included conclave for best ensemble. there was a lovely moment where isabella rossellini offered, you know her best to the pope, because the movie is about selecting a pope, and the pope, as we know, is ill. demi moore winning for leading female actor. she's been killing the game, pun intended, with her horror sci fi. the substance timothee chalamet won for leading male actor for his role is bob dylan in a complete unknown. people have been absolutely adoring him. he's been the darling of award season. and then on the tv side, shogun took home three awards, including best drama ensemble. and to the shock and thrill of selena gomez, her show only murders in the building won for best comedy ensemble. she could not believe it, so she was. it was such a great moment for her. >> i love that show. it's so much fun. lisa respers, france i wish i had more time to chat with you, but we'll chat offline as usual. thank you so much. appreciate you. >> thank you. you too. >> take care. all right. a new hour of cnn news central starts

now. >> so elon musk tells federal workers just this morning he is not joking about his email telling workers to justify your job in five bullet points or else. but some agency heads are telling employees to ignore that ultimatum. so what is a worker to do now? and where is donald trump? where is the president on this one? and today marks three years of war on ukraine. ukraine. remembering the lives lost and talking about a future of lasting peace. just as president trump's pivot towards russia leaves ukraine's future in doubt. and activists in los angeles using megaphones to help undocumented immigrants in their communities as ice carries out operations. i'm kate bolduan with sara sidner and john berman. this is cnn news central.

>> happening now, a brand new threat from elon musk as a deadline for an ultimatum he made for millions of federal workers. fast approaches. musk now over the weekend demanding each employee email five bullets of things they did last week or risk getting fired by midnight tonight if they don't. and this morning, there is a new message from musk. here it is. those who do not take this email seriously will soon be furthering their career elsewhere. plot twist. some of president trump's, for instance, own leaders like the pentagon, the fbi, dhs, the state department and more told employees yesterday not to reply to musk. cnn's senior political analyst mark preston joining us now. this deadline is fast approaching. it expires midnight tonight. is it any clearer what the workers should or will do? christopher.

>> no, not at this moment. now we're talking 16 hours before they could lose their job. and what we've seen over the past couple of weeks is that this very much could be a reality. this comes now as the usaid. operation is basically put to rest today. we've seen that over the weekend. there's only just a handful left of usaid workers. but overall, when we look at the federal workforce, we're looking at 2 million people. a lot of people think that here. most of them work here, where i am in washington, d.c. not the case, sarah. that is just a small fraction. there's only 150,000 federal workers that work in the d.c. area right now. they don't know what to do because of this miscommunication, this edict from elon musk. but at the same time, these folks who are running these agencies that were put in place by donald trump are being are telling their folks not to comply. we should see this play out over the next couple of hours. >> yeah. everybody will be watching this. most importantly, those whose lives could be changed by whatever decision they're made. let me ask you

about this. donald trump is not done with the shock and awe of all this stuff. we just got word that dan bongino, who is known as a right wing podcaster, he is a former law enforcement officer, but he has never worked at the fbi, has been tapped to be in leadership at the fbi, which is actually something that goes against the fbi director. trump's own pick. what is happening here? >> yeah. so it's our understanding right now. first of all, we shouldn't be surprised that dan bongino is in the trump administration and incredibly vocal supporter of president trump. one of the biggest podcasters right now in the nation. president trump even acknowledges how much don gino was willing to give up his podcast to go work for the government. but how did he get there? well, we are told now by the fbi agents association that they were told by kash patel, the new fbi director, that this position, this number two position in the fbi, would remain with a career fbi agent, not a political appointee, not one of donald trump's agents

