controllers so far have been exempted from being axed by the trump administration, since a shortage of thousands of air traffic controllers has been a years long problem for the federal government. hiring them has not been easy. with a training academy still backlogged by the pandemic. now, transportation secretary sean duffy says he is going to supercharge hiring, and even elon musk is wading into this. more on that in a second. duffy's plan opens up a new hiring window for controllers starting march 17th. it's a good gig if you can get it. the average pay, according to the trump administration, is $160,000 per year. duffy insists he will also make the hiring process easier, trimming an eight step process into a five step process. of course, much of this has to do with ending diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives under trump. duffy says workers will be hired on merit. die hiring for controllers was in place under both republican and democratic administrations, and that includes trump's first term. elon musk posted on thursday that there is a shortage of top

notch air traffic controllers, and he made a plea to those who have retired. musk told them if they are open to returning to work, please consider doing so. here's the challenge there's a mandatory retirement age for air traffic controllers, currently set at 56 years old. duffy says he's interested in changing it, but there's not really a big appetite for that at the powerful controllers union. the national air traffic controllers association says upping the retirement age would delay the retirement of only 49 controllers across 35 different facilities over the next year, not enough to fill what the union estimates is a shortage of 3600 controllers. >> soon, president trump and president volodymyr zelenskyy will meet face to face at the white house to hold high stakes talks. that could mean the difference for ukraine's fate. a u.s. judge is temporarily halting any mass firings of

federal probationary workers at some agencies. we're going to tell you why the judge is calling the layoffs illegal and a teenager's revenge plot gone wrong. we're going to tell you what happened when the girl tried to take revenge on an ex boyfriend's car. i'm omar jimenez with sara sidner. kate and john are off. this is cnn news center. >> we are standing by for ukrainian president zelenskyy to arrive at the white house for high stakes talks with president trump. this meeting could help determine ukraine's future depending on the outcome. trump wants a deal where the u.s. can get its hands on ukraine's rare earth minerals to pay for the u.s. role in the war. but zelenskyy is hoping for u.s. military assurances against another russian invasion, an issue trump has not committed to. >> the president has said he wants to have soldiers there. i don't think we're going to even be necessary. i have a very

good relationship with president putin. i think i have a very good relationship with president zelenskyy. and now we're, you know, we're doing the deal and we're going to be in there. we're going to be actually in there and digging, digging our hearts out. >> cnn chief national security correspondent alex marquardt joining us now to lead off the hour. okay, alex. zelenskyy is arriving in washington. and he over the past several weeks, the banter between him and donald trump has been contentious at the least. but yesterday trump seemed to to really sort of soften his tone or feign forgetting his harsh words for zelenskyy. what are you expecting to happen today? >> yeah. >> this is an extraordinarily important visit for zelenskyy. the future of his country really hangs in the balance. sarah, i do think we will see a softer tone from both men who, as you say, have had some pretty sharp language in the past few weeks. president trump calling president zelenskyy a dictator. he walked that back yesterday saying, i can't believe i said that. i think what we're going to see is both men portraying this deal today as a major win.

it is certainly a win for president zelenskyy. he gets to give president trump one of these deals that he so often seeks. he's getting a meeting with president trump ahead of the eventual meeting with with president putin. and that is notable. we'll also see president trump standing up there saying, this is a great deal. we will be able to recoup tens or hundreds of billions of dollars in u.s. military assistance, though it's still unclear right now, sarah, how that's going to happen. but against the backdrop of all this, is that major question about security guarantees. so as they portray this as a win, president zelenskyy will continue the efforts of the european leaders. we saw earlier this week from france, from great britain, to try to get the u.s. to continue not just military assistance, but provide military guarantees so that when there is a cease fire, when there is a peace deal, that russia will not just be able to wait and invade again. we've heard the brits, the french and others talk about peacekeepers on the ground, their jets in the skies. we have not heard any

