previous matchups historically, kim, is 15-9 in that third match-up. we'll see which one wins out today. are the eagles finally going to be a -- to beat a team three times in one season, or are the giants going to continue this incredible run and maybe pull off the upset? >> each of those matchups has a compelling story. i'm wondering which of the games except for the bills game obviously are you most keenly watching. >> so i mean, you know, it's a great slate. you know, sunday's games are going to be incredible. you mentioned the bills/bengals.

of course going to be emotional after that was canceled three weeks ago. the game after that is also an old rivalry, cowboys versus 49 49ers. we've seen it so many times the last few decades, and that game has amazing story lines. brock purdy, mr. irrelevant in the last draft, the very last pick, leading the 49ers. he's never lost. he's won every single game he started. he's a perfect 7-0. can he continue that? and the other hand the cowboys. they have not made it to an nfc championship game, kim, since 1996. that was the yeert they won their last super bowl, 1996. they've had so much bad luck the last few decades when it comes to the playoffs. is this finally the year that their luck will turn around? we'll see. that's a game i'm looking forward to, niners/cowboys. >> all eyes will be on the bills game. and so emotional. thank you so much for coming here. really appreciate it. that wraps this hour of "cnn newsroom." i'm kim brunhuber. follow me on twitter. "cnn this morning" is next.

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this digital age we're living in, it's pretty unbelievable. problem is, not everyone's fully living in it. nobody should have to take a class or fill out a medical form on public wifi with a screen the size of your hand. home internet shouldn't be a luxury. everyone should have it and now a lot more people can. so let's go. the digital age is waiting. good morning, everyone, and welcome to "cnn this morning." i'm amara walker. >> i'm boris sanchez. this morning frustrations are mounting in eastern europe as germany and u.s. are locke