that are put in from the outside. but it would be somebody who had a long career there. apparently over the weekend, there was a dustup about giving information about fbi agents in other doj officials who participated in the investigation of donald trump in january 6th. they were not given this information by these career fbi agents. and guess what? they don't have the position. dan bongino will take the role and is not a senate confirmed position. so dan bongino can start today. >> all right. let's talk a little bit about what we've been seeing around the country. there. there appears to be a bit of dissent inside the trump team as you just spoke to. but it is voters who are making some things clear. they're beginning to lash out at their republican representatives. um, for what the trump administration is doing in some cases, whether it is taking more power than they think he should have, or when it comes to these cuts, because, as you said, these jobs are all

over the united states, and they're starting to see some of their neighbors, perhaps their friends, perhaps they themselves are experiencing this worry or job loss. what does this spell out for you, especially as 22 2020, 2026 comes around the corner? >> well, so a couple of things right now, donald trump couldn't be in a better position having elon musk carry out basically all the dirty work. he is the bull in a china shop. elon musk is in there. he is destroying everything in his path. but the end of the story of the bull in the china shop is, is that the bull in the china shop usually takes the sword and dies in its own blood. if that were to happen and elon musk were to be alienated now from donald trump, donald trump is going to walk away very clean from this. so in many ways, elon musk is, uh, is doing the dirty work for donald trump. but we are hearing from constituents all across the country. we've seen it in georgia over this past weekend. we're starting to see it elsewhere in the country. people are realizing that these cuts are starting to really cut to the bone and cut to the bone in their community. that's when

donald trump will run out of runway in order to get his agenda through. right now, he still has runway. but the criticism is starting to mount. >> yeah. you talked about the fact that, you know, elon musk could be sort of the scapegoat for all this for trump. say, hey, you know, it was him. i decided this didn't work. but recently in their latest interview together, they couldn't have been bigger buddies. so we will see how this all plays out until they're not. >> you are not sarah. >> you're right. that's the way politics runs. all right, mark preston, thank you so much. i appreciate it john. >> all right. developing this morning, pentagon employees starting their first full week on the job without top general cq brown leading the joint chiefs. he was removed as chair by defense secretary pete hegseth. and the president, along with other top commanders, and replaced with people in some cases with not nearly the same experience. national security reporter for the washington post, dan lamothe, is with us now. what's the reaction been that you have heard over the last few days? it's a storm.

everyone knows the president has the power to do this. but beyond that, what are you hearing? >> it's very polarized. >> you you basically hear two camps. you hear those who say trump can do what he wants. what's the big deal? uh, and then you hear others who say, hey, we have fired basically all of the senior lawyers, uh, in uniform two service chiefs, a vice service chief, and we're not sure if they're done yet. you know, what's the purpose of this? uh, so there's definitely some alarm, uh, both in uniform, uh, and more broadly in washington. >> you just asked the key question. what's the purpose of this? is anyone able to articulate that? >> you know, as best we have right now. it's. it seems to be that they want to set a tone, uh, that things that happened over the last several years were unacceptable. uh, decisions made under the previous administration were not acceptable. uh, but that there's an important piece to

this, which is that typically these nonpartisan officers are carrying out orders that the administration in charge provides. uh, they provide advice. they do provide some direction, but it's the administration that sets the tone. so one of the key pieces of of alarm here is really that it appears they are being fired for carrying out the orders that the previous president and his administration had. that's the way it's supposed to work. >> let's just talk about the experience required to be chair of the joint chiefs, and i shouldn't say required. the experience that is normally there. just talk about cq brown for a second. the experience that he had before taking the job. >> yeah, he had a he had a rather well-rounded resume that you would expect in this job. he had been a service chief. he previously ran the air force. uh, he had held major command positions in the pacific and in europe and in the middle east. uh, you know, it was sort of the