firm commitment from the u.s. president and this deal, this minerals deal that is being rolled out today does not have anything about security guarantees. so that is a major mission for president zelenskyy today. sarah. >> when you talk about the minerals, trump says we're going to be in there digging. he's trumpeted this as a big windfall that could possibly pay for, you know, sort of the united states giving arms and. et cetera, et cetera to ukraine, arms and money. what do you know about what is really there and what ukraine really has access to? >> this deal is extremely vague. it's essentially an agreement to talk about a deal down the line in which the specifics will be talked about. it is not clear, frankly, what ukraine has in terms of both rare earth minerals, which we've heard president trump talk about so much, and other critical minerals. what we do know, these maps that we've seen, like we're showing right there, a lot of that is based on old data. it's based on surveys from the soviet

era. and in talking to current and former officials as well as experts, they will tell you that most of the most significant deposits of minerals that have the most potential are in the eastern part of the country, where the fighting is ongoing, areas that are covered in mines and unexploded ordnance, areas that are occupied by the russians. and so that will be very, very difficult to exploit. yes, ukraine does have these vast deposits of things that are more common, like graphite, lithium, titanium, but in comparison to other countries, their stores are actually quite low. and when and the u.s. geological survey actually says that there are zero proven reserves of these rare earth minerals. so it is very unclear what the u.s. will eventually be able to get, what the two countries will actually be able to extract. it is extremely time consuming, extremely expensive to dig this stuff up and to process it. so we're at the very, very early stages of a deal, and we really don't know

how this is going to unfold. sarah. >> yeah, we do know that trump keeps saying he's going to send in personnel, not military personnel, but some kind of personnel. and when you say some of this is happening in the eastern part of the country where we both have have been, that is extremely dangerous territory. alex marquardt, thank you so much. really appreciate your reporting this morning, omar. >> lots to talk about. here. with us now is former cnn moscow bureau chief jill dougherty and cnn global affairs analyst kim dozier. thank you both for being here. kim, i'll start with you. what are you looking for in this coming zelenskyy meeting here? >> well. >> i'm looking for two men who are going to be playing nice for the cameras, even though they have a lot of animus towards each other. but i'm also looking for, um. trump's team knows that the way to get to him is through commerce. and i think they've sold him this deal in terms of, you know, will be able

to make money off of this. you can tell your base that you're getting the money back for the u.s. investment. but down the line, it's not ukraine that has to lobby for security guarantees. if trump wants u.s. companies to go in and exploit whatever u.s. geological scientists find in terms of rare earth minerals, they're going to demand a secure, stable security environment. and that means supporting whatever peacekeeping forces, be they british or french, on the ground. continuing with the intelligence, surveillance, the geospatial intelligence that the u.s. is currently providing ukrainian forces to keep that place safe and keep the russians out. >> and, you know, jill trump has called zelenskyy a dictator, even if he tried to walk it back and says he he trusts putin won't violate a peace deal. and then you have zelenskyy, who likely feels the opposite on both fronts. but also he's here looking for reassurances that the united states still has his

back. where does he start with trump? and even if trump trusts putin, is he not alone in that, at least among allies? >> well, i think, you know, zelenskyy really has a difficult task. so i think in a way he has to reset the relationship with president trump. he has to make sure that trump understands that this is life or death for ukraine. and i think he probably will want to undermine that faith that president trump seems to have in president putin, because that that's kind of key here. uh, president trump is saying, you know, i think putin will keep his word and why? because we both went through the so-called russia hoax, which was the interference by russia in the 2016 election. and so, you know, i think this almost as kind of a triangle, you've got this deal which is the minerals

deal over here, really not a major part. when you look at it rationally, it shouldn't be a major part of what we're talking about. then you have ukraine. how do you solve that? and then you have, uh, trump's relationship with putin and resetting the u.s. russia relationship. so there are a lot of moving parts to this. and zelenskyy is going to have to try to really, you know, establish this relationship, keep it going, but also stand up for his country. and that's going to be very, very hard. >> and kim, you know, this, of course, comes on the heels of french president emmanuel macron, who visited uk prime minister keir starmer also visited the white house this week. the goal was clearly to see if there was any sort of progress towards some form of security guarantees from the united states, if there is any peace deal struck with russia. i mean, despite all the handshaking and smiling this week, did europe make any substantial headway into that effort this week?

