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>> breaking news. we are moments away now from what president trump is touting as the big one. he is preparing to sign new executive orders in the oval office. he is hyping the event on truth social writing. three great weeks, perhaps the best ever. but today is the big one. reciprocal tariffs. >> of course, matching other countries tariffs on u.s. goods dollar for dollar was one of donald trump's key campaign pledges. a lot is at stake here, not just economically, but geopolitically as well. we're following all the angles with cnn's jeff zeleny, who is live for us at the white house, where we are anticipating this announcement to come soon. and cnn's matt egan, who is watching the markets for us. jeff, first to you, what can we expect from this tariff announcement? >> boris. >> this is one example. >> where i. >> would caution us to wait and see what the president says and what he signs. he's been talking about now for really the first three and a half weeks of

his presidency about the threat of tariffs. and he certainly has made this a central anthem of his presidential campaign. it's something he truly believes in. he asked for a very long time. however, there have been more threats of tariffs than actual tariffs. but the reciprocal tariff idea, of course, is designed to even the score, if you will, if the u.s. is paying more on a tariff of things that we are importing. he wants to level out the playing field and charge those tariffs, if you will, the same percentage for each country. a for tat, if you will. but the reality here is we're also getting word that the white house is paying very careful attention to inflation. so there may be a discussion of tariffs. but we shall see if he actually signs something and when it would take effect. because again, those threats of tariffs last week for mexico and canada were halted for a month. so this is something where i think we will have to wait and see the fine print. the president wants to advertise the discussion of these big tariffs. he is producing this daily.

activities here. but we shall see if it happens immediately or down the road. but the bottom line is this is used as a negotiating tool. and this president firmly believes in doing that. >> all right jeff and matt, how would how might a dramatic hike on tariffs impact the economy? >> well. >> brianna. >> i think the timing. >> here is really striking. >> because it was just. >> yesterday that. >> we learned that the inflation. >> rate in the united. states heated. >> up to 3%. >> we haven't seen that. since last summer. and economists again and again have said that the higher tariffs go, the higher you're going to see prices go, particularly prices on imports. so it's hard to come up with a worse time in the past year or so to then come out with a big announcement on tariffs. of course, the actual impact on the economy, the actual impact on prices is going

to depend here. to jeff's point on exactly what gets announced and what actually takes effect. so today's announcement on tariffs is reciprocal tariffs. and as jeff was saying, this is an import tax. and it's designed to match levies that have been imposed on items that have been made in the united states. the goal here is to try to level the playing field and ultimately, like other tariffs, these are import taxes that are paid by u.s. importers, by companies that ship stuff in from overseas. and those companies can then decide to eat the cost of the tariff, which might mean a smaller profit. maybe they can hire fewer workers, or they can pass along the cost to you and i as consumers in the form of higher tariffs. now, reciprocal tariffs are really all about trying to level the playing field. officials in the white house, the president himself, they really feel strongly that the united states is getting cheated on trade. and one very

timely example here is the u.s. and india, because trump later today is meeting with the prime minister of india. and there's research from the world bank that shows that the u.s. weighted average tariff on items that are made in india is only 3%. >> but look. >> at that. more than triple is what india has a tariff on items that are made in the united states. and so the goal here again is to try to level the playing field. but the the issue and the concern from a lot of the mainstream economists that i talked to, a lot of investors is whether or not this will ultimately be inflationary, right. because if it is inflationary, that could end up, of course, lifting prices for consumers. and it could also unnerve markets and it could delay when the federal reserve is able to resume those interest rate cuts. so a lot of major questions and hopefully we get some answers in the coming minutes here. >> yeah. we should point out the united states, through the world trade organization has tried to persuade india, china and brazil and other countries to lower

