let's go to cnn's rene marsh right now. and, rene, what do we know about what trump wants to do with the education department? >> right. so, jake, on that first point about this executive order that cnn has learned that he's crafting, there are two parts to this. one is directing the secretary of education, which, by the way, has not even had her her confirmation hearings as yet. linda mcmahon, um, directing the secretary of education to devise a plan that would essentially enable them to diminish this agency through executive order. and the second piece of this would be pushing congress to write legislation that would essentially wipe out the department of education. that second piece, a clear acknowledgment that he cannot do this unilaterally, and he would actually need the help of congress in order to do this thing that he has said and promised that he would do many times during his campaign. jake. >> all right. interesting. rene marsh, and i guess we'll come back to you when we get a copy of that executive order to talk

let's bring in cnn's jeff zeleny and rene marsh for this story. jeff, let's start with russia. that was a wild truth social post from the president today calling ukrainian president zelenskyy elected, calling him a dictator on top of his comments yesterday. >> taking a bit of context on that, president trump was traveling from mar a lago to his golf resort here in miami as he sent out that message. really? re upping and re, you know, resetting western alliances but and already suspicious and fraught relationship between donald trump and volodymyr zelenskyy. it really escalated mightily with trump calling him a dictator. but also that was in reaction clearly to vladimir zelenskyy saying that he is getting misinformation and disinformation from russia. but i am told by aides to the president, the american president, that he was furious by that remark and furious at the notion that he's being fed talking points by vladimir putin. but, jake, that is exactly how this is all played out. we've seen it with our own eyes, and it really is escalated ever since that phone call one week ag

let's turn now to cnn's renÉ marsh. rene maye musk said a number of things that were interesting.he specifically seemed to try to lay some charm on these cabinet officials. what did you make of that? >> you know, what i thought was interesting was that it had the feel of at times he was almost lecturing these cabinet officials about what the goals are and what needed to be done on the agency level. and, and at one point he was asked if it was his expectation when he posts a directive on x, that cabinet secretaries will follow that order because, as you know, boris, many cabinet secretaries is essentially told their employees not to comply with the maye musk order outlined in that email. but, but but also, he spoke a bit more about what his goal and intention was behind sending that email. take a listen to this. >> to be clear. like the i think that email perhaps was best interpreted as a performance review, but actually it was a pulse check review. do you have a pulse? do you have a pulse and two neurons? um, so if you have a pulse on two neurons, you can reply to an email. this i

cnn's rene marsh is joining us now. she's got all the latest details. tell our viewers, renee, what you're learning. >> well, just about six hours until that deadline to respond to that email and the confusion among the federal workforce remains high. now, the office of personnel management formally notified agencies this afternoon that that so-called what did you do last week email sent over the weekend is voluntary and that the failure to respond will not result in resignation. now that guidance runs counter to what elon musk said over the weekend. musk posted on x, and i'm quoting failure to respond will be taken as a resignation. it also runs counter to what the president said today. president trump saying that anyone who doesn't answer is semi fired or fired. well, all of this is just, again, really difficult for many of these employees to figure out who to listen to. one employee at the department of veterans affairs telling me today, and i'm quoting, no one knows who is in charge and who to listen to. now that. what did you do last week? email app

amara and victor. >> rene marsh, thank you for that now. elon musk's government efficiency team will have to wait longer to get their hands on a critical treasury department payment system. a federal judge extended a temporary order to block them. that system distributes americans tax returns, social security benefits, disability payments and federal employees salaries. the suit, from 19 state attorneys general, says musk's team got access unlawfully. cnn legal analyst joey jackson joining us now. hi. good morning joey. obviously, another temporary win for these democratic attorneys general who filed this lawsuit. talk to me about what they argued in this hearing. >> yeah. >> good to be with you. >> and so i think. >> the basis of it is that there's. >> a process. >> now let's talk about two things. >> the one thing. >> is the political. >> i think. >> that there certainly is widespread agreement with respect to trimming government and ensuring that government runs more efficiently. that being said, the process to your question in terms of

cnn's rene marsh is here. rene, tell us about these new firings by the trump administration. >> so. >> you know, this really started earlier this week where we were talking about layoffs and we were hearing in the hundreds. and now fast forward to today, and we have just it's rapidly taken off this new phase of firings across the federal government. and now we're in the thousands. and these labor unions who represent a lot of these career employees, they haven't even been able to get their arms around the full scope and scale of just how many federal workers have been dismissed. but here's what we know so far. more than 1000 were let go from the veterans affairs, trump's va secretary, doug collins, said that this would save the agency some $98 million a year. 2000 fired from the department of energy. nearly 1300 fired from the centers for disease control. uh, we also have 3400 from forest service. and then later this afternoon, we learned over 2000 from the interior department. and i spent some time speaking wi