>> well, the two positive meetings by the french and the british leaders, um, mean that at the very least, trump has embraced the concept of peace keepers, nato peacekeepers on the ground inside ukraine. at least those are nato countries. um, if not flying under the nato banner, and russia, while, uh, the moscow spokesman and others have said, no, we would never allow any nato forces inside ukraine, um, has gone quiet on that in the past few days, as if to understand, um, the brits and the french have won this round and they're going to bring it up at the negotiating table next and not be too public about it, because anyone who defies trump publicly, he lashes out at as zelenskyy discovered to his peril almost ten days ago, um, when he said that the russian

that the um, that trump seems to be, uh, susceptible to russian disinformation. so right now it looks like things are going in the right direction for ukraine, but it is a very delicate balance. and the only thing that i think russia is trying to get out of it at this point is a seat back at the world table on the g7. at cetera investment, um, and lifting of sanctions. but i got to just mention, uh, the trump administration just extended some of those sanctions against russia for another year. so that leaves moscow with something to play for. >> yeah. um, jill dougherty, kim dozier, really appreciate the time perspective. thanks for being here, sarah. >> all right. ahead, new this morning, a judge blocked some of president trump's mass firings of federal workers. what this means for doj's sweeping and aggressive actions across the country. plus, fighting disinformation over the measles outbreak, local health officials having to push back against hhs

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morning a federal judge is blocking efforts by the trump administration and the department of government efficiency to slash the federal workforce. now, the judge in san francisco ruled the mass firings of probationary federal employees are, quote, likely unlawful. now, labor unions and nonprofits are suing on behalf of thousands of probationary employees who have lost their jobs. i want to bring in kevin owen. he's an employment attorney who represents federal workers. thank you for being here. um, you know, to this point, you've compared this initiative to the kind of disruptions that are typically caused by government shutdowns. what do you mean by that? >> so in the chico memo that was issued by opm two days ago outlining these mass layoffs, what the opm is saying is that employees who are typically not designated as essential during a lapse in appropriations are the ones that are going to be targeted for these mass layoffs. and in 2016, we saw 800,000 federal employees nationwide

laid off during the lapse in appropriations for a government shutdown. and so what americans can be looking for here is the type of shutdown that lasted in the fall of 2016, which closed national parks, closed social security agency offices, and really deprived americans of the federal services that they're used to. >> and, you know, one of the other things you've said previously is that their plan at this point is to get sued. what do you mean by that? >> so they're not going through the normal processes legally that you would expect to happen by law, rule or regulation? what they're doing is they're taking steps that are clearly unlawful on their face, taking thousands of employees out of their jobs. and then the employees are going to have to sue. the plan then appears to be to lose the cases potentially have to pay out. but at that point, all of the federal employees are off the rolls and they have gotten what they wanted in the interim, which is

to reduce the federal workforce by 50%, maybe even 65%. >> so you represent some of these federal workers that that could be affected or maybe have been affected. but what are you telling them legally? i mean, what what options do they have here? >> so a lot of them are still on the rolls. and so they don't yet have the right to file the lawsuits. we are waiting until something next happens to take them off the status. and at that point we are looking at class action cases, consolidated appeals to the merit systems protection board, dozens and maybe even hundreds of lawsuits to be filed within a couple of weeks. >> and so obviously, we're keeping an eye on this ruling, this ruling significant obviously, appeals play into this process as well. um, but but are there specific rulings that that you have your eye on or specific cases that you think are going to be especially significant in regards to some of the workers that you represent? >> yeah, the top two are the federal court case out in san francisco of afge versus opm,

just came out last night with that temporary restraining order and the one that i'm mostly following is the temporary restraining order that was issued by the merit systems protection board, which is a federal agency that deals with these kinds of cases. a couple of days ago, ordering restraining orders at the request of the united states office of special counsel, there are administrative procedures and administrative agencies that haven't really even gotten into working these issues, which are going to be very central and important to addressing these issues going forward. >> kevin nolan, really appreciate the time. thanks for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> of course. meanwhile, there's a growing divide between health and human services secretary robert kennedy jr. and local doctors dealing with a now deadly measles outbreak. could this impact the fight to control the spread of the disease? and questions and concerns over the tate brother's return to the united states and whether president trump's administration had anything to do with it. stay with us.

