a defense shakeup as the war with russia enters its 19th month, ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy firing his defense minister. the president of ukraine saying it is time to try a new approach. what this could mean for the battlefield. plus, stuck in the mud. thousands still trapped in the nevada desert after intense rain left the burning man festival site smothered and covered in mud. roads might reopen any moment. we are going to get you an update. and president biden touting bidenomics and slamming former president trump this labor day in philadelphia, but a new poll shows most americans that were polled aren't buying biden's message. we're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to "cnn news central." ♪ a major shakeup at the top of ukraine's military as russia continues to launch attacks on civilian targets. overnight russia launched what ukraine described as a massive attack on civilian infrastructure at ports in the southern odesa region. it's also accusing russia of trying to create a food crisis with attacks on port infrastructure over the weekend. today ukraine says its forces are making further advances in its counteroffensive and liberating more areas along the southern front line where some of the heaviest fighting is taking place. all of this coming as ukrainian president zelenskyy shakes up the highest ranks of his military. he's firing his defense minister as the country enters the 19th month of this invasion. cnn's melissa bell joins us live from zaporizhzhia, ukraine. melissa, what more do we know about the reasons behind the firing of the defense minister? >> reporter: well, not that oleksii reznikov had done anything wrong, on the contrary, this is a man that's been widely praised for what he has done over the course of the last 19 months now. it was apparently his request that he move on to other things, but this of course allows president zelenskyy to draw a line under the last few months. there have been so many allegations, corruption scandals that have dogged the defense ministry in ukraine, there have been sackings, resignations and arrests as a result of some of these and although none of them ever tainted oleksii reznikov personally they have rather marred the whole effort certainly in the eyes of many allies this. allows him really to draw a line again at the request of oleksii reznikov himself and to bring in a completely new person to man this war effort and apparently what we hear is that they have just the man for the job. a daunting challenge but this is a man who has a lot of experience, a business leader, closely involved with the war effort having overseen prisoner exchanges and he is actually a muslim, not at all from president zelenskyy's party. it is an interesting choice but he is considered extremely capable. this is a man who is going to have to keep his western allies on board for the ever greater needs he is going to have with regard to weaponry to see this counteroffensive through even as he shores up ukraine's own defense capabilities with what they've been doing recently trying to create more and more groans, trying to make more and more long range artillery so they can continue successfully bringing this war ever closer to russian soil, boris. >> melissa bell reporting live from zaporizhzhia. thanks so much. china is signaling that president xi jinping will skip the gathering of the gather in india. this will be the first time a chinese leader will miss the g20 summit. it comes as tensions simmer over the the border. vladimir putin will also skip the summit. nic robertson joins us now. what is this decision by china say about the state of what might happen at this summit? how might it impact the summit i should say? >> reporter: it's going to diminish the impact in any agreements that might emerge from the summit. not having president putin and not having president xi is pretty significant. obviously putin can't travel because he is afraid of getting arrested for the charges of war crimes that have been leveled against him. xi it's not quite clear why he's choosing not to go, could it be the tensions, does he want to avoid a meeting with president biden? he also has the opportunity to meet president biden of course at the apex summit in san francisco later on in the year. so the possibility that the pair meeting still remains, but when you look at the fact that just less than a month ago president xi went to south africa for the bricks summit there, which is an emerging develop nations alternative, if you will, to the g20, a summit where they said they wanted bigger nations like saudi arabia and some other powerful nations to join, you can see how the sort of the g7s, the g20s, that sort of old big powers are going to get marginalized by empowering like president xi empowering effectively the bricks summit. it diminishes what they can achieve. of course one of the huge items recently was dealing with covid but the other one has been climate change. so you don't have big nations writing the script for the next year's coming of climate change. it can be done at the cop summits but they are the big powerfuler nations and this will be absent. >> the news we have is that president xi is planning not to come but people will be reading the tea leaves heading up to and likely through the summit as well. nick robertson, thank you. back in the united states after days of being stranded in treacherous thick mud, the nevada desert, we're starting to see some people at the burning man festival start to leave. you can see in this new video a huge caravan of vehicles making their way out. it is going to be a difficult journey in part because at this hour officials are starting to open roads that have not been dry enough for people to begin their journeys home. some 70,000 festivalgoers have been stranded in the mud for days