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CNN This Morning

Over 4K Federal Workers Hit With Shutdown-Related Layoffs; Trump Announces Additional 100 Percent Tariff On China; 18 Dead Or Missing After Massive Explosion At U.S. Munitions Plant; Millions On East Coast Brace for Impact of Powerful Nor'easter; Gazans Return As Israeli Troops Pull Back. Netanyahu Says Not All Deceased Hostages will Return; More Than a Dozen Injured After a Science Fair Explosion in Argentina; North Korea Holds Military Parade to Mark 80th Anniversary. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired October 11, 2025 - 06:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:00:28]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: It's Saturday, October 11th. Welcome to CNN This Morning. I'm Victor Blackwell. Here's what's new this morning. We now know that thousands of federal workers across several agencies are waking up this morning without a job. And the president says that he's targeting what he calls Democrat oriented workers. Lawmakers and both parties are reacting to that.

Plus, this devastating scene out of Tennessee. Look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's hell. It's hell on us. It's hell on everybody involved.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Massive explosion ripped through an explosive plant. The search for the missing continues this morning.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians are returning to northern Gaza. We expect the remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas to be released anytime now. We're live in the region with the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're looking at probably winds of somewhere 40 to 50 miles an hour.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: A major storm is building off the East Coast. People from the Carolinas up through New York are preparing for flooding and dangerous winds. The timing, the impact and the forecast, those are straight ahead.

All right. We're starting with the government shutdown. It's about to enter now another week and more than 4,000 federal employees got layoff notices heading into the weekend. According to department spokespeople and union representatives, at least seven departments are affected, Commerce, Education, Energy, Treasury, HHS, HUD, Homeland Security.

This is all part of the Trump administration's broader effort to reshape the government. Minority leader of the House of Representatives Hakeem Jeffries said this about the reduction of force.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D) HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: Unfortunately, Donald Trump and his administration have been engaging in mass firings of federal employees, laying people off without justification and violating the law from the very beginning of his presidency on January 20th. And this is just more of the same.

We need Donald Trump and Republicans to sit down at the negotiating table so we can find a bipartisan path forward, reopen the federal government, pay our hardworking civil servants and address the health care crisis that Republicans have created, which is devastating millions of people across the land.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: CNN's Kristen Holmes explains who President Donald Trump says he's targeting as these workers are fired.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Victor, we learned about these layoffs early in the day on Friday when the head of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought put posted this on Twitter saying the RIFs have begun. The RIF, of course, referring to the reduction in force.

Later, President Trump was asked questions about these layoffs. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How many layoffs have you authorized for this first round and from which agencies?

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: And it will be Democrat oriented because we figure, you know, they started this thing, so they should be Democrat oriented. It'll be a lot. And we'll announce the numbers over the next couple of days, but it'll be a lot of people, all because of the Democrats.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now, a White House official would not go into any specifics about the layoffs other than to say that the number of cuts to these federal workers was, quote, unquote, substantial. They wouldn't give anything in terms of what agencies were being cut or workers were being cut.

But there's a lot of fear among the federal workforce right now and a lot of questions as to how exactly this is going to work. We should keep in mind here that there have been shutdowns in the past. Doing mass layoffs during a shutdown is not common practice. It also comes after President Trump essentially threatened to not pass pay furlough federal workers.

One thing to keep in mind is that he himself, the president, signed this into order to law in 2019, that anyone, any federal worker who was furloughed or not, would get their back pay at the end of a shutdown. Then we heard from him the other day saying essentially some people didn't deserve to get paid. We also heard or learned of a White House memo that essentially said to lie, look at that law in a different way that might be interpreted in a way that furloughed workers, not necessarily ones who are working, but the one who had been furloughed, they themselves shouldn't get back pay.

Unclear where that's going to land. But it is a very scary time when you're talking to these federal workers as they wonder what's going to happen next. And there's even questions about how exactly they're going to learn that they've been laid off.

[06:05:00]

One of the things about being furloughed in the first place is that you're not legally allowed to work. That means you're not legally allowed to check into your work email. At least one agency told some of our -- are some of our reporters that they were going to be sending these emails to both their work email and to their personal accounts. But we're not sure if that's across the board or just specifically here. Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right, Kristen Holmes for us at the White House, thank you so much. Let's bring it now. Skylar Woodhouse, White House correspondent with Bloomberg News. Skylar, good morning to you.

