right now on "early start," dramatic collapse of hunter biden's plea deal, what happens to the president's son now. plus -- fears of a military coup in niger, soldiers claim that they have ousted the country's president.

and concern on capitol hill after mitch mcconnell freezes mid sentence right in the middle of a news conference. good morning, welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm christine romans. we begin with hunter biden's federal tax charges still unresolved this morning contrary to almost everyone's expectations. the president's son had planned to plead guilty to tax crimes and resolve a federal firearms charge as well, but the judge's questioning revealed a crucial disagreement between prosecutors and hunter biden's legal team. sara murray has more. >> reporter: after a tumultuous day in federal court, hunter biden left with no plea deal after a federal judge said that she was not ready to accept it. president biden's son arrived at federal court prepared to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and strike a deal to avoid a felony gun charge. after a five year justice department probe that hunter

biden once predicted had he would emerge from unscathed. >> i'm 100% certain that at the end of the investigation that i will be cleared of any wrongdoing. >> reporter: instead judge i maryellen noreika wanted to know if the investigation was over. prosecutors said that it was ongoing. and then two sides could not agree if hunter biden was at risk of additional charges if he took this deal. with that the deal was derailed. eventually hunter biden's team agreed that he was not shielded from further charges and the deal seemed for a moment back on track. but then the judge raised questions about the gun deal. is this even constitutional, she asked? and she said that she was not ready to sign off on the deal. the hearing ended with hunter biden in a pro inforforma plead not guilty. providing another opening for republican lawmakers to slam the agreement. >> plea deal as we started was garbage. >> hunter biden is getting a

sweetheart deal that no other american would ever get ever. >> reporter: republicans already seeking more information about the hunter biden probe after two irs whistleblowers who worked on the case claimed there was political interference dating back to the trump administration and continuing under the biden administration. >> there should not be a two track justice system depending on who you are. >> reporter: and the white house reiterating that the president stands by his son but played no role in the investigation. >> this case was handled independently as all of you know by the justice department under the leadership of a prosecutor appointed by the former president. >> reporter: the plea deal set to cover his tax transgressions over a five year span, his drug issues and firearms possession charge. prosecutors say hunter biden failed to pay between $1.1 million and $1.5 million in federal taxes and highlighted his substantial income from ukrainian and chinese energy companies saying that he did have the funds available to pay

his taxes in certain years. but he failed to do so. instead prosecutors say he spent wildly on personal luxuries and expenses. our team was within the courtroom for the wild hearing. and as it was wrapping up, the judge did address hunter biden and said i know you wanted to resolve this, i'm sorry, but she has to be careful in how she's handling it. so for now the legal woes are not over and neither of course his political woes. sara murray, cnn, washington. it is unclear who is in charge in niger. on wednesday afternoon a group of military officers claim to have seized control of the government ousted and detained niger's president and closed the borders. but overnight the president's office posted on twitter now rebranded x that the hard won achievements will be safe guarded. all who love democracy and freedom will see to it. larry madowo is following the story from nairobi for us.

the tweet made no mention of whether the president is still being detained. what is the latest word on who really is in charge there? >> reporter: the short answer is that we don't know. it is hard to tell. because i want to show you a tweet from the foreign minister who says in this tweet or x now as acting head of government, i call on all democrats, all patriots to defeat this dangerous adventure xofor our country. and he is calling on this meeting of soldiers to go back to their ranks. and he seems to suggest that not all soldiers support this apparent coup. and u.s. soecretary of state antony blinken became the first to visit niger in march to highlight the progress the country had made. because president about a

mohamed bazoum. >> we are very closely monitoring the situation in niger. i spoke with president abomoham bazoum earlier and made clear that the u.s. supports him as democratically elected president. and we call for his immediate release. we condemn any effort to seize power by force. >> reporter: u.n. secretary-general antonio guterres also strongly condemned the change of power and said that president mohamed bazoum should be released unconditionally. and he was up and about on tuesday, he had a couple official engagements including what we believe is probably his last public one meeting with the outgoing belgian ambassador and they talked about the security situation, terrorism which is major problem here. niger deals with jihadist threats from groups affiliated