typical, well-rounded, deeply grounded resume that you have for this job. all of the boxes checked. um, you know, that is what you expect with this job. uh, u.s. law, uh, sort of sort of comes with two pieces here. one, it lays out all of the positions you typically have to hold, uh, which is to say you're either a service chief, a vice chairman of the joint chiefs already, uh, or you're one of the major four star generals in charge of a regional combatant command. uh, obviously, the selection we have, uh, doesn't have that resume. uh, but there's a second piece here, which is that if the president decides that this is in the national interest, they can do it anyway. and that's where we are right now. >> so talk to us about, i guess, retired three star general dan caine and i, i don't know, this may have happened before, but to have a retired general come in and lead the joint chiefs seems unusual. >> it's unusual. uh, there are a handful of instances, uh, over u.s. history, where you have seen a retired general come back to active duty to take a major

job of prominence. in one case, uh, president kennedy actually brought a general back to run an investigation of the bay of pigs. uh, and then very shortly thereafter, uh, put that general in charge of very prominent, uh, you know, pieces of of the u.s. military, uh, so it can happen, uh, but it's very rare. and it typically occurs when that president is looking for somebody that he has a comfort with. and, and i think a key piece here is one of the things that people have said is we had a number of other service chiefs that you could have selected for this job. uh, you're sort of setting the tone. you don't trust those, uh, leaders either. uh, by bypassing them. >> dan lamothe from the washington post, love your reporting. thanks so much for being with us this morning, kate. >> coming up for us today marks three years since russia's full scale invasion of ukraine. and president zelenskyy is saying now is the time for real and lasting peace, even if that means that he must step aside.

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telling his people this year should be the year of a real and lasting peace. >> no. putin nabil abu rudeineh. >> this year should. >> be the year of the beginning of a real, lasting peace. putin will not give us this peace. he will not give it to us in exchange for something. we must gain peace with strength, wisdom and unity through our cooperation. peace cannot simply be declared in one hour. it cannot be declared in one day, today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow. >> about today, though, european leaders are in kyiv meeting with zelenskyy after zelenskyy signaled himself just yesterday that he would be willing to resign the presidency if it would bring peace or mean nato membership for ukraine. and another leader, the french president, is in washington for some face time with president trump on all of this. joining us right now is democratic congressman from virginia, eugene vindman. congressman is a ukrainian american and a retired u.s. army colonel. it's good to see you, congressman. thank you for coming. in the third

anniversary of this war. zelenskyy's thinking this year will be the year of a lasting peace. how confident are you that will be the case. >> kate. >> great to be here. >> this. >> morning. >> well, look, um, i'm not particularly confident right now. um, all of the pressure seems to be on the ukrainian leadership. the ukrainian government. um, this administration has pretty much given away the farm, granting, uh, it seems like at the outset, territorial concessions stating that ukraine will not be a member of nato, putting all the pressure on ukraine and taking all the pressure off of russia. and i will say it's shameful that on this, uh, third anniversary, going into the fourth year of of this major invasion, 11 years of war, that we do not have a senior representative from the united states there showing solidarity and support. i talk about a hard pivot towards autocracy and away

from our our own values. uh, after, you know, years of weakness from the biden administration. now, we've done a hard pivot towards autocracy. and it's shameful. >> um, i want to ask you about that. well, the kind of wild escalation of tension between ukrainian president zelenskyy and donald trump that we really saw play out in the last week. just yesterday, zelenskyy was asked about his relationship with donald trump by our nick paton walsh. let me play how what how he responded. >> the president. >> my relationship with president trump. it's never was in such. best way. >> there's a lot going on in that those silent moments i mean things are not good there. and as someone who cares deeply about the future of ukraine, how do you think zelenskyy should be approaching his relationship with donald trump at this point? >> well, look, i think i, i

approach this issue as deep concern about u.s. national security as it relates to ukraine. and that's i've been talking about this for years. it is squarely in u.s. national security interest to support ukraine, to have a strong transatlantic alliance and to stand up against autocrats. what we've seen in since this invasion is a violation of a rules based order that the u.s. helped to establish, and that might does not make right, and that, you know, larger neighbors can't attack smaller neighbors. and that's a lesson that's going to be very well received. and in places like china, with the chinese communist party and other autocrats. so this is a squarely a u.s. national security issue. and as it relates to to zelenskyy, i mean, talk about an understatement. the relationship certainly was strained after the events of the first impeachment, where the president tried to extort ukraine into investigating his

