security checks, for example. going to have a huge impact on people, and the big date to circle on your calendar is march 4th. that s when the current funding for the federal government runs out. without a budget deal by then, the government will be shut down, brooke. real quickly, 20 seconds. what s our own president up to on this presidents day? reporter: actually pretty quiet. we have what we call a lid, look, can you go home, not going to be doing anything today a few hours ago, so he s behind the scenes doing a little bit of work. he s obviously focused on the situation in libya. we were told he got a briefing from his national security adviser tom donlon but kicking back a little bit. a lot of work in the days ahead so a pretty quiet day. relaxing for the time being. ed henry, appreciate you working on this holiday. reporter: i m not going home. i m not going home either. we ll get another update in half an hour. get your latest political ticker update go to cnnpolitic
libya is not getting back to us, we cannot independently confirm that. this is exactly the problem with libya. you mention the media blockade. the media has been trying to play catch-up essentially since the protests started in benghazi. we hear reports from relatives and friends, then a day later the numbers are confirmed by the media. you re absolutely right. you have to verify every single number. it s difficult. asma, help me understand this. help our american audience understand this. because you cannot paint the middle east with a broad stroke here. it s very, very different from what we saw in egypt. in egypt you had a central city and for the most part a bureaucracy. libya, this divided society, and the significance there is you have all these tribes. help me understand what tribal society is like and how all of these tribal rivalries can help or perhaps hurt gadhafi s rule. well, actually, you make
companies calling people out of libya, what does the unrest there mean for the global price of oil, and how will that affect when you and i go fill up our cars at the gas station? that s coming up. we have something else. but if you re hurt and miss work does it pay cash like aflac does? nah. or let you spend it in any way you want like for gas and groceries? nah. or help with everyday bills like aflac does? nah nah nah. [ male announcer ] there s aflac and there s everything else. visit aflac.com for an agent or quote. aflac! anncr:ne oe le oher old hearing aid. she sy ich one? 10 invisible. you can t e it, with zero daily hassle. no batteries to change. noaking off and putting on everyday.
go inside libya. they have not responded to our requests. right. there s a tiny island of malta 2, 50 miles in the water outside of libya. yeah, two mirage, french-made mirage fighter jets with libyan pilots on board landed in malta and according to sources in malta, they asked for political asylum because they were asked to fire on their own people, to bomb their own people. that s what they said. and they refused. this is the information they are getting from maltese officials who spoke to our cnn producer on the ground. as anything else related to this story,brook, it s difficult to piece together this complicated story. where is moammar gadhafi, on his way to venezuela one minute. that s denied by the ambassador to the uk another minute and then is he going to malta? that s denied again. we re trying to put together the pieces of this giant libyan puzzle and it s a lot harder than when we were in egypt inside the country. you were there, and then you spoke with the liby
cairo. ivan, as we pointed out, so much happening right now and so quickly in libya. and though all of through all of this, we have yet to see the leader here of 42 years, moammar gadhafi. first i have to ask you, does anyone know where he is? reporter: no. in fact, you ve got the top diplomat of britain who s come out and said he has information indicating that gadhafi may have gone to venezuela. he has ties with the venezuelan government, and that charge has been denied by libya s ambassador to london. do not know where gadhafi is right now. he has had some phone conversations with the prime minister of turkey and with the u.n. secretary-general ban ki-moon. meanwhile, i have to say we are facing really a telecommunications blockade, blackout. we cannot call the libyan capital, tripoli, to find out what is going on there. we ve gotten some secondhand reports of helicopter gunships