their tariffs on us, u.s. goods, but they historically have resisted that. we'll see if this approach might yield a different outcome. matt egan, thank you so much. we're joined now by aaron klein, former deputy assistant secretary at the treasury department and now a senior fellow at the brookings institution. aaron, thank you so much for being with us. trump obviously said that reciprocal tariffs would hit every country. i wonder what shape you think that takes. is it going to be on certain industries or sort of a blanket tariff? >> yeah. >> so i think. >> a. >> lot of this is hot air. i think trump is talking a big game right now. you can see markets kind of discounting that there will be actual action. and this is more of a bargaining position that he's going to do to try and claim some credit for reductions on tariffs on other countries. so i think that it's going to be a lot more talk than action. at least that's what markets are thinking that they'll do. in the other thing, i think to the extent this is a negotiating ploy, then each country will be coming individually and there'll be different issues and areas. blanket tariffs are a little more calm. they sound simple, but they're more complicated. take the trade with india that

was just referenced right. that's on that's on goods that are going back and forth. how do you tariff a call center. right. so trade is more complicated and nuanced than just sending each other things on ships. >> so as as we wait to see how other countries respond and if this works as a bargaining chip, what is the chaos that could ensue in the interim as these things get worked out? >> right. so it's substantial because when you're trying to import and export, when you're trying to run a business, you want certainty. you want to know what your price of goods are going to be three, six, nine, 12 months out. and this creates a tremendous amount of uncertainty. and generally, economics tells you that when there's uncertainty, you retrench and you're a little less active. so the uncertainty that is constantly being churned by this president flinging from left to right is, in the long run, bad for business. >> i do wonder, as you see the markets, as you put it, sort of calling trump's bluff on how intense these tariffs are going to be, how much they're going to impact trade. i do wonder what

you make of him calling for the fed to further reduce rates, because tariffs historically have been inflationary. >> yeah. so there are a lot of deep contradictions in trumponomics, one of which is his desire to have low interest rates and high tariffs and low inflation. tariffs will be inflationary period. end of story. there may be other good reasons to do tariffs. there are problems with this trade situation that we've had structurally with china for a long time. but tariffs increase inflation. the january data came in hot on inflation which markets think means that we're going to have a higher interest rates for longer as the federal reserve tries to cool the economy and bring down inflation. so trump is working against his own stated objectives. >> and he says that, uh, decreasing interest rates go hand in hand with tariffs, that this is an approach of two things that should go hand in hand. it's hard to find an economist who believes that.

>> yeah, because it's just not accurate. right. if you're going to try to reduce inflation what is the goal. here is the goal to reduce inflation. the price that we pay for things like eggs and used car parts. right. or is the goal here to create a fairer better trade trade level playing field. and those two things don't go hand in hand. and he's going to find himself picking more and more fights with the central bank, who's behaving like in a land of economic rationality, not in trump fantasyland. >> to your point, aaron, about some of the disparities in trade with china and some of the structural problems that the u.s. has now had with trade with china now for for decades. what do you think the proper approach should be? should it be targeting them individually with tariffs? should it be a coalition of countries going after china? >> so it should be done more multilaterally. one of the things china has done is manipulate its currency for decades. that is not that functions as same as a trade subsidy or a tariff, but its implementation mechanism is

different. remember when trump ran for president the first time he promised to make china designate china a currency manipulator? he failed to follow through on that promise. he immediately wimped out and backed down to china in their process of a long term currency manipulation. and so there are ways that countries game trade with america that is not simply looking at reciprocal tariffs in this. and china still to a large degree, pegs their currency to the weight of the dollar, which is a way to manipulate, trade and manipulate their currency to give their exporters an unfair advantage. >> aaron klein, great to have you. thank you so much. thank you. we appreciate it. and underway right now, the trump administration is firing scores of federal workers as the president and elon musk carry out their plan to dismantle government agencies. we don't yet know the full scope of these layoffs, but this is the first time that we have seen trump and the tech billionaire officially terminate employees. until now, they had been placed on leave. >> cnn's rene marsh has been following this story for us.

