its history. >> reporter: now that term, "constitutional crisis," is back. >> we're headed toward a constitutional crisis. >> wear fast barreling toward a constitutional crisis. >> reporter: many democrats are sounding the alarm about president donald trump's use of executive power. >> the actions that musk and his i.t. goons have taken, they're illegal. >> full pardon. >> reporter: and some fear that trump, who has shattered norms and who worked relentlessly to try to overturn the 2020 election, cannot be counted on to follow the courts. >> i've been asked so many times, aren't you uncomfortable with this? no, i'm not. >> reporter: most republicans are shrugging off talk of a crisis. in fact, many are cheering as trump overhauls the justice department and fbi, works with elon musk to fire thousands of federal employees, and signs piles of executive orders. >> ooh. that's a big one.

>> reporter: making sense of this moment is tricky. but looking to history can be a good place to start. >> you cannot talk about the constitution enough. >> reporter: jeffrey rosen runs the non-partisan national constitution center in philadelphia. >> what is a constitutional crisis? >> if the president refuses to carry out an authoritative opinion of the supreme court. it's never happened before in american history. andrew jackson threatened to ignore the court, but he didn't. and no president has ever defied the court. so far president trump hasn't either. >> the supreme court has never been defied? >> you haven't had an authoritative order that a president's refused to carry out. >> reporter: these days trump's attorneys are busy appealing lower court decisions that have tried to rein him in. those cases could soon reach the supreme court. >> do you see president trump deliberately testing the bounds of executive power? >> i think he is. >> reporter: jillian metzger, a constitutional law professor at

new york's columbia university, is keeping watch. she worked at the justice department in the biden administration and clerked for justice ruth bader ginsburg. >> as you see it, where are the guardrails around president trump and his use of power? >> there are some guardrails. there's the courts. >> are they holding? >> so far the courts are holding. this is early days. i mean, we've had a whole lot of legal action. >> it's hard to keep track of everything. >> it's very hard to keep track of everything. but we've had a lot of interventions, early on, by courts. there's only so much the courts ultimately can do. if you really have an administration that is intent on violating the law, it's going to take not just the courts, it's going to take congress, it's going to take the states, it's going to take the people standing up and making it clear they're not going to stand for that, for our constitutional order to be preserved. >> reporter: for the time being the republican-controlled congress is doing little if anything to contest trump. democrats have expressed

outrage. most republicans range from muted to thrilled. >> number one trending. >> reporter: trump has also unsettled his critics by leaning into the idea that he has immense power, even posting a fake magazine cover where he donned a crown. on social media he has quoted this line from a film about the french emperor, napoleon. >> he who saves a nation violates no law. >> what does it say to you when a president puts that out there? >> truthfully, i really don't know what to make of some of the stuff on social media from trump or from musk or from others. it seems to be aiming for some kind of shock value. >> reporter: don mcgahn, who was white house counsel in trump's first term, says he sees a president who's generating headlines, not a crisis. >> do you believe he's testing the bounds of executive power or not? >> i think you can make that

argument. he certainly is doing it in a way that is very open, very transparent, very in your face. there doesn't seem to be a lot of secret memos telling people what to do. it seems he is doing it wide open in a way that lets people see. i think he certainly is pushing the envelope and i think he's doing it in a way where i think he has much more solid legal authority to do so than i think a lot of people realize. >> what's your message to americans who are feeling whiplash with everything that's happening? >> calm down. that's my message. calm down. it's a process. it's a lot of paper. it's a lot of executive orders. it's a lot of hype. there's a process in place. people are going to go to court. the courts will sort it out. congress can help sort it out. we'll see what comes out of the end. but this is how our system works. >> reporter: this crossroads on presidential power has been years in the making. with conservatives long calling for an empowered executive. >> and you do have courts now which have a very heavy trump

stamp on them. >> reporter: don mcgahn was a key attorney behind trump's nominations to the high court, which last year ruled presidents have broad immunity. >> what is the significance of the presidential immunity ruling when it comes to president trump today? >> well, i think it reflects what really had already been the law. now, there are some scholars and law professors and things that disagree with that, but i think really the president gets to be president and when he makes decisions within his constitutional or statutory authority that's it. >> reporter: but what if the courts tell trump to hold up and he doesn't? >> if the president starts ignoring court orders, that gets into some odd -- some odd situations. he hasn't done that. he says he's not going to do that. >> do you believe him? >> i do. >> reporter: in a statement the white house said president trump is following the constitution to a t. in the end for jeffrey rosen history and the constitution

remain the guidebooks for our turbulent times, especially as this president is on the brink of making history of his own. >> where does president trump fit in the context of presidential power? >> president trump is asserting a robust form of presidential power that's as strong as any president in history. it's called the unitary executive theory. and the basic idea is that congress can't constrain the president's power. now, the supreme court hasn't weighed in on the extent of this unitary executive theory. but if the court agrees with president trump, as it could, then he will in fact wage executive power more robust than any president in history. >> that was robert costas reporting. "cbs news roundup" will be right back.

