it's the top of the hour on cnn newsroom. i'm alisyn camerota. >> i'm victor blackwell. today president biden is confronting an obstacle course of economic challenges while trying to assure americans he has the tools to keep everyone from struggling and the president shared his plan to ease the pain of persistently rising inflation, and record high gas prices. >> i know that families all across america are hurting because of inflation. i understand what it feels like. i come from a family where when the price of gas or food went up, we felt it. it was a discussion at the kitchen table. i want every american to know i'm taking inflation very seriously, and it's my top domestic priority. >> well, with less than 200 days until the midterm elections, biden also claimed that congressional republicans would make inflation worse.

cnn white house correspondent mj lee joins us now. mj, did the president lay out any sort of road map or new plan to fight inflation? >> yeah, you know, he certainly tried. you could tell from his tone, the language that he was using that this is such an urgent priority and a problem for this administration, he said that inflation is the number one problem for families across the country right now. and that it is his top domestic issue that he is most focused on. and he did try to sort of explain that there is a plan that the white house is trying to execute to try to bring prices down. so of course gas prices are, again, hitting record highs, he talked about the fact that the u.s. has tapped the u.s. strategic petroleum reserve to try to bring the costs down. he talked about trying to meet drivers, a little less dependent on cars that run on fuel, and a number of other actions that he has taken or is trying to take to try to just bring those prices down on everything from food to drug prices to even child care, and then another

sort of striking part of this speech was the president acknowledging the reality that he knows this is a huge political problem for him and the democrats he multiple times contrasted what he said was his economic plan from the plan of the republicans, what he labeled the ultra-maga agenda, take a listen. >> all of my plans focus on lowering costs for the average family in america, to give them just a little bit of breathing room. now, what's the congressional republican plan? they don't want to solve inflation by lowering your costs. they want to solve it by raising your taxes and lowering your income. i happen to think it's a good thing when american families have a little more money in their pockets at the end of the month, but the republicans in congress don't seem to think so. >> reporter: but, you know, as much as the president talked about having this plan, it is really worth emphasizing just how difficult a problem inflation is in for this administration to try to resolve

and to get the prices down. we know that the past efforts to tap the petroleum reserve, that hasn't had a permanent or significant effect on bringing gas prices down. we know that some of these other actions that the president is talking about, they are challenging for a variety of reasons, including the fact that some of them would require congressional action, and he said himself from behind that podium that he knows how difficult it is to try to get 60 votes on anything in the senate, and i think the messaging challenge that the president was talking about, too, that was significant. he said that he really does understand that americans are deeply frustrated, but he also said it might be good for them to try to find sort of simpler terms to explain to the american people exactly what is going on. >> mj lee at the white house, thank you. so if you have to fill your tank today, brace yourself. gas prices hit another record high, averaging $4.37 a gallon. that's according to gas buddy, which looks at fuel prices all

across the country. p patrick dehan is the head of petroleum analysis at gas buddy, and he joins us now. thank you so much for being here. what should americans mentally prepare for as we head towards the memorial day weekend? >> well, i think to start, a lot of the nincrease that we've see in the last couple of weeks is due to the eu talking about sanctioning russian oil. now, we have seen oil prices pull back to start the week. yesterday and today, at one point today, back under $100 a barrel. that may give us a little bit of short-term relief, but keep in mind, a lot of things can escalate between russia and ukraine. that's certainly a key driver right now. motorists should prepare for the national average to potentially continue increasing closer to $4.50 as we head toward memorial day, and we could go higher. >> is there anything that president biden could do, any sort of short-term creative