The first thing I want to get to maybe you have some clarity from there at the White House. What is a Democrat oriented job? Was there any definition offered by the administration or by the president?

SKYLAR WOODHOUSE, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, BLOOMBERG NEWS: Good morning, Victor. And what we've seen from the shutdown so far is it truly the shutdown of two sides. And, you know, the White House is, you know, saying that, you know, the Democrats need to, you know, reopen the government, that the reason why the government has not reopened yet is because of the Democrats. And sort of a lot of the talk that is happening around the White House and just conversation and rhetoric, it's all having to do with essentially blaming Democrats.

So really what we're seeing right now is the White House, you know, trying to turn this into it's the Democrats fault that the government is shut down. It's the Democrats fault that folks are going to miss paychecks if the government is still not reopened. Obviously we're talking about the layoffs. That's the Democrats problem.

So it's really interesting to see that the shutdown, you know, and when you look back at past shutdowns it's, you know, the rush to try and open the government as soon as possible and to strike a deal on both sides. And that is not what we are seeing right now.

BLACKWELL: Yes, certainly are not. And Democrats are doing the same thing. They're messaging blaming this on the president and Republicans. Are we expecting that this will be round one of several rounds of layoffs?

WOODHOUSE: I think what we are seeing right now is it just sort of builds on what we saw at the beginning of the year from the administration around the DOGE cuts with Elon Musk, the Department of Government Efficiency where they were already doing layoffs at the beginning of the year.

So the White House has really used this shutdown as a way sort of advance their agenda with these layoffs. And so it's only, you know, time will tell if more layoffs are expected. But still, when you just look at, you know, who was laid off at the beginning of the year to who is now, you know, laid off as the year sort of, you know, begins to come to a close as we enter the fall season, you know, these are a lot of layoffs that are going on right now.

And so far, what we're already seeing are, you know, unions and, you know, lawsuits sort of coming together as folks, you know, trying to get judges to halt these layoffs because it truly is unprecedented. And like Kristen said, it is something we have not seen in past shutdowns before.

BLACKWELL: Yes. As Kristen mentioned, that it's just not typical for these mass layoffs during a shutdown. Let me ask you about progress on ending it. Majority Leader Thune in the Senate there says that his description of the minority leader, Chuck Schumer says that he's checked out and there are no plans to meet soon. Speaker Johnson says the House has done its work.

Are they really not having conversations? Because sometimes that's posturing. That's messaging in front of the curtain. But behind the scenes, are they nowhere on making progress toward making a deal?

WOODHOUSE: Yes, I mean, I think what's particularly interesting right now is the two sides. It seems like there is a bit of a disconnect from the Hill and the White House especially maybe amongst Democrats. Republicans are, you know, talking to the White House all the time. But when you look at Democrats, it raises the questions as to how much are they having conversations with the White House right now.

But important to note that President Trump did say this past week that, you know, he is open to having those discussions with the Democrats. So it's, you know, only time will tell and to be able to see, you know, sort of what those conversations are looking like and how much are they meeting in person, are they meeting on the, are they talking on the phone? But it will be interesting to see what those conversations look like

going forward as the shutdown enters another week and we start to hit those important deadlines, which is ironic that we're talking about layoffs, but folks will start to miss paychecks.

BLACKWELL: Let me ask you about one other thing. The president announced an additional 100 percent tariff on Chinese imports into the U.S. that's on top of the already 30 percent. This, of course, reignites the trade war, brings back the uncertainty for U.S. businesses. We saw what happened at the stock market yesterday after the announcement.

Explain what prompted this increase and what's happening now with the U.S. and China.

WOODHOUSE: Yes. Wall Street yesterday reacted, you know, the stocks were all over the place, sort of Trump's -- President Trump's truth on China brought back some market whiplash, that's for sure.

[06:10:00]

And I think what's interesting and notable is, you know, this decision comes as were nearing a November 1st deadline with China. President Trump is expected to travel to South Korea later this month and was supposed to meet with President Xi, you know, while in Korea.

And so it raises questions on how that the trade conversations must not have been advancing in the way that President Trump would have liked to have seen. There were lots of concerns being raised around agriculture and soybeans and if the two countries were going to be able to find a deal.

China was not buying U.S. soybeans right now, which was upsetting U.S. farmers. So, and President Trump had been talking about bringing in that farmer relief, but it definitely came out of nowhere.