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while billionaire elon musk continues his effort to fire thousands of federal employees, the search is on for a new generation of workers to build submarines. the navy is ordering 29 nuclear subs, and the company that makes them has schoolkids on its sonar. charlie d'agata has this story. >> reporter: at charles barnum elementary school in groton, connecticut -- >> there are a lot of pipes on a submarine.

>> reporter: these fifth-graders are learning about submarines. >> we are going to build some of these periscopes. >> it's actually working. >> i can see alexander! >> reporter: this is the beginning of a recruitment effort by general dynamics electric boat, groton's biggest employer and the navy's biggest submarine builder. >> people sometimes are like why are you in the elementary schools? in 2033 the people we're hiring, some of them are in fifth grade right now. >> reporter: courtney murphy is in charge of bringing new workers to electric boat. >> what do you need right now? >> trade workers. welders. machinists. >> reporter: that training is well under way at nearby ehlo grasso technical high school. students here work with the same state-of-the-art equipment they use at the shipyard. they learn to work in hot cramped spaces similar to submarines. jamir fletcher is a senior. >> what is it about welding that drew you to it? >> it makes me focus. once you start welding dead set on welding.

>> reporter: it's part of a national effort by shipyards and the navy to bring on 100,000 skilled workers over the next ten years. they're urgently needed to build a new fleet of nuclear missile submarines and smaller fast attack subs. to do that electric boat needs to more than double production. >> it is the navy's number one construction priority. >> reporter: admiral william houston heads the navy's nuclear-powered fleet. >> what is it specifically about submarines that make them so critical to what you need right now? >> they can go anywhere anytime and hold an adversary at risk. >> reporter: the problem, the navy says it doesn't have enough of them. electric boat is ramping up to meet that national security challenge, a challenge adam chicola and emma isbell are happy to take on. >> it's a lot of stress, but the more you do it the easier, the moe natural it gets. >> i know there's a lot of

pressure but you guys are making it sound like fun. >> oh, it's so fun. >> you've got to have fun doing it. that's what takes the pressure off. >> reporter: as far as the navy's concerned, there aren't enough people who can say they build nuclear submarines. and the future of the fleet is riding on it. for "eye on america," i'm charlie d'agata in groton, connecticut. there's a lot more ahead on "cbs news roundup." stay with us.

the most famous tv spy is getting new handlers. after 70 years of movies, the broccoli family is giving up creative control of the james bond franchise to amazon. the change has shaken and stirred some long-time fans. vladimir duthiers reports. ♪ >> reporter: for more than 60 years he's been the world's most famous spy. >> bond. james bond. >> reporter: with one family, the broccolis, controlling the bond franchise. >> hang on, james. >> the thought had occurred to me. >> we've got to, you know, reinvent it for the future. >> vodka martini. shaken, not stirred. >> reporter: the family will still share intellectual property rights, but amazon mgm is taking the creative reins.

>> there's something i need to tell you. >> i bet there is. >> reporter: the studio announcing it is, quote, honored to continue this treasured heritage and look forward to ushering in the next phase. >> i think if you're a fan of the bond series you have to feel a little bit trepidatious about a family that has taken so much care with this character turning over the keys to james bond's aston martin to a mega conglomerate. >> reporter: recent bond films have yet to recapture the success of 2012's "skyfall" but the franchise remains a box office powerhouse. the latest film, 2021's "no time to die," grossed nearly $800 million worldwide while the pandemic kept turnout low. >> i don't think there's just a possibility there's going to be more bond series and spinoffs and all kinds of things. it's like almost a certainty. that's what they want to do. they want to get this franchise back on track. >> that was vladimir duthiers reporting. and that's today's "cbs news

roundup." for some of you the news continues. for others tune in later for "cbs mornings" and follow us online anytime at cbsnews.com. reporting from the cbs broadcast center in new york, i'm carissa lawson. ♪ hello and thanks for watching. i'm carissa lawson in new york. this is "cbs news roundup."