his political rival. um, and it hasn't gotten any better. i think that president zelenskyy is exactly right. i mean, if he's willing to sacrifice his leadership in exchange for peace, and i have no doubt that he will do that if if there is a path to it. >> um, you talk about u.s. national security. i want to ask you about that because you sent a letter to the president you just did, protesting the firings of the military's senior leadership. you called it reckless, damaging to the nation's readiness and national security. and also, you wrote that it could cost american lives. the defense secretary said spoke out yesterday, though, and says there's nothing unusual here with this. let me play this. >> nothing about this is unprecedented. the president deserves to pick his key national security and military advisory team. there are lots of presidents who have made changes from fdr to eisenhower to h.w. bush to barack obama, who fired or dismissed hundreds of

militaries during during his term. >> congressman, what is your reaction to that? >> look, it's utter nonsense. my letter was not, you know, a plea for answers. it was a demand for answers. we in congress have a role, an oversight role. and i am asking pointed questions about why he's made the changes, what his criteria are for replacements. it is certainly unprecedented and unacceptable just because the president and the administration can do something doesn't mean they should do something. it's you know, we had an expression in the jag corps, lawful but awful. why is he changing? several senior four star generals and admirals, including the chairman. why is he changing or eliminating, uh, you know, three service judge advocates? is it because he wants to install? yes. men, folks that won't challenge his, uh, his, uh, unlawful,

potentially actions? we need answers. the american people deserve answers. and we in congress are going to demand that we receive those answers. >> we'll continue to follow that. congressman, thank you very much for your time, sarah. >> all right. ahead. new this morning, some communities pushing back as ice raids moved into neighborhoods in los angeles over the weekend. what they did to try and keep people from being picked up by ice. and a shocking roadblock. concrete crashes down inside a boston tunnel. check this out. ooh. >> it's the news. >> welcome back. >> but it's also kind of not the news. >> we don't fact check here. we don't care, man. >> why tell the information on this show so terrible? >> have i got news for you saturday at nine on cnn. >> from. oh, baby to.

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community. activists are pushing back. >> ice is not welcome in this neighborhood. >> or in any neighborhood. you guys are all terrorists that should be ashamed of yourself for doing this for a living. should be ashamed of yourself. >> our local leaders are warning residents not to come out of their homes and to not engage with agents unless the agents have a warrant. cnn's julia vargas jones is live in los angeles with the latest. what are you learning this morning? >> well, john, immigrant communities and activists, like the ones we heard from there. we're expecting a large scale immigration crackdown in los angeles, but we still haven't seen any pictures or gotten information from u.s. immigration and customs enforcement on the scale. and the success of this operation. you know, immigrant communities we're expecting these sort of high visibility actions like we've seen in chicago and new york. but there are some restrictions here in california that could be impacting. >> the. >> number of arrests in this surge. one of them is that federal agencies have no

cooperation from local law enforcement. and second, the tactics that are often used by ice agents to question their targets inside their homes. they're known as knock and talk. they were limited by a federal judge in california in 2024. still, one of those operations took place here in the highland park neighborhood, just east of downtown los angeles, not far from where that video was taken. this is a tightly knit hispanic community where one of those arrests took place. we spoke with a neighbor of the man who was arrested, a woman who runs a food stand just down the street from where this arrest happened around midday yesterday. she said she knew this man and that he was a single father of two children. take a listen. so 14 and 12 years old. his mom and the mother of his children all are here in the neighborhood. you saw all the commotion. you saw the reaction from the community here. de la comunidad. también.