But, I mean, in this administration, we're sort of used to seeing, you know, a sort of pivot in what trade talks are looking like. And this is just the next development in the China conversation, which throughout the Trump administration so far, really, the trade deal between China has been a bit of a back and forth.

It pretty much has been President Trump slaps a really high tariff rate on China and then it maybe gets locked back down a bit or they start to have renegotiations on what that looks like with a new deadline. So there's a lot of back and forth between the two countries right now.

BLACKWELL: We'll see if there's retaliation. We'll also see what this means as the markets open on Tuesday next week. Skylar Woodhouse, thank you so much.

Also coming up next hour, I'll speak to an officer with the American Federation of Government Employees. That group represents more than 800,000 federal employees. We'll get their reaction to the layoffs. All right. Eighteen people are feared dead or missing after an

enormous blast devastated explosives manufacturing plant in Tennessee. The plant is located just about an hour southwest of Nashville. The blast was felt as far as 15 miles away. Here's how one woman who lives nearby described the explosion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FELICITY HOWELL, RESIDENT: There was a huge boom and my house shook very hard. It honestly felt like a vehicle drove through our house. That's what I thought whenever it happened. But then we found out it was the explosion that was about 10 miles down the road.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Investigators from several agencies, including the FBI, are assisting in the response. And officials say it could be several days before they discover what actually caused the explosion. CNN's Isabel Rosales has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): About 11 miles from the military explosives plant, a neighbor's doorbell camera captured the early morning blast, leaving multiple people dead were still unaccounted for.

SHERIFF CHRIS DAVIS, HUMPHREYS COUNTY, TENNESSEE: Can I describe the building? There's nothing to describe. It's gone. It's probably been one of the most devastating situations that I've been on in my career.

ROSALES (voice-over): The company, Accurate Energetic Systems, about an hour southwest of Nashville, specializes in making military grade explosives like TNT and C4 for the U.S. Department of Defense, according to its website. And explosives for uses like controlling avalanches and clearing roads.

The cause of the early morning explosion still unknown. The stark before and after images show the large scale devastation left behind debris found half a square mile away, according to the sheriff.

DAVIS: Do I see a short term explanation? No. Do I see us being here for many days? Yes. I do see that.

ROSALES (voice-over): The small community left shaken and trying to come to terms with their loss.

KERRY ROBERTS, TENNESSEE STATE SENATOR: It's hard to go anyplace in this rural community and not run into someone who has some kind of connection with this business.

ROSALES: Now, this same property suffered another blast back in 2014 where one worker was killed, four other people were injured. That's according to local CNN affiliate WSMV. And now it's important to note that building during the time was operated by a different company. CNN has also taken a look at federal data that shows that Accurate

Energetic System has also been fined in the past for things related to work safety practices, something that the company has contested. And eventually it came to a formal settlement. Victor.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: All right. Isabel Rosales reporting for us there. Thank you. Coming up next hour, I'll speak to the mayor of Hickman County, Tennessee. That's where that plane is located for an update on the recovery efforts and the investigation.

A powerful Nor'easter has taken aim at the east coast this weekend, is threatening millions with fierce winds and potential flooding and dangerous surf from the Carolinas to coastal New England. This storm could bring wind gusts up to 60 miles per hour and dump several inches of rain.

New Jersey's acting governor has already declared a state of emergency, urging people to stay off the roads.

[06:15:03]

CNN's Allison Chinchar is tracking the storm for us. What are we looking at here?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right, so when you hear the word Nor'easter, people often assume that this is only something that happens in the Northeast.

BLACKWELL: Right.

CHINCHAR: Because that's generally where the more impactful ones are. But this is going to be different. This is going to impact up and down the entire Eastern seaboard because it's actually starting just offshore of Florida.

So this is where we're looking at right now. Again, you can kind of see where a lot of those showers and thunderstorms are already starting to pile in across areas of the Carolinas. And this is where the bulk of the moisture is going to stay for much of the day today.

Here you can see where we have that excessive rainfall risk. This is where we have the best chance for flooding. And it's going to be not only for the morning and the afternoon hours, but this is expected to continue well into the latter half of the weekend.

Here's a look. Again, you can see a lot of that moisture. There's the spin from the low, but then it's going to slide up the east coast and very slowly. And that's where the flooding concern comes in, because if it moves very slow, it has a lot of time to dump a tremendous amount of rain, not just for the Carolinas, but up and down the East Coast.