solution that he hasn't thought of or he hasn't announced? >> well, i think certainly the administration is in a bit of a predicament because they do not control the overall levers of supply and demand, and there's really not much that can be done on the supply side. the administration has talked to other countries, venezuela, iran, now, that has fizzled. that could be brought back up in terms of bringing additional oil production online to offset russia. on the demand side, though, it's very difficult to ask americans to do things like driving nor fuel efficiently, to curb consumption. they're certainly in a bind. >> yeah, i mean, i was reading that you were saying there were things around the margins but they're so politically unpalatable. for instance, lifting some sort of environmental standards, or asking states to lower the speed limit. i mean, those are just things that -- are they on the table? >> you know, i think in this day and age, lowering the speed limit is not going to be on the table. americans are going to do what they want, and that encroaches

on the freedoms that americans talk about, but to your other point, i had mentioned allowing winter gasoline to be used across the country over the summer months. that would primarily help in major cities that have more stringent gasoline requirements, but there's a cost to that as well. winter gasoline tends to be cheaper but there are ramifications in terms of the emissions and volatility of that type of fuel. >> patrick dehan, thank you for explaining how complicated this moment is right now. the president insisted today that republicans only plan to tackle inflation and bring down high energy prices is to raise taxes on middle class americans. energy secretary jennifer grant ho -- granholm is with me now. let's start with what the president said today. it was a partisan speech. he spent a lot of time talking about ultra-maga and republicans and rick scott. was this the speech americans needed to hear today when gas hit a new record high and the

prices of groceries and cars and housing are all going up? >> the whole point about the speech today was to say that the president has a plan and is obsessed about the rising prices on people. so whether it's reducing prices for them of the internet or calling upon releases from the strategic petroleum reserve to make supply and demand meet each other in terms of fuel prices or making sure that he's calling upon congress to reduce the price of day care for children. i mean, all of those are things the president is fighting for. >> let's talk about part of the president's plan, the million barrels a day of oil released from the reserves for six months, the president announced that march 31st, on that day, gas was 4:22 a gallon, and he was asked about how much and how soon that would bring down the price of a gallon of gas. here's what you said. >> my guess is we'll see it continue to come down, but how

far down, i don't think anyone can tell. but it will come down. and it could come down fairly significantly. it could come down the better part of anything from 10 cents to 35 cents a gallon. it's unknown at this point. >> all right. 10 cents to 35 cents a gallon. that was march 31st. it did dip to $4.07. let's put up the chart on the gas prices over the last nine months. it's now back to up $4.37, that short dip at the end of the right of the screen, was that it, was that the full breadth of the impact of this release? >> victor it's important to realize that the price of oil is affected by global events. we are paying high prices in the united states, but everybody across the world right now is paying high prices. everybody across the world is paying the same $106 per barrel of oil, and so the question is what is it that's happening on the global stage that's causing

supply to contract. that's what causes prices to go up, and of course when russia decided to invade ukraine, and all countries like the united states and canada and others rightfully said we're not going to take russian barrels of oil. that means the supply was constricted and that caused the price to go through the roof, and then when the eu just very recently said they were going to do the same thing, that also constricts supply, and we applaud them. we don't want to see the eu or any other country, you know, finance putin's war. that is a huge part of what's going on. before the war, we were coming out of a pandemic, and when the economy was opening up, we didn't have enough supply. the oil and gas companies weren't producing at the level of demand. it's all about supply and demand. the president has called upon the oil and gas companies to increase supply, so that we can level that out. and that's why he has said for the next six months he's going to release a million barrels per day from our strategic petroleum reserve to try to level that

out. but, you know, if other countries decide, again, to not use russian oil, which they should, that still will create a further pinch on supply and will impact prices. >> the president has called this putin's price hike. he did that again today. the chairman of the joint chiefs, general milley says that this conflict, this war will be measured in years, so how far, how high are the projections for gas prices. we heard from our own richard quest, it could go up to $4.80, what are your projections. >> this is a really great question. we don't know how long the war is going to go on. we do know we have the ability to increase supply. our energy information agency has predicted that u.s. oil and gas companies will increase their supply to about a million barrels per day increases by the end of this year. that should start to even things out. honestly, the amount of oil per day that has been pulled off of the market is closer to 2 to 3

