a book that you're ready to share with the world? get published now, call for your free publisher kit today! hurricane florence, there it is, going strong as a category-four storm. the national weather service warning, quote, unbelievable damage. >> i think that puerto rico was in an incredible, unsung success. >> president trump slammed for saying the response to the hurricane in puerto rico was a success. there were nearly 3,000 deaths in the aftermath there. wondering if this is a heck of a

job moment for the president of the united states and how important it is for the response to the next hurricane. welcome to "early start," i'm christine romans. >> i'm dave briggs. wednesday, september 12th. 4:00 a.m. in the east. right now, the calm before the storm, but it is coming. according to the national weather service, the storm of a lifetime bearing down on the mid-atlantic. hurricane florence still a category-four but picked up strength overnight and could become a category five today. it's expected to slam into north carolina's coast tomorrow night or friday morning. one meteorologist at the national weather service warning everyone in the region there is potential for, quote, unbelievable damage. florence currently packing 140 mile-an-hour winds, expected to stall, though, when it makes landfall raising concerns about catastrophic flooding. >> now the epa tells cnn there's a threat of florence triggering the release of toxic chemicals

from nine hazardous waste sites along the north carolina coastline. the epa is performing vulnerability assessments on both sites right now. there you see the path. as we said, a strong category four expected to slam thursday night, friday morning, into the coast, and potentially stall making it a rainmaker, dave. >> we will talk about the storm surge and how long it may stall, what type of flooding are we expecting with pedram javaheri, our meteorologist, shortly. we move on to the evacuation in the region. shelters opening for those evacuating out of the path. more than one million people under mandatory evacuation orders. that does not mean those people have to leave, but it does mean if they stay, first responders will not come to their aid. martin savidge is in carolina beach where the mayor thinks as many as 100 may choose to ride out the storm. >> reporter: good morning. we really are now down to the final hours at least for many people in these beachside

communities in north carolina. this is carolina beach. people are going to finally decide if they're going to stay or go. 8:00 p.m. tonight is the cutoff point. after that, the decision is made for anyone who decides to stay behind. here's the reason why. this is a barrier island. as a result of that, there is one bridge that connects to the mainland. once the wind speeds get above 45 miles per hour consistently, that's when the bridge closes, and that's your final route of escape. so for law enforcement purposes, once the bridge is closed, then everyone here is on their own. so it means in the hours in between there's going to be soul searching, there's going to be a lot of people looking at the track of the storm. and there's something else they take into account in this part of north carolina -- they believe all previous storms have weakened before coming on shore. if it's a cat three, many say, i can take that. if it's cat four, that makes them want to go.

it's part math, part mysticism. whatever it is, people on these islands will have to make their decisions today. otherwise, they are, he and they could be trapped here for a long time without electricity and without any chance of rescue. dave and christine? >> heed those warnings. thank you, martin savidge. now to our meteorologist pedram javaheri tracking hurricane florence live in this cnn weather center. some say this is a tremendously big and one that's tremendously wet. you would describe it otherwise. what's on the way? >> it's been one of the most remarkable storms not only as far as the unique track it's taking but what it might do as it approaches land here. hurricane warnings and watches in place, widespread across the carolinas. 140 mile-per-hour winds. slight wasteful spendieakening . back to 140. i don't see much weakening over the next couple of days. very little has changed as it's stayed here. a menacing feature.

the european and american model overlaid, the gfs, the red one, the american, the blue one, the european. notice very little difference. alignment is perfect as it approaches land come early friday morning. we have high confidence this will end up off the coast into the early morning hours on friday. what happens after that is anyone's guess. the models have been showing it shifting south, thinking potentially the storm doesn't make landfall on friday, maybe doesn't make landfall come saturday. we'll show the most reliable model with the systems. that's the european model coming into the early morning hours of friday again. notice it parks just offshore. half of the eye has to cross over land for an official landfall to take place. a lot of times people fall in love with where is landfall, who is it going to hit. we might not have to answer the question but could watch how long it takes before it makes landfall, potentially a period of 12 to 124, maybe -- 12 to 24, maybe 36 hours.