with both isis and al qaeda. but still it is relatively peaceful compare to the much wired problems in mali and faso. so what happens next, still a lot of uncertainty. >> larry, thank you. new concerns about the health of mitch mcconnell after an alarming moment during a capitol hill news conference where mcconnell froze mid sentence for more than 20 seconds. and he has fallen at least twice this year in addition to the previously known fall earlier this year that led to thatten concussion. after wednesday's concerning freeze up, mcconnell seemed to bounce back quickly. later describing a check-in call from the president where mcconnell joked about biden's own awkward stumble. >> the president called to check on me. i told him i got sandbagged. >> how are you feeling now? >> i'm fine. >> meladical an melanie zanona s

more from capitol hill. >> reporter: mitch mcconnell says he is fine after the scary health episode wednesday afternoon. it occurred in a press conference he gives routinely. and during his opening remarks, he stopped mid sentence and froze for over a good 20 seconds without blinking before senator john barrasso who is a former physician came over to check on him. at that point mitch mcconnell was ushered away to the sidelines. let's watch that moment. >> after finishing the nda this week, there has been good bipartisan cooperation and a string of --

>> anything else you want to say? do you want to say anything else to the press? >> mcconnell did come back to the podium after about 12 minutes and he took multiple questions from reporters including from manu raju. when asked whether he was okay, mitch mcconnell said that he was fine and office said that he just felt lightheaded and needed to step away but was able to come back and was sharp. and mitch mcconnell since that moment has been con dupgtsing some of his routine business. he has been making calls and we're also told that he met with house speaker kevin mccarthy for one of their weekly meetings. but we should point out this is not the first health scare that mitch mcconnell has experienced this year. in march, he tripped and fell and hit his head. he was diagnosed with a

concussion and a few broken ribs and he was out for a few weeks in the senate. and i can also tell you just from observing him, he has been acting differently. he has been talking a bit softer, walking a bit more slowly. and last month he also struggled to hear more questions that were clearly audible from a reporter. so the issue of health has been top of mind for mitch mcconnell, but his colleagues wishings 81-year-old senator well. melanie zanona, cnn, capitol hill. death toll is mounting from wildfires raging around the mediterranean. two elderly found burned to death in their home in italy, now among 40 people killed by the wildfires. nada bashir is live in rome for us. how widespread are these fires and what is being done to get them under roll? -- control? >> reporter: we're seeing the fires, yesterday 61 new fires bringing the total to 90, but we're hearing some positive

indications from the authorities there in rhodes where fires have been raging for ten days now. they say this is no longer in inhabited areas. but as can he conwe continue to wildfires, there is concern for the devastation left behind. take a look. through italy's blackened ed h, the charred land, as emergency teams begin to battle wildfires across the southern regions. in sicily on tuesday, terrifying scenes as one recent raced through fire line roads to the airport which was brought to a standstill by the crisis. authorities say the vast majority of evacuated residents have now been able to return home. but in other parts of the country, anxious locals look on as flames spread dangerously close to their homes. a local church sustained

significant damage and residents say that they can only be thankful that no one was hurt. >> translator: the damage is enormous and we literally lost the church. ab but we're happy that there was no one injured. >> reporter: but italy is not alone. across the mediterranean, countries including greece, spain and portugal are battling extreme weather from devastating fires to deadly storms. in the portuguese town, more than 500 firefighters were drafted into tackle a now contained wildfire. and meanwhile emergency teams still working to tackle the blaze. some residents have been forced to evacuate their homes. but others have stayed to volunteer desperate to save their communities. >> we don't have help on the island. we want to shield the people living here. i have friends here, so i came to help. >> every year they say we will

do the things will be better. nothing. every summer the same. >> reporter: beyond europe wildfires are also ravaging parts of turkey and north africa. in algeria, authorities say they have managed to contain the deadly blaze which has so far killed dozens. but some who sought shelter say they came back to nothing. >> translator: when we returned home, we found everything was burned and there was nothing left. no furniture, no money, everything was burned. >> reporter: and the loss and devastation is becoming an all-too familiar reality across this region. as experts warn that extreme heat events will only become more frequent and more severe over the coming years unless urgent changes are made. it is a troubling prospect for a region already in the depths of a climate crisis.