rene, who exactly does this impact and how is this going to unfold? >> right. and just can't underscore it enough? this certainly is this new phase, as they. >> are trying to shrink the federal workforce. cnn obtained a copy of a letter sent to one employee who was terminated at the department of education. and it reads it says the agency finds, based on your performance, that you have not demonstrated, that your further employment at the agency would be in the public interest. now, we know that dozens of employees received termination letters at the department of education. also, similar letters were sent to federal employees at the small business administration. and a small note there at the small business administration. there was actually a snafu where on friday and monday, a draft notice of termination was sent out to employees. they rescinded

that saying we sent that in error. and then the next day, on tuesday, many employees actually did receive those termination. termination letters. um, but but again, this is all happening as a judge, just yesterday, uh, upheld the administration's ability to offer the buyout. of course, that deadline for taking the buyout has expired. but i just heard this one scenario from a union president saying that one of the individuals who was fired just yesterday, actually, um, put in his name to go for the buyout. he was accepting the buyout. and despite that, he was still fired. so we're starting to get a lot of stories in here. but i should say there is not clarity on just how many of these individuals have been fired so far this week at these agencies. >> very interesting renee. and we're also learning that billions in federal funding is still frozen despite court orders to keep the money flowing. tell us about that.

>> right. so we have been paying close attention to what's happening at a variety of agencies, including the epa, department of energy, even fema. and we know that the courts have said that the administration needs to unfreeze these funds, that rhode island federal judge has made that order. and actually, uh, you know, really kind of chided the, the, the government for not following the court's orders. but what we found is that at agencies like the epa and department of energy and fema, there are still funds that are are frozen and have not been able to be accessed by people throughout the country. um, at the epa, they are saying that they now need to review a lot of these funds at the department of energy. they're saying that political appointees have to approve every financial transaction. and when it comes to these grants, and many of the people who we've spoken to say, it's just simply impossible to

review every single financial transaction under a grant which has multiple payments over the course of a year. so what they're effectively doing is finding this workaround and continuing to keep a hold on these grants and funding, uh, where technically they can tell the courts that we don't have them frozen technically. back to you guys. >> rene marsh, thank you so much for the update. still to come, usaid workers are in court right now asking a judge to indefinitely block the trump administration from dismantling that agency. we're on top of the latest there. >> plus, ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy saying that ukraine will not accept a peace deal struck between trump and putin without kyiv's involvement. and then later, key cabinet votes in the senate. rfk jr. confirmed as trump's health and human services secretary and kash patel nomination as fbi director advances to the senate floor. we have that and much more coming up on cnn news central.

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>> pozega has been trusted again. >> and again. >> and again. >> pozega. >> ask your doctor about farxiga. >> all there. >> is with anderson cooper. >> listen. wherever you get your podcasts. >> as we await president donald trump's scheduled announcement on reciprocal tariffs, we want to focus on some other headlines. and right now, a federal judge is hearing arguments on whether to keep blocking president trump and elon musk's effort to dismantle the international humanitarian aid agency usaid. last week, u.s. district judge carl nichols, a trump appointee, temporarily paused the administration's plans to put thousands of the agency's employees on administrative leave, and he ordered usaid to reinstate 500 workers who had been suspended. meantime, on capitol hill, the house foreign affairs committee held its own hearing on trump's overhaul of usaid, where there appeared to

be some differing views among republicans when it comes to protecting the agency and its stated mission. have a listen to current committee chair brian mast and former chair michael mccaul. >> many of the people and many of the programs in usaid have literally betrayed america. it's not just the content of usaid that is the betrayal. it's the larceny that usaid has conducted. >> all these. programs gave. >> usaid a black eye. >> and that's unfortunate. i believe it still has a legitimate purpose to counter the rising threat of china in belt and road and our other foreign adversaries. it also has the ability to counter terrorism. >> let's discuss with democratic congressman gerry connolly of virginia. he serves on the house foreign affairs committee. congressman, thank you so much for sharing part of your afternoon with us. before