Look at all of these dots, especially the purple ones. Those indicate river gauges that are expected to be at major flood stage over the next several days. They're not there yet, but it's in anticipation of all of that water that's expected to surge up the coast.

It's also the winds, as Victor mentioned, up to 60 miles per hour. A lot of these areas will start around 30 to 40 later on this afternoon. Then it's going to tick up to 50, 55, even 60 miles per hour as we head into the day on Sunday, because Sunday, especially Sunday evening, is really when a lot of this is going to peak, especially around Delmarva area and into the Northeast.

Looking at some of these high tides again, for a lot of these areas, it's going to be around lunchtime, not just for Sunday, but even into the day, Monday. So a lot of those areas, looking at that surge of water, some of these could end up getting awfully close to potentially record levels.

BLACKWELL: All right, everybody stay safe out there. Allison, thanks so much. Next on CNN This Morning, there is a plan for peace to end the war between Israel and Hamas. Now that a ceasefire is in effect. Palestinians are returning to northern Gaza. We'll get you an update on what's happening right now.

Plus, President Trump's global trade war heating up, as we said, after he announced more tariffs on Chinese goods. We'll take a deeper look at how this affected the market trading here in the U.S. and later, how Bob Ross and his happy little trees are coming to the rescue of public television.

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[06:22:11]

BLACKWELL: Well, the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas is holding. Live pictures for you now. This is the Israeli-Gaza border here. The region hasn't been quite this quiet or hopeful in some ways in years.

Israeli forces are pulling back in accordance with the deal. Some of them will remain in Gaza to ensure Hamas is disarmed. Thousands of Palestinians have been walking from south of Gaza City toward Gaza City, hoping to return to what's left of their homes.

As many as 48 Israeli hostages, many of them deceased, are scheduled to be released. 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees will be freed as part of the agreement, and that should take place on Monday. That's according to President Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I think it'll help. They're all tired of the fighting. Don't forget you had October 7th, which was a horrible day. 1,200 people killed. But Hamas has lost 58,000 people. That's big retribution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: CNN's Eleni Giokos is with us now. Eleni, what do we know about timing, scheduling of this release of the hostages? ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, time is of the essence.

We're firmly into the second day of that 72 hour deadline that ends on midday Israel time or 5:00 a.m. Eastern. And here's where we stand right now. According to sources which we spoke to, they tell CNN that it will likely happen overnight Sunday into Monday. That's for the 48 hostages to be released, 20 of whom we believe are alive and the other 28 deceased.

Now, locating the deceased and the remains of the deceased is a logistical challenge. We know that the international community of the Red Cross is going to be assisting and facilitating locating the remains. But also echoed by Benjamin Netanyahu saying that they probably not going to be able to locate all the deceased within that 72 hour window. It is not a deal breaker, however.

But the 20 point plan, phase one, is firmly gaining momentum and it seems that both sides have now agreed to this framework and are willing to see it through. Victor.

BLACKWELL: Eleni, let me play for you a woman, a Palestinian woman, talking about what comes next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIVEEN SALEH, DISPLACED PALESTINIAN (through translator): Two years felt like 100,000 years. I lost my husband. I lost parents, siblings and nephews. I lost half of my family. Praise God. We experienced a famine that we haven't imagined in our life. The situation was very difficult and may it not be repeated again. And goodness and aid return again. And goodness and aid return again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:25:04]

BLACKWELL: Reporters have not really been able to go in and tell the stories freely in Gaza. But what do we know about the degree of desperation of the situation there in Gaza? What comes next, the challenges over the next few days on aid?

GIOKOS: Yes. Well, the IPC had declared famine in certain parts of Gaza and it just gives you a sense of the desperation there. We've seen some of the harrowing images of the hungry, of lack of medical supplies, the destruction of hospitals in Gaza over this two year war.

And I want to give you some numbers because 83 percent of all buildings in Gaza have been destroyed by the Israeli military operations. And this is according to U.N. Satellite Center that, you know, declared this kind of devastation and destruction. And we've seen the scale of this.

In the meantime, part of the agreement, Victor, importantly, there are 1,300 aid trucks on waiting to get into Gaza. The border crossings have not opened as yet, but also have confirmed from the Israeli side that they will allow 600 aid trucks on a day to day basis. This doesn't just include food and medical supplies, but also

equipment to rebuild some of the critical infrastructure that has been destroyed.