and here in italy, we are still seeing fires raging in the southern regions. however those appear to be now more or less contained. however regions are still calling for state of emergency to be declared in order to support those regions affected to get the resources they need to tackle the aftermath left behind with the devastation of these fires. so far the prime minister has not declared a state of emergency but apparently it is still under consideration. of course alert is still high, temperatures are still high and of course there is real fear around potential for more fires. >> nada bashir, thank you so much. the global heatwave also taking a toll on the u.s. dangerously high temperatures have proven deadly in several states. horn 100 million people from california to massachusetts were under heat alerts yesterday and record-breaking high temperatures are forecast to roast millions of americans through the weekend and beyond. chad myers has more from the cnn

weather center. >> we've been talking about the heat in the desert southwest for months it seems. i know it is just weeks but seems like months. temperatures will be warming up again. back over 100 degrees likely through the central part of the country and the like. we'll see the heat index well above 110 in some spots, 105 in new york city and those numbers are always in the shade. so keep that in mind if you are working outside or pets outside, they will feel hotter than that if there is any sunshine. 170 more record highs likely over the next few days. good news is with this next front, it will come by quickly. so, yes, we'll warm up to 96, but then look down to 78 just in one day with the cold front. d.c. will go 23r from 98 to 85. even new york city, three days at or above 90, but then another cooldown with cooler nights and lower humidity. >> chad myers, thank you so

much. just ahead, a construction worker's veain attempt to keep crane from collapsing. and kevin spacey speaking out after being found not guilty. but first the collapse of the hunter biden plea deal in court. did politics play a part. liver e to your customers. fast. reliable. perfectly orchestrated. the united states postal service. from big cities,s, to small towns, and on main streets across the us, you'll find pnc bank. helping businesses both large and small, communities and e people who live and work there grow and thrive. we're proud to call these places homtoo. they're where we put down roots, and where together, we work to help move everyone's financial goals forward. pnc bank.

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you're an owner. our financial planning tools and advice can help you prepare for today's longer retirement. hi mom. that's the value of ownership. stunning day in court wednesday for hunter biden after his plea deal for failing to pay income tax and illegal possession of a firearm fell apart al leat least for now. let's bring in a former prosecutor. katie, what is your biggest takeaway and does the judge's argument make sense to you? >> well, it was very shocking of co course. they work hard to come to an agreement and try to convince the judge to go along with that. the judge has the sole authority here to approve the agreement regardless of what the parties

both request. so i was not surprised to see that the judge was not totally comfortable with the terms of the agreement. there were some specific issues that she brought up in terms of even the constitutionality of some of the provisions there. and even bigger picture than that, the idea of what exactly this plea agreement options there are out there. and so hunter biden's team and ultimately hunter biden himself need to be very careful about what the parameters of this agreement are if he is to move forward. >> and so both sides thousand h now have to submit briefs why they believe the deal is constitutional. what do you think will happen after that? >> again it really is up to the judge and whether she is convinced that she can approve that sort of deal.

and essentially her concern was because of the gun charge would be held this abeyance pending hunter completing probation successfully, if there were any deviations or violations of his probation, the deal seems to be asking the judge to decide whether he should be charged at that point which the judge felt would be outside of her authority and even outside of the constitutionality of what she could do. so that was kind of one of the sticking points. but i think again bigger picture, the other piece of this is exactly what are the potential charges out there and what can he be prosecuted for in the future even if he does take the deal and it is accepted by the judge. >> this is the president's son. politics behind this case cannot be ignored. he has been a poster child for republicans who want to say this is sort of a -- cast the family as corrupt. talk to me about the politics

laid over the legal proceedings here. >> well, politics are undeniable here. a lot of what the judge is being asked to consider also deals with what happened during the investigation into hunter biden 's conduct. there has been whistleblower testimony that suggests that there were decisions made that were contrary to the evidence and contrary to even what some prosecutors, namely david weiss, had originally wanted to do with the case. and so to the extent that the judge in the plea bargain can consider in the interests of justice whether this deal encompasses all considerations of what the original charges might have been and what other misconduct member out there, there is certainly no way to avoid the politics here in terms of some of the other allegations involving hunter biden's foreign business dealings that span outside of the kind of crimes that were included in the deal. but which were out there and maybe still are out there in terms of the investigation. and so it seems like this is not

a resolved issue for hunter biden even if this deal goes through for these tax charges and the gun charge. there may be other things out there. and this deal may or may not impact those. >> katie, thank you, so nice to see you. quick hits across america now. police officials in ohio say a k-9 officer has been fired after an investigation into why his dog attacked a suspect who was already surrendering. officials say ryan speakman did not meet standards for officers. autopsies though three marines died from carbon monoxide poisoning. their bodies were found inside a parked vehicle. operator of a high rise crane tried to put out a fire that erupted in the machine moments before it collapse order to a city street. 12 people were injured.order to a city street. 12 people were injured.