cnn's rene marsh is with us. renee, what exactly did this judge rule. >> these labor. >> unions asked this federal. >> judge to put. >> a. >> pause on. >> trump's mass firing of these. probationary employees. but the unions did not win. so for now, the trump administration can move forward with these mass firings. and the judge simply said that there were more appropriate channels for the unions to bring this particular claim, and that he lacked jurisdiction in the review of this particular case. but the judge did appear sympathetic to the workers and what they are going through at this moment, jake. >> and the irs is expected to fire about 6000 workers today, less than two months before the april 15th tax deadline. what's what's going on there? >> so those firings are underway as we speak. we know that irs employees who i've been speaking to throughout the day, they are describing chaotic scenes, heightened security. federal officers and officers from department of homeland security, positioned inside and outside

cnn's rene marsh joins us. so, rene, this is rooted in that 2023 supreme court ruling that gutted affirmative action in college admissions. but even preschools are targeted here. what more can you tell us? >> right, pamela? i mean, no school spared based on this interpretation that we're reading here in this letter. again, this is a threat to pull this federal funding. um, directed again at preschools all the way up to colleges and universities and the trump administration's department of education has told schools across the country to stop considering race in almost every aspect of student life, and they need to do it in 14 days. the agency sent this letter friday night, and it states that if a school treats a person of one race differently than than it treats another, that is a violation of federal law. this letter goes on to say that this will pertain to admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, financial aid, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, discipline, housing, graduation ceremonies, and al

cnn's rene marsh joins us now. rene, so much confusion over this email. i know i was hearing from federal workers over the weekend. which departments are telling their workers not to respond? >> well, pamela, as you said, the fbi, department of homeland security, state department, the pentagon, as you can imagine, many of those workers have sensitive issues that they are working on. and putting out bullet points within an email of what they've been working on for the past week. it clearly is outside the chain of command at these agencies. and so in those cases, those employees have been told to hold on this request from elon musk. of course, this email came after the president said over the weekend that he wanted to see elon musk getting more aggressive with the cuts to the federal government. then you saw this email come out to all of the federal workers. i've heard one scenario of friends of mine who were in chipotle and actually saw the moment when two federal workers received the information on their email address, and many of them just kind of mouth

cnn's rene marsh joins us now. and, rene, look, earlier, opm said one thing, then another thing comes out. what is actually going on here? >> you know, the question is, what do people do and who do they follow and what will happen to them if they don't follow the instructions or comply with this email? and the answer is it may not be satisfying, is it remains to be seen. and it really depends on which agency you're at as far as what instructions you're supposed to follow. so, for example, at the justice department and the defense department, they told their employees not to comply, but at the transportation and the education department, they told their employees that they should comply. but this all started over the weekend. but once workers came back to work, the confusion really only intensified. i want you to just take a look at the back and forth. on monday alone, they arrived at work after musk threatened that they must comply with this email or face termination by 6 p.m. that change to replying was voluntary,

cnn's renÉ marsh is with me. and rene. what exactly does this memo lay out?>> well, jake, these are two different memos, two directives with the goal, again, of shrinking the federal workforce and ensuring that the people who do work at these agencies are loyal to trump's policy agenda. now, the first one walks agencies through how to prepare for so-called large scale terminations, which the president nodded to today at this cabinet meeting, when he said that the epa would be cutting 65% of its staff and that they were going to speed up the process of firings. now, the opm today instructed agencies to submit lists of agency divisions and employees who are not considered essential during the government shutdown and also for divisions and agencies that are considered essential. but they need to have a plan for how to reduce the staff there. now, opm is also asking agencies to come up with talking points and strong arguments to convince congress to agree with the major restructuring efforts that they are proposing at these agencies. and the deadline for all of t