here are the top stories. elon musk, who leads the white house office of government efficiency, issues a new warning to federal employees. go back to the office or be put on leave. president trump meets with the french president to discuss the war in ukraine, hoping to find a way to end the fighting. and pope francis shows some signs of improvement, but his health status remains critical. president donald trump is supporting elon musk's demand that federal employees explain their recent accomplishments in detail or risk getting fired. meanwhile, musk sent out a new directive on monday telling federal workers who refuse to return to the office they'll be put on leave. musk's orders are leaving many government workers confused. made worse by some officials telling their agencies to ignore his requests. cbs's ed o'keefe has more from washington. >> reporter: to reply or not to reply. that was the question roiling the nation's 2 million-plus federal employees. >> the morale is of course

abysmal right now. we are being told we're not worth the money that is spent on us. >> reporter: workers including alex berman with the internal revenue service were dumfounded by elon musk, who on saturday told the rank and file they'd have to share what they got done last week. failure to respond, he said, will be taken as a resignation. it's something musk also asked twitter employees to do when he started layoffs there. a formal e-mail from the office of personnel management asked federal employees for replies with approximately five bullets of what you accomplished last week. >> this is just another step in the demonization and harassment of employees who have only worked to serve the american people. the other thing is who's going to read 2.4 million questionnaires? >> reporter: adding to the confusion was that decision by several of the largest federal departments to instruct workers not to comply.

president trump backed up musk's original demands today. >> i thought it was great. because we have people that don't show up to work and nobody even knows if they work for the government. >> reporter: alex berman worries this kind of request will further erode the quality of the nation's public servants. >> they are hounding good people and good workers out of the civil service. this will be taken as another anecdotal piece of evidence saying that we're not the good workers we know we are. >> reporter: last summer the man now serving as white house budget director told the propublica news organization that he wants federal employees, quote, to be traumatically affected by the plans they're now putting in place to reshape the federal government. whether they've reached the trauma stage is unclear, but federal employees nationwide tonight mighty confused and upset. ed o'keefe, cbs news, the white house. it's been three years now since russia invaded ukraine, touching off a brutal war.

hoping to find a way to end the fighting, president trump hosted french president emmanuel macron at the white house on monday, with mr. trump saying he's optimistic a solution will be found in just a few weeks. cbs's erica brown reports from the white house. >> reporter: president trump says he will soon be meeting with ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy. >> i will be meeting with president zelenskyy. in fact, he may come in this week or next week to sign the agreement. >> reporter: the trump administration has been pushing ukraine to grant the u.s. access to deposits of rare earth minerals. ukraine has one of the world's largest deposits of graphite and lithium, which are used to make batteries for electric vehicles as well as titanium. trump says a deal would help pay back billions the u.s. has spent supplying weapons for the war. >> we're i think getting very close to getting an agreement where -- where we get our money back over a period of time. >> reporter: while more than a dozen western leaders gathered in kyiv monday to show their support for ukraine, french president emmanuel macron looked

to make that case with trump at the white house. >> we do share the objective of peace, but we are very aware of the necessity to have guarantees and a solid peace in order to stabilize the situation. >> reporter: in the oval office president trump said he's also considering new economic ties between the u.s. and russia. the u.s. put severe economic sanctions on russia for its attack on ukraine, and new trade agreements could include some relief. >> they have very valuable things that we could use, and we have things that they could use, and it would be very good if we could do that. i think it would be a very good thing for world peace and lasting peace. >> reporter: signaling the shifting policy toward russia the u.s. voted against the united nations resolution monday condemning russian aggression in ukraine. erica brown, cbs news, the white house. the vatican says pope francis remains in critical condition while showing some signs of improvement. prayers are pouring in for the 88-year-old head of the roman catholic church who resumed some

work activities on monday from the hospital. the pontiff has been hospitalized now for almost two weeks, dealing with pneumonia in both lungs. cbs's chris livesay reports from rome. >> reporter: the vatican says pope francis's condition has slightly improved and the kidney issue discovered over the weekend is not a cause for concern. doctors have not yet released a prognosis for the 88-year-old, who is suffering from double pneumonia and has been in the hospital since february 14th. >> he hasn't had any further respiratory crises. he has been able to reduce the amount of oxygen flow when he was using the nasal tubes. they've been able to reduce that. >> reporter: pope francis was able to resume some work on monday inside rome's gemelli hospital, calling the parish of gaza, something he's done regularly since 2023. ♪ doctors and nurses at the hospital prayed for his health during a mass, while children

being treated there made him get well cards. catholics around the world are keeping the pope in their prayers as he faces this latest health scare. >> you can't help but feel touched by him, and now you just want to feel a way we can just through prayer accompany him and his need right now. >> the voice of the pope is so important at the moment. the world is full of hatred. and he's a voice of love. >> reporter: the vatican started nighttime prayers for pope francis in st. peter's square, inviting the public to join with cardinals and other members of the clergy for an evening rosary. chris livesay, cbs news, rome. now to a measles outbreak in the united states that's grown to almost 100 cases, primarily affecting unvaccinated children and teenagers in the southwest. texas reporting the worst outbreak, with at least 90 cases so far. that's the biggest outbreak in the state in more than 30 years.