after 2 to 3 months' worth of rain swamped the area in just 24 hours. camila bernal is live on the scene at the burning man festival. what does it look like where you are? >> reporter: it is busy, boris. this here is what you call the exodus and, look, i spoke to someone who was inside of the city who told me things are still messy in some areas, depending on where you are. the mud hasn't fully dried up yet, so people are trying to get rides and then end up right here because what you're seeing here is a line of rvs and cars that are trying to make their way out. again, this is what they call the exodus, but i want to show you from above just so that you can get a better perspective with this true from up high. the line is very, very long and they're asking people not to walk to avoid walking from the city to where i am right now because it could get dangerous. we are being told that over the last couple of days there were cars that were stuck for hours, people that tried to get to this area where i'm standing now and had to spend hours either walking through the mud or getting stuck in the mud via car. i spoke to the superintendent of blackrock city earlier today and this is how he described the situation inside the camp. >> people are trying to get out, but the roads are still pretty muddy and there's still standing water, and so there's new roads that are forming around and that's just people working together to get each other out of jams. >> reporter: now, it hasn't been easy, people have been told to conserve food, water, especially if they were going to stay extra days that they were not planning on staying, but it is also really important to point out that every single person that i've talked to has been so positive, saying that they've made the best out of a very difficult situation, saying that they've enjoyed the festival. in fact, the burn is happening today at 9:00 local time. so that man will be up in flames and a lot of people are staying and looking forward to that. organizers even telling people if you can, stay until tomorrow to avoid all of this traffic that you're seeing here behind me. it is going to take people hours to try to get to the highway, boris. >> thank you so much. omar, some people deciding to stay. >> yeah, some people deciding to stay. as we've learned, morale is even -- you know, they're making the most of the situation. i want to talk more about it on the ground in burning man with a festival goer, andrew hyde. skies look great behind you. as i understand this is your tenth year at burning man. have you ever seen anything even remotely like this? >> no, we have had years when it's rained, this is the first time i've experience it had myself. we had six hours of rain on friday, a little bit on saturday and it was an absolute mess, couldn't move around at all. it was fun to see for us that really kind of were prepared and knew this could happen, but, yeah, kind of staggering to see a city of 70,000 people that really nobody could move. >> for anyone who has been to festivals in general, music festivals or other, it's not a guarantee you are going to have great weather. this one seemed to stick out because of how remote you all were and the conditions of the ground itself. when do you expect you will be able to leave? were you always staying or are your plans kind of up in flux? >> yeah, i mean, like the unofficial motto of the festival for me is always new plans. throw everything out, we have to identify everything that's going on right now and it's a much more colorful description of that. yeah, i mean, today was kind of the day we always had planned on leaving. i think we're going to probably break tomorrow morning, we are looking at the roads like everybody else. safety is a big concern for the organization so we're kind of listening to the official channels on that and not exiting until they kind of give us the green light that it's good for everybody and looking. it's drying out, the sun is out behind me, it's really beautiful. we are enjoying it and you hear in the background, occasionally a car will get unstuck and there is a loud scream or people are saying good-bye. you lived through a situation in which you couldn't move. not many people get to experience that. >> yeah, look, today is the day where i don't know if you've been able to see but we've been showing images of what is essentially a mass exodus of people leaving today. once conditions were even hinted, hey, you can actually probably get out there, was there a rush to get out on the road? how were people interpreting that opportunity? >> yeah, we love the gate crew out here, they've done a fantastic job. you want to get out, you have this one road and all of these vehicles have to fit on this one basically county road. so, you know, it's well communicated but some people had to get out, some people had real -- real life to get to and some people like me had the opportunity to stay an extra day and just kind of hang out and be in the desert for a little bit longer. it's a baron waste land with some of the most amazing art in the world, that's why we come out to burning man. it elevates of what we think we can do as humans and we love to be out here. >> yeah. andrew hyde, you've been here ten times, are you going to be back for 11? >> oh, absolutely. >> i figured that would be your answer. andrew hyde, thank you so much. boris? still to come, a judge could soon rule on mark meadows' bid to get his georgia election case moved to federal court while donald trump and his co-defendants prepare to be arraigned in the coming days. plus another day like january 6th. that's what republican candidate vivek ramaswamy says will happen if trump's legal challenges hamper his 2024 bid. we are going to discuss that. and later two people accused of causing irreversible damage to a portion of the great wall of