we begin in france, where unions will be staging strike action today against the government s pension reform plans. the government is aiming to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 years. today marks the sixth day of strikes and protests since mid january, and unions say it will be the biggest yet with workers across a range of sectors expected to mobilise. teachers, gas and electricity workers, train drivers, and industrial workers are all expected to join. part of the french government plan is also to raise the minimum pension to 1,200 euro a month, which is over 550 euro higher than the current minimum figure. but unions want more due to rising inflation. let s go live to paris now and talk to tomasz michalski associate professor of economics at the hec business school in paris. we spoke about these injanuary but they are still continuing into march. but they are still continuing into march. , , . , , into march. the public support is there for into march. the public
for their country will prevail. democracies over the world will stand guard for our freedom today, tomorrow and forever. president joe biden delivering a powerful message to vladimir putin and all of eastern europe marking one year of war in ukraine. we ll have more on his speech in warsaw in just a moment. back here at home we re learning more about the special grand jury that investigated the potential 2020 election interference by former president donald trump and his allies. plus we ll have the latest on the efforts to cleanup an environmental disaster in ohio as federal and state officials take action against the rail company at the center. good morning, and welcome to way too early on this wednesday, february 22nd. i m jonathan lemire, thanks for starting your day with us. today president joe biden wraps up a historic trip to eastern europe. last night he gave a speech in warsaw, poland marking one year since the russian invasion of ukraine. it followed monday s s
that was the warning. during last minute speeches near the capitol, curious, didn t hear him mention crime in a crime ridden train station, interesting point there, juxtaposition, the optics matter but apparently not to the president. that voters need to preserve and protect democracy by electing members of his own party. republicans, they fired back today, calling the speech patronizing and a bid to divide and distract americans. we ll let you decide. take a listen. this is the struggle we re now in, a struggle for democracy, a struggle for decency and dignity, a struggle for prosperity and progress, a struggle for the very soul of america itself. remarkable thing about american democracy is this, just enough of us on just enough occasions have chosen not to dismantle democracy but to preserve democracy. we must choose that path again. because democracy is on the ballot. so i want to put this in context. yesterday, the preview of the speech from the press secretary, she
granted the request from donald trump to appoint, but she s giving until friday for a list of names of people who can serve in that role who have security clearance because hundreds of the documents are classified as we know. right now s a pause until the special master finishes the review. we had a sense of it with the number of vumts. this politically is a win for the president, no? absolutely this is a political win. donald trump is getting almost everything that he has asked for in this. and in her court filing data, the judge points out the extraordinary nature of this. here s what she wrote. as a function of plaintiff s former position as president of the united states, the stigma associated with the subject seizure is in a league of its own, a future indictment based on any degree would result in reputational harm of a decidedly different order of magnitude. this is the former president of the united states who s not ruled out another run. the judge is taking anoth
cnn s nadia romero is checking in on the situation from the world s busiest airport, atlanta s hartsfield jackson international. nadia, i was there yesterday with the canceled flight trying to fly standby. i know what that feels like for people out there. what are you hearing from passengers today? reporter: oh, i m sorry you were part of that big chunk of people we saw 1,400 flights canceled over the past couple of days. i spoke with one man who was supposed to get back to vegas, spent the night here. he had an 11-hour day after his flight was canceled three times. he finally ditched his first airline, got on a different airline flight to get back to vegas. i m glad you finally made it to your final destination. other people are happy to be at the airport because they re on their way to enjoy the holiday weekend. it s a mixed bag here. take a look at tsa, the main security checkpoint and it s moving pretty quickly. people are briskly going through, in and out of the differ