new mexico is reporting nine cases. hospitals are opening emergency testing sites, trying to keep this virus under control. measles is highly contagious, and if you're positive up to 90% of people you come into contact with who are not vaccinated or don't have immunity will get sick. coming up next on "cbs news roundup," the man in line to be the new chancellor of germany says it's time for europe to defend itself without the help of the united states. stay with us.

when i'm hungry, my stomach hurts. i get sad and scared. i feel all alone. i don't think anybody cares. i want to shut my eyes and disappear. [female narrator] 1 in 5 children in the u.s. can't be sure where their next meal will come from. but together, we can do something about it. feed the children provides struggling families with the food and essentials they need. for hungry kids who need help,

you can make the difference. donate today at feedthechildren.org. small businesses are the heart of america. but you don't have to go it alone. as the nation's largest nonprofit resource of expert, business mentoring. score has helped millions of entrepreneurs build their businesses, for free. get the connections, education and guidance you need with score. we're ready to help. find a mentor today at score.org. this is "cbs news roundup." i'm carissa lawson in new york. at the united nations the trump administration took another step towards breaking the military alliance with europe. the u.s. voted against a

resolution condemning russia for the invasion of ukraine. instead introduced a separate resolution demanding, quote, an end to the crisis. in germany the winner of this past weekend's election said europe must move forward to defend itself from russia, including with nuclear weapons. but germany faces its own issues. a far right party linked to its nazi past came in second place in the elections. holly williams reports from berlin. >> reporter: it's the afd's best result in national elections since the far right party was founded just 12 years ago. during the campaign the afd's leader, alice weidel, pledged to carry out the mass deportation of immigrants. many germans, though, are outraged. their country spent decades confronting its nazi history. >> we know what happened in germany in the '30s, and it

feels a bit like this is happening again. and that makes me really afraid of the future. >> reporter: one of the afd's regional leaders used a nazi slogan at campaign events. german intelligence has placed the party under surveillance for suspected extremism. and germany's mainstream politicians have vowed not to form a coalition with them. but earlier this month vice president j.d. vance met with the afd's leader and urged europe to stop isolating far right parties. >> if you're running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing america can do for you. >> reporter: elon musk has gone further and publicly endorsed the afd. >> i think you're really the best hope for germany. >> reporter: many afd voters are angry about the 2015 migrant crisis, when over a million arrived on european shores and nearly half a million claimed

asylum in germany. a series of violent attacks by asylum seekers has fueled their frustration. faisal ducker arrived in 2015 from war-torn syria and now employs 27 people at his restaurant in berlin. he became a german citizen three months ago. he told us he's frightened that the afd will one day govern germany and carry out deportations. "they don't like black hair," he said. "everyone must be blond." with no single party winning a majority, the pressure is now on to negotiate a coalition. but if germany's mainstream parties cannot govern together successfully, that could further drive up support for the afd. >> that was holly williams reporting. "cbs n

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nexium 24hr prevents heartburn acid for twice as long as pepcid. get all-day and all-night heartburn acid prevention with just one pill a day. choose acid prevention. choose nexium. the fbi is looking for more alleged victims of a las vegas woman it says was involved in a romance scam that turned deadly. the suspect is accused of befriending older men, then drugging and robbing them. in at least one instance the alleged victim died. she was arrested in mexico 16 months ago and is fighting extradition to the united states. andres gutierrez has more. >> this is a romance scam on steroids. >> reporter: on friday federal authorities in nevada revealed a years-long investigation into an

international and deadly romance scam. in an unsealed indictment the justice department charged 43-year-old aurora phelps with scamming four older men between 2021 and 2022 phelps allegedly used aliases like sissy and laura on dating sites like tinder and ok cupid to lure her victims. after meeting them in person feds say she would hit their bank accounts and go on shopping sprees. >> some of them were lonely, looking for companionship. most of them were, you know, elderly single men. she befriended them. in many cases she went on multiple dates with them. >> reporter: the 21 counts against phelps include bank fraud, identity theft, and kidnapping. the fbi said one of the four victims was put in a coma after phelps drugged him and that the other three died after meeting phelps. she's charged in one of their deaths. >> we believe phelps kidnapped one of these victims by heavily sedating him and pushing him across the u.s.-mexico border in