the model guides it further and further south through sunday, maybe late sunday, before it moves it ashore somewhere south of savannah, georgia. if that's the case, that's as bad a scenario as you get with the amount of rainfall forecast, 20 to 30 inches in spots. the storm surge, 12 or more feet in spots. that will be a life-threatening scenario over two or three days. a slow-motion disaster versus the landfall that would happen friday, conditions improving saturday and sunday. doesn't look like conditions will improve if the track stays put here with the next couple of days of it. >> geez. >> a lot of bad choices and outcomes even though we don't know how it will play out. thank you. we know there's another big, important update at 5:00 a.m. president trump also advising people to heed warnings and evacuate. in a statement from the oval office -- >> they haven't seen anything like what's coming at us in 25,

30 years. maybe ever. it's tremendously big and tremendously wet. tremendous amounts of water. it could be similar to texas in the sense that it's tremendous amounts of water. texas was the one that this i would say to this point brought probably more water than we've seen in a storm or a hurricane. it went out for seconds and thirds. >> the president drew criticism for another statement he made from the oval office. he praised, praised the administration's response to hurricane maria in puerto rico where the death toll was changed from 64 to nearly 3,000. cnn's kaitlan collins with more. >> reporter: president trump raising eyebrows when he creted his administration's response to hurricane maria in puerto rico when talking about how they're preparing for hurricane florence as it barrels toward the east

coast. the president was in the oval office and just finished a briefing with the fema administrator, brock long, and cited hurricane maria as one of his administration's most successful times since he's been in office. of course that storm devastated puerto rico, killed nearly 3,000, and left millions without power for months. the president raised a lot of eyebrows when he made comments like this -- >> the job that fema and law enforcement and everybody did working along with the governor in puerto rico i think was tremendous. i think that puerto rico was an incredible unsung success. >> reporter: in that same oval office meeting, president trump brought up the denials of his two former top staffers. his chief economic adviser gary cohn and staff secretary rob porter, both who played pivotal roles in bob woodward's tell-all book about the trump white house. president trump said he appreciated their denials. he felt that they were extent and thought they show -- they were excellent and thought they showed bob woodward's book was

fiction. making it clear why porter and cohn issued the denials in the first place. >> kaitlan collins at the white house. thanks. democratic senator jeff merkley of oregon claims the trump administration is diverting hurricane relief money from fema to fund i.c.e. just as hurricane season is starting. merkley released a homeland security document tuesday showing a transfer of $9.8 million. that document says the money is coming from the agency's travel, training, public engagement, and i.t. budgets, not disaster relief. but senator merkley insists the white house is diverting money from response and recovery budgets to fund additional immigrant detention camps. he says any shift in funding will make it even more challenging for fema to respond to natural disasters. history will be made one way or another this november in new hampshire. voters in the first congressional district will elect the first openly gay or first african-american congressman. in a district that regularly swings between the two parties

and backed president trump in 2016, democratic voters chose chris pappas from a crowded field in the primary. a field that included levi sanders, the son of vermont senator bernie sanders. pappas will take on republican primary winner eddie edwards, a black former police chief and navy veteran who got a big assist to the campaign trail from rudy giuliani. about ten minutes past the hour. time for an early start on your money. president trump putting a positive spin on talks with canada as the future of nafta is in limbo. >> trade talks are coming along very well. we're dealing with china, as you know, we've taken a tough stance on china. i would say to put it mildly. with canada, they want to make a deal very much. me, if we make it, that's good. if we don't make it, that's okay, too. canada wants to make a deal. we'll see if we can get them into the deal we already have with mexico. i think the deal with canada is coming along very well. we've all been dealing in good faith. >> that was the president yesterday at the white house.