. >> cnn's rene marsh is with us now. rene, tell us what you're learning. >> well, boris and brianna, federal workers just got a hail mary from this federal judge. he has effectively paused the trump administration's buyout offer, as well as that midnight deadline in which federal employees had to make a decision on whether they would resign. that was the offer that the trump administration had offered. again, this federal judge, pausing that completely. and now, in this hearing, the government will have to send out a mass email to federal employees to let them know that and let them know that that midnight deadline to make a decision on whether they will resign from their post is no longer in play, at least not for now. we know that another hearing will take place this upcoming monday at 2:00. the reason for this, this u.s. district judge george o'toole, he is a bill clinton appointee, said that he needed more information to determine whether this buyout offer that the trump administration is offering to federal employees

cnn's rene marsh is live with more on this. renee. what are you hearing about staffers at these agencies? >> right. >> so we're. >> hearing from multiple career employees who have. >> had interactions. >> with these members of doge or have seen them coming and going, and they are. described as a slate of young, 20 something year old engineers who have gained access to many of these agencies. i.t. systems, in some cases doing, in some cases doing keyword searches for things like dye to identify potential employees or work on policies in that agency, as well as contracts that need to be canceled because they deem anything related to die as wasteful. spending. here are some names of some of these individuals who. cnn has learned, are members of the doge team. 23 year old recent grad from uc berkeley. there's also a member of the doge team who just recently graduated from high school. so you see the youth there. many of these individuals have zero experience when it comes to the federal government and understanding how the federal governm

. >> joining us now is cnn's rene marsh. where do things stand right now, rene. >> right now, again, i would have to say, pamela, just where it stood about 24 hours ago. i mean, i think that the bottom line is many of these federal employees share that sentiment of they're not quite sure who to listen to. they're not quite sure who is in charge. you walk through the tick tock of events starting from the weekend into yesterday and now into this morning. it is just been this whiplash of, you know, information that they're getting from multiple places, from their agency heads, from elon musk, from the president of the united states. and they really are in this moment of not quite sure knowing exactly what to do. uh, just late in the evening on monday, opm essentially told these agencies that it was voluntary, but it didn't help when elon musk then took to twitter and you highlighted it at the top there, uh, in his post on x. there you go. essentially saying that if you didn't respond to that first deadline, which was yesterday a

. >> cnn's rene marsh is here with more on this story. rene, what can you tell us about this? >> so this is. >> the acting. >> commissioner of the. >> social security. >> administration. >> michelle king. >> she has been at. this agency for some 30 years, more than 30 years. and she walked. away from all this time of service because she clashed with doge and doj's request for access to these sensitive systems that house american sensitive information at the social security agency. we're talking about financial information. medical information. there are about 72.5 million americans who receive social security benefits, from retirees to children, as well as disabled people. so we're talking about millions of americans and their personal information and doj's access. and we understand that was at the core of why she left this agency. uh, but, you know, you hear from doge musk and even the white house. they say that we have to get access to these systems because we have to root out this fraud and waste that is happening from agency to agency. and actually, the white house spokesp

cnn's rene marsh is joining us now with more on this story. rene, talk to us about these new developments. >> so i. >> will say. >> that this. let's take a step back. >> so these. >> firings started happening earlier this week. but now fast forward to friday and things have certainly ramped up. each day we hear about a new agency and we're hearing about thousands of more firings and the labor unions themselves, because this is happening so quickly, they're still trying to wrap their arms around exactly what is the full scale and scope of this to get some final numbers. but here is what we know right now. we know that more than a thousand were fired from veterans affairs. we know 2000 were fired from the energy department. nearly 1300 from the centers for disease control. uh, 3400 from u.s. forest service. and then i'm just getting this now. so bear with me as i read from my phone. employees at the interior department are now beginning to get word in this text message that a staff member received from a colleague. and this is time stamped at 239

cnn's rene marsh joins us now. for more on this. rene. education department employees got word about this last week. what are they hearing? >> yeah. so starting wednesday and into friday, employees started to get these emails which essentially said that they're being placed on paid administrative leave. at this point, the union president who represents these employees say that number is about at 75 of these department of education employees. but that's a low ball number, because that just represents people who are actually members of the union. there are likely many, many more. these employees received this email. they were locked out of their email accounts after they received it. and then they were told that they would be put on paid administrative leave for an indefinite period of time. however, the union is pointing out that many of these employees who were targeted in this round of paid leave didn't even work on dei related issues. according to the union, you have one employee who worked in a grant office not related to dei. another