como como se sienten in this moment. how do you feel right now? >> como tenemos la misma libertad de. >> la calle con. >> miedo. >> are you saying you feel like you don't have your freedom anymore? you feel just. afraid to even go into the streets? and not just that fear, john, but the potential consequences here are huge, uh, of the 11 million undocumented immigrant estimated to be in the united states, 1.8 live here in california. about half of that number in southern california. of course, these are just estimates, but these communities are still on edge. you know, sources have told cnn previously that this was going to be a wave of enforcement action. so more could still be to come. john. >> yeah, uncertainty, whether it has happened or will happen. julia vargas jones thank you so much for your reporting, kate. >> president trump promised to bring prices down on day one of

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house support, they're slipping. cnn's harry enten here with now. harry, there's been some key measures that have come out in the past week that are worth looking at. the state, the view that americans have of the current state of the economy. >> yeah. so we'll start with the current state of the economy. and all i can say is, compared to trump's first term at this point, the reboot not as well received as the original economy is currently good or excellent. look at this. in april of 2017, it was 40%. look at where we are in february of 2025. just half that level. 20%. my goodness gracious. the term one high was 63% of americans in february of 2020. thought the economy was excellent or good. this 20% we have currently going on right now is fewer americans saying the economy is excellent or good than at any point, any point during trump's first term. this is not a good sign. kate bolduan. >> jd vance said said last week you got to give him time, even though that's not what they promised in the campaign. they said they bring prices down day one. but what is the view of the

future economy then? >> yeah, so this is the current economy. how about the future economy? is the economy getting worse or better? and all i can say is yikes. yikes. again, compare it to where we were in the first term at this point. april of 2017, 53%. the majority said it was getting better. how about now? in february of 2025, the majority say it's getting worse, 59% compared to just 35% who say it's getting better. worse is higher now than at any point in trump's first term pre-covid. this number, to me is much more worrisome. perhaps the worst number i've seen for trump on the economy, because it says even at the economy now isn't great. they also project that it's only going to get worse from here. this is a big, big yikes. >> and fold in inflation. just like the general views on inflation. >> yeah. okay. so i think the question is what's exactly cooking here. what is going on. you know, there's this whole idea that trump was going to bring down inflation right kate. so what do americans actually saying you know are google searches for inflation going

down or going up. they're going up. they're up 123% from february of 2017. and more than that, perhaps even more important, they're up 23% from last month. americans fears about inflation are not going away. they are as interested in it as they were by the end of the joe biden administration. and the bottom line is they're far more interested in it than they were at any point during donald trump's first term. as i said at the beginning, the reboot, the sequel is not being anywhere near as well received as the original when it comes to donald trump and the economy. >> harry, thank you so much for laying that out. >> thank you sarah. >> all right. elon musk has told federal workers to justify their jobs by 1159 tonight. or they could face being fired. the ultimatum is part of his and president trump's aggressive push to shrink and reshape the federal government. but their methods have led to criticism and pushback from both democrats and republicans. with me now, democratic congresswoman katherine clark of massachusetts. she is also the democratic whip. thank you so much for getting up bright and

early for us this morning. let's start here with the surprise announcement that right wing podcaster dan bongino will be the deputy director of the fbi in 2021. he accused members of the fbi as well as the cia, of unquestionably trying to rig the 2016 and 2020 elections. he called the fbi and the cia corrupted intelligence community. what do you think of the bongino pick? >> uh. >> let me. >> tell you. >> that this administration is. replacing people. >> of merit. >> people who are. >> patriots with loyalists. >> and what happens? >> the security of the. >> american people is being threatened, and they. >> understand it. they see it in what's happening in the economy. they see it in what's happening in the federal workforce. when they are looking at delays in social security checks, in irs refunds, real