we get to that usaid hearing, thank you. i do want to ask you about this announcement from the white house about reciprocal tariffs to start. do you think that what the u.s. charges for imports should be equal to what other major countries charge? >> well, i do think reciprocity has an important place in international trade, but it's got to be done carefully. uh, it can't be a self destructive kind of imposition. and that's what i fear with the whole approach donald trump has taken in terms of his tariff scheme. uh, it's going to impose significant costs on the average household in america. the average family is going to pay an extra $1,200 a year. and and going up, uh, in terms of a basket of goods and foodstuffs, because of these tariffs. >> uh, i do want to now pivot to that hearing you were a part of this morning, the house foreign affairs committee discussing

usaid and trump's dismantling of that agency. you heard there the chairman, brian mast, talking about larceny and president trump calling some of the the work of usaid corrupt. uh, some of your colleagues have presented accusations about taxpayer dollars being used for dei and lgbtq projects overseas. what do you make of these accusations, how the agency is being described. >> well, i think it's a gross exaggeration and a smear. uh, every federal agency has probably got something, uh, upon reflection, it wish it hadn't funded, but not not to mask the enormity of aid's contribution in the world. it is the world's largest food program. it is the world's largest public health program. it is eradicating disease. it is saving child and maternal lives. uh, in terms of child maternal health and bringing down mortality rates,

uh, it is fighting the good fight on hiv, a program george w. bush, a republican, started pepfar, um, 26 million lives saved because of that program alone. uh, you know, we're fighting, pushing back polio. we're pushing back schistosomiasis. we're developing vaccines for malaria control, one of the biggest killers in the world. uh, you want to stop this in its in its tracks and smear it because of a small contract somewhere that maybe, maybe is misunderstood. maybe it isn't. maybe they shouldn't have funded it, but that ought not to color how we view this enormous humanitarian agency that saves lives every day and makes america proud. >> you've alluded to programs that you believe, uh, might be wasteful and steps that agencies have taken that they might regret if. reminds me of the doge subcommittee hearing yesterday where you called on colleagues to be serious about

cutting government waste. i do wonder if you think these programs that some of your colleagues have highlighted, these die programs in other countries, do you think those are wasteful? >> well, i think that's, uh, in the eye of the beholder, isn't it? uh, if you're in a multiracial society where you're trying to protect and and push forward the interest of, say, persecuted minority, a die program makes a lot of sense in terms of inclusion and in terms of trying to build, uh, stability in a multiracial society. is that a bad thing? i don't think so. and the republicans have decided that that's a dirty word. but in many cases, actually, it is a positive tool for more assimilation, more inclusion in the economy, more opportunity for minorities, especially persecuted minorities. >> i want to dig in on on doge specifically, i wonder if you think congress has any recourse

to oversee what elon musk is doing. he's an unelected official. doge is supposed to be this advisory agency that's outside of government, but they're cutting off funds that congress has already appropriated. do you think that right now musk has more authority than you and your colleagues? and how do you plan to stop him? >> well, i think he has de facto authority through the president of the united states, whether he has de jure legal authority, that's a different matter. and that's going to be contested in the courts across the board. i think there are. 60 lawsuits pending, and there have been several victories already in terms of slowing down or stopping, uh, elon musk and his minions from proceeding to destroy lives, destroy careers, destroy agencies. nobody gave them a mandate to do that. and we're going to contest it every step of the way. >> it was a federal judge who cleared the way for trump's

deferred resignation policy to be restarted yesterday. you have that much faith in the legal system and a supreme court that has been shown previously that they're willing to buck precedent. >> well, i don't know about how much faith i've got, but i've got hope. um, the legal system is the last resort. when there's a contest between the other two branches of government. uh, and it's my expectation we're going to have some significant wins. we're also going to take some some lumps on the chin. but, uh, you know, we have to contest this. we have to count on the judicial system for upholding the rule of law in america. >> what do you think when president trump makes allusions to the executive branch being more powerful than the judicial branch? or when the vice president, jd vance, says that, uh, the executive branch is legitimate powers should not be,

uh, interfered with by the judiciary. do you think those are hints that they might ignore court orders? >> i think that's maybe a leftover from, uh, elon musk. south african heritage. and maybe he's falling too far back on the apartheid system of government. that was a fascist form of government. uh, here in the united states. uh, mr. musk, we have three branches of government, each of them separate but co-equal and ultimately the judicial branch is the deciding factor when there is a dispute between the other two branches of government. that's how our system works here. >> congressman gerry connolly, appreciate your time and perspective. thanks for joining us. >> my pleasure boris. thank you. >> coming up, ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy says his country will not accept any peace deal between the united states and russia unless kyiv gets a seat at the table. what this could mean for

