brp. >> it's friday, march 7th, 2025. this is "cbs news mornings."

tariff whiplash. president trump's on again-off again tariffs on canadian and mexican imports is off again, at least for now. as the president puts new limits on elon musk and his department of government efficiency. growing measles concerns. an unvaccinated new mexico resident who tested positive for the virus dies. and what went wrong? spacex's "starship" mega rocket explodes again during a test flight sending debris raining down and disrupting air traffic. good morning. i'm michael george. president trump's flip-flops over his trade war are baffling businesses, threatening investment in economic growth. the president issued yet another pause on sweeping tariffs on canada and mexico. federal job cuts are moving ahead, but with a new directive. jarred hill is here to break things down. good morning. these tariffs, they were only in place for two days before the

president backed down. what's going on here? >> president trump is saying this happened after a phone call with the president of mexico. they say they discussed some issues related to drugs there. he's insisting, though, that this did not have anything to do with the turmoil in the stock market linked to his trade war. the reprieve covers about 38% of 23d ---ed goods from canada and nearly 50 of the from mexico for now. president donald trump is taking a step back on tariffs. >> it's just a modification. short term. >> reporter: thursday announcing a temporary pause on import taxes for goods listed in the u.s.-mexico-canada trade deal, brokered during his first term. in response canada paused its retaliatory tariffs. doug ford, premier of the province of ontario, is skeptical. >> he said that before and sitched his mind. >> reporter: he says if president trump doesn't drop the tariffs for good he'll put a 25% tariff on electricity that ontario sends to minnesota, michigan, and new york, starting monday.

>> last thing i want to do is turn out the lights. i'll put a tariff -- but let's straighten this out. >> reporter: president trump is also shifting his tone on mass federal firings after a meeting with members of his cabinet and elon musk. >> i want the cabinet members to keep good people. i don't want to see a big cut where a lot of good people are cut. >> reporter: in a message posted on x, veterans affairs secretary doug collins explained his department would shrink by 72,000 employees. >> we'll be making major changes, so get used to. -- used to it. >> reporter: a report says american 62,000 federal jobs were cut in february driven largely by musk's department of government efficiency. president trump posted on line he wants cuts to happen with a scalpel rather than a hatchet. going back to the tariffs issue, the pause like the one for the big three automakers is only set to last four months. we could be having some same conversation in april and we've seen how the back and forth has caused turmoil in the markets as well as for businesses individually. >> all right. jarred hill. thanks for breaking that down.

president trump's firing of federal workers has been so rapid it's been hard to figure out what the impact might be on americans. we could find out the next time there's a natural disaster. that's because among those fired were more than 200 workers at fema including the chief financial officer. in her first interview since she was let go, mary comans tells our maurice dubois her firing came after she alleges elon musk spread false claims about her work. my name has been slandered. i've been personally attacked. my family has been harassed. >> president trump denied me of my rights -- >> reporter: for two decades, mary comans was an unknown bureaucrat at the department of homeland security until one tuesday afternoon when the world's richest man posted her photo on x to his 219 million followers, calling her actions criminal. >> i'm apolitical. i've served both republican and democrat presidents with honor and integrity.

>> reporter: most recently as the chief financial officer for the disaster relief agency fema. in early february she said one of elon musk's top lieutenants, brad smith, zeroed in on a program approved by congress to reimburse cities and states for housing undocumented migrants. >> he specifically asked, he said, have you paused payments to state and local entities? and my colleague who oversees the grants program responded, no. and brad smith said, that's the right answer. payments to state and local entities should continue under the normal process and procedures. >> you're thinking at that point -- >> that we were squared away. >> reporter: squared away until five days later when musk posted "the doge team just discovered that fema sent $59 million last week to new york city to house illegal migrants," saying the agency violated the law. >> that really came as a surprise to me and my