cnn's rene marsh is live for us now on this. so, rene, what are you learning about who will be impacted here? >> so, brianna, within these thousands of employees at the irs, we're hearing there will be auditors, support workers who are involved in compliance work. and a source i was just speaking with on the phone says also revenue agents. it remains to be seen, though, just what sort of impact this more than 6000 people being fired as americans are filing their taxes. what? that will, uh, essentially do to the process in during tax season. we know that the biden administration for years had worked to expand the agency's workforce, also modernize its systems. just last year, there were employees who were still entering paper returns manually on government computers. and also in increasing that workforce was also all about improving customer service at this agency. but now with these cuts that we are hearing are coming today and employees already getting those notices, it certainly will chip away at that progress that they had see

cnn's rene marsh is following all of these threads. rene, let's start with the resignations. these are some senior folks. who is quitting and why? >> i mean, these are two agencies that. impact many. >> americans, millions of americans lives from food safety to social security benefits. so first, at the social security administration. michelle king she had been at the agency for more than 30 years, and she walks away from her decades worth of service after clashing with doge. doge wanted to get access to sensitive systems within the agency that contain social security recipients. personal information from medical information, financial information. it's worth noting some 72.5 million americans get social security benefits from the disabled to children to retirees. and so it really raised some concerns with her as far as the access they were looking for and what they planned on doing with that information. of course, musk and his doge has said that this is all about identifying waste and fraud and rooting it out. the white house, in reference to her resignation, said in a stat

cnn's rene marsh is here with us now. and, rene, the department of education is actually on the chopping block as well. tell us about this. >> that's right. we have reporting that the president is working on crafting an executive order, which would essentially dismantle the department of education. first, the first phase would be to essentially ask the security. the secretary of the department of education to diminish the department and ways to diminish the the department through executive action. the president would also call on congress to create legislation that would enable him to further dismantle the agency. brianna keilar. >> and there's also dozens of employees at the department of education who have already been told to stay home. is it clear why they're on leave? and what is the agency saying about that? >> right. so we have reporting that some 75 employees from the department of education have been placed on leave, and that is a lowball estimation that coming from the union president representing these employees

for the latest on this, we're joined now by cnn's rene marsh and alayna treene at the white house. rene, first to you. what do we know about who has been impacted so far? >> right. so, pamela, i mean, worth noting this is a new phase because up until now, we have just been talking about federal employees being placed on paid administrative leave. and now we're hearing about actual terminations. we've heard from union as well as members who have been impacted at both the department of education and small business administration. and as far as like who is impacted, i can tell you just at the department of education alone, there are employees who are in the general counsel's office, the special education and rehabilitation services division, federal student aid division. all of these individuals have received notices saying that they're being terminated. and we got a hold of one of those termination letters. and this is just a portion of it. it says, quote, um, we are writing to inform you of your termination. the agency finds, based on your performance that you have not demonstrated,

let's get right to cnn's rene marsh for the latest on this. what are you learning, renee? >> john. >> good morning. >> king worked. >> at this. >> agency for more. >> than 30 years, and she walked away from her decades of service after clashing with elon musk's doge requests for access to sensitive systems that contain social security recipients personal information, including medical and financial information. now, keep in mind some 72.5 million people, including retirees, disabled people and children receive social security benefits. so we're talking about access to millions of americans personal information at this agency. musk has said that this is all about identifying waste and fraud at government agencies, and we should note that this is not the only agency where doge has access. americans sensitive private information, making many career federal employees at those agencies uncomfortable and concerned. career employees have had similar concerns at the irs and the treasury department are also getting access to these sensitive systems. john. so the social security adm

. >> cnn's rene marsh has been covering the fallout from this email. rene. the president essentially saying that federal workers who don't respond by monday night might be at risk of losing their jobs. >> right? certainly sounds like he's suggesting that those folks could be penalized for not responding to musk's email. and the president also with that statement, is making clear his support for elon musk and all the actions that both musk and doge have taken so far. but this email has also really highlighted the tug of war power struggle between trump appointed cabinet officials and the unelected elon musk. because we saw, as jeff noted, several cabinet secretaries tell their employees not to comply with musk's email request. so it was interesting to see musk taking center stage at this cabinet meeting today, where he appeared, even at times almost lecturing the cabinet secretaries about the need to move fast to make cuts to government spending. at one point, musk was asked how many federal employees he was looking to cut, and he didn't give an overall numbe