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ukraine without us. the order of trump's calls first to putin and then to zelenskyy. second was, quote, not pleasant, according to zelenskyy. joining us now is kurt volker, former u.s. ambassador to nato, who is also u.s. special representative for ukraine. negotiations. during the first trump administration. so, ambassador, you have trump and putin getting together to decide to move forward immediately with negotiations and then informing zelenskyy. that is the word that trump used. is zelenskyy right to see this as a slight? >> well. >> i. >> think it's a little too much too soon to say that. as we know. president trump met. >> with president zelenskyy twice this autumn. >> they had a couple. >> of phone calls as well at their press conference. together in new york in september. then president, you know, candidate trump said that the first thing he would do is to call putin. and president trump has recognized that the issue here

is getting putin to end the war. the ukrainians are ready to end the war. they're ready to negotiate. it's the russians. it's putin who has not been. so what president trump, i think is doing is getting putin to the table. and i do think this is an important step. and even with the phone call that took place, he had prior, he had previously spoken with president zelenskyy a few times and then immediately called him after speaking with president putin. so president zelenskyy is right. you can't negotiate about ukraine without ukraine. but at the same time, i think what president trump is doing is getting putin to the table so he can actually get to that negotiation. >> we've heard a lot from defense secretary hegseth here in the last couple of days, as he's overseas meeting with european defense ministers about ukraine. he raised the possibility that future u.s. aid to ukraine could be tied to its participation in peace talks. was that the right move for him to say that out loud? >> well.

>> it's not necessary. >> to say out loud. ukraine is interested in participating in peace talks. that's exactly what we just heard from president zelenskyy. >> so it's not as. >> if it's a threat of any kind, because that's what ukraine wants. and i think the other things that secretary hegseth said, again, are more in the category of not saying anything new. talking about not being realistic for ukraine to take back all of its territory. this is something president zelenskyy himself said back in january and december, saying that they know they can't do this militarily now, so they are prepared to accept a ceasefire and pursue the return of their territory by nonmilitary means. so it's very consistent already with with what hedge has said and what zelenskyy had previously said. >> i think what zelenskyy had said was more to the effect of the u.s. needs to. get russia diplomatically to a place where they can work out some of these details, because he was not militarily able, or the ukrainian forces were not at

that point, um, hegseth takes these potentially. and i hear what you're saying. maybe he is saying out loud what folks know, but diplo speak is different than regular speak, and we're well aware of that. he takes potentially key demands of ukraine's nato membership, territorial claims, um, off the table yesterday, then only to turn around

>> going to be something in russia and agrees to, in fact, we shouldn't even be talking to russia about that. it's none of their business. it's something for ukraine themselves. >> so i think the way these were originally written and prepared by the administration, cleared by the white house. there was nothing really wrong there. and i think people are just very, very sensitive to reacting to that. and there i think you make a very good point because people are so sensitive, because nerves are so much on edge. it is worth being a little bit extra careful with the language. >> have you heard anything from trump or hegseth here in the last couple of days that has not been music to russia's ears. >> well, i think, yes. and to take it back more than a couple of days. but president trump has indicated that if putin does not