million barrels per day, so there's still an amount to make up. we're calling upon our allies, canada has said they will increase to the tune of another 200,000 barrels per day. brazil has said the same thing, so while we've got to increase supply, we know that the war is still going to be affecting the price per barrel, and ultimately, victor, the most important thing we can do is to continue to accept electrifying our transportation system so that people are not under the thumb of a petro dictator like putin. >> does your department have a projection of how high gas prices will go? we're soon entering the summer driving season. >> the international, excuse me, the energy information agency, it's been bumping around a little because of what's been going on with the eu, the projection was that it would come down a bit by the end of this year. it is going to take a while, no doubt, and because there's

additional constraint, because the summer driving season, that is why the president said he wants to see for more of an ethanol blend allowed for the summer which would reduce by 10 cents per barrel on average those who can access e 15. he's looking at every way possible to make sure that we can stabilize. >> energy secretary, jennifer granholm, good to have you back. thank you. >> thanks, victor. so treasury secretary janet yellen issues a stark warning, not about inflation but about the economic impact of overturning roe v. wade. and later, new russian strikes in ukraine on two hotels and a shopping mall. we're live there. s you an award-winning mobile app with powerful, easy-to-use tools, and interactive charts to give you an edge. 24/7 support when you need it the mostst. plus, zero-dollar commissions for online u.s. listed s stocks. [ding] g get e*trade from morgan stanley and start trading today.y. never settle with power e*trade. it has powerful, easy-to-use tools to help you find opportunities, 24/7 support when you need answers, plus some of the lowest options

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house democrats are urging democrats in the senate to abolish the filibuster to protect abortion rights. >> the renewed effort comes after that leaked draft shows the supreme court may strike down roe v. wade. today treasury secretary janet yellen addressed the economic impact if roe v. wade is, in fact, overturned. >> eliminating the right of women to make decisions about when and whether to have children would have very damaging effects on the economy and would set women back decades. >> cnn's manu raju is on capitol hill for us. where do things stand now? >> we're headed to a vote tomorrow, where democrats are looking to overcome a filibuster to codify abortion rights nationwide. that will fail because they need 60 votes to overcome republican filibuster. the only question is if there are 50 votes in favor of it or

49. the one senator joe manchin opposes abortion rights says he hasn't made a decision on this bill. there was a similar bill he was a no on in february. we did catch up with senator susan collins, a republican who supports abortion rights but also voted to confirm justices gorsuch and kavanaugh who signed on to that draft opinion to ban abortion sending it back to the states. i asked her whether or not she regrets supporting those two justices and she made clear that she wants to hear more information about this ruling and also if it is true, it's inconsistent with what she told her. >> senator, do you regret supporting kavanaugh and gorsuch? >> manu, we do not know what the decision for certain is going to be as we have said. >> were you misled by them. >> as i have said, if the draft

decision proves to be the ultimate decision, it is inconsistent with what both justices told me. >> do you mean they lied? schumer said they lied. >> let's stick to the facts. what i am doing is i am working on legislation to codify roe v. wade and planned parenthood versus casey. i think that should be our focus. >> she said that she supports moving forward with legislation to codify abortion rights but she does oppose the democratic-led bill coming to the floor tomorrow because she said it is too broad. there are questions about what the republicans might do if they do take back the senate majority. mitch mcconnell, the republican leader suggested that a ban on abortions nationwide is possible. he said that last week, but when asked today about that issue, he said that republicans, for the most part believe it should be

up to the states, not congress to move ahead. he said he would not choose filibuster rules to advance a ban on abortion nationwide, and i asked him whether he would rule out scheduling a vote to ban abortions nationwide, he did not go that far but said the republicans bloelieve ultimatel it should be left up to the states. guys. >> ma knu raju on capitol hill, thanks. alyssa, served as pentagon press secretary under mark esper, now a cnn political commentator. great to see you, alyssa. there's the real world impact if roe v. wade is overturned, and then there's the political impact if roe v. wade is overturned. and senator ted cruz it won't surprise you talks about the political impact. what he said on the podcast, he thinks it could end up benefitting republicans. >> there are several of us who are conservatives who have been trying to make the case to the nervous nellys in our conference, it will be okay.