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

cnn's rene marsh is going to break this down for us. rene. the trump administration has already closed the epa's dei office. so what is the environmental justice office do and how many workers could be impacted? >> right. so this is an office. it's the environmental justice as well as the external civil rights office. and these are individuals who are making sure that grant's policies are keeping in mind that there are certain communities that could be facing disproportionate impacts from things like climate change and pollution and making sure that federal funding and programs are equitably distributed so that they can prepare themselves to make sustainability plans for their communities, as well as resilience for their communities. so that's at the heart of the work that they do there. but the trump administration sees work like this as an extension of dei. however, many of the employees i speak to don't view themselves as dei employees. they actually see that this is work that's being done to make sure that all communities have access to t

and cnn's rene marsh is here to help us make sense of it. rene. who are these employees? why were they fired? >> well, boris, more than 300 staffers at the national nuclear security administration, which is the agency tasked with managing the nation's nuclear stockpile, were dismissed on thursday night as part of the broader layoffs at the department of energy. >> now. >> these employees are employees with a mission that is critical to the nation's national security, and some of the employees included staff on the ground at facilities overseeing contractors who build nuclear weapons. and they're charged with inspecting those weapons. now, the termination notices also went to employees at nnsa headquarters who write requirements and guidelines for the contractors building nuclear weapons. now, sources tell cnn that members of congress expressed great concern when they learned about this. so much so that senators visited energy secretary chris wright to express those concerns about the cuts. one source telling cnn that congress is freaking out because it appears doe didn't

cnn's rene marsh and adam minsky. he's an attorney specializing in student loans. rene, i want to go to you. where do things stand right now with the department's fate? >> so, you. >> know. >> we have talked about. >> the layoffs. >> and we know that there have been several career employees at the department of education who have been fired under this probationary firing. but aside from that, you heard the president. he's been saying that he wants to get rid of this department. we do have reporting that he has this executive order, which would essentially direct the secretary of education to come up with a plan for how they could diminish this agency by executive order. and then the second half of that executive order would be to urge congress to dismantle the department of education. it remains unclear if republican members in congress truly have the appetite to to do such a thing. in the past, they have not. but that's where things stand there. and, of course, uh, the trump's pick for department of education secretary was on capitol hill this week for her senate

cnn's rene marsh is here with more on these developments. what are you learning about the impacts, renee? >> so, brianna, i've been speaking a lot with the labor unions, and they're still trying to get their arms around the full scale and scope of these government wide firings. but here's what we know so far at the department of veterans affairs, more than a thousand have been fired. uh, trump va secretary doug collins said that it would save the agency some $98 million a year at the department of energy. 2000 were fired at the cdc. nearly 1300, and at the u.s. forest service. that number is now 3400. and sticking with the u.s. forest service, you know, that is an agency that manages the nation's public forests and grasslands. and trump has talked about this agency quite a bit, saying that, you know, we need better forest management to prevent wildfires. and i spoke with a forest service source today about the impact of these 3400 people being let go and and what that impact would be in real life terms. many of the people let go were not a pa

cnn's rene marsh has more. >> labor unions representing federal. >> employees are still trying to. >> get their hands around the. >> full scope and. >> scale of. >> the. >> trump administration's government wide firings, but so far, we know more than a thousand were fired from veterans affairs. trump's va secretary, doug collins, said it would save the agency $98 million a year. 2000 were dismissed at the energy department. nearly 1300 at the centers for disease control, 2200 at the interior department and 3400 at the forest service. and that's an agency that manages the nation's public forests and grasslands to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires. now, trump has talked a lot about clearing forest floors to combat wildfires. and while the fire fighting unit of the forest service was not laid off, employees with desk jobs and those who clear trails were. and at a time when wildfires have become more frequent and intense, those employees often serve as reserve crews that the agency can tap into when they need more manpower. one forest service source tells me now they may likely ha

cnn's rene marsh is with us now on this story. what more do we know about just how many, how broad these layoffs or firings are? >> so we have been close contact with the union, and at this point, they don't even have totals. and they are actually expecting to hear from even more employees. but what we do know is that we're hearing from employees and union members at the department of education, small business administration. again, we're starting to hear from other agencies as well. but who are some of these individuals and what divisions do they work in at the department of education offices, like the general counsel's office, the special education and rehabilitation services office, and federal student aid office? um, we even obtained a letter that one of these employees received, essentially telling them that they were terminated and just wanting to read a line from that. and in that letter, it says that the agency finds, based on your performance, that you have not demonstrated, that your further employment at the agency woul