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vladimir putin is speaking to african leaders at a summit promising that his country will be a reliable supplier of food to africa. clare sebastian is live in london with more. russia is doing all it can to disrupt grain exports from ukraine. a large portion of which goes to africa. what is he saying today? >> reporter: it is part anti-western tirade and part

effort to reassure the countries that russia calls its allies that their food supply is not in jeopardy. so we've heard a lot of what we've heard before saying that the grain deal did not stack up to its promises, much of the food did not go to the developing countries, that none of the sanctions relief that was promised to russia has materialized as part of that deal. so essentially saying that the grain deal was not what it promised to be. and he has also tried to reassure the countries that russia as he says are much bigger part of global grain and wheat exports and then ukraine will be able to step into that breach and provide what they need both on a commercial and humanitarian way. so essentially trying to make the point that western efforts to disrupt this, those methods are futile because russia will do some of it for free. you ab

but the point of this, the summit is not perfectly timed but it is important to russia because they have been cultivating these alliances not only looking for commercial activities but also to expand their sphere of influence to foster this anti-western sentiment that they are trying to sort of spread and also to project themselves as a major power which is of course part of the reason why they invaded ukraine in the first place. so very interesting optics here. >> we'll let you get back to monitoring those comments from vladimir putin. thank you so much. north korea preparing to commemorate the 7 09 annthe arm signing. the celebration comes during rising tensions on the peninsula over the north's increasing missile tests. mark stewart is live in tokyo with more. what can we expect from north korea's celebrations? >> reporter: good morning.

already we have seen a lot of pageant friday from north korea. not a surprise. often one of its tools of choice as it tries to assert itself on the global stage. we saw a tour of the military facility, kim jung-un taking russia's defense minister on a walk-through of sorts looking at what are described as new type weapons and other military hardware. north korea and russia have enjoyed a cozy relationship. russian defense minister at one point today pointed out that in his view the kpa has become the strongest military in the world. and these nations are not alone. there is also a delegation from china also in north korea. these three nations have really built an alliance among themselves as the war in ukraine

takes place. this is a big ceremonial event of course the 70th anniversary marking the end of the war. there is always a possibility that we may see a much larger military parade which is often a trademark, a hallmark of for examplian c-- north korean celebrations. so we'll see if that already happens in the hours ahead. >> mark, thank you. london jury has cleared kevin spacey of all sexual assault charges. the 64-year-old had tears in his eyes as heard the decision. >> i would like to say that i'm enormously grateful to the jury for having taken the time to examine all of the evidence and all of the facts. fire on a cargo ship near the dutch coast has killed at least one crew member and injured several others. it was carrying nearly 3,000 vehicles and an electric vehicle

could have sparked the blaze. ♪ a nad owe a nad owe . a nadsinead o'connor has di at the age of 56. mark zuckerberg will be on the hot seat today and a draw for the u.s. women in the world cup. can help you prerepare for today's longer retirement. hi momom. that's the valulue of ownershi. meet gold bond healing.

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okay everyone, our mission is complete balanced nutrition. together we provide nutrients to support immune, muscle, bone, and heart health. yaaay! woo hoo! ensure with 25 vitamins and minerals and ensure complete with 30 grams of protein. ♪ michigan school shooter ethan crumbley set to appear in court today. he was 15 when he fatally shot four teens at oxford high school almost two years ago. president biden will host italian prime minister at the white house today. he will thank the far right leader for her support for ukraine's fight against russian

forces. house republicans will vote today on a report alleging that mark zuckerberg refused to comply with a series of subpoenas. they say he failed to turn over documents for their probe into whether meta censored conservative speech. and three veterans claim the u.s. government is in possession of nonhuman biological matter, alien bodies and that the government knows more than it is telling the public. oren lieberman has more. >> what's going on, bro. >> a whole fleet of them. >> reporter: videos of mysterious objects have captured the public's attention. >> it is going against the wind. look at that thing. >> reporter: and prerhaps its imagination. >> there is a pressing demand for transparency and accountability. >> reporter: as wednesday's hearing focused on the threat they may pose and whether the government has been too secretive about what it knows.