china. listen to this. they used an excavator to breach the wall. they said they wanted to create a shortcut, at the great wall of china. all of this still to come on "cnn news central." so, no more sweating all night... ...no kicking off the covers... ...or blasting the air conditioning. because only the temempur-pedic breeze is made with our one-of-a-kind cooling technology - that pulls heat away from your body. so, the mattress feels up to 10° cooler all night long. don't miss our biggest sale of the year, with savings up to $700 on select adjustable mattress sets, and experience the deep, undisturbed rest of tempur-pedic. learn more at tempurpedic.com at pnc bank, you can find us in big cities and small towns across the us, the people who live and work there. because you call these c, and we do too. pnc bank. my brain. so i choose new neuriva ultra. unlike some others, it supports 7 brain health indicators, including mental alertness from one serving. to help keep me sharp. try new neuriva ultra. think bigger. i'm saving with liberty mutual, mom. they customize your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. you could save $700 dollars just by switching. ooooh, let me put a reminder on my phone. on the top of the pile! oh. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ businesses need 5g solutions today. that's why they choose t-mobile for business. mlb partners with t-mobile to not only enhance the fan experience, but to advance how the game is played. aaa relies on t-mobile's network to stay connected nationwide, so they can help get their members back on the road. and we're helping pano ai innovate, to stop the spread of wildfires. now's the time to see what america's largest 5g network can do for your business. right now get a free footlong at subway. like the subway series menu. buy one footlong in the app, get one free. for freeee. that's what i'm talking about. order in the subway app today. how white do you think your teeth really are? let's try the tissue test. ooof, still yellow. whitening toothpaste can only do so much. there's toothpaste white, and there's crest 3d whitestrips white. so much whiter! crest. it's a pivotal week in the georgia election interference case. on wednesday the remaining co-defendants will be arraigned in fulton county. former president donald trump will not be there, he already pleaded not guilty to his charges, but he will be watching closely what happens with his former chief of staff. remember mark meadows is trying to move his case from state to federal court and a judge is set to rule on that potentially before this week's arraignment. cnn's sara murray is tracking all of this. walk us through what could happen this week. >> first we're waiting for this judge to weigh in on mark meadows' bid to move his case to federal court. he argued everything he did around the 2020 election perhaps to try to overturn the results in georgia as the district attorney has alleged was actually related to his duties as white house chief of staff. a judge is going to weigh in on whether that argument is successful and meadows can move this to federal court. the trump team is watching that closely. donald trump hasn't made an attempt to move his case to federal court yet but we expect they're watching to see how the meadows situation plays out before they do that. on wednesday there was set to be a big arraignment with 19 defendants, most of the defendants have put in a piece of paper essentially saying i'm going to waive my right to an arraignment, enter a not guilty plea, that's what donald trump and rudy giuliani has done. we have several holdouts still, we have not heard from yet mark meadows is one of them, he's probably waiting to see if a judge intervenes first, john eastman, jeffrey clark, other big names who have not yet entered their plea. we may see a flurry of pleas and waivers getting entered tomorrow morning. the last thing later on this week is the special purpose grand jury which did the brunt of the investigating in this case, a judge is planning on unsealing their report. we will be looking later on this week for, one, does that actually become public and, two, are there any discrepancies between who the special grand jury thought should be indicted and who the district attorney decided to bring charges against. >> fascinating details to gather from that. also trump hasn't moved to try to motion to get his case moved from state to federal court, he has moved as have others to try to sever his case from the rest of the co-defendants. what's the status of that? >> that's right. donald trump's team has made clear they have no interest in going to trial with any of the other people mentioned in this case. the state court judge has sort of said i'm going to wait until everyone gets their pleas entered, everyone waives their arraignments or shows up for arraignments and then i'm going to figure out how i'm going to organize all of you. a number of other folks have put in motions to sever saying we don't want to go to trial with anyone else. they are going to figure out how to wrangle 19 defendants. >> trump wants to delay people, kenneth chesebro and sidney powell wants a trial by october. >> they, too, don't want to go to trial alongside donald trump. >> thank you for the reporting. omar? a lot to keep up with. now as these criminal cases against trump advance and these proposed trial dates inch closer and a heated 2024 campaign the tensions keep rising. we already know threats against judges and officials tied to these trump cases have increased and now trump allies/primary challenger vivek ramaswamy says he fears we are on a dangerous path. >> i think that many of these prosecutions against donald trump are outright, down right politicized persecutions through prosecution. i think we continue to set a dangerous precedent. i do not want