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upheaval and sweeping changes. >> the president of the united states. >> trump heads to capitol hill to share what's next. follow cnn for complete coverage and in-depth analysis. the presidential address to congress tuesday at eight on cnn. >> health officials in west texas are dealing with a measles outbreak. it may be at odds with newly appointed secretary of health and human services robert f kennedy jr.. measles has already killed one. unvaccinated child. the country's first death from the disease in a decade. the secretary clarified the situation in texas is not unusual, a sentiment not shared by the doctors who are trying to deal with this on the ground. cnn's meg tirrell has more of rfc's response to this outbreak. >> the fact. >> that we've allowed it to come roaring back like this in texas is just unconscionable. >> health officials on. >> the ground in. >> texas, at odds with newly. >> appointed hhs secretary.

>> robert f kennedy jr.. >> amid a bubbling. >> measles outbreak. >> in the. western part. >> of the state, now. including the. >> country's first. >> death from the disease in a decade. >> there are about 20 people. >> hospitalized, mainly for quarantine. >> we don't hospitalized. patients for. >> for. >> quarantine purposes. >> we admit patients who need acute supportive treatment. >> in our hospital. >> for measles outbreaks this year, in this country last year, there were 16. >> so it's not unusual. >> this is a vaccine preventable disease. >> that we. >> had eradicated. >> and that's what does make this unusual. >> ever since the. >> vaccine was introduced in 1963, cases. >> of. >> measles in the united states have. >> plummeted, getting. >> so low. >> measles was. >> declared eliminated in this country in the year 2000. >> and that's because. >> two doses. >> of the. >> measles, mumps and rubella. >> vaccine. >> or mmr. >> are highly safe and effective. >> we're very. >> lucky to. >> have an extremely effective

vaccine for measles. and having two doses of measles vaccine confers 97% lifetime immunity. if you're unvaccinated. >> if you're around someone who. has the. >> illness, you have a 90% chance of becoming. >> ill from. >> the virus. >> that's exactly what we've seen here. with all of the hospitalized. patients in this outbreak being unvaccinated. the worry. >> now is that with a virus. >> this contagious, it will continue. >> to spread through communities where vaccination rates have dropped. the measles. >> virus can. >> linger in the. >> air for two hours. >> after an. >> infected person has left the room, making texas. >> health. >> experts especially. >> concerned about. >> mass. >> gatherings like. >> the upcoming rodeo in houston. >> which may bring together. >> more than 100,000. >> people a day. >> and that's why local. >> hospital officials. >> continue to. >> push one message. >> i would i would. >> get a vaccine. >> because that's going to be the. >> best protection. >> one person. >> who's not explicitly. recommending vaccination is health secretary robert f kennedy jr.. >> we sent. >> multiple inquiries to the department of health and human services asking if the secretary

recommends that people get vaccinated against measles amid this deadly outbreak in texas. uh, they acknowledged our inquiry, but. ultimately just sent back a statement that ignored that question and linked to a cdc statement on the measles outbreak, which did acknowledge, quote, vaccination remains the best defense against measles infection, but also noted that supportive care, including vitamin a administration under the direction of a physician may be appropriate, which doctors tell us is true but is unusual to see right up there with vaccination in a statement like this. >> all right. our thanks to meg terrell. this morning, donald trump and volodymyr zelenskyy will be talking more about the long negotiated deal to try to bring ukraine's rare earth materials to the united states. but how big will that haul actually be? and what pandas know about eating that could unlock a healthier lifestyle for us?

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minerals are we even talking about here? >> well, there's. >> a bunch of different ones. >> but mostly. >> the coveted. >> because in the age of. >> electrification. as we move. >> away from fuels that you pump. >> out of the earth. >> going to need a lot more of the minerals we mine from the earth. so for a long time people looked at ukraine and thought, oh, there are reserves of titanium and lithium and graphite all over the country here. but what are they important for? well, titanium is super light and strong, so it's great for fighter jets, for example, lithium we know of course fuels our batteries and electric cars. everything in between. graphite is used to make steel. it's pretty abundant around the world, but it's good for the automotive industry. and then nickel and cobalt. a lot of that is found in the democratic republic of congo at great cost to people and environments there. another key component in electric vehicles, advanced electronics. and then there's rare earth minerals, which china absolutely dominates, that 17 different substances that you need in sort of chips and turbines and those sorts of