implications of of what they are doing to the federal workforce. when you replace it with the criteria that you have unfailing loyalty to donald trump. >> i want to ask you about this, because the president is also replacing the head of the u.s. navy, a position held by admiral lisa franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service. he fired the nation's highest ranking military officer, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, air force. general cq brown, highly decorated and seasoned leader, who also happens to be a black man, and replace him with someone who has not served in any of the roles that nominees are legally required to have performed in order to be nominated. what is happening here? >> what's happening here is corruption and what we are seeing again is donald trump and elon musk saying, let's fire

everybody who is doing their job in order to pass tax cuts for billionaires. and while they're doing it, they are trying to erode the very people who have risen through the ranks of our military and who have earned positions of power because of their expertise and experience, and replacing them with people who are saying, i will go along with our now self-proclaimed king trump. and it is why you are seeing the numbers for this president that are so shocking around the economy because he has betrayed what he said he would do is focus on the american people bringing down the cost of groceries and housing, and what he is doing instead is taking away their health care with a sleight of hand to give it to the very

wealthiest and largest corporations in this country for a tax cut. that's what is on the floor this week, which is so outrageous and such a betrayal of people. let me tell you one story from my district. a constituent who is dealing with a husband who has early onset dementia. she is trying to work and care for her husband. at the same time. she can't do it without medicare. and so when those cuts that donald trump has given the sign off to the house to go forward with this week hit home, elon musk is going to be okay because he can be cocooned in his enormous wealth. but the people of my district of. republican constituents who voted for them are not going to be okay. they are being asked to foot this tax bill to benefit elon musk.

>> congresswoman, you're talking about the $880 billion that house republicans are looking at to cut from medicaid. um and that is something that is is in their bill for the budget. and there is a lot of concern, you're saying, with your constituents surrounding this and what that might mean. i do want to ask you this some some latest polling that has come out that says 73% of democrats or democratic leaders believe their party is not doing enough, since democrats do not control the house or the senate. what is your plan to try to give donald trump some some checks and balances? >> at first, let me tell you, you got to understand how frustrated people are watching what is happening with this administration and with the unvetted, unelected, richest man in the world running roughshod across our personal data and and making, you know, threatening the basic services that they provide. so what we're doing is meeting this moment in three

specific ways. first, we understand that we are the minority party in the house and the senate, and they have the white house. and what we have seen is cowardice from house republicans who won't stand up for their constituents because they don't want to step out of line. so we are calling out the illegal and unconstitutional acts that we are seeing in the courts. that's our first line of defense. over 78 cases have already been brought, and we are winning and holding elon musk and donald trump accountable. second, we are using the legislative tools that we have. we're clear eyed that we're in the minority, but they have a very slim majority in the house. so we're putting bills on the floor that would say to elon musk, get out of our tax data, get out of our health care data. you do not legally belong in

those systems, threatening the privacy and security of our constituents. and we are asking and putting pressure on three republicans. that's all it takes to have the courage to stand up for the people who sent them to washington and say no to this, say no to stealing their hard earned tax dollars that we all want spent efficiently, and handing it over to the billionaire class in this country. >> do you have any sense that any of those republicans that you're. let me just quickly ask you, do you have any sense that the republicans are putting pressure on will actually, you know, change their minds, or are they giving you any indication of that? >> and you know, what i see is a lot of talk in the background from them about empathy for the veterans who are losing their

benefits for the people on social security who are terrified. they're saying murmurings around this, but they are missing the moment here that they need to stand up for the american people, stand up for their constituents, and we just see cowardice. we just see them bowing to bowing to trump, bowing to the fear that elon musk will fund a primary opponent for them. and are they? is there any red line that they won't cross? is there anything that they won't give from their their constituents to to the billionaire class because donald trump told them so? so far, we haven't seen a single sign of actual courage and vote. let's see what happens this week. i hope we find a few who will stand up and say, this isn't going to be on my watch. i'm