to see us march to some kind of national divorce and i am worried, george that is correct day by day we're inching in a dark direction for this country. i do not want to see another day like january 6th in this country. >> so a lot to talk about there. let's discuss it with larry sabato. larry, i will start with that latest point. i mean, do you agree that we are heading down a path for another january 6th or something similar? >> well, i hope not, but there's certainly reason to worry because it's a matter of intense disagreement and intense extreme polarization between a good bit of the parties, most of it, i'm sorry, it's not a both sides situation, most of it due to the republican party and the large donald trump maga base. they deserve the lion's share of blame. and mr. ramaswamy is part of the problem. he has been all over the lot about donald trump, you know, on january 6, 2021, he thought it was a terrible thing and that donald trump had done the wrong thing. now he's if not in favor of what happened, excusing trump and calling it bad judgment rather than criminal activity, which it was and i believe will eventually be shown to be. so it's a matter of having people be responsive and responsible as they're describing the situation. everyone is not equal, everything is not equal and both sidesism only adds to the problem. >> heading into a campaign responsible statements aren't always the mantra for people who are trying to get elected and, you know, that part is what i want to talk about is that is some of this self fulfilling prophecy of sorts in that some of the same folks who are defending trump and attacking these courts are essentially nudging down the path by legitimizing some of the outrage and potentially pushing people toward something worse? is that a dynamic that you're seeing as well? >> oh, absolutely. if you go to what was formerly known as twitter, i guess we're calling it x these days, you will see they are on there every day encouraging one another, outraging one another. minor things will set them off and a lot of these statements border on the edge of violence if they don't go over the edge. more of that can only cause problems as we move into the actual campaign season. everybody thinks we are in the campaign season, it's only going to get more intense in the fall and throughout 2024. so, yes, i think you made a good point. we can talk ourselves into this and it's incumbent on all of the candidates, including mr. trump, to tone down what they say and also what their supporters say. >> and, look, one of the things that trump and some of his allies have said, likely in an attempt to delegitimize the process a little bit is that americans don't care about this. they care about real issues and, look, we have seen in past -- in the midterms, for example, economy and abortion were among the top issues polled by voters but does that necessarily mean that trump's legal troubles won't matter at all to the american people? >> oh, i think they will matter in a general election. actually, they're mattering in the republican primary. they're helping him. they're stirring up the maga base and they're even more intense than they usually are and maybe some republicans who are conservative but not really maga people are also being dragged along into trump supporting voters because of the fact that they think this is saul political, which it most certainly cannot. but a general election is very different and donald trump having been indicted for times with over 90 counts and all of the other controversies that come with donald trump, the vast majority of democrats, almost 100%, very close to t plus a sizable majority of independents are simply not going to buy that donald trump should be rewarded with another four years in the oval office. as former congresswoman liz cheney said, he should never even be allowed to visit the oval office again. >> look, as we get into 2024, we are going to end up in situations where a campaign is ongoing and he is going to be in court and it is going to set up that split screen for some of those independents that you just mentioned. larry sabato, thank you for joining us. >> thank you, omar. >> boris? coming up, defense attorneys for alex murdaugh, the man convicted of shooting and killing his wife and son announce they will file a motion for a new trial. we have all the details just minutes away. qualality eye exam starting at just $79.95. the exam alone is worth at least 59 bucks. i can see e from your expressin that you find that shocking. and you're actually speechless. ...aaaaaaaaand, you don't have ears. two pairs and a free exam for just $79.95. book an exam today at americasbest.com. it's true, though - you won't overpay for glasses if you shop at america's best. what do we always say, son? liberty mutual customizes your car insurance... so you only pay for what you need. that's my boy. ♪ stay off the freeways! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ mass general brigham -- when you need some of the brightest minds in medicine. this is a leading healthcare system with five nationally ranked hospitals, including two world-renowned academic medical centers. in boston, where biotech innovates daily and our doctors teach at harvard medical school and the physicians doing the world-changing research are the ones providing care. ♪ there's only one mass general brigham. i need it cool at night. you trying to ice me out of the bed? 