things. and it's sort of spread out everywhere. >> so okay, you see the map here. we've got titanium, lithium, graphite, you name it. yeah. it's nice to know that they're there or maybe there or we don't know how much is there. but but then what does it take to actually get these minerals and use them? >> here's the reality check. before russia invaded, it was estimated that ukraine had about 20,000 deposits. only 15% of those were actually being worked. right. and so stuff like titanium is abundant in the east. probably easy to get at, but lithium, which is much more coveted, a lot of it is behind. almost half of it is behind russian occupied lines right now. same goes with nickel and cobalt. a lot of that is in russian occupied territories. a lot of the rare earth minerals are there as well. and then you've got to consider that this war has wiped out half of ukraine's power capacity. mining is one of the most intense demands of electricity. so an investor thinking about going after any of this first would have to prop up a power plant or run the mine. worried about

security around it. and then when it comes to rare earths, according to the u.s. geological survey, 0% confirmed finds, it's all speculation right now. >> wow. uh, all of it on the table, though apparently today is president zelenskyy comes to visit the white house. bill weir really appreciate it. thank you. sarah. >> all right. thank you, omar. joining us now to talk about this high stakes visit and deal, democratic senator jeanne shaheen of new hampshire. she is a ranking member on the senate foreign relations committee. thank you so much for being here with us this morning. first to you. donald trump, donald trump says he trusts russia and has a good relationship with putin. have you ever heard a u.s. president or any u.s. lawmaker say that they trust russia? and putin, who was a former kgb operative? >> no. and it's clear that vladimir putin is manipulating donald trump. and it shows what a weak position he is in, that he doesn't understand that he's being manipulated. vladimir putin is a murderous dictator.

he is a thug who understands one thing, and that is strength. and anytime he thinks he can get the better of donald trump, he is going to do that. so it's unfortunate that we have a president who doesn't understand that. >> donald trump literally said he's going to send u.s. personnel, not not u.s. military personnel, but u.s. personnel into ukraine to help dig out its rare minerals. many of those resources, as we just heard from bill weir there in the eastern part of the country where the fighting and landmines exist. do you think this mineral deal is a bit of a sham deal, where the president has a way to say, hey, look, i made this big deal, but it won't actually amount to much. >> well, from my perspective, anything that helps give ukraine a stronger position at the negotiating table is a good thing. so from that perspective, i think, um, a deal that has donald trump and the administration, um, on the side

of ukraine is, is positive. what happens? i mean, the framework that has been released so far is very sketchy, and the devil is really in the details, and there are a lot of details that need to be worked out. >> he's not offering security assurances so far. do you see that being a possibility at all? because he's really kind of donald trump is kind of, you know, gone everywhere, but they're saying there will be security assurances, which is what zelenskyy is hoping for. >> well, what we've heard from the europeans is that they're happy to provide some of those security assurances, but they need a backstop for the united states. and, um, i think it doesn't there's not going to be a peace deal without those security assurances, because we have seen what russia, um, has been willing to do. in 2008, they went into georgia, and when nobody stopped them in 2014, they went into crimea. then in

2022, they went into ukraine. the only thing that's going to stop vladimir putin is a security agreement that ensures that he can't go back into ukraine or any other eastern european country in the future. >> i've talked to some georgia journalists, some of the journalists there are being attacked as well by by russian thugs there. um, you and republican thom tillis lead a bipartisan effort because. >> what russia has done is installed a puppet state in georgia. >> and that is what your concern is going forward in ukraine. and the russian president has said that he is not willing to negotiate giving back any territory, um, saying that that stuff is going to stay as part of russia that he has taken from ukraine. so this will be a very complex, um, deal that has to be made if one is made at all. i want to ask you about this bipartisan resolution that you came up with, with one of your republican colleagues, thom tillis, on the third anniversary of russia's full scale invasion. um, you both agreed in