the canadian prime minister, justin trudeau, has said he will not sign a deal that's bad for his country. there was the preliminary agreement with mexico last month. talks with canada have failed. the talks have resumed last week. one sticking point is the u.s. demands more access to canada's dairy market, a relatively small part overall of u.s.-canadian trade. canada wants cultural exemptions for areas like dairy. canada wants to dispute a revolutionary mechanism. the u.s. has set it for october, the 1st, deadline to renegotiate nafta. any sign that things could be going the right direction for the u.s. and relief in the stock market. this is still an overhang here trying to figure out how this is going to work out. >> a considerable dairy trade surplus with canada as far as -- >> that's right. certain kind of dairy the united states wants more. all countries protect certain parts of their electorate, frankly. talking about, you know, dairy farmers in quebec, right? a powerful lobbying group, as well. much of this had been ironed out

in the tpp. starting from scratch. >> as well as keeping china in check. house, a house republican is pointing to newly discoveried texts from former -- discovered texts from former fbi officials saying they're proof of misconduct at the agency. to the they have businesses to grow customers to care for lives to get home to they use stamps.com print discounted postage for any letter any package any time right from your computer all the amazing services of the post office only cheaper get our special tv offer a 4-week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again!

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controversy appears to be no exception. congressman mark meadows has now seized upon a text exchange from strzok to page in april of 2017 where he says to her, "i want to talk to you about media leak strategy with doj." the timing is something that the congressman finds troubling because it happens to fall during the exact period of time when the "washington post" and other outlets publishing stories about the fbi's surveillance of former trump adviser carter page. strzok's attorney tells me it has nothing to do with that, and instead it was about a department-wide initiative to stop elections to the media. a source close to page tells me it had nothing to do with anything about that. all it was is they were preparing department leadership at the justice department to face leaks and the legality around that. of course, the larger political ba backdrop is that even though these two people no longer work at the fbi, their text messages will be continued to be used as political ammunition against the special counsel's investigation because they worked for robert

mueller for a short period of time. and so as long as mueller is around, the texts will continue to pour in. back to you. >> all right. laura jarrett, thank you very much. the embattled leader of the archdiocese of washington, cardinal donald wuerl, will soon travel to the vatican to discuss with the pope his possible resignation. he faces increasing calls to step down over his handling of clergy sex abuse cases. >> in a letter to priests from the diocese he writes, "at issue is how to begin effect tennessee valley bring a new level of healing to survivors who have personally suffered so much and to the faithful entrusted to our care who have also been wounded by the shame of these terrible actions and have questions about their bishop's ability to provide the necessary leadership." cardinal wuerl submitted a resignation letter three years ago at the customary retirement age of 75 but has continued to serve. wuerl does not say when he will travel to rome. the "washington post" reporting paul manafort is

talking to robert mueller's team about a possible plea deal. sources say it is not clear if the negotiations involve the former trump campaign chairman providing information about the president. the news comes just days before jury selection begins in manafort's second trial for alleged financial crimes and could signal a lift in legal strategy. manafort chose to go to trial in virginia and was convicted last month on eight federal counts of bank and tax frauds. he faces up to ten years in prison on those counts. coming up, russian president vladimir putin defending two men accused of poisoning an ex-spy and his daughter in the uk. we're live in moscow.

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russian president vladimir putin defending two men accused of poisoning an ex-spy and his daughter saying there is nothing criminal about the suspects. they're accused of trying to kill former double agent sergei skripal and his daughter using a nerve agent. matthew chance live in moscow with the latest. what do we know? >> reporter: this is extraordinary because it's the first time that the russians admitted these people exist. previously when their photographs were circulated they were named as alexander petrov and ruslan boshirov. the russians dismissed those names and photographs as meaningless. now russian president vladimir putin has come out saying, look, we know who they are, we found them. actually they're civilians. they're not members, him

indicating, of the gru, the russian military intelligence group that the british authorities say they were members of. and basically there's nothing unusual about them. he also took the step of calling on these two individuals to speak to the media. almost giving the permission to do so. expectations have been rising in the country and observers watching that soon we'll be hearing from those individuals themselves. it's extraordinary because, it's going to be interesting, rather, to hear what explanation these people have for making that short visit from moscow to britain and traveling from london to salisbury, weather poisonings took place in march of this year. and of course, they were documented closely and recorded on their travels by british closed circuit television cameras. so if they do come out into public as is being suggested by the russian public, it is going