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so he may be serving two life sentence force killing his wife and son but the case of alex murdaugh may not be over. his defense team is psyching a new trial. the disgraced attorney from one of south carolina's most prominent families was convicted of the double murder in march. dianne gallagher joins us with the latest. what is the rationale from his defense team for a new trial? >> reporter: boris, the defense team said that they will be filing a motion for a new trial based on, quote, after discovered evidence. really that's the only detail that we've been given here. they would not elaborate on exactly what that evidence is, instead pointing us to a press conference that they were expecting to hold tomorrow afternoon with attorneys on the south carolina statehouse grounds over by the state court of appeals. of course, alex murdaugh was convicted by a jury in the brutal murders of his wife maggie and son paul back in march. a judge sentenced him to two life sentences which he is currently serving in a south carolina prison. about a week later his team filed notice that they did plan to appeal, but they didn't give any other details about what that appeal would be based on at the time. now, this is all coming as we are getting a better glimpse into what was happening in the minds of the surviving murdaughs as that trial was going on. in a new docuseries that dropped on thursday from fox nation buster murdaugh, the only living murdaugh not in prison spoke with the media for the first time at length about his father and his late brother and mother. buster saying that he still believes that his father is innocent of those killings, but acknowledged that the trial did change his perception of the man he has always called dad. >> when i look up the definition of psychopaths, someone who can completely get away with lying and acting normal and carrying through as if nothing is happening, does that describe your dad when you look at those definitions of that? >> i'm not prepared to sit here and say that it encompasses him as a whole, but certainly i think there are characteristics where you look at the manipulation as the lies and the carrying out of that such, i think that's a fair assessment. >> reporter: now, buster was not the only murdaugh we heard from this that docuseries, alex murdaugh himself, his voice was recorded on phone calls to his attorney jim grip. it actually got him in a little bit of trouble with the prison system, the south carolina department of corrections took away his canteen, phone and tablet privileges because ever that, boris, omar, south carolina does not allow inmates to be interviewed when they are currently incarcerated. >> dianne gallagher, thank you for the update. omar? a lot coming up, president biden celebrating labor day by trying to woo group workers in pennsylvania. plus, more stores are locking up products or not selling them at all to defer shoplifters. details straight ahead. stay with us. the right age for neutrogena® retinol? 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workers, defended his handling of the economy and slammed former president trump's record. but even with unemployment at historic lows, a healthy stock market and falling inflation, the president is having a tough time selling his bidenomics. a new "wall street journal" poll out today shows 37% of those that responded approve of biden's handling of the economy, nearly 6 in 10 disapprove. let's get to cnn's senior white house precedent kayla tausche. >> reporter: president biden has been trying to draw starker and starker contrast to the economy under his administration and the economy under his predecessor former president donald trump. he's been honing in on job creation specifically, talking in recent days about the fact that the job creation under president biden has been nearly historic and contrasting that with president trump and saying he's only one of two presidents in history to lose jobs in office, but he also is borrowing a page from trump's playbook and trying to drill down on one critical concern of this constituency, that is union workers who feel that their jobs have been shipped overseas. >> the last guy was here, you were shipping jobs to china, now we're bringing jobs home from china. when the last guy was here -- when the last guy was here your pensions were at risk. we helped save millions of pensions with your help. when the last guy was here he looked at the world from park avenue, i look at it from scranton, pennsylvania. i look at from delaware. >> reporter: president biden trying to tap into the blue collar concerns of that critical constituency, union workers long a bedrock of democratic voters but their support has been harder to come by in recent years. president trump with union work was able to flip wisconsin, pennsylvania and michigan in 2020 and many rank and file workers stayed with him in 2020 as well. so interestingly president biden is trying to shore up that support. he's appearing in front of union workers in the battleground state of pennsylvania for the second time in three months and trying to pursue some policies that will help him win that back, omar. >> maybe a preview of what's to come in the campaign season. thank you very much. if you have cruised the aisle of a major retailer lately you may be surprised to find a plastic clear barrier blocking you from certain items carrying the clear message don't touch the merchandise. in fact, locked up goods are popping up at a growing number of stores around the country all due to what retailers are calling a shoplifting crisis. i want to bring in cnn business consumer reporter nathaniel meyerson. nathaniel, how big a deal is shoplifting for these retailers? >> reporter: boris, the retailers right now they are sounding the alarm on shoplifting, dick's sporting goods, dollar general, target, just about every major retailer is saying it's a huge problem. if you look at the numbers, you look at shrink, which includes retail theft, before the pandemic shrink was at about $62 billion, we have seen it spike to $95 billion in 2021, so clearly growth here, but it's not just shoplifting that's impacting retailers, amazon is really hurting them and also people