end the war, then he would have to look at further sanctions or taxes or tariffs. he first put out there that, okay, we'll visit each other's countries. and then he backed off of that and said, well, the first time we're going to meet, it's actually going to be in saudi arabia. so he's pulling that back a little bit. and what he is. what trump is really doing is he's putting pressure on on putin. he knows that putin's economy is weak. his military is in bad shape, and he's threatening to escalate in terms of driving down energy prices, maintaining the sanctions on russian energy, and then even talking about if we get, you know, billions of dollars worth of minerals, we'll keep up military aid to ukraine. all of that is stuff that i think was causing putin to feel that he was not in the negotiation. i think that's why he let marc fogel go. and i think that's why trump then called him to get this process started. this is just the beginning. i think there's going to be a lot of dialog between the u.s. and the ukrainians, between the u.s. and russia, perhaps the three, even

together with our european allies as well, because president trump wants to have our european allies take on the lion's share of the burden of deterring future russian attacks. so there's a lot of work yet to be done. and this is just the beginning of getting people to the table. >> ambassador kurt volker, thank you so much for being with us. it is a critical time and we appreciate you speaking with us. >> pleasure. thank you. >> and still to come, longtime vaccine critic rfk jr.. set to take over the nation's top health post. what his confirmation means for you. >> laura coates live tonight at 11 eastern on cnn. >> lianne are you hiding from used car shopping? >> what if i overpaid? >> that's nothing to be afraid of. >> show me car fox. >> knowing how a car's accident history impacts price means, you don't have to overpay. >> way better. >> no fear. just fox. say, show

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>> just minutes from now. robert f kennedy jr. will be the will be sworn in as the secretary of health and human services. his confirmation vote earlier today went mostly along party lines, except for a very public defection by former majority leader mitch mcconnell. meantime, kash patel his nomination to lead the fbi has advanced to the senate floor. he's previously been under fire for spreading right wing conspiracy theories and pledging retribution against president trump's opponents. let's go to cnn chief congressional correspondent manu raju, who is live for us on capitol hill. manu, this rejection by mitch mcconnell of rfk jr.. his nomination means that now he's voted against three of trump's cabinet picks. >> yeah, and he's the only republican senator who has voted against more than one of donald trump's cabinet picks. a remarkable trajectory in this political career. of course, he was the longest serving senate leader of any party in u.s. history, someone who did in the first trump term ushered through much of donald trump's agenda,

even getting three supreme court nominees to the bench, the falling out of famous falling out in the aftermath of the january 6th attack did not talk to trump. really has. not since the aftermath of the 2020 election did endorse him for his own 2024 reelection bid. but really now, in this moment in his career as a rank and file member showing independence from donald trump and voting against robert f. kennedy jr. in the aftermath of opposing tulsi gabbard as director of national intelligence and pete hegseth to be the defense secretary. now, in his statement about why he opposed rfk jr., he noted the fact that he's a childhood polio survivor and talked about the importance of vaccines. and of course, rfk jr. has been a longtime vaccine skeptic. he tried to walk back and clean up those remarks throughout this confirmation process. but mcconnell said that a record of trafficking in dangerous conspiracy theories and eroding trust in public health institutions does not entitle mr. kennedy to lead these important efforts. now, that's

important to note. he did not. he was the only republican who came out in opposition to robert f. kennedy, jr.. kennedy was able to assuage other republicans who had concerns about his views on vaccines, including senator lisa murkowski, a longtime swing vote on the gop side, who i asked about his about the commitments he gave her on the issues of vaccine. >> well, i think there are many of us who have asked for specific commitments, most specifically related to vaccines, and we want to be able to hold him accountable to that. so we're going to be checking him in, we're going to be calling him in and we're going to be following through. >> do you trust him that on vaccines or do you trust that he's going to. >> you're going to hold him accountable. and that's how we will get the trust. >> of all 47 democrats voted against rfk jr.. in the other one, of course, mitch mcconnell making it 5248 vote. but then also today on another party line vote, this was a kash patel to be the next fbi director at vance on the senate judiciary committee on a 12 to 10 vote

that sets up his confirmation for that critical post by next week, despite the democratic opposition. but we'll see what mitch mcconnell does. is he does he defect on that one? he still hasn't said on kash patel nomination as well. >> for us. >> yeah, we'll see what mcconnell does. manu raju forcing press aides to hit the close button repeatedly on elevators out on capitol hill for us. thank you so much, manu. coming up, israel ceasefire deal with hamas appears to be on track. hamas says it will release israeli hostages this weekend as initially planned. we'll get into why in just a few minutes. >> kick back and embrace the southern charm. enter for your chance to win hgtv dream home 2025. brought to you by wayfair. every style, every home. >> hey guys, there's a change in the air. two changes. two changes. >> the three row luxury tt because everyone should feel like the center of the universe.