to be extraordinarily interesting to hear their account. dave? >> might we hear from them? what's the likelihood of that? >> reporter: mean, up until a few minutes ago i would have said very unlikely that we would ever see them again. but vladimir putin was on state television speaking at a session at the eastern economic forum which is the key economic summit taking place saying this, i want to dc them, speaking -- to address them, speaking to the suspects, so they can hear us now. let them come out somewhere, to you in the media. so he's encouraging them to come out and give their testimony. which is to say going to be fascinating to watch, a lot of interest in this in britain as there is here. >> fascinating indeed. matthew chance live for us in moscow. thank you. dire consequences, those are the words u.s. ambassador to the u.n. nikki haley used to describe what would happen if russia and iran continue air strikes against idlib, the last

rebel-held area in syria. she also said the u.s. would not tolerate any use of chemical weapons. >> we will know that the assad regime and its enablers are serious about a political process for peace in syria not when they repeat empty promises but when the violence stops. when the air strikes and the ground offensive stop. we consider any assault on idlib to be a reckless escalation of the conflict here. if assad, russia, and iran continue down the path they are on, the consequences will be dire. >> russia's ambassador to the u.n. denied that syria has any chemical weapons. at a security council meeting on the crisis in idlib, the u.n. secretary general warned of a potential bloodbath, real concerns about civilians there. syria and russia began air strikes in idlib last week as a prelude to retaking the region. the national weather service calling it the storm of a

lifetime. 30 million people in the path of hurricane florence. evacuations underway. cnn's weather center has a live forecast next.

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hurricane florence barreling toward the east coast. a category-four storm here. more than one million under evacuation orders. 30 million people in the path. >> i think that puerto rico was an incredible unsung success. >> president trump under fire for those comments on puerto rico saying the response to the very deadly hurricane maria was a success.

nearly 3,000 people died in puerto rico. welcome back to "early start." i'm dave briggs. >> i'm christine romans. let's begin with this monster storm here. according to the national weather service the storm of a lifetime bearing down on the mid-atlantic. hurricane florence sill a category-storm -- still a category-four storm but could become a category five today. it is expected to slam into north carolina's coast tomorrow night or friday morning. one meteorologist at the national weather service warning everyone in the region there is potential for, quote, unbelievable damage. florence is currently packing 140 mile-per-hour winds and is expected to stall when it makes landfall. that raises concerns about catastrophic flooding. >> now the epa telling cnn there is a threat of florence triggering the release of toxic chemicals from nine hazardous waste sites along the carolina coastline. the agency is performing vulnerability assessments now.

meteorologist pedram javaheri tracking things live from the weather center. good morning, the storm surge always a concern, but the threat of this storm just stalling -- how worrisome is that? >> it's pretty much the worst-case scenario when it comes to a tropical system. when you look at systems that move through quickly, range amounts even on the strongest ones could be five, six, seven inches. on even weak storms, slow down, talking 20 to 30 inches. of course, this is both strong and going to be slow on approach. so it really makes for a dangerous scenario here. category four has been the case for a while, remains to be the case. by definition by the national hurricane center once you bring the hurricane on land, catastrophic damage is possible. on their website it says areas would be uninhabitable for weeks or months. that's on par with category fours and fives on landfall. the best models we have to go with the american and the european. we've overlaid them. the american in red, the european in blue. you don't see the blue because

it aep's directly underneath th red. near sunrise over the next few hours into friday eventually, this storm is expected to park right off the coast of wilmington and then look what happens here as we transition into friday afternoon, friday night, very little movement. the heaviest rainfall potentially around the coast of north carolina, twoim hatteras, then beyond that, when we break down the -- between hatteras, then beyond that, when we break down the model, being the european. parts offshore doesn't make landfall but potentially slides farther south over 24 to maybe 36 hours. sunday around sunset may be a landfall potential as far south as savannah, georgia. talking 30-plus inches of rainfall for an expansive area along the coastline. the hurricane's track at this point expands out here beyond the approach to land. landfall could be here it could be anywhere down here. that's why it's important to note don't look at the center of this as an area of landfall.