a wheelchair. phelps then took him to a hotel room in mexico city, where the victim was found dead a few hours later. >> reporter: the fbi also claims there are more possible victims of phelps's scam in the u.s. and mexico, including both men and women and dating back to 2019. if convicted on all counts, she could spend the rest of her l

an indigenous community in

california recently gained control of a vast tract of their ancestral land. now they're using age-old techniques to protect the trees from wildfire and disease. michelle miller reports. >> it is beautiful. >> reporter: all of this land is yours? >> all the land that you can see and the hills is all part of the preserve system that we have here. >> reporter: as tribal leader of the eflen nation -- >> the name of this land is called kapine. >> reporter: tom little bear mason helped his people buy back some 14,000 acres in the majestic hills of monterey county last august. land his ancestors were forced from hundreds of years ago. >> we were never separated from the land as far as the connection even though we were physically disconnected from the land, we are connected through the trees. we remember ourselves through the trees. the trees tell stories. >> reporter: stories of the stewards who once tended these forests. and those now charged with its

care. ♪ [ singing in a global language ] >> reporter: chanel keller performs a sacred ritual of both gratitude and cleansing. >> everyone wants us to provide answers for how to save the land without us having a relationship on it. that is irresponsible. we need the return of our lands so that we can build a relationship with the land so that we can come out here and harvest the land. >> reporter: their goal, to strengthen a forest now vulnerable to disease and mother nature. using cultural practices handed down for generations. >> when i was growing up, we could ride horses and hike through the forest and see through it. and now 50 years later everything has grown over. the trees are falling over and dying. >> reporter: and sick trees are ripe for northern california's greatest threat. massive wildfires. not to mention mudslides that

leveled parts of neighboring big sur. the eflens seek to manage those threats as a native forestry service, so to speak. >> lee and i have been working together since i think about 2011, 2010. >> yep. >> these forests are here because native people tended them for thousands of years. >> reporter: dr. lee klinger has studied ecosystems across the globe and has zeroed in on this area. >> what stood out? >> mainly the difference in the shapes of the oaks. between the large oaks, which is spread out, versus the younger oaks, which were not tended that ended up going straight up. like oaks normally do. >> reporter: the result of deliberate pruning to encourage farm production. >> basically how they were tended to impacted how they grew? >> correct. they encouraged these broad spreading canopies because it makes it a lot easier to collect acorns for one reason.

it's the most efficient shape at maximizing fruit or in this case acorn production. >> reporter: that was one method to increase farm production. another more important today, protecting the trees themselves. >> we burn off a little area. and then that would take out limbs like this that are dead.p up. it would clean some of the leaves up. >> so here we have mistletoe. which is a parricide on the oaks. >> it's huge. >> yeah. that's not going to go away unless we get fire back in the landscape. cultural fire, we call it. >> cultural fire. >> yeah. >> reporter: it's a practice dismissed by early settlers. and reintroduced by the u.s. forestry service when scientists realized its effectiveness in preventing larger, more destructive fires. >> and the elders always taught us if you don't burn it will get overgrown, it will grow against the trees and the lightning fire

comes, a natural fire, it will burn through and take all the trees out. so we were always working around these trees because we learned that from nature. >> reporter: dr. klinger believes the eflens' more intensive approach can be scaled up. >> i've developed something we call fire mimicry, and actually it's stuff the native people have been doing for thousands of years as i found out afterwards. clearing and cutting and thinning the forest like firewood, fertilizing the soils with ash and biochar and hitting the moss with some literaschensf the tree. >> uk saying you can reverse the mortality of a tree? >> yes. many hundreds, thousands of them i've done. this is not a hypothetical. it's been proven that that can work and make a healthy ecosystem. >> why do europeans get it so wrong? >> we weren't doing farming the way they see it by ripping the earth and planting seeds. we were working with the forests. we were, you know, propagating

the sfforest. we tended to the earth. i admire the tree here. i come here and give thanks and gratitude. we do as a tribe. >> reporter: tending to the needs of many precious species that inhabit this plain. >> is it too late? >> it's not too late. it's very, very, very close. it's razor thin. whether we can turn or not. the more people we awaken to what is going on with the forest, we can awaken people to start working with their forest in their own back yard. it starts in your own yard. >> that was michelle iller

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it's tuesday, february 25th, it's tuesday, february 25th, 2025. this is "cbs news mornings." confusion and contradiction. elon musk's email deadline leaving federal workers in the lurch as the president and his administration offer differing responses. i smell something