rene marsh is also with me now on this shifting guidance given to federal workers. uh, what do we know at this point? what are they being told? >> well, look, we're three. >> days into this and. >> there is. >> still, like. high levels of confusion, but. also just, you know, employees are upset. the union representing them continues to say that this is illegal, that forcing employees to comply with this email is not within their is no regulation that says that they must reply to an email demand from anyone who is outside of their chain of command. but just to recap of how we got here, i mean, the white house today is trying to give further clarification to kind of clean all this up for federal workers. but remember, this all started on saturday where they were told that if they do not comply with responding to what they accomplished last week, they would be terminated. then came monday at around 6 p.m. uh, they received word that this was actually voluntary for them to comply. and then later that evening, they were then told that it's up to the agencies to essential

rene marsh, thank you. boris. >> meantime, federal workers are facing a thursday deadline to resign if they want to accept a buyout offer from the trump administration. if they accept, they would receive severance through september 30th. this move has been criticized by federal workers unions, who are cautioning members that the offer does not guarantee they would actually receive those benefits. and now, attorneys general from 12 states are urging workers to stay on the job. california attorney general rob bonta writing that the trump administration's so-called buyout offer is appointed attack aimed at dismantling our federal workforce and sowing chaos for americans that rely on a functioning government. joining us now is one of those attorneys general who issued a similar warning. the ag of connecticut, william tong. sir, thanks so much for sharing part of your afternoon with us. your office says there are more than 5000 federal workers living in connecticut. how many of them do you expect will take this

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. >> according to our rene marsh reporting. it does appear that some of the folks you mentioned, firefighters, maybe not the first line firefighters, but some folks who could potentially be called in reserve should efforts require it. they may have been laid off here. um, why are these folks being targeted, in your opinion, and what kind of protections do they have, if any? >> sure. well, they they have to. there's a procedure that is spelled out in law. and the president, uh, you know, under article two of the constitution, he has to faithfully execute the laws of this country. and there is a reduction in force procedure spelled out in the law. and he is ignoring that completely. uh, there is no way, based on the wording of his executive order, that agencies could both follow the executive order and comply with that law. and so, you know, he is not faithfully executing the laws of this country. uh, that that's unconstitutional. and people should be really mad about that. and. uh, you know, and ultimately getting in the streets

rene marsh, thank you for being with us. appreciate it. kate. >> investigations are underway in texas after the mother of an 11 year old girl says that bullies at school threatening to call i.c.e. to have her parents taken away led to that little girl dying by suicide. the mother saying the school knew of the bullying and never told the family. two. two small planes collided mid-air in arizona. what we are learning now about this latest deadly aviation crash. >> in this. >> part changed. >> my life. >> superman is now the winner of the bafta award for best documentary. >> chris wanted to change. >> the world. >> people are literally. >> walking because. >> of him. >> superman the christopher reeve story saturday at ten on cnn. >> something about the way we're working just isn't working. when you're caught up in complex. pay requirements or distracted by scheduling staff in multiple time zones, or thinking about the complexity of working in monterrey while based in montreal, you're not doing the work you're meant to do. but with hr, pay tim

thank you so much, rene marsh for that. great reporting, kate. >> coming up for us, elon musk has turned his focus to the nation's top consumer watchdog. why the consumer protection? the consumer financial protection bureau is shutting down essentially this week. plus new cases of bird flu forcing new york to take action. the new concerns and message today from the state's top health official and the world's largest coffee chain, offering you a free cup today. what this promotion has to do with what starbucks hopes is a big reboot. >> have i got news for you is back for another season. roy wood jr. amber ruffin and michael ian black are finding the funny in the week's biggest stories. >> we're going to give you all four years of something to talk about. >> if we alive. >> have i got news for you saturday at nine on cnn. >> liberty. >> liberty mutual is all she talks about since we saved hundreds by bundling our home and auto insurance. >> it's pronounced liberty. liberty. liberty, liberty. nice try kid. only pay for what yo

. >> we got more details now from cnn's rene marsh. >> well. >> the 25 year old doge staffer.also linked to social media posts calling for the repeal of the civil rights act. now, marko elez graduated from rutgers university in 2021, and shortly after began working at musk's company, space x, as a doge staffer. he was considered a special government employee with. access to sensitive federal agency i.t. systems. and data. >> and like the. >> slate of other 20 something year old engineers who are on musk's. doge team, he does not appear to have any experience. >> working in the. >> government. again, musk's doge team consists. >> of a slate of. >> software engineers in their early. >> 20s who have impressive. accomplishments in the tech world but are novices when it comes to the federal government and understanding how it works. musk's team includes a 23 year old software engineer from nebraska who used a.i. to help decipher an ancient scroll buried for centuries. another was a runner up in a hackathon contest last year as a harvard senior. a third is a ceo of a multi-billion d