colleagues. >> reporter: did you document all of this, what happened? >> i did. >> reporter: but it didn't matter. the next morning a colleague delivered the news -- comans had been fired at the direction of the president. the official department of homeland security had put out a press release here, it says, you were fired for circumventing leadership to unilaterally make egregious payments for luxury new york city hotels for migrants. >> that is not a true statement. i was fired illegally by the trump administration for doing my job. >> reporter: in that same press release the agency called comans a deep state activist. >> i feel betrayed not by my colleagues, but by a department, an agency that i gave my life to. >> that was maurice dubois reporting. u.s. and ukrainian officials are planning to meet next week

to work on a possible cease-fire and peace agreement with russia. president trump's special envoy steve witkoff says the u.s. and ukraine are in discussions to try and work out details of the meeting. it comes after last week's oval office confrontation between trump and ukrainian president volodymer zelenskyy. in the middle east, hamas brushed off president trump's latest threat saying it will only free the remaining israeli hostages in exchange for a lasting cease-fire. trump gave the terror group what he called his final warning to immediately release all remaining hostages or be destroyed after meeting with eight former hostages wednesday. hamas added that any israeli military escalation against it will likely lead to the killing of hostages. we're also learning troubling new details about american hostage edan alexander. according to israeli media, recently released hostages have reported that alexander, who's an idf soldier, is being held in an underground tunnel without air or sunlight.

he's been handcuffed most of the time, interrogated, tortured, and is severely malnourished. the released hostages also revealed that alexander apparently exhibited mental strength and cared for the wellbeing of fellow captives. an unvaccinated adult infected with measles has died in new mexico. authorities say the person did not seek out medical care before they died. the virus has not yet been confirmed as the cause of death. the state health department says there hasn't been a measles death in new mexico in at least 40 years. there's been ten recent measles cases in new mexico and an outbreak in west texas killed an unvaccinated child and sickened nearly 160 people. this morning the vatican said the pope had a good night's rest as he continues to battle pneumonia. yesterday he thanked the faithful a message recorded in his native spanish

[ speaking in a global language ] >> the message was broadcast to worshippers gathered for the nightly prayer in st. peter's square. it's the first time we've -- we're hearing from the 88-year-old pontiff since he entered the hospital three weeks ago. well, another uncrewed spacex "starship" mega rocket blew up during a test flight. minutes after the 400-foot rocket blasted off from texas yesterday, its engine shut down, and it exploded. elon musk's private space company lost contact with the spacecraft as it went into an out-of-control spin. video shows fiery debris streaked through the sky near south florida and the bahamas. in january another "starship" test flight also exploded after launch. >> the problem for nasa is they want to land astronauts on the moon in about two years using a spacex "starship" as the landing vehicle. clearly the company has to put together a string of successful

flights to convince nasa it's reliable and safe enough to put astronauts on board and how long that's going to take is anybody's guess. >> the faa temporarily halted flights at several airports in florida due to the debris. coming up, new details about the idaho murders. what text messages from the two surviving roommates revealed. and why an olympic snowboarder was added to the fbi's most-wanted fugitives list. s most-wanted fugitives list. tri for my copd... things changed for me. breztri gave me... better breathing, symptom improvement, and reduced flare-ups. breztri won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. it is not for asthma. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. don't take breztri more than prescribed. breztri may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain... mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating,... vision changes, or eye pain occur. ask your doctor about breztri. deliveries happen.

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list, and new details about the idaho murders. those are some of the headlines we're following on the "morning newsstand." "the new york times" reports on newly released texts from two surviving roommates from the night four university of idaho students were stabbed to death in 2022. court documents show the two off-campus house mates in different rooms urgently texting each other after one of them saw a masked man moving through the house. they were unable to contact any of the students who were later found dead. one of the survivors texted that she was freaking out. the two appear to have hunkered down together in one of the rooms until later that morning. bryan kohberger has been charged with the murders. yahoo! news says the fbi has placed a former canadian olympic snowboarder on its ten-most-wanted list for allegedly running an international drug empire and ordering the murder of multiple people. a $10 million reward is being offered for information leading to the capture of ryan wedding. authorities say his drug

trafficking network regularly shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from colombia through mexico and southern california to canada and in the u.s. wedding competed for canada in the 2002 salt lake city winter games. "the oregonian" says the discovery of a car in the columbia river could end speculation about the disappears of an oregon family. ken and barbara martin vanished with their three daughters while drives to get a christmas tree in 1958. two of the girls' bodies washed up months later, but the other family members were never found. a diver discovered what's blieved to be their car buried in mud about 50 feet below the surface. authorities hope to pull the car out today. coming up, dolly parton's loving tribute. what she said about her late husband carl dean. te husband carl dean. (♪♪) (phone dings) for the acute treatment of migraine with or without aura in adults, nurtec odt can provide relief in 2 hours