going to make sure that when we're in tax season, people can get a refund, that social security checks come out. all these services that people depend on. >> representative katherine clark, thank you so much. really appreciate you coming on this morning. john. >> all right. happening now a federal judge will today hear a request by the associated press to restore full access for the news agency after president trump barred them from events for continuing to refer to the gulf of mexico and coverage. cnn chief media analyst brian stelter is with us now. it's a big day. brian. >> yes, this is the. first big first amendment fight of the second trump term. this case is being brought before a trump appointee in washington. there's a key hearing this afternoon because the ap wants emergency action to have this ban reversed. it's being supported by many press freedom groups. for example, here's what reporters without borders said over the weekend. john, quote, donald trump wants to make this about him versus the press. in

reality, this fight is about trump versus every american's first amendment rights. that's certainly how the ap views this as well. the ap is usually at every presidential event, able to hear what trump says and oftentimes ask questions. but the ap has been banned for the better part of two weeks over a spat involving the name of the gulf of mexico, which trump has declared to be the gulf of america. the ap says it has to be able to choose what language to use. it can't allow the american president to be the word police. so the ap going to court today in a big action, and the white house correspondents association filed a brief overnight supporting the ap and saying this situation, this ban has, quote, already had a chilling effect on journalists who simply want to do their jobs. we'll see what the judge rules in this really important first amendment case. john. >> you say chilling effect. we're seeing at least maybe some efforts from president trump when it comes to comcast. >> yes we are. overnight, a tirade from the president against comcast, the owner of nbc and msnbc. some really interesting word choice by the president. he said the company

should be forced to pay vast sums of money for the damage they have done to our country. he's railing against progressive talk shows on msnbc, but he's saying something out in plain view for everyone to see, including the government regulatory body that's investigating comcast. basically, trump's fcc pick to run the fcc brendan carr recently told comcast they're being investigated for their dei practices. and here you have the president saying comcast should pay up vast sums of money. we need to keep an eye on these kinds of moments where there could be a cause and effect between the president's words and his agency's actions. >> brian stelter i'm going to run to my computer to check out the reliable sources newsletter. everyone should sign up immediately. >> right now, i'm hitting send. >> hit send. all right. live coverage. reliable sources. >> literally. he works on it everywhere. you can see him in action. all right, the good stuff. now, a student at the university of vermont jumped into action to do a very good thing after disaster struck. after learning that a campus employee's house had burned down on christmas day. college

sophomore duncan starkenburg decided to help starting a fundraiser for star shawver, who worked in a campus cafeteria. and when shawver found out about the effort, she says she just cried. >> you know, i had a lot on my plate, but coming into here, my kids are my first priority. so, you know, i have my kids coming through and then duncan coming through. >> i know. >> there's enough people here in the community that have been. touched by star that we can we can. >> help get her back. >> on her feet. >> i cried, i couldn't believe r you. >> it's been a few days. the fundraiser has far surpassed spartanburg's initial goal of $5,000, having now raised more than double that. still ahead for us, donald trump is right now hosting french president emmanuel macron at the white house, and macron is expected to be bringing a warning about vladimir putin with him and what the president is getting wrong about his drill baby drill. goals.

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perfect fit, we'll alter it or remake it for free. guaranteed. proper cloth. com. >> twitter. that's great man. >> no one understood where it was going. >> we invented a whole new thing. twitter. >> breaking the bird march. >> 9th on. >> cnn. >> new this morning. apple announcing it will be investing $500 billion on expanding u.s. facilities over the next four years. the move could help the company avoid donald trump's sweeping 10% tariffs on goods coming from china. as apple imports many of its products, including most of its iphones, are assembled in china. the president celebrating this and taking credit for the announcement, saying this, quote, the reason faith in what we are doing, without which they wouldn't be investing $0.10. apple says the investment will create 20,000 jobs. there's some scary moments for drivers in boston when a slab of concrete