BLACKWELL: Eleni Giokos, thank you so much for the reporting. President Trump plans to visit Egypt and Israel during a one day trip to the Middle East on Monday.

Let's bring in now Brett Bruen, he's the president of the Global Situation Room. Brett, good to see you again. Before we get into all the particulars of the 20-point plan and all that has to happen over the next several months and years, do you see that there's any obvious pitfall that would prevent the release of the hostages over the next day or so?

BRETT BRUEN, PRESIDENT, GLOBAL SITUATION ROOM: Well, implementation has not been the strong suit, Victor, of the Trump administration. The attention to diplomatic details and that's what worries me right now. It is, look, a very big deal that we have gotten to this point. But we have got to remain focused. Trump's team has got to remain focused.

We've seen how in earlier instances between Hamas and the Israelis, even small things, delays, as well as different expectations around who gets released from the Palestinian side. All of that can be a major blockage, potentially a decisive one.

So we've really got to remain focused. And Victor, I would just say let's hold the celebrations, let's hold the pomp and the circumstance until we actually get over this next phase.

BLACKWELL: And you know, Eleni just talked about the challenge of even locating all of the deceased hostages. And Netanyahu, Prime Minister Netanyahu has prepared the Israeli people that all of them may not come home. Could that also be a stumbling block to get through the ceasefire, into the next phase?

BRUEN: It could. And look, there are expectations amongst the Israeli people when we talk about the return of all of the hostages, and obviously both those who are living, but the families of those who are deceased are going to be equally vocal. But we know this from our own experience in Vietnam. It can take extraordinary periods of time.

This has been a very brutal conflict. There is the fog of war. There are all of the logistical challenges you can imagine under ideal circumstances. And what's happened in Gaza is far from ideal.

So both sides are going to need patience. This is where the Trump administration has to come in, along with those Arab allies, to say to both sides, we have got to proceed with caution. We've got to set the right expectations so that this doesn't get derailed.

BLACKWELL: Speaking of setting expectations, as I was reading the intro to Eleni talking about some of members of the IDF staying in Gaza to oversee the disarmament of Hamas, that is something to which they have never committed, have rejected repeatedly. Is it any clearer, any more likely now that it will happen? BRUEN: I don't think so. And look, if you're Hamas, this is a

strategic retreat. They will undoubtedly try to regroup. They've been dealt heavy blows. Their main backers in Tehran have been dealt heavy blows. So at this point, I think you're going to try and reconstitute yourself if you're Hamas.

And this is where obviously both Israel, but also the U.S. and our allies have to be vigilant. And again, Victor, I come back to this notion of not taking our eye off of the ball, because we've seen throughout the first 10 months of the Trump administration this sort of celebratory.

[06:30:07]

Now let's move on to the next thing. Diplomacy requires that attention to detail. And that's really where we need to have Trump and his team focused over the coming months.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, ANCHOR, CNN THIS MORNING WEEKEND: Yes, that's been the challenge even for that first ceasefire that happened right before was agreed to, right before the beginning of the Trump administration. How do you get from phase one to phase two? And phase two never happened after that first ceasefire. But if there is no disarmament of Hamas, does the whole thing fall apart after the release of the hostages?

BRUEN: Well, this is where, again, as we move into phase two, you're going to have additional negotiations. You're going to have the effort by the Israelis to try and entirely dismantle Hamas. And obviously, Hamas is going to want to retain both weapons, but also whatever power they're -- Victor, they're going to try to project power, as we saw in earlier releases of hostages where those Hamas flags and fighters came out.

So, this is going to be really challenging stuff. And additionally, Victor, I would just mention and it was interesting, you know, we're talking about a major role for the U.N., for peacekeepers, for aid -- you know, Trump was just in New York belittling the U.N., belittling international aid.

USAID has been dismantled here in the U.S. So, we're going to have to see from the Trump administration some recommitting to that international aid and to those peacekeepers in order to sustain this thing --

BLACKWELL: Yes, all right, Brett Bruen; President of the Global Situation Room, thanks so much. Still ahead, National Guard troops are now in Memphis after the Trump administration made good on a promise to send them there. What we know about what they're doing, next.

