and travelers squashed by major airlines. >> but first, to the desperate race against the clock to secure what president obama is calling america's national credit card. the country could face unprecedented default if congress is unable to agree on a deal to raise the nation's debt ceiling. failure to do so could downgrade america's debt rating and could be extremely damaging for global economy purposes. let's get all the angles. we've just learned the president will be addressing the nation later to. kate baldwin is up on capitol hill. first to you. what's the very latest, the thinking behind the president's decision to address the nation and the world tonight? >> wolf, the thought was that the president like lly today ha to come out put and exclamation point on a very busy day. fruns and senate democrats, laying out their plans. already today, we saw a statement from the white house press secretary jay carney, endorsing senate majority leader reid's plan. and i'll save the details for my colleague kate baldwin who will tell you about that in just a moment. but the president has already rejected house speaker john boehner's plan. expect him to argue for the importance of moving forward and doing so quickly. talk about the consequences of not coming to some sort of agreement before august 2 and also again to lay out his endorsement of the reid plan. he's rejected the boehner plan as a short-term increase in the debt kreeling that he has already threatened to veto. even though republicans are saying that actually it's a two-parter. it's not a short-term plan, the president and the white house, they feel that it is because there isn't a guarantee that a second increase in the debt ceiling would go forward. we would end up in the same point that we are right now. a very protracted, chaotic battle. trying to get the debt ceiling increase when the first short-term one would expire around february or march, wolf? >> walk us through if you can. >> avenue after yet another breakdown in negotiations, now the top republican in the ho us, the top democrat in the senate, they've unveiled duelling plans, their solutions for breaking the log jam and raising the debt ceiling. what it boils down to to is this -- to raise the debt ceiling, house speaker john boehner, his plan requires two votes. first, $1.2 trillion in cuts now in order to raise the debt ceiling through early next year. then cuts next year to raise the del ceiling through until 2013. and this is only if congress approves those cuts. that's where democrats say no way. they don't want to see a second vote next year to raise the debt ceiling because they fear we'll end up right where we are today, deadlocked. harry reid's plan calls for only one vote to raise the debt ceiling. $2.7 trillion in deficit reduction to raise the debt ceiling until 2013. that does not include any cuts to benefits and entitlements or new revenue. and this could also come with a possibility of more cuts next year. now, if you want to get a read on just how far apart they are, just listen to how each reacted to the other's plan today. >> i believe the plan is full of gimmicks. we're not making any real changes in the spending structure of our government, and it doesn't deal with the biggest drivers of our deficit and debt and that would be entitlement programs. >> the republican's short-term plan is a nonstarter in the senate and in the white house. and certainly the democrats in the white house agree whole heartedly with us. a short-term agreement risks many of the same dire consequences and would be triggereded by the default itself. >> the fact of the matter, wolf, based on early reviews, neither plan has a good chance of passing the opposing chamber right now. >> but as far as you know, they're both going to take up separate votes in the house. they'll take up the boehner plan in the senate and the reid plan and then what? they're going to go into conference and try to figure out some middle ground, which is what they would normally do if they had a lot of time. they don't have a lot of time right now. >> that's the big question and the big factor at the center of all of this. they don't have a lot of time and they need to move both of these through both chambers of congress and somehow reconcile them, how they're going to do that. >> let me go back to the white house. it looks like these two plans, they're obviously a senate plan by majority leader harry reid and house plan by speaker john boehner. does the white house feel sidelined or left out of thf process? >> i had this question, too, and i talked with one official who said the president can't be sidelined. he is the president. he has the power of the veto pen. he's the one who says ultimately if something moves. although inthe thought is if he was given a plan that could get through congress, i think the thought is how could he do anything but sign it? but certainly the president and the white house have been very much in touch with senate democrats and the roll right now is that senate majority leader harry reid is pretty much the president's lifeline through this at this point. but there's no doubt that constant communication between the president and john boehner has diminished significantly between white house officials and house republican officials. that's diminished significantly. i spoke with a republican source who said that phone call between president obama and house speaker john boehner yesterday was the president who