>> this is an urgent national security problem. if nothing else, an issue for signs. in either case, unidentified objects are a concern for flight safety. >> reporter: david grusch claimed the u.s. had alien bodies and spacecraft, a statement to which he admitted he has secondhand info and no proof. >> you said that u.s. has intact spacecraft, you said that the government has alien bodies. >> i have to be careful to describe what i've seen firsthand and not in this environment. >> have you seen any of the bodies? >> that is something i've not witnessed myself. >> reporter: the house oversight hearing was a rare moment of bipartisanship in a sharply divided congress. >> we're not bringing little green men or flying saucers into the hearing. we'll just get to the facts. >> we should encourage more reporting, not less, on uaps. the more we understand, the safer we will be. >> reporter: one of the witnesses was a former navy

pilot ryan graves who now run as group that encourages pilots to report incidents of ufos, officially known as uaps, unidentify aerial phenomena. vast majority of sightings he says are never reported. >> this is an approximation based off of my personal experience speaking with a number of pilots, but i'd estimate we're somewhere near 5% reporting perhaps. >> reporter: the three witnesses, all retired military veteran, say the threat is real. >> based off the data and your experience, is there any indication that these uavs could be essentially collecting recogninnaissance information, graves? >> yes. >> mr. grusch? >> fair assessment. >> from mr. frazier. >> very possible. >> reporter: and david frazier picked up this on his aircraft sensors in 2004, a reading he claimed was something far superior to anything the u.s. had. >> you are talking something that can go into space, drop down in a matter of seconds, do

whatever it wants and leave. and there is nothing that we can do about it. >> reporter: in april the head of the pentagon office looking into these incidents told lawmakers there were about 650 potential cases of uaps. about half of which he said may be of interesting value. the white house said wednesday that it is still working on figuring out those answers. >> if your question is do we think that we need to be transparent with the american people, of course we need to be as transparent as we can be. but the truth is that we don't have hard and fast answers on these things. we are trying to get smarter on it. >> reporter: oren lieberman, cnn, at the pentagon. to sports now. the u.s. women's national team rallies in the second half to end up tying the netherlands. andy scholes has the "bleacher report." >> not the best result, but also not the worst. a tie last night keeps the u.s. women on top of their group based on goals. and this game was really similar to the one against vietnam in the sense that the u.s. just

couldn't find the back of the net. they were held scoreless in the first half and went down a goal when the netherlands scored here in the 17th minute. this was the first time since 2011 that the u.s. women trailed at a world cup match. they have gone 17 straight without trailing which is a world cup record. and the captain gets taken down and she was not happy about that. she would end up getting her revenge. in the 62nd minute, rose lavelle a perfect corner here. and a great header to get the u.s. on the board. but that would be it. despite outshooting the netherlands 18-4, this one ends in the 1-1 tie. >> i thought the momentum the whole time i think the first half that we could be disappointed in how we played, but i think that we fixed things right away the pressure that we got on and amount of chances and opportunities that came from it. so proud of the team and their response against a really good

opponent, very competitive team, one that we saw do such good things. for us it is going down a goal and coming up and getting able to tie and again the chances that we got on goal. we have to finish a few of those, but we'll keep moving forward. >> and so the u.s. is not guaranteed advancing out of the group yet. but they are heavy favorites against portugal on tuesday. kickoff is scheduled for 3:00 a.m. eastern. and kylian mbappe meanwhile looks like he is turning down the richest offer in sports history. according to multiple reports, the french star is refusing to even meet with the saudi club who reportedly offered a mouth watering sum of $776 million to come play with them for just one season. since mbappe won't be going, that means that his current club psg won't be getting the record transfer fee of $332 million either. finally in baseball last

night, this is one of the greatest slides of all-time. trying to corescore from secondd look what he does. he slides between the catcher's legs. incredible. he wasly called out but they would review and his foot got in there and he was called safe. and this was just genius. the fact that he thought to do this was pretty awesome. it helped that his legs were wide open. but one of the greatest slide of all-time. >> amazing. all right. andy, thank you so much. coming up on "cnn this morning," what happened to hunter biden's plea deal, how it all went sideways in court. and next here, call it the summer of strikes. workers emboldened against bosses. what is driving the labor tension.