shopping less in stores. >> so how are stores now responding? >> reporter: so, boris, we're seeing more items locked up, like you mentioned. in some cases stores are going to stop selling some of the items that are being stolen more frequently. they're adding extra security and then in some cases even threatening to close stores if there's not policies to crack down on shoplifting. >> and apparently self-checkout is also a big contributor to shrink, to theft. >> reporter: it is, boris. so recently best buy and costco they've both said that more people are stealing when they're using self-checkout. it raises the question why are we seeing self-checkout at just about every store if more people are stealing from it. also these stores are often very understaffed. if the retailers want to crack don on theft maybe pull out self-checkout and hire more workers. >> very much a serious concern. nathaniel meyerson, thank you so much for that. still to come it's back to school season but some students diagnosed with adhd are struggling to find the medications they need. the impact of the drug shortage and what it can mean for their academics when we come back. at farmers, we offer both quality insurance and great savings. 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i could do. >> reporter: for clara pitts, heading on to bringham young, there is a added level of anxiety. because the medicine she takes is part of a nationwide shortage. >> it is just really scary. not knowing if i'll have consistency in my medication. >> reporter: it started last fall when one drugmaker had a manufacturing delay. but it hasn't let up. clair has had to switch from adderol to another medication called vivance, but some doses have been hard to come by as well. all of this has made back-to-school season stressful for students like clara and their families. >> these young people have difficult paying attention and sitting still. >> reporter: dr. warren inning said treatment could have dramatic results. >> it could change a young person's life overnight. so they suddenly are able to do the work that they want to do but are having difficulty focusing during attention. >> reporter: but relief may not be coming soon. prescription rates are at record highs. up more than 45% in the u.s. over the last decade. a cdc study this year found an especially large jump in prescriptions for adults in the first year of the pandemic. also complicating the picture, drugs like adderol are stimulants, controlled substances the government said have a high potential for abuse so the drug enforcement administration sets limits on how much could but produced. but in a joint letter with the fda last month, the dea said manufactures aren't producing as much as they're allowed to. last year there were about 1 billion more doses that they have wproduced but did not and data for 2023 show a similar trend. for some it could mean dashed dreams. >> a lot of young people i've seen have just given up. they've either just felt that it is too difficult, maybe i shouldn't go to college or maybe i shouldn't have this job. >> reporter: despite those worries, clara is looking forward to school. planning on majoring in electrical engineering. but she worried not just for herself but also others starting school with adhd and struggling to find their medicines. >> this is the first time that me and other people with adhd are starting a new school year without our medication in some cases and i think time will tell whether or not we sink or swim as a collective adhd community. >> reporter: now we reached out to all 11 makers of adderall and the generics and only two got back to us and said they were making as much as the dea allows them to. so there is still a lot of lack of clarity of what is going on in the market. and the fda and the dea are trying to do more. the fda just approved some generic versions of another vivance adhd medication. you could find it but it takes calling a lot of different pharmacies or talking about treatm treatment alternatives and it could persist through the end of the year. >> a real challenge for folks. meg tirrell, thanks so much. well boris, up next, the great wall of china did wonders keeping out invaders but no match for some heavy 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event-happening now. get started for just $49.99 a month. plus, ask how to get one free line of unlimited mobile. comcast business, powering possibilities. so we've told you about a tourist carving their name in to rome's ancient coliseum and a woman climbing into the trevi fountain to fill a water bottle. but two people in china have been detained for taking an excavator to the great wall. yeah. that great wall. one that dates back to the ming dynasty, hundreds and hundreds of years ago. >> apparently police found that a man and woman used the machinery because they wanted to create a shortcut to pass through -- a shortcut causing irreversible damage. police say they're continuing to investigate. my whole thing is, i'm all for taking a shortcut when it makes sense. but this feels like more work. from a thing you could see from space. this historic thing. >> yeah. i don't know if a shortcut was the best decision. >> for all of those examples, i feel like when i'm in those places i'm so careful not to mess anything up. so that is the furthest thing from my mind. >> i'm so nervous about damaging anything and then being that guy that gets talked about on cnn news central for damaging something like that. speaking of which, omar, welcome. >> and thank you. >> and has that ever happened? >> i don't think so. >> well it is happened now. >> we look forward to having you. >> "the lead" with jake tapper starts in three, two, one. thanks for being with us. on this labor day, a possible new labor strike. and this one could be big. "the lead" starts right now.