a bipartisan way that it had to be recognized that russia invaded ukraine. what did you think? and why did you think that the trump administration would not sign on to a simple un declaration condemning russia's invasion of ukraine, and recognizing that third anniversary of its aggression into ukraine. >> well, our resolution, as you point out, is bipartisan. we have ten democrats and ten republicans. a fifth of the senate on that resolution, because there is bipartisan support in the united states senate for ukraine. and it is i think most of us were horrified when we saw what the united states did at the un. we were on the side not just of russia, but of north korea, of sudan, of countries that don't believe in democracy and don't support peaceful solutions. and the international rules based world order. and to have the united

states on that side at the un is a travesty. it has never happened before. and again, it shows vladimir putin's ability to. manipulate our president to his own ends, and that, in the end, is a weak position for donald trump and for the united states. >> what is congress going to do about any and all of this? it does still have some power, as i understand it. senator. oh. >> um, well, i hope that we're going to be able to move our resolution. um, we are going to be trying to do that by unanimous consent. i hope that, um, we will our republican colleagues will wake up and say, um, this is not the direction that we should be heading in. they will put a check on the president, which is the responsibility of congress. that's what we're supposed to do. we have three branches of

government, so we have checks and balances. so we have oversight authority, and we need our republican colleagues to step up and say in public what they've been willing to say privately. which is the president has gone too far. >> you're hearing that privately from republicans that the president has gone too far when it comes to ukraine. >> yes. >> senator jeanne shaheen, thank you so much for being here this morning and have a great weekend. appreciate you coming on. omar.

>> a right wing influencer and his brother charged with rape and human trafficking in romania, are now back in the united states. andrew and tristan tate were banned from leaving romania after being charged with human trafficking, sex with a minor and money laundering. now they've denied all wrongdoing, but their return after authorities lifted that ban is now raising questions. cnn's randi kaye is following the story. >> we live in a democratic society where it's innocent until proven guilty, and i think my brother and i are largely misunderstood. >> right wing. >> influencer andrew tate and his brother tristan, moments after landing in fort lauderdale, florida. >> from romania. >> telling reporters they are, quote, largely misunderstood. the brothers, along with two

romanian citizens, were arrested just after christmas in 2022 and formally indicted months later on charges of rape, human trafficking and setting up a criminal gang. the brothers have denied all allegations of wrongdoing. >> it's about the fact that she belongs to him, and the intimate parts of her body. belong to him because they're in a relationship, and if she wants to sell those, he has a stake in >> besides suggesting men own women, andrew tate has often referred to women on social media as sex workers. despite his comments, andrew tate hasn't taken a clear position on whether or not he's misogyni regard. i'm not misogynist either. i will state right now that i am absolutely sexist and i'm absomisogynist. planned to controversiabillions of views online.was banned from 2017 forn shoubear responsibility foassau 2022, facebook, instagram, 2022, facebook, outube also ban advocacy groups have voiced and vulnerable audiences, and have accused him of peddling his rants about female submission and male dominance to them. >> i believe the woman is given to the man. i believe she is given away by the father. i believe she belongs to the man she belongs to, fundamentally. >> all right. >> so fundamentally >> believman's property.

>> i believe she belongs to the >> so how did the tate brothers end up in the sunshine state? perhaps flattery played a role. >> trump saving the world. >> a romanian official told cnn that earlier this month, trump's special envoy, ric grenell, raised their case with romania's foreign minister. white house officials have said there was no direct u.s. government role in this. florida governor ron desantis said he doesn't know who was behind this. >> no, florida. >> is not a. >> place where. you're welcome. uh, with that, with those at that type of conduct in the air. and i don't know how it came to this. uh. >> we. >> were not involved. >> we were not notified. >> i found out through the media. >> the first criminal case against the tate brothers failed in december 2024, after a bucharest court noted flaws in the indictment. in january, the court lifted the house arrest order. the pair had previously been banned from leaving romania, while the investigation continued. a lawyer representing alleged victims of andrew tate in the united kingdom told cnn that any suggestion that the tate will now face justice in romania is fanciful. randi kaye, cnn, west palm beach, florida. >> coming up, the sky high cost

of eggs has our harry enten trying to buy just a couple of eggs at a time. and it's a trend. we'll explain. and a bad idea made worse. police say a teenager takes out her revenge on an ex. but she didn't do it to the correct car. this went wrong. >> cookbooks. >> corporate fat cats swindling socialites, doped up cyclists. then yes, more crooked politicians. i have a feeling we won't be running out of those anytime soon. >> a new season of united states of scandal with jake tapper, march 9th on cnn. >> oh. >> with flonase. allergies don't have to be scary. spraying flonase daily gives you long lasting non-drowsy relief. flonase all good. >> taxes was paying the price. now taxes. is turbotax beating your last pro's price? when you