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your roman's numeral is 22. central bank raising the lending rate by a quarter point just a month after pausing to assess the state of the economy. and jerome powell says another increase remains an option. >> i would say it is certainly possible that we would raise funds again at the september meeting if the data warranted. and i would also say it is possible that we would choose to hold steady at that meeting. we'll be making careful assessments meeting by meeting. >> and this marks the 11th rate hike since march 2022. looking at markets around the world, asian markets closed mixed. hang seng surged after volkswagen agreed to invest $700 million in a major chinese ev maker. european markets are higher ahead of the rate hike decision. and stock index futures are leaning higher after a remarkable day for the dow, 13th straight day hire, that has not happened since 1987.

nasdaq and s&p down a tiny bit though. gas prices rose two cents overnight. and amazon will report earnings later today. and also first reading for send quarter gdp, mortgage rates and weekly jobless claims are due out. and labor strikes are front and center posing the possibility of huge disruptions in the economy. let's bring in sharon block, professor at harvard and served on the national labor relations board under president obama. good morning. >> good morning. >> so u.p.s. workers have reached a tentative deal, so that dodges a bullet for the u.s. economy. there are negotiations going on with the united autoworkers to reach a deal by september. the actors and writers guilds are on strike. what has caused all of this to happen now, sharon? >> so i think that workers are considering sort of three main factors.

and they are asking did we get a fair share of profits and if not, if they don't feel that they did, can we in new negotiations get what they believe is fair. i mean that is really what being in a union is about, is having a voice and what you think is fair in your workplace. second i think many of the unions have contracts that were negotiated in a different context. again, u.p.s. is emblematic of this. and so workers are saying do we have an opportunity now to make better maybe provisions and contracts that they agreed to when they didn't feel quite as empowered. and third, there is clearly something going on being a cross the economy where workers especially those in unions are feeling stronger, more united, more empowered than they have before. and they are looking to ensure that they get contracts that

really meet this unusual moment. for some, some sectors of economy are expecting big changes. that is what you see i think in the hollywood strikes where this move to streaming, the possibility of ai coming into their workplaces. and i think that they look at an ability to get ahead in their work, in their sectors, so they want to have a seat at the table to discuss what those changes look like. >> hutchow much does the coronas pandemic play into this? in some cases these are workers demanding better working conditions. >> i think it has a big impact. again, looking at u.p.s. which

is very much on people's mind this is week, you had u.p.s. drivers who really put their lives on the line to deliver packages to all of us when we were afraid to leave our houses. people know their u.p.s. drivers answer teamsters were looking at sitting down at the bargaining table with a company that made record profits during the pandemic yet their drivers were operating under a contract at that time that they felt didn't give them a fair share of those record profits. so i think that the teamsters came out of the paendemic feelig like they had a right to demand their fair share of the pandemic profits. and, you know, we'll see what -- we have to remember unions are democratic organizations. so the teamsters members have the last word whether the contract is ratified or not, but it seems encouraging when you

see the improvements over the contract that the steam ter teae working under during the pandemic. >> professor, so nice to see you. thank you. >> thank you. hunter biden in legal limbo after his plea agreement all but fell apart this court. and the moment mitch mcconnell froze mid sentence during a news conference, coming up on "cnn this morning." the first unlimited plan that lets her choose exactly what goes in it. now she gets to pick onlnly the perks she wants and saves on everyry one. all with an incredible new iphohone. act now and get iphone 14 4 pro on u us when you switch. it's your verizon.

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small town is number one on youtube charts. here's number two. seven, and number three. ♪ i'm on the stage right now ♪ ♪ sing me your favorite song ♪ >> favorite song remix featuring khalid. thanks for joining us, i'm christie romans. have a great day, everyone, cnn this morning starts right now. good morning, everyone, we're glad you're with