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[06:35:00]

BLACKWELL: Headlines for you this morning. An explosion at a school science fair in Argentina has injured more than a dozen people. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(EXPLOSION)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Well, that science project was supposed to simulate a volcanic eruption. Now, authorities say the chemicals used in the project sparked that explosion. The province's Health Ministry says that five of the injured were children, including one who was critically hurt. North Korea's Kim Jong un celebrated the 80th anniversary of the country's ruling party with a military parade.

Emboldened by closer ties with China, Kim showed off a new hypersonic glide vehicle and intercontinental ballistic missiles. There were signs North Korea's leader had been carefully preparing the elaborate show for months. In Memphis, National Guard troops were seen patrolling alongside local police. Now, this is part of the President's federal taskforce.

Tennessee's governor supported the deployment. The mayor of Memphis says he didn't ask for this. The Trump administration says the deployment is aimed at ending violent street crime. Now, court battles have followed the use of federalized troops in other cities. Just this week in Chicago, a federal judge temporarily halted the National Guard deployment in Illinois.

President Trump is expected to posthumously award Charlie Kirk, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The three sources say it will happen on Tuesday, which would have been Kirk's 32nd birthday. Turning Point USA Founder and conservative figure was killed last month while hosting a rally at Utah State University.

The markets closed this week sharply lower after President Trump reignited his trade war with China. Yesterday, the President said that tariffs on Chinese imports will jump another 100 percent on November 1st or sooner. That's in addition to the 30 percent tariffs that were already in place.

The President said that it's in response to China's Xi Jinping increasing export controls on those rare earth minerals, which are critical for electronics. CNN business correspondent Vanessa Yurkevich has more on the announcement that sent stocks tumbling.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: The Dow tumbled 879 points on Friday after President Donald Trump threatened to increase tariff rates on China. The Dow had its worst day since May, and the Nasdaq and S&P, their worst days since April, when President Trump first announced wide sweeping tariffs.

President Trump said on Truth Social that he's considering a massive increase in tariffs on imports from China, which are already being tariffed at a rate of 30 percent, reigniting trade fears between the two largest economies in the world. So, this threat came after President Trump says that China has been imposing strict export controls on rare earth minerals from China going into other countries.

China dominates the processing of rare earth minerals, controlling 90 percent of the market, and they're used in everything from laptops to fighter jets to wind turbines. And the flow of rare earth minerals from China was a key negotiating point in order to lower the tariff rate on China from that high 145 percent tariff to the current 30 percent tariff rate.

Now, President Trump says he doesn't see a need to meet with President Xi Jinping of China later this month at the APEC Summit in South Korea because of this.

[06:40:00]

Now, Wall Street has been on a record-breaking streak, but as investors have really moved past tariffs and focused on better-than- expected corporate earnings, but Friday really marks a sharp turnaround. CNN's fear and greed index went from neutral to fear for the first time since May. Back to you.

BLACKWELL: All right, Vanessa, thank you so much. Parts of the west are facing the threat of flooding this weekend. Allison is back for it.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, METEOROLOGIST: That's right, nearly three months worth of rain fell in a single day yesterday across Las Vegas. More rain for the southwest is on the way.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:45:00]

BLACKWELL: This morning, pumpkin farmers in northern California are racing to pick their crops before storms move in next week. San Joaquin County is one of the biggest pumpkin-growing areas in the country, and obviously, this is their busiest time of year. But once the rain starts, their work has to stop.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's hard for us to go into the field when it does rain. The -- you know, it could get stuck like the vehicle they used to go in, get stuck, so it's harder for us to bring them out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Farmers say they don't expect problems with the pumpkins -- the forecast closely. In the southwest, flood watches are in effect as two storms are expected to dump a massive amount of rain. Let's get now to CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar, who is tracking where the worst of it will hit. I hope they get those pumpkins out.

CHINCHAR: I hope they do too. Yes, now they've got a couple more days because that system is not going to come in like until about Monday or Tuesday of next week.

BLACKWELL: OK --

CHINCHAR: But the southwest, the southern portion of California, this is all the remnants of some tropical systems that were kind of sliding up the coast of Mexico, and all of that moisture has been able to surge into the desert southwest, bringing a lot of rain for these areas. Now, yesterday, the focus was southern California and into Nevada.

Now, we're starting to see the bulk of this rain spread into Arizona, Utah, and into New Mexico over the next 24 hours. However, in the last 24 hours, take a look at this, just under an inch of rain fell in the city of Las Vegas, that not only crushed their daily record, but that's roughly three months worth of rain in just 24 hours.