this is going to be fine. and i actually think it probably will not have much of an effect on the midterms and to the extent it has an effect, it will be a positive effect! >> alyssa, how would that work? how could it be a positive effect? >> so i slightly disagree with senator cruz here. i do think he's correct that roe is not going to be a substantial issue in the midterms. all the polling out suggests it's going to be inflation, gas prices, the economy. where i disagree is i think this will be a major 2024 issue. that's incredibly animating on both sides, the conservative right, the pro life right, as well as the liberal progressive left, and i don't know that i have seen any data to suggest it helps one side more over the other. what i would say is this, as i'm counseling republicans, i'm pro life, but i say this, we can't simply say we're pro life. if we are looking at overturning a 50-year-long precedent that people have expected was going to be in place, we need to be

pro paid parental leave, pro funding for rural health care, maternity care, helping the most vulnerable women and mothers in our society, and that's what i want to start hearing from republicans as part of this conversation. >> listen, let me get your take on some news that developed since we have been on air. elon musk who is the soon to be owner of twitter says that he would reverse the ban, the permanent ban on former president trump's account. now, trump has said that he wouldn't go back. he's going to stick with true social, which doesn't work right now. what do you think the impact is if that happens before the midterms in 2024. >> mark my words, the former president is going to reverse his own decision as soon as he's allowed is going to get back on twitter. trying to keep his twitter account from him was a fool's errand for anyone who worked around him. i take a different than the common wisdom, from a free speech perspective, i think the former president has a right to be on twitter, even though i'm someone who's been the recipient

of his attacks. he's abused it at times, but i actually think that the more that the public hears him weighing in aspouting off his crazy takes on social media, it hurts his chances in 2024, doesn't help him. i'm of the mind it probably has an impact on 2024, i don't know how substantial. i don't think it helps the former president to be back on twitter. >> let's talk about your former boss, secretary of defense mark esper. he has been making all of these revelations in his book, and on this interview circuit, and he has been saying for the first time, quite candidly that he does think that president trump was a danger to democracy. let me play that for you. >> i think that given the events of january 6th, given how he has undermined the election results, he incited people to come to d.c., stirred them up that morning, and failed to call them off, to me, that threatens our

democracy. >> so many people are saying, great, now he's saying that. he should have said it at the time. he should have resigned. i mean, i think that his thought is that he was still acting as a guardrail in the administration and that president trump would have installed a crony if mark esper had left. what do you think would have happened if he had resigned? >> and i think that's absolutely correct. mark esper is one of the finest public servants i've had the privilege of working with. he served our country in uniform before he was secretary of defense. i traveled all over the world with him. i know him well. i will tell you this, we saw exactly what would happen if mark esper left. he was fired shortly after the election and a loyalist was installed at the department of defense. it's been widely reported the sort of things that the former president was trying to do to misuse the military to try to stack loyalists and different national security parts of our government, and i'll say this, esper was one of the first people to come out in june and say i'm opposed to invoking the

insurrection act to use active duty military to police the streets. why didn't he say more at the time. i think he was one of the more vocal people within the administration. i would mention this, on two different occasions, the former president asked me in the oval office knowing i worked for mark esper, should i fire mark esper, and on both occasions, i pled with him, and i said sir, this is a man who has served his country. he's with you on the key issues, you know, getting more contributions to nato, securing our border, and because you have to reason with trump, i said, he's also -- it would not be good for your reelection to fire your secretary of defense. gratefully people like myself and others who chimed in on his behalf were able to keep him in office as long as he did. i worry about what would have happened had he not been there. >> at what point does this go from being not only a guardrail to potentially an enabler, what the former secretary said was