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>> call one( 800) 269-9522. that's one( 800) 269-9522. the presidential address to congress tuesday at eight on cnn. >> okay, this is broke just a moments ago. new data showing the federal reserve's preferred inflation gauge. the personal consumption expenditures. price index is a mouthful. it cooled as expected last month. a good sign for price wary americans. cnn's matt egan joins me now with more. what does this mean?

>> well, sarah, this is some good news on this friday morning about the number one problem in the economy, inflation. so we're talking about the fed's go to inflation metric. the big number here is 2.5%. that's how much prices were up in january from the year before. now this is a step in the right direction. it's an improvement from what we saw in december. and it is a step closer to the fed's 2% goal. month over month, we saw prices up by 0.3%. that was exactly as expected. now this is important because this is the metric that the fed uses when it decides to raise or lower interest rates. remember, the fed's been on hold for a bit. i think that the people at the fed are going to be happy about this number. digging in core inflation, which excludes food and energy. we saw an improvement there. in fact, it slowed to the coolest pace since june of 2024. that's important because the core inflation, it's seen as a better sign of underlying inflation. now, i know when we're talking about prices going up and down, what

our viewers really care about is the level of prices. and look, it's true. people are still spending a lot more obviously at the grocery store. you think about eggs and everything else and you look the average family right now is spending $1,300 more per month than they did back in the beginning of 2021 to buy the same basket of goods and services, all because of higher prices. so yes, it's still painful out there. the cost of living. but this is a positive sign. >> okay, so with these numbers coming down a bit and looking trending in the right direction, are consumers responding? are they are they starting to spend more? >> so actually, the bad news in today's report is the spending numbers that came out because we were expecting a slowdown in spending. and we got a pretty significant one. so in december, spending was up by almost 1% month over month. that's a big increase slowed to a actually a negative number. this is a decline. this was not expected.

this is worse than we had been anticipating. and this doesn't even factor in prices. so adjusting for prices real spending fell by the most since february of 2021. now it's not unusual in january to see a post-holiday hangover, right? as people try to pay off debt and save some money after the holidays. but this is coming at a time when there's been these growing concerns about a possible growth slowdown in the economy. there's a lot of uncertainty over tariffs and all the other policy changes here. so i think that's a number we're going to have to pay really close attention to. because look consumer spending, it's the engine that drives this economy. and if people slow their spending that's going to have a real impact on the economy. >> slowing it with worry about a lot of the different changes, including all these hundreds and hundreds of federal workers that have been fired or laid off. that is another thing, sort of in the minds of americans as they're watching their wallets. madigan. it is always a pleasure. thank you so much. >> thank you.

>> sara. all right. over to you, omar. >> all right. the price of eggs is still on the rise. the department of agriculture has blamed soaring prices on bird flu, and is rolling out a plan of action to try and get prices down. now, some businesses are taking matters into their own hands, including local bodegas selling eggs. not by the dozen, but in singles. yes, come up and get your own single egg. our very own chief data analyst, harry enten, saw it himself. um, harry. okay, uh, first of all, tell me what you saw there. you said you saw it yourself. but also, i mean, how are people feeling about eggs? what are the prices of eggs looking like? just bring me into the egg world. yeah. >> i'm going to. >> bring you into the egg world. >> you know. >> i went up to the bronx, which is actually where i'm from. it was from. and it was so weird because the bodega that we went to was just a few blocks from where my father worked. and so i had this real feeling of nostalgia. but egg prices are out of control. okay, omar, they're out of control. what are we talking about? i mean, in january, the price for a dozen eggs reached a record high. we're talking, like, 4.95 per dozen eggs. and eggs are. prices are only expected to rise this