initiated that phone call and so far, wolf, that's the last time they spoke as far as we know. >> yeah, we'll see what happens. we'll, of course, have special coverage i'll be anchoring our coverage. the president is scheduled to speak at 9:00 p.m. eastern. much more coming up. but let's check in with jack cafferty right now. he's got "the cafferty file." big week coming up, jack. lots at stake. >> with all of the ugliness surrounding the debt ceiling debate, it's hard to see how anybody can come out on top in this thing. but politics is politics, you know. and it's a high steaks game. and nobody knows the outcome. but know this -- there will be a huge price to pay for someone. president obama desperately wants a deal, but his plans have fallen flat. he's been unable thus far to accomplish his grand compromise between the two parties. house majority leader eric cantor has blamed president obama's fixation on next year's election for holding up a deal. treasury secretary tim geithner said inform an interview yesterday said the president's objective is to take the threat of default off the table through the election. but it's not just the president worried about his future. incumbent seats in both houses of congress are in jeopardy and because of that, soo, too, are the democratic majority in the senate and republican control of the house of representative. there's a lot at stake here. and a lot at stake down the road as well. and the average american citizen doesn't even have a seat at the table in all of this. ezra klein says so far republicans are winning this thing because the debt ceiling cannot be raised without their support, but he points out according to polls they don't have polar s popular support be their position. tea party members aren't budging on their promises of no new taxes. democrats meantime are playing degrees. they're hoping to make a deal that doesn't rock the political boat too much. but the clock is ticking, the world is watching and so far that doesn't look like it's going to happen either the question is this -- politically, who staptd stands to win or lose the most in the debt ceiling game of russian roulette? which is what this has devolved into. >> it's interesting that harry reid's plan includes no new tack, no tax increase, no tax revenue, no ending of the loopholes for billionaires or millionaires or corporate jet owners or anything like that. it's a major, major concessions to the republicans but they're still rejecting harry reid's plan. because they want to vote obviously next year -- >> well, john boehner said it also doesn't touch entitlements, which is a big piece of our deficit spending. and he also characterized the rest of the cuts as gimmicks, unquote. so there's no meat on either bone so far. it's just posturing and politics. they tier not cutting spending. we have got to spend less money in this country. we are broke. don't they get that down there? >> they do. but how you achieve it is not an easy process. but we'll talk about it. >> the suspect in norway's deadly siege. did he have any help from the outside carrying out the attacks? new details are coming out of his appearance in court today. and could u.s. money be funding -- get this -- the taliban? we have details of a disturbing new report. the death toll is at 76 in the massive blast and shooting in norway. the suspect behind the attack was in court today, defending his alleged motives. let's bring in michael holmes from norway with the very latest. what is going on right now, 34r50i michael? >> right now, they just had this memorial march. a couple hundred thousand people marched with flowers from the city square down here to the cathedral. in court today, though, it was quite an odd sort of situation early on. the media thought they were going to be able to get in. the police didn't want them to come in because they were worried about him making a message to to possible co-conspirators. let's show you how the day unfolded, wolf. >> dozens of journalists from around the world gathered at the courthouse. the judge asked for a closed room. flart references made by the accused in his statements to police and to the court hearing have given statements that require further court investigation, including a statement about, quote, two more cells in our organization, end quote. and that's such investigation must be conducted whoult accused having opportunity to influence them or in any other way disturb it. >> that have plea of not guilty could give breivik the stage he so desperate ly requires. the judge banned him from contact with anyone other than lawyers. no newspaper, no television. and he outlined some of the breivik's chilling motives for what happened last friday. >> despite that the accused has acknowledged the actual circumstances, h ehas no pleaded guilty. according to what the court understands the accused said he believes he needed to carry out these attacks. >> judge hager said he told investigators he wished to bring a massive loss to the governing labor party in norway for what he called treason. the kol lonizing the country by muslims. after the hearing, breivik was spirited away until his next appearance in court in eight weeks time. >> the maximum time he's accused of is life, which in norway means 21 years. but if after 21 years he remains a danger to society, his sentence can be extended. >> that was the scene, there were probably 200 journalists from around the world. we also hear that breivik