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>> mesothelioma victims call now $30 million in trust. money has been set aside. you may be entitled to a portion of that money. call one 800 859 9400. that's one 800 859 9400. >> welcome back to cnn news central. here are some of the other headlines that we're watching this hour. hamas says it will release israeli hostages as initially planned, after what they described as positive talks with mediators. earlier this week, hamas had accused israel of violating the cease fire agreement and called off the planned hostage release for saturday. in response, israel warned that it would return to fighting. for now, the cease fire appears to be holding. one israeli official today telling cnn there is no appetite in the government leadership to abandon the deal. back here in the u.s., evacuation warnings have been issued in southern california over fears a strong storm could cause flooding and life threatening debris flows. communities near fire scarred areas most at risk here, with portions of san bernardino, santa barbara, orange and los

angeles counties under alerts. several areas of santa cruz county are also being told to evacuate due to possible river flooding. and nissan and honda have ended discussions on a deal to merge what would have created the world's third largest car maker. the deal would have given the carmakers more firepower to compete with china, and more resources to remain competitive as the industry transitions to electric vehicles. but after just a few weeks, negotiations stalled. nissan did say the two companies will collaborate within the framework of a strategic partnership. boris. >> a new cnn original series explores the circumstances behind the bombing of pan am flight 103 over lockerbie, scotland, back in 1988. the four part series tracks the global investigation and trial that continues to play out on the world stage. more than 35 years later, cnn international diplomatic editor nic robertson gives us a preview. >> yeah, this was the biggest terrorist attack on an airline ever. it would go on to shape

the way that we travel today. 270 people killed aboard pan am 103. it was just getting up to altitude across the atlantic. over 30,000ft. barely an hour into the flight, if that, when the bomb exploded, bringing it down, it created the biggest crime scene in history. 845mi÷. the scatter of the debris, 200,000 pieces of evidence. and it would take more than a month before investigators found one of the key pieces of evidence that would push them in the direction of their search for the culprits. >> in late january or early february, we found a suitcase. many of the suitcases that fell 31,000ft to the ground. it would have been a great commercial. they fell intact. you could take the clothes out, put them on and go to a meeting. but this

suitcase was in about 54 pieces and fragments. we pretty much thought that suitcase contained the explosive. the bomb that blew up the plane. >> and eventually it be a tiny fragment of circuit board found in one of the exploded and burned items of clothing from that suitcase. it was found 20 miles from the impact site in lockerbie. and that piece of circuit board in of itself would become very contentious through the court case that would ultimately see the two libyans accused of the bombing brought to a scottish court set up in the netherlands, that circuit board, made by a manufacturer in switzerland, a circuit board timer. and it would be what would get a lot of heated

debate, cause consternation for the victims families. eventually, one libyan, abdelbaset al-megrahi, going to jail in scotland for the crime. but it's not over yet. another libyan jew to stand trial for the bringing down of pan am 103, in lockerbie, scotland, due to stand trial in the united states in just a few months. >> our thanks to nic robertson for that report. be sure to tune in. lockerbie the bombing of pan am 103 two part premiere airs on sunday at 9 p.m. eastern on pacific, right here on cnn. happening now president trump announcing a new round of sweeping reciprocal tariffs. we'll take you live to the white house for the announcement. don't go anywhere. >> have i got news for you is back for another season roy wood jr., amber ruffin and michael ian black are finding the funny in the week's biggest story. i'm going. >> to give you all four years of something to talk about. >> if we alive. >> have i got news for you

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