They had several flooding issues right there in and around some of the downtown streets. The main concern for today is going to be across Arizona. You can see portions of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and then it kind of still lingers across some of those southern two states, even into tomorrow. So, places like Tucson, Phoenix, a lot of those areas are in for multiple days of very heavy rain.

Here you can see, it's a bit more scattered in nature this afternoon, that continues through the evening hours. Then you start to see that next surge of moisture, that's from the secondary remnant of the tropical system. It's going to surge back into these areas. So, you're looking at another 1 to 3 inches of rain on top of what these areas already picked up.

BLACKWELL: All right, thank you, Allison. Fan violence is erupting across all major sports, tonight on this "WHOLE STORY", CNN's Ed Lavandera investigates this really alarming trend. He speaks with a man who spent years documenting soccer and other sports fans turning to violence.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): You got to the point when you were writing your book among the thugs, I felt like you got the sense that you could almost figure out when things were about to erupt.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I could see it on his face, something bad here was going to happen.

LAVANDERA: We were talking about some of the videos that we showed you, the violence at American sporting events. What do you think is behind that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think what you're seeing is kind of a contagion of violence. Ten years ago, people were arguing, you know, they had some bad words between them, they would maybe get sulky or swear or, you know storm off. But now, it goes pretty quickly to violence. And once that's planted, it's quite hard to eradicate.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BLACKWELL: An all new episode of the "WHOLE STORY" with Anderson Cooper, "BAD SPORTS WHEN FANS TURN VIOLENT" airs tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN. Well, they're attempting to paint a brighter future for "PBS". Bob Ross' happy little trees will join the effort to help save the stations that brought his magic to so many Americans. We'll explain how, next.

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[06:50:00]

BLACKWELL: Bob Ross was a "PBS" icon. He taught millions of people how to paint. He really made help -- he helped make art feel easy. Now, "PBS" is putting some of his original paintings now up for auction to raise money. It's happening after Congress approved slashing more than a billion dollars in federal funding for public broadcasting at President Trump's request. CNN's Tom Foreman looks at how Ross is still making an impact.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BOB ROSS, LATE AMERICAN PAINTER: It's a fantastic day here, and I hope it is wherever you're at.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): With his soft words, bushy hair and joyous approach --

ROSS: In my world, everything is happy. So, we have happy little clouds and happy trees.

FOREMAN: Bob Ross shared his love of painting with millions. And now "PBS" hopes to raise a million dollars or more by auctioning 30 works by the late artist.

ROSS: All right, let's have some fun.

FOREMAN: Trying to offset Republican cuts of 1.1 billion to public broadcasting amid accusations of anti-conservative bias.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: These are lunatics. These are sick people. But the government should not be providing funding.

FOREMAN: If Ross was crazy about anything other than painting on air, it did not show. For 11 years, a retired Air Force drill sergeant with 20 years of service, urged the viewers of his "PBS" program to just pick up a paintbrush, as he had, and give it a try.

ROSS: It's a lot of fun. I think you'll enjoy it.

FOREMAN: With or without a studio full of critters.

ROSS: Isn't that the cutest little devil you've ever seen. If you're not careful, you can get attached to these little rascals, and I do.

[06:55:00] FOREMAN: Although, Ross died of cancer 30 years back, the popularity

of his shows soared during the pandemic. His face still appears on countless products, and in 2023, he was even spoofed in a movie.

ROSS: Don't worry, it's not rocket science.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's harder.

FOREMAN: The first three paintings that will be up for auction were made on TV, including this one called cliff side.

ROSS: Looks more like a little farmers place out here.

FOREMAN: Home in the valley is one of the comparatively few examples of Ross depicting a human presence in his natural settings.

ROSS: I'm grabbing a little bit of this dark color, and I want to pull it. Pull it there.

FOREMAN: And this chilly scene is called Winter's Piece(ph), even though Ross, as usual, filled it with warmth.

ROSS: I'd like to wish you happy painting and God bless, my friend.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: I mean, even his voice now soothes you as you watch that package. Tom, thank you for that. All right, there's much more ahead on the next hour of CNN THIS MORNING WEEKEND, including that massive blast at a Tennessee military explosive plant. We're live there with the search for those still unaccounted for.

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