cnn's rene marsh joins us now. rene, tell us more about the lawsuit and why researchers say the funding cuts would be devastating for their research. >> so. >> phil. >> the nih. >> is saying that this these cuts could essentially save the agency some $4 billion annually. but the medical and scientific research community are saying that the cost could actually be well beyond just dollars and cents. what they're saying is that this could essentially mean that americans are waiting much longer for cures for diseases and sicknesses, because this will be devastating to research that's already underway and quite disruptive. so last week, let's take a step back. the nih. they issued this guidance document stating that all indirect cost rates for its grants would be reduced to 15%. that would be for existing grants and new grants. um, and again, this was a document that came out last week and it went into effect today. keep in mind that's one business day from when the agency actually made the announcement. now, in order to

cnn's rene marsh is with us. and, rene, we just got some new reporting about the department of government efficiency, or doge and its leadership. tell us. >> that's right. so this was happening at a hearing in which, uh, lawyers for the government were essentially trying to defend doj's access to the treasury department's sensitive systems. they were asked by the judge, what is elon musk's role with doge and the defense, the the government struggled to answer this. and at one point even said it really is not relevant to the matter before the judge. to that, the judge says, quote, it does seem to me that if you have people that are not authorized to carry out some of these functions and they're carrying them out, that does seem to raise an issue. i would hope by now you would know the structure. who is the administrator? again, the government not able to answer. what exactly is elon musk's role when it comes to doge? but back to what you said at the top there, jake. lots of confusion across the federal government.

we should mention we have cnn's rene marsh tracking all the latest developments here. how, rene, are federal employees navigating this? >> i mean, they're struggling. there is a lot of confusion, lots of chaos at the department of health and human services. they were first told to respond then. then the agency reversed course and said not to respond. then there are individuals who i've spoken to who are federal employees today, who said that their agency told them to respond, but their union is telling them not to respond. but yet the union says you should respond. if your manager says you should respond. it's very confusing for these employees. we can tell you that at this point, some seven agencies, including the department of defense and the fbi, have told employees not to respond due to the sensitive nature of the work that they do. trump. trump ally fbi director kash patel telling the workforce in a very clearly worded email that the fbi, through the office of the director, is in charge of all the review processes. so for now, they should just pause in any response

cnn's rene marsh has been on the story for us. rene, tell us how the judge explained this pause.nd how long does it go? >> right, jim, a win for the labor unions who brought this lawsuit, essentially hoping that it would end up this way, where the judge would halt it. and this afternoon, this federal district judge essentially said he needed to gather more information about this proposal that the trump administration is putting before these federal employees, this buyout to determine if it's even legal. and so the terms of this buyout essentially said that if federal employees resigned voluntarily, they would be paid throughout the end of september. and we do know that just a small sliver of the federal workforce actually accepted it. some 2.5% of the 2 million people who work within the workforce accepted this. but the goal of the administration is to get 5 to 10% of the workforce to accept this. but back to that hearing this afternoon, the government was told that it needed to immediately notify all federal employees of this pause. and despite that, cnn has learned just as a ne

rene marsh and jeff zeleny, thanks to both of you. let's talk about all of this with kara swisher, host of the podcast on with kara swisher. also joining us, dasha burns, politico, white house bureau chief kara. elon musk doesn't like to lose a battle, but there's a real chance he could lose out in this email ultimatum fight, given the fact that people who are heading up major agencies are saying you can ignore his email, what do you think is going through his head right now? >> well, he's used to. >> where he walks into a place and he kicks some trash cans and everybody does what he says, and then he leaves, and then they tend to do what he wants. that's a description from someone at one of his companies to me. and so he's not used to sort of collaboration in any way. he runs his companies as he wants to. and, and in this case he, he hasn't been able to. so this is his typical thing is to create chaos. and upset and fear and things like that and not knowing what they're doing. so he's used to dealing with a government situation, and

renee marsh phil mattingly, thanks so much. let's take a closer look at some of the legal issues being brought up by the judge's decision today with our legal panel. elie honig. ultimately, what legal basis do the plaintiffs have here to challenge the trump administration's plan? why would it be illegal for the executive branch to offer buyouts to its employees? >> yeah. >> jake, i can see. >> people wondering exactly that because in private industry, this kind of thing happens all the time. companies offer early buyouts, they offer early retirement plans, and that can actually be a good thing for the people who choose to take them. however, we have to think differently when we're thinking about federal spending. federal spending has to be allocated by congress in advance to the executive branch, and they have to allocate both how much can be spent and when it can be spent. and so, for example, if the 50,000 or so people who've accepted this early package are to suddenly be paid out for seven months worth of benefits, you're ta