that when trump wanted to call up many thousands of troops potentially for the 2020 protest, he placated him with 5,000 troops from the 82nd airborne. i mean, that indeed was a deployment of some sort. >> i sort of disagree with the framing. if i were esper, i would have framed it differently. i was in that meeting when the president and others raised using the insurrection act, and it was chairman milley, and mark esper and bill barr who chimed in and said absolutely not, we can maintain peace in the streets by using guardsmen, not using active duty military, and he did mobilize outside of d.c. and virginia, the 82nd airborne. understand, to serve in this administration, if you're a person of good faith and a public servant was to walk a tight rope. if you didn't do enough to stay in his good graces you would be fired in a heart beat, and someone far worse would be in that position. mark esper knew that. there were many things that could have been worse had he not been in government. he did take the unprecedented

step of joining every other living secretary of defense, and condemning donald trump after january 6th. that is remarkable and the american public cannot forget about that. >> alyssa fair griffin, good to have your insight. thank you. >> thank you. the nation's top spy warns that the war in ukraine could escalate further in the months ahead. >> and new covid concerns, a sub variant of the omicron strain is quickly spreading. that's ahead. er 7 million kids develop their passion for learning through our grow up great initiative. and now, we're providingng billions of dollars for affordable home lending programs... as part of 88 billion to support underserved communitities... including loans for small businesses in low and moderate income areas. so everyone has a chance to move forward financially. pnc bank: see how we can make a difference for you.

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i'm erin burnett in kyiv. belarus announced it will deploy forces to its border with ukraine. so that's to the north of here, the northern border of ukraine, and a military leader says the move is in response to the 20,000 ukrainian forces positioned near the border. in the southern city of odesa russian strikes hit two hotels and a shopping mall overnight as the onslaught continues in the russian attack. at least one was killed in that strike. ukraine says russia used hyper sonic missiles, which of course travel at up to five times the speed of sound. a senior u.s. defense official estimated that russia used 10 to 12 hyper sonic weapons in ukraine, which is crucial. they go so fast they are commonly perceived to evade radar detection. video shows the remnants of a russian attack on a civilian convoy in kharkiv. you see bullet holes in the burned out cars, a car seat, strollers among the wreckage. it's unclear when the video was filmed but the vehicles that you

see here were found on friday. several people reportedly were killed, including a child, a 13-year-old girl. meanwhile, ukrainian fighters continue to try to hold back russians at that azovstal steel plant in mariupol as the attacks there continue. brigadier general steve anderson joins me now to discuss as we hear, general, concerns out of the administration that this war could be escalating and intensifying. let's start with the strikes on odesa in the south of ukraine, the president of ukraine, president sezelenskyy has warne that the blockade could threaten the whole world. that food is not going to be able to come out. russia has stolen grain, apparently mass i amounts of grain, and has taken that out of ukraine. why is odesa so crucial right now? >> well, add this, erin, to the list of vladimir putin's war crimes that he is now using food as a weapon.

odesa is a key port because all of the wheat and corn that's grown in the ukraine comes out of that port. and you got to remember there's 400 million people across the world that depend upon ukrainian wheat and corn and grain products. they're the largest producer of food sources for the world food program, and so 400 million people could potentially be impacted by their inability to get this wheat out of odesa. this area right here is perhaps the world's richest wheat agricultural area. and what's supposed to be going on right now is the farmers should be out there planting their wheat and their corn and their crops, and they're not because there's a war going on. so not only is the port not available, but the farmers are not in the field doing what they need to do. food is being used as a weapon by vladimir putin. >> reporter: being used as a weapon and affecting so many as

