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News forty two degrees in Boston at four o'clock. Good afternoon, I'm Ben Parker. Here's what's happening. White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff is in Moscow today talking with Russian President Vladimir Putin. This is the first todd the US is talking with Russia sent Ukraine agreed to a thirty day cease fire proposal. More in the latest from ABC's Karen Trappers.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has put out a quote very promising statement on a ceasefire with Ukraine, but he said it was incomplete.
We're getting words that things are going okay in Russia and doesn't mean anything until we hear what the final outcome is. But they have very serious discussions going on right now with President Putin and others.
Putin said Thursday Russia is for the proposed thirty day ceasefire, but has concerns. President Trump said there's not much time to reach deal given the ongoing fighting and casualties. Karen Travers ABC News. The White House.
Federal judge in California ordering the Trump administration to reinstate thousands of probationary workers let go in mass firings across multiple agencies. The judge found the firings didn't follow federal law and required immediate offers of reinstatement to be sent. The agencies include the Department of Veterans, Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy,
and the Interior and Treasury. The order from the San Francisco based judge came in a lawsuit filed by a coalition of labor unions and organization as the administration moves to dramatically downsize the federal workforce. Efforts by the Trump administration to change up and reduce the Department of Education has been met with pushback across the country. Now, a group of attorneys general, including Massachusetts ag Andrea Campbell, have sued.
On Tuesday, the Department of Education announced it would be eliminating nearly half of its workforce, terminating nearly two thousand employees. The Trump administration has made it crystal clear that its in goal is to dismantle the department and that these terminations will help do that.
Through a lawsuit filed in the U. S. District Court from Massachusetts, the coalition sieks a court order to stop the Trump Administration's policies when it comes to DOE and the cutting of workforce and programs. The coalition argues that by drastically reducing its workforce, the department will be unable
to perform functions mandated by statute. The Trump administration has said in the past it recognizes that parents, not the government, play a fundamental role in choosing and directing the upbringing and education of their children. The colin A Mulligan for the Trump administration, they have pulled their nominee to lead the CDC.
The White House has pulled the nomination of Dave Weldon, a former Florida congressman who was President Trump's pick to lead the Centers for Disease Control, just hours before his scheduled Senate confirmation hearing. That's according to multiple sources familiar with the decision. When he was nominated last year, Weldon, a longtime vaccine skeptic, was championed by allies of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Junior Karen Travers ab See News the White House.
Coming up on WBZ. Lots of birds across the United States aren't doing that well. We've got some clouds around as we head into the evening, so we'll be partly to mostly cloudy tonight. You may have to do a little ducking and dodging to try to find that lunar eclipse. Later on, we'll see if maybe a few open spots in the sky pop up. Temperatures tonight about thirty in areas north and west of town, thirty seven at the coast. Clouds break for sun tomorrow forty six. In Boston we'll
get into the low fifties, though well inland. By Saturday we're near sixty degrees with mostly cloudy skies and a bit of a breeze. On Sunday we'll be into the sixties, low sixties, at least there will be a wind around. Some of the gusts could be forty miles an hour. And then we get some rain in here later on in the day and into Sunday night, and at some point Sunday night overnight into Monday, that rain could become
pretty heavy and even a few thunderstorms mixed. In forty two degrees right now in Boston, there's a new report and it's for the birds, Oh really it is, And a consortium of scientific and conservation organizations have worries about the decline of the nation's bird populations.
That's the song of the Salt Marsh sparrow, one of forty two Red alert species facing dangerously low populations. According to the twenty twenty five State of the Birds Report. Experts like Commanda Rotawalald at Cornell's Lab of Ornithology say it and others are at risk without immediate intervention. She says grasslands birds have.
Declined by forty three percent since nineteen seventy.
Rohotawalld says habitat loss is partly to blame, and humans need to remember if conditions are healthy for birds, they're unlikely to be healthy for US. Allison Key CBS News.
The twenty twenty five State of the Birds Report was produced by entities led by the North American Bird Conservation Initiative. The US Department of Agricultures announced plants to spend one hundred million dollars to study bird flu and consider vaccines and other strategies to fight the disease in concert with meat, chicken, and egg and turkey groups. Chicken meat producers remain the
most resistant to fact scenes. Officials say it could mean suppressing bird flu and avoiding the slaughter of millions of chickens, which has ledisroaring egg prices. A move to Vaccin eight has been delayed in part because of those concerns. Chicken exporters are worried it could jeopardize the exports that totaled nearly four point seven billion dollars last year. Wheeling out the classics, several dozen cars and trucks that are part of Ford's rarely seen heritage fleet are going on display.
Some employees in the media have gotten a sneak peak, but come bring your child a workday at Ford's Dearborn, Michigan headquarters, on full display vehicles including a series of Mustang performance vehicles, a nineteen thirty eight V eight ambulance, and a twenty oh three Model T one hundred that is a replica of a nineteen fourteen model Te Ted Ryan, Ford's heritage brand manager, says this is the first time these vehicles have been assembled and shown like this.
About as CBS's Jennifer Kuiper, nearly three decades after she took the reins of the fashion label founded by her late brother, Honatella Versace, is moving aside Madame.
There had been speculation after last month's fall Winter fashion show in Milan that this would be Dona Tella Versaci's last collection. Its skin tight, wildly colored leggings and structured jackets liberally quoted her beloved brother Johnny, and now she's confirmed it herself. The sixty nine year old who took over the label after Johnny's nineteen ninety seven murder, is stepping down to focus on philanthropic interests and to promote
the brand in different ways. Vicki Barker, CBS News London.
You are now in the loop for news updates throughout the day. Listen to WBZ News Radio on the iHeartRadio app. I'm Ben Parker, WBZ, Boston's news radio