certainly looks like the southern trajectory is becoming more and more likely on a very, very slow process as it works its way farther south there. >> so much work to do to prepare. and clearly there will be a lot of cleanup. thank you very much, keep us posted. we know there's another advisory in 25 minutes. we'll get some more intelligence on the path here. thanks. shelters are opening for people in the hurricane's path. more than a million under evacuation orders. that does not mean people have to leave, but it means if they stay, first responders will not come to their aid. martin savidge is in carolina beach where the mayor thinks as many as 100 people may choose to ride this out. >> reporter: good morning, dave, christine. we are down to the final hours at least for many people in these beachside communities in north carolina. this is carolina beach where people are going to finally decide whether they're going to stay or go. 8:00 p.m. tonight is the cutoff point. and after that, then the decision is pretty much made for

anyone who decides to stay behind. this is the reason why -- this is a barrier island that connects to the mainland. once the wind speeds get above 45 miles per hour consistently, that's when the bridge closes, and that's the final route of escape. so for law enforcement purposes, once the bridge is closed, then everyone here is on their own. it means in the hours in between there's going to be soul searching, there's going to be a lot of people looking at the track of the storm. and something else here -- they believe all previous storms have weakened just before they come ashore. if this is a cat three, many people say i can take that. if it's a cat four, that makes them want to go. it is part math and part mysticism. whatever it is, these are these islands will have to make their decisions today otherwise they are here and could be trapped for a long time without

electricity and without chance of rescue. >> thank you. president trump also advising people to heed warnings and evacuate. in a statement from the oval office, he said -- >> they haven't seen anything like what's coming at us in 25, 30 years. maybe ever. it's tremendously big and tremendously wet. tremendous amounts of water. it could very well be similar to texas in the sense that it's tremendous amounts of water. texas was the one that had i would say to this point brought probably more water than we've ever seen in a storm or hurricane. it went out for seconds and thirds. >> the president drew criticism for another statement from the oval office and praised his administration's response to hurricane maria in puerto rico where the death toll was just revised upwards from 64 to nearly 3,000. cnn's kaitlan collins with more

from the white house. >> reporter: christine and dave, president trump raising several eyebrows when he cited the administration's response to hurricane maria in puerto rico when talking about how they're preparation for hurricane florence as it barrels toward the east coast. the president was in the oval office. he had just finished a briefing with the fema administrator, brock long. he cited hurricane maria as one of his administration's most successful times since he's been in office. of course that was a storm that devastated puerto rico, killed roughly 3,000 people, and left millions without power for months. the president raised a lot of eyebrows when he made comments like this -- >> the job that fema and law enforcement and everybody did working along with the governor in puerto rico, i think, was tremendous. i think that puerto rico was an incredible unsung success. >> reporter: in the same oval office meeting, president trump brought up the denials of his two former top staffers. his chief economic adviser gary

cohn, and staff secretary rob porter, both who played pivotal roles in bob woodward's tell-all book about the white house. president trump said he appreciated their denials. he thought they were excellent and showed that bob woodward's book is fiction, making it pretty clear why rob porter and gary cohn issued the denials in the first place. dave and christine? >> thank you. democratic senator jeff merkley of oregon claims the trump administration is diverting hurricane relief money from fema to fund i.c.e., i.c.e., just as the hurricane season is starting. merkley released a homeland security document tuesday showing a transfer of $9.8 million. the document says the money's coming from the agency's travel, training, public engagement, and i.t. budgets, fema's budgets, not disaster relief. the senator insists the white house is using money from response and recovery to fund additional immigration detention camps. he says a shift in funding will

make it even more challenging for fema to respond to natural disasters. history will be made one way or another in new hampshire this november. voters in the first congressional district will either elect the state's first openly gay or first african-american congressman. in a district that regularly swings between the two parties and backed president trump in 2016, democratic voters chose chris pappas from a crowded field in last night's primary. a field that included levi sanders, the son of vermont senator bernie sanders. pop i can't s-- pappas will take edwards, a black former navy vet. apple shares surged yesterday ahead of today's big iphone event in california. the stock popped almost 3% snapping a four-day losing streak. apple ceo tim cook expected to announce a new set of the iphone x at the event. and fancy features could be expanded to other phones. as the company revamps its signature product, it's struggling to compete in asia.