crashed down from the ceiling on a packed tunnel, just barely missing several cars. it's hard to imagine that they were to avoid it. officials say the chunk of concrete was five feet wide. some vehicles suffered some minor damage, but fortunately no one was hurt. authorities say this was an isolated incident, blaming the weather, saying this is the result of freezing and thawing over the last couple of weeks. and then there is this, a video that has gone viral showing what else an alligator, a florida alligator casually stopping traffic walking across the street as it carried a turtle in its mouth. the video has sparked some laughs, some thanking the alligator for carrying the turtles safely across the street. that's actually really funny. but as much as we would like to believe that it was a kind gesture, alligators do think turtles are a tasty treat. so we don't know. we didn't follow the camera, didn't follow this end result. john. maybe for the better. >> why did the alligator cross the road to eat the turtle? i love that joke. all right. new

cnn reporting this morning shows a problem with president trump's vision of energy independence. according to the president, unleashing u.s. drilling would reduce gas prices, reduce americans cost of living, and increase the nation's energy independence. cnn chief climate correspondent bill weir is here in the issue, as you report is drilling for what exactly? >> yeah. have you. >> noticed the president leaves facts out sometimes when. >> he makes these grand. >> statements about how we could just get off of all the foreign oil that comes from canada, mexico, saudi. >> arabia. >> these places. one huge problem. not all oil is created equally. let's talk about the basics. it's everything from sweet, light, crude, which is like the champagne of oil down to heavy sour, which is more like wet coffee grounds. right? this stuff is light and easy to process, and the u.s. pumps a lot of it, and we use it to export, and it goes into kerosene and gasoline. the problem is the country was built on sticky coffee grounds over the years, and so are u.s. refineries are set up to process

the heavy, dense stuff. the alberta tar sands. the clues in the name, it looks like sandy tar and it is processed this way. meanwhile, along the gulf of mexico, a lot of these refineries can deal with more of the lighter campaign stuff. and here's the big problem, john. we produce a lot more champagne than coffee grounds, exporting about 13 million barrels a day of the light, sweet stuff while importing about half that much from these other countries. so again, the idea that we could shut off imports from canada and not feel the ramifications, it would completely upend the refinery system and would drive gas prices through the ceiling. >> it's just not what we're built for. >> exactly. >> the infrastructure is not here. and how do the oil companies feel about these calls to drill, drill, drill more? do they feel like they can? >> well, it all comes down to economics. the price of a barrel of oil, the projections. you know, it takes ten years sometimes to get a well operating. and so they're

looking over at china or almost half of the new cars sold are electric. they're looking at oil demands around the world, how they might sink, petrochemicals, plastics. all of those calculations are going into how they do this. so there's not a huge demand. there's not sort of you know, he was from these oil ceos were promised complete carte blanche deregulation. but they're not they're not exactly chomping at the bit to open new wells. >> and we're talking about wells. we're not talking about shale. or are we talking about both. >> shale shale oil. >> big fracking boom has led to a massive spike in natural gas, which is a different kind of fuel, of course, and a lot more of the sweet light champagne that comes out of those fracking wells. >> all right. you've made me thirsty. >> bill weir. >> thank you very much for. >> all. >> but no, i have to say that every barrel of this stuff that gets pumped and burns is closer to a climate crisis, and the alternatives now are cheaper than the petrochemicals. so something to keep in mind. >> so there's that too. in addition to everything else. bill weir, thank you very much. brand new hour of cnn news central starts now.

>> this morning, president trump and french president macron are meeting at the white house as europe fights for a place in the ukraine-russia peace talks. today marks three years since russia invaded. federal workers are facing a deadline. justify your job in five bullet points or lose that job. now, as trump's own agency heads are telling employees to ignore that, elon musk pops up to say he's not joking. plus, comedy and politics mixing it up at the s.a.g. awards last night. i'm kate bolduan with sara sidner and john berman. this is cnn news central. >> well, he's giving out more shock and awe at home right now at the white house. president trump is preparing to meet with french president emmanuel macron. ahead of the call with