year even further. we're talking about more north of a 40% rise after about a 9,596% rise from last year to this year. and of course, eggs are such a staple of the american diet. that is what's so important to keep in mind, right? you know, we talk about ways that people might feel the economy. you know, we talk about the stock market, but, you know, only about 60% of americans own stock. we're talking about 80% of americans who eat eggs weekly at least once a week. and then even more will eat it more occasionally than that. that's a real way that people can feel the pain of this economy right now. and so folks are trying to find a way to afford eggs. and so it was very interesting. i went up to this bodega in the bronx to see how folks are dealing with it. i have a little thing that i think i can throw at you right now. in the bronx, the borough where i grew up. we headed to pamela's green deli. >> good to see you. >> with a price of eggs is a red hot topic. >> noun is eight.

>> nine, ten, 11, 12. it's horrible. >> what are you thinking about egg prices these days? >> that's so expensive? i haven't eaten eggs in about a month. >> okay. that's incredible. did you used to eat a lot. >> of eggs? >> every day? every day? my children. so not anymore. >> you know, it's crazy that we can't afford eggs. it's a good thing that the owner's doing, though. he's selling eggs loose so that the community has access to them. >> selling eggs loose three at a time instead of a dozen. so i heard you're doing something special here. something a little bit different so that people can actually get the eggs that they need to. >> i started selling those for $12, $11. we decided to sell loose, loose eggs, you know, like this package. >> okay. >> 332 99 for these three eggs, sometimes the people only have probably $20, $25 if they spending $12 on eggs. so it's going to be difficult for them to buy the rest of the stuff. you know, like the bread, butter, oil, all the things that

they need to, to, to cook. >> are people. >> telling you that they really. >> like they buying, they're buying, they're buying a lot of people coming and they buy it and they happy because we did that. >> all right. harry, obviously a great journey there. thanks for bringing us into that world because now we get to see sort of the macro what people are feeling. i mean, the trump white house does seem to be worried about the prices here, right? >> yeah, they absolutely do seem to be worried. i'll give you a reason why that they're worried. you know, we look at the polling data, trump's push to drop the goods, the prices of daily goods. i mean, the key number here is 62%. 62% of americans believe that trump has not gone far enough to drop the prices of daily goods. and when you're dealing with 80% of people eating eggs at least once a week, i think that is a real part of this sort of phenomenon, of the fact that donald trump was put in the white house to lower prices. and simply put, when it comes to the thing that americans deal with most on a daily basis, he has not done so.

omar, this, i think, is a very troubling number for the white house. >> and as we go, can you just pull up that number one more time about how many people actually get eggs? 80%. this is the population that is going to be affected. 80%. harry enten always appreciate you putting it in perspective for us. >> omar was a pleasure to do it with. you. >> always appreciate it, chief. >> oh, he says that to everybody. >> no. >> i do not say. >> he only says it to me. >> sir. what i want to ask, did you bring us some friggin eggs? you went to the store? >> no, but, you know, i would just say, if you have a problem, do what a lot of people are doing. and that is buy your own chicken that has reached a google high this month in order to substitute for the fact that eggs are so expensive. >> there you go. >> they will look great in your upper west apartment. a couple of chickens. >> a couple of chickens. i'm a little nuts. >> all right, thank you guys. speaking of eating, when you think of a panda's favorite food, you likely think of bamboo. i know i do, but scientists say pandas could actually be eating a meat based diet, so why don't they? researchers in china say the

answer lies in the bamboo itself, as pandas gnaw on the plant, they absorb genetic material from the plant. those nutrients start to influence the panda's senses of smell and taste, and make it easier for them to find the freshest and most nutritious bamboo. all right, a huge mile marker. five months after hurricane helene. interstate 40 connecting tennessee and north carolina reopens finally tomorrow. it has been a long time. it's been really difficult in the region to be able to cross between the two states. since the devastating floods and landslides from last september, and officials do warn excited drivers be patient. it's one lane both ways and the speed limit 35mph, but it will be open as permanent repairs are underway as well. all right. a revenge plan gone wrong florida authorities say a teenage girl mad at her ex boyfriend thought it would be a good idea to take revenge this way by spray