in asian markets where smartphone sales are booming, but apple's share is not. in addition to its south korea rival samsung, apple faces tough competition from chinese players such as wowway, appo, vivo, and showme. the company is investing heavily in its media business growing itunes and icloud and building a production studio from scratch. the tech giant has plans to produce original content. at today's event we could see hardware on the apple watch, possibly an update on wireless headphones. people love to watch the event -- >> i think brian stelzer is attending his first apple event. >> is he? >> 10:00 a.m. eastern time. >> that's right. ahead, the archbishop of washington telling his diocese he'll speak to the pope about resigning. it's over demands he step down over his handling of clergy sex abuse. that's next. these folks, they don't have time to go to the post office they have businesses to grow customers to care for

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one of the president's closest allies in congress, mark meadows, reveals new text messages show a coordinated effort in the fbi and justice department to harm the trump campaign. the house republicans suggest without evidence that texts between former fbi officials peter strzok and lisa page point to what he calls a media leak strategy. let's get more from cnn's laura jarrett in washington. >> reporter: well, good morning. for the past several months, something of a pattern has started to develop here as republican lawmakers uncover a text exchange between the two former officials. the president tweets out a suggestion that the fix is in at the fbi, and the latest controversial appears to be no exception. congressman mark meadows has seized upon a text exchange from strzok to page in april of 2017 where he says to her, "i want to talk to you about media leak strategy with doj."

the timing is something that the congressman finds troubling because it happens to fall during the exact period of time when the "washington post" and other outlets publishing stories about the fbi's surveillance of former trump adviser carter page. but strzok's attorney tells me it has nothing to do with that, and instead it was about a department-wide initiative to stop leaks to the media. a source close to page tells me it had nothing to do with anything about that. all it was is they were preparing department leadership at the justice department to face leaks in the legality around that. of course the larger political backdrop to all of this is that even those these two people no longer work at the fbi, their texts will be continued to use as political ammunition against the special counsel's investigation because they both worked for robert mueller for a short period of time. so as long as mueller is around, these texts will continue to pour in. dave and christine, back to you. >> laura jarrett, thanks. the embattled leader of the archdiocese of washington, cardinal donald wuerl, says

he'll soon travel to the vatican to discuss with the pope his possible resignation. wuerl faces increasing calls to step down over his handling of clergy sex abuse cases. >> in a letter to priests in the d.c. diocese, he writes at issue is how begin to effectively bring a new level of healing to survivors who have personally suffered so much and to the faithful entrusted to our care who have been wounded by the shame of these terrible actions and have questions about their bishop's ability to provide the necessary leadership. cardinal wuerl submitted a resignation letter three years ago at the customary retirement age of 75 but has continued to serve. wuerl does not say when he will continue to rome. elizabeth smart says a decision by the utah parole board to release the woman who helped kidnap her 16 years ago is incomprehensible. wanda barzee will be released from prison next week. she and her husband, brian david mitchell, were convicted of abducting smart who was then 14 at knifepoint from her bedroom in june, 2002, and holding her

captive for nine months. mitchell got life in prison. barzee got 15 years. the 72-year-old wasn't expected to be released for another five years. utah corrections officials say she hadn't received credit for time served earlier in federal prison. >> wow. new numbers on middle-class income rates. we'll show you how the numbers compare to the early 2000s when we check cnn "money." can be relentless. tremfya® is for adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. i'm ready. with tremfya®, you can get clearer. and stay clearer. in fact, most patients who saw 90% clearer skin at 28 weeks stayed clearer through 48 weeks. tremfya® works better than humira® at providing clearer skin, and more patients were symptom free with tremfya®. tremfya® may lower your ability to fight infections and may increase your risk of infections. before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. tell your doctor if you have an infection or have symptoms such as: fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches or cough.