you point out, hundreds of millions, and also of course as americans know, food prices around the world, we're seeing the impact in the united states and everywhere. general, what about ukrainian military reports that russia is reinforcing its own border north of kharkiv there on your map. again, these are ukrainians military reports. so, you know, i emphasize that, right, because it's coming from that side, but what does that signal to you? >> i think it's kind of a follow up to vladimir putin's speech yesterday. i think he realizes that he's losing this war. and that he can not achieve his objectives militarily. on the 24th of february he started this blitzkrieg that turned into a sitzcrieg, they attacked kyiv, which was a familiar, shifting to the east, that's not going well either. he's losing everywhere. i think what he's trying to do is consolidate his positions on the boarder and try to retain what he's got because he knows militarily he's not going to be able to obtain his objectives! so ukrainians say they have

knocked out three pontoon bridges that russians built on the donesquetsk river, what's t importance? >> this river flows through the middle of the area, the donetsk river, the russians have been trying for weeks to get across the river, and they continue to be thwarted by the active defense being executed by the ukrainians. the three pontoon bridges were knocked out here. as soon as they put those bridges up and the russians got forces across the river, they knocked out the bridges. now you've got a lot of russians that are potentially trapped against the banks of that river. also up here in izyum area, we know they have been trying to cross the river for weeks as well. what happened was the ukrainians conducted such a successful counter offensive in this area that the russians have had to redeploy forces back in here to

protect their strategic logistics lines because belgrade up here is where the logistics hub is, so i mean, everywhere you look, militarily, vladimir putin is not achieving his objectives and he's being beat tactically in every possible way. >> reporter: so to this, the director of national intention spoke to congress saying even if russia is successful in taking control of the donbas region, and i'm quoting here the intelligence community is not confident that will end the war. general, i want to ask you about this because there's been hope among some that putin had just said, look, i'll go ahead and try to get the donbas and my land bridge and i'll declare victory and rytry to move out. now the dni is saying, no, that that is not likely to happen. what do you think? >> i think he's probably right. i think that we're probably going to be in for some kind of stalemate. russia cannot hope to win militarily. they're not going to win this war but i'm not sure the

ukrainians are going to be able to win either. victory in the ukrainian eyes is to push everybody all the way out of the russian separatist area, and they probably want to reclaim the crimea, the areas down here, and of course around kherson. they're not going to be able to do that, so i think what's going to end up happening is we're going to have some kind of long-term stalemate, and we're probably in for a long war, but, you know, the russians are not winning. vladimir putin knows that. and he's going to try to do everything he can to consolidate i think what little he has gained and try to save face as best he can. it's probably going to be a very very difficult road for him to hoe. >> general steve anderson, hahathank you so much, and i appreciate your time. victor and alisyn, i spent the day with a deputy commander of a ukrainian battalion. i spent the day with him on his one day leave, and he's going back to the fighting on the front, and it's clear from the

ukrainian side, at least from his unit, morale is still exceedingly high, and they feel that they're making progress, and they have that certitude right now on their side. >> yeah, and we have seen that for two and a half months now, and growing support around the world for those ukrainian fighters, and civilians. erin is live there in kyiv. thank you very much. so back here, covid cases and hospitalizations are on the rise again across the u.s. so are the vaccines still protecting us from hospitalization? and how about full vaccination, is that protection enough to keep you from feeling the worst of this new strain? we'll put those questions to a doctor next. see him? he's not checkin' the stats. he's finding some investment ideas with merrill.

