States and around the world. Im George Howell. Cnn newsroom starts right now. It is 4 00 a. M. On the east coast, the u. S. President wrapping up a busy day. His unsubstantiated claim that he was wire tapped took center stage. U. S. Justice department delivered a classified report to congress and two familiar with the report say that it does not back up the president s claim and still the president refused to drop the issue even standing next to the german chancellor Angela Merkel in a News Conference talking about it. Jeff zeleny explains to us. Reporter President Trump did not back down from his explosive and unproven claims that president Obama Wiretapped him at trump tower. As far as wiretapping, i guess by this past administration, at least we have something in common perhaps. Reporter meeting with Angela Merkel, the president reported past reports that merkels phone had been tapped by the nsa. The president also did not apologize to the British Government for suggesting that br
Our top story, Vladimir Putin confirmed sunday he has given up on improving relations with the u. S. For the time being. The russian leader order et the u. S. To slash its diplomatic staff in russia by plor than half. 755 people to leave their posts by september 1st. He said, pending u. S. Sanctions forced him to retaliate. Translator we waited a long time for things to perhaps change for the better. We had such hope that the situation would change. But judging by the situation, that will not be soon. U. S. Announcing the order as regrettable and uncalled for. Lets go live to moscow. Claire sebastian following this for us at this hour. Claire, to have staff slashed by more than half, what does that do to the u. S. Admission in russia . George, an extremely serious move however you look at it. It is not exactly clear at the moment who this will apply to, the 755 people diplomats, technical staff, combination two of the. And whether or not it will include russian local staff because we k
Them hundreds of billions of dollars and tell them to use their immigration laws. There will be good likelihood i will be closing the border next week. That will be fine with me. Arthel lets go to ellison barber. She is live near the president s maralago estate. Hi, ellison. Hi, arthel. President trump has trend to shut down the u. S. Mexico border in the past. He did not do it. He says this time its different. He is adamant that this is something he will do. He says he is not playing any games. Keel keep it close for a long time. Im not playing games. Mexico has to stop it. They have people coming right through mexico. We have run out of space. We cant hold people anymore. And mexico can stop it so easily. They dont go through a court system every time somebody steps on our land. This is the first time President Trump has given any sort of deadline or timetable for potentially shutting down the southern border. Some republicans, they say yes there is an issue. There is a crisis at the
On December 10-11, 2021, a series of major tornadoes ravaged the southern and lower Midwest. A tornado destroyed 200 miles in Kentucky in one fell swoop. The