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welcome back this morning. russian president vladimir putin defending two men suspected of poisoning an ex-spy and his daughter saying at the eastern economic forum that there is nothing criminal about the suspects. they're accused of trying to kill former double agent sergei skripal and his daughter using a soviet-era nerve agent. senior international correspondent matthew chance standing by live for us in moscow with the latest. this is quite a development. >> reporter: it certainly is and a big development from the previous russian position that the two individuals named by the law enforcement authorities as alexander petrov and ruslan boshirov as being the suspects. the main suspects in this novichok poisoning in salisbury. previously the russian position

had been that the names, the photographs issued were meaningful. now vladimir putin, the russian president, has said, look, actually we know who they are, we've identified them, and, by the way, there's nothing criminal in what they did. he wont to encourage them to speak to the media, raising expectations we'll be hearing from those individuals themselves. also vladimir putin made the question -- said yes, they are civilians. rejecting the allegation which has been made by british investigators that these were two figures who were agents of the gru, russian military intelligence who carried out a state-sanctioned operation in salisbury to poison the former gru officer, sergei skripal and his daughter, yulia. that's a version of events that even the russians through vladimir putin have acknowledged the existence of these

individuals, the version of events that they were spies sent on an assassination mission is being denied by the russians. this has been an extraordinarily djt dama damaging episode for the russians, 153 people expelled as a result of this. >> the russians having the biggest war games in decades with members of the chinese pla right there alongside -- clearly a lot going on in the last few days. thank you very much for that. matthew chance in moscow this morning. the epa is proposing a rollback on methane gas leak inspections and repairs. instead of requiring companies to conduct leak inspections every six months, it would allow for inspections just once a year, or in some cases, once every two years. right now oil and gas drirls are required to -- drillers are required to fix leaks in 30 days. the new rules would give them 60 days. the epa plans to hold at least

one public hearing on the proposal. the eagle has landed literally in this case. during a 9/11 memorial ceremony in andover, minnesota, video capturing a bald eagle perched on the extended ladder of a fire truck that was taking part in a flag display commemorating the 17 years since the 9/11 attacks. firefighters and the first responders in attendance could not believe their eyes. they say symbols don't get any more real than that. the andover fire chief says the video has been viewed more than one million times. late-night hosts poked fun at other news of the day. here's your late-night laughs for those of you who were asleep. >> the "washington post" published a board game based on education secretary betsy devos. that's not the only board game based on trump's white house. for example, there's also "chutes and leakers." next there's "uno," in other words that will get you deported. >> press secretary sarah huckabee sanders said yesterday that the white house is not

considering conducting lie detector tests to uncover the author of the anonymous op-ed because putting a lie detector test in the white house will be like putting a smoke detector in willie nelson's room. the dow rose more than 100 points as the surge in energy stocks and apple helped ease the effects of trade tensions. the dow and s&p futures now looking higher right now. markets opened, european markets open higher today. tokyo closed lower after strong gains on tuesday. the labor department data says u.s. jobs -- job openings rose in july to a new record in the biggest share of workers since 2001. also the pew research center released data showing that income from middle-class families is just now returning to where it was in 2000. got back to right back to 2000. the typical family of three had an income of under $78,500 in

2016. in 2000 it was just under $78,100. only upper income families have seen progress here. low-income americans have yet to come back. those households had a median income of just over $25,600 in 2016 and did not reach the nearly $27,000 they made in 2000. workers at two of the biggest u.s. steelmakers are threatening to take action as tariffs on foreign metal pushed prices and profit to their highest levels in years. of the united steel workers union voted to authorize their bargaining committee to initiate a strike at u.s. steel facilities, demanding higher compensation and better benefits after a 30% rise in steel prices in year. they say they could strike at steelmaker arsel and metal if an agreement isn't reached soon. contracts for both companies expired september 1st. hearing from steelmakers, wait a minute, steel companies are having better profits, prices are up, what about us, what about the worker? >> ye