. >> rene marsh is out front. so, renee, what more do we know about this doge staffer? and frankly, some of the other young engineers and staffers who are working for musk, erin. >> erica. >> the 25 year old doge staffer is also linked to a social media post that calls for the repealing of the civil rights act. we know that marko elez graduated from rutgers university in 2021, and shortly after that began working at musk's company, space x, as a doge staffer. he was considered a special government employee. he had access to sensitive federal agency i.t. systems and data similar to the slate of other 20 something year old engineers who are on musk's doge team. and it does not appear that he has any prior federal government system. but again, the doge team that musk has compiled, again, it consists of these 20 something year olds or early 20s who have impressive accomplishments in the tech world. they're engineers, but again, there are novices when it comes to their experience and understanding the federal government and how it works. musk's team includes a 23 year old so

rene marsh is tracking this story, renee. >> well, dan, a labor unions representing federal employees are still trying to get their hands around the full scope and scale of the trump administration's government wide firings. but so far, we know that more than 1000 were fired from the veterans affairs agency. we know that trump, trump's va secretary, doug collins, said that it would save the agency some $98 million per year. 2000 were fired at the department of energy, according to the wall street journal, and nearly 1300 at the cdc and 2400 at the forest service, according to a union source. now, that is an agency that manages the nation's public forests and grasslands to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire. you know that trump has talked a bit about clearing the forest floors, as he puts it, to combat these wildfires. while we know that the firefighting unit of the forest service was not laid off, employees with desk jobs or employees who cleared the trails in some of these areas, they were laid off. and the problem is, at a time where wildfires have become more frequent and int

cnn's rene marsh joins us now. so, rene, these cuts are coming right in the middle of tax season. this delay getting tax returns? >> it's certainly creating some anxiety and uncertainty. it really remains unclear. we know that most of these people will be auditors, people who are support workers with compliance work. but the full impact on it happening in the midst of the filing season remains to be seen. we know the biden administration worked to increase this workforce simply to make sure that the customer service component of the irs was improved, and this may have an impact, but we shall see. >> let's talk about the overall impact of what doge is doing. doge musk, for his part. who president trump says is overseeing doge despite what the white house claimed in this court filing. he's claiming that doge has saved taxpayers $55 billion. president trump says he likes the idea of sending that money back to americans in the form of a so-called doge dividend. what more can you tell us about that? >> yeah. so what this would potentially be is a check sent to every taxpayer with 20% o

. >> rene marsh u-box. >> three years into this bloodshed and the front lines remain hellish and brutal. there may be talk of peace, but every day in the war zone, the ultimate sacrifice is being paid. across russia. cemeteries are now burgeoning with fresh graves. the grim reality of the ukrainian meat grinder can no longer be hidden or denied. >> by state memorial. >> this monument was put up so people would know there is a war going on, says viktor, the head of a local veterans organization. it's not just some kind of operation, he says. people are dying everywhere. it wasn't meant to be this way. he's a russian. you can tell they're russian. i've spoken to them already. back in 2022, as the full scale invasion began, cnn encountered russian troops sent on what became a suicide mission to capture the ukrainian capital. >> how can i. >> how can. >> i. >> find it? >> i harakat al-muqawama al-islamiyya. >> the kremlin still calls its special military operation was meant to be over in a few days. instead, russian troops were forced to withdraw, leaving behind them a trail of devastation.

. >> i'm renee marsh at reagan national airport and this is cnn. >> seven people are now confirmed dead a medevac jet crashed into a philadelphia neighborhood friday. the jet was carrying six people, including a child patient and her mother, when it crashed, killing everyone on board and at least one additional person on the ground. >> at least 19 other people were injured in the crash, and city officials say it's possible the number of casualties could increase. investigators are still trying to locate the plane's cockpit voice recorder as they search the wide debris field to piece together what led to that crash. we're also learning new details in the fatal mid-air collision between an american airlines passenger jet and a black hawk helicopter over washington, dc that killed 67 people. >> investigators have released preliminary findings from the plane's black boxes, with the data showing the pilots may have tried to pull up the jet's nose within seconds of colliding with the helicopter. cnn's brian todd has more. >> victor and amr, the latest ntsb briefing brought some dramatic detai