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the biden administration and the cdc are urging americans to stay up to date on covid vaccines. new cases linked to an offshoot of the omicron sub variant have doubled over the past two weeks. >> cdc data indicate the variant is rapidly spreading and has displaced the original omicron ba 2 sub variant. dr. peter hotez is the dean of tropical medicine at baylor college of medicine. dr. hoe a great to see you. we have been concerned. we read yesterday you have covid. what are your symptoms, how are you feeling? >> i've felt better before, but it could be a lot worse. thank goodness i'm vaccinated and boosted and that's helping an enormous amount, and i'm takin taking paxlovid, as a result i'm speaking by zoom at home in isolation, rather than something

worse. headache, fatigue, cough, and hopefully i'll get through this without coughing. not perfect, could be better, could be worse. thank you for asking. >> we're glad you're doing well, and a reminder that the vaccinations are not to stop you from getting coe hvid. it's to keep you alive and out of the hospital. to that point. this stay up to date, that includes a booster from the cdc, but the definition, i know i asked you this question six months ago, but the definition of full vaccination is still two shots for moderna or pfizer, the single shot for j&j, how much protection do i have if i got that second shot a year ago? >> yeah, and victor, i keep on giving you the same answer, too which is that it's not a two-dose vaccine. it is at least a three-dose vaccine. you need that booster and if you're three months out of the first booster, you need a second booster. new data in the next month or so is showing after the first

booster against omicron, more than four months out, it goes down to 66% protection versus emergency room visits and 78% versus hospitalizations. still good, but not nearly as good as what it was. if you're eligible, over the age of 50, get your second booster on top of it. unfortunately the american people are not in listening mode, only about 30% of the u.s. population has gotten that first booster and who knows what percentage is going to get the second booster. we're not getting that message out of the urgency of doing this. >> let me help you in that case. here's the math of hospitalizations this week. and you can see that there are, you know, pockets, more than pockets, there are swaths of orange, which means that hospitalizations are up by 10 to 50%. and so are you saying, dr. hotez that the vaccinations we got before the boosters and the single booster are no longer preventing us from being

hospitalized? >> they are, but just not as well as they were when you first got them. i think a lot of those hospitalizations are actually individuals who probably are not vaccinated at all because we're still under achieving there. they got the omicron infection, and they think, hey, i'm good i have been infected before, i recovered. i do not need to get vaccinated and that's wrong. omicron is not producing much in the way of durable long lasting imt immunity so we're seeing reinfections, and we're seeing this big time in south africa, if you look at the ba4 and ba.5 sub variants, they're going up again precipitously in south africa. if you have been infected with omicron and not been vaccinated on top of it, you're potentially in trouble for serious reinfection and hospitalization, but if you get omicron and you've been vaccinated, that does something very special. it really helps you get greater resistance and resilience against new variants so the bottom line is no matter where you're at, maximize out your

vaccinations, if you've not gotten your first booster, get it, if you're eligible for your second booster, get that too. >> dr. peter hotez, thank you for all the information. you didn't cough once and we wish you a speedy recovery. >> be well. >> thank, i really appreciate it. all the best to both of you. >> thank you. and new concerns about queen elizabeth's health after prince charles filled in for her at the opening of the british parliament. we're live in london, next. ♪ (queen - we will rock you) ♪ ♪ ♪

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more than 45,000 laptops went to low-income students. re-elect tony thurmond. he's making our public schools for the first time in 59 years, queen elizabeth missed the sceremonial opening of parliament. buckingham palace blamed mobility issues. >> britain's heir to the throne stepped in and performed the duty on her behalf. max foster has details. >> this was a very symbolic moment in modern british history. we have got used to prince charles step up to represent the queen when she can't make an event. but this was a core constitutional responsibility.

she couldn't make it because of this recurring mobility issue. so she issued legal orders to allow prince charles and prince william to represent her inside. for the very first time, prince charles read the queen's speech. written by the government, it sets out the legislative agenda for the coming parliamentary term. >> her majesty's ministers will work closely with international partners to maintain a united nato and address the most pressing global security challenges. >> we were given less than 24 hours notice that the queen wouldn't be able to attend parliament on tuesday. that's really the form now. whenever she is slated to appear at an event, we'll probably be told on the day or the night before whether or not she'll be there. max foster, cnn, london. a few minutes to go until the markets close. the dow down about 80 points now. we will continue for about another five minutes in trading.

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