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for the second time in a year, it looks like a private company's lunar lander toppled over after touching down on the moon. data indicates intuitive machines lunar lander athena may have tipped over near the south pole. it was carrying a drill, drone, and two rovers for nasa. a nasa orbiter will fly over the landing site in the coming days to check out the lander. mcdonald's is going high tech, and a high-stakes jobs report has all eyes on wall street. here's jessi mitchell with today's "moneywatch." >> reporter: wall street took another tumble thursday reflecting continued uncertainty from president trump's tariff whiplash. the dow fell 427 points. the nasdaq dropped 483, s&p sank 104. the february jobs report comes out later today.

labor experts expect to see an uptick in new flyers as unemployment rates remain steady at 4%. it spiked last month reaching the highest level since july, 2020, led by the mass firings of elon musk's department of government efficiency. walgreens is about to have a new owner. the struggling drug store has agreed to a nearly $24 billion deal with sycamore partners for a private acquisition. in recent years walgreens has shuttered thousands of stores due to declining sales, increasing costs, and reduced prescription reimbursement. walgreens' shares lost almost two-thirds of their value last year. and mcdonald's is loving a.i. the fast food giant announced plans to incorporate artificial intelligence into the order process at all 43,000 restaurants. the a.i. upgrades are expected to reduce wait times and enhance your experience including internet connected kitchen equipment and a.i.-powered drive-throughs. that's your cbs "moneywatch"

report for this friday morning. i'm jessi mitchell, cbs news, new york. up next, the latest kennedy center cancelation. a hit broadway musical pulls out of a scheduled run. a scheduled. if you take or have taken humira for moderate to severe crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis and still have symptoms... you don't have to settle. ask your gastroenterologist if switching to rinvoq is right for you. it's one of the latest treatments from the makers of humira. rinvoq works differently than humira and may help. rinvoq is a once-daily pill that can deliver rapid symptom relief, lasting steroid-free remission, and helps visibly reduce damage of the intestinal lining. rinvoq can lower ability to fight infections. before treatment, test for tb and do bloodwork. serious infections, blood clots, some fatal; ...cancers, including lymphoma and skin; serious allergic reactions; gi tears; death; heart attack; and stroke occurred. cv event risk increases in age 50 plus with a heart disease risk factor. tell your doctor if you've had these events, infection,

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♪ well broadway's megahit "hamilton" is the latest event to cancel its stint next year at the kennedy center. this comes after president trump's shakeup of the art institution's leadership and takeover of the board. dolly parton is thanking fans for their support after the death of her husband of nearly 60 years, carl dean. the star posted on instagram, "i can't reach out now personally to each of you, but just know it's meant the world to me. he's in god's arms now, and i'm okay with that. i will always love you." referencing her 1973 song of the same name. dean stayed out of the spotlight telling parton in 1996 after attending an awards show he wouldn't be going to any more of these, quote, wingdings. authorities in new mexico set to share details interest -- into the investigation of the deaths of oscar winning actor gene hackman, his wife, and one of

their dogs later today. their partially mummified bodies were discovered in their santa fe home last month. authorities have said the couple may have died up to two weeks before they were discovered. and lawyers for actor blake lively are asking a judge to not grant actor justin baldoni or anyone on his team access to private text messages between the actor and other celebrities. lively accuses baldoni of sexual harassment. baldoni has countersued for defamation and extortion. coming up on "cbs mornings," ringo starr meets up with anthony mason in nashville to talk about his new country music album. ♪ swiffer duster traps 4x more dust, for a clean even mom approves of. that reach! making hard to reach...

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