theys h eis going to spend the rest of his life in jail. he doesn't think's going to be getting out, wolf. >> what do we think about the missing children still mising? >> they revised the death toll down as you heard today, but there are four still missing from the shooting that went on. the police covered every square foot of the place and one of the great hopes was they would find these missing four. yesterday i was out on the water near the island and the reality is that these are probably four people who jumped into the water as so many others did to try to swim to safety and get away from the gunman and they've just disappeared. there were at least eight boats out there yesterday. divers in the water. the norwegian government put a mini sub in the water to try to look for these missing people, but so far no luck with that. their parents are still up there waiting to hear something, which is just heart breaking. i was up there at the hotel where they're having grief counseling up there. >> a dramatic new development in the sexual assault case against dominique strauss-kahn. the hotel maid accusing him now speaking out for the first time. >> and she has a powerful story to tell. prosecutors remain on the fence about taking her case to trial. >> she was told luxury suite 2806 was empty. instead, the hotel made say she is saw a naked man appear out of the blue. >> i was like i'm so sorry. i turned my head, he come to me and grabbed my breasts. ne no, you don't have to be sorry. >> the alleged attacker dominique strauss-kahn, she said acted like a crazy man and violently sexually assaulted her. >> i was like stop, stop this. stop this. but he won't say nothing. i was so afraid. i was so scared. >> why would she do this if she didn't have a gun to her head? the fear of that was just like having a gun to her head. >> i'm not a prostitute and i've never been called that since i was born. god as my witness, i'm telling the truth from my heart. and god knows that. by going public does she gain any ground with prosecutors? >> the d.a.'s office -- they don't take polls as to whether they're going to bring a criminal case. it's not who has the favor of the public. it's if they can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they can prove the case. the accuse of justice is served here only when criminal charges are dropped. ms. dia wl o was forced to come forward in order to put a face to the crime perpetrated. >> i want justice. i want him to go to jail. >> one of strauss kahn's defense tactics is to raise questions about her credibility. he's pleaded not guilty, but he's yet to tell his story and so far, wolf, no indications that he will. >> what a story. all right, susan, thanks very much. there's a new feature at cnn we want to tell you about. cnn tv is now streamed live onka the app for ipad, iphone and ipod. you' can watch us, all of cnn including "the situation room in more places more often. watching it right now on this ipad right here. it's pretty amazing. check it out. rolling out the welcome mat in new york for -- get this -- north korea. part of what could be a major push to get stalled nuclear push back on track. and the syrian regime now says it will allow opposition parties. so why do protesters say it's just a ploy? 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[ male announcer ] e-trade. investing unleashed. >> of. >> the president will address the nation, indeed the world on the debt ceiling crisis tonight at 9:00 p.m. two minutes after the president speaks john boehner will at dress the nation and indeed the world. we will have live coverage here on cnn of both of these addresses. our special coverage will begin at 8:00 p.m. eastern, one hour earlier right here on cnn. it's going to be an important night in this whole process. lisa sylvester is monitoring some other top stories. what is else is going on. the jury selection began in the trial of warren jeffs. authorities raided jeffs' ranch and removed 400 children who they feared were sexually abused. and the u.s. is trying to search the restart button on stalled nuclear disarmament talks. and after months of anti-government protests and unrest, syria's cabinet is approving a law allowing the formation of oppositional parties. the ruling baath party banned op sis groups. activists called the move a little more than window dressing and say the political crackdown continues. just how much does the united states really borrow? where does that money go? can hillary clinton keep worried allies fears in check? power consumption in china,rn impact wool exports from new zealand, textile production in spain, and the use of medical technology in the u.s.? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. it's just one reason over 75% of our mutual funds beat their 10-year lipper average. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing. with investment information, risks, fees and expenses discover customersl are getting five percent cashback bonus at the pump... and at many of the places their summer plans take them. it pays to switch, it pays to discover. as the debt steal mate drags on in washington, are you better off trading your hard earned greenbacks for gold? a hard earned look at what you should be doing with your dollars right now. and the fight over the debt ceiling isn't the only showdown that's happening here in the nation's capital. but could this mean cheaper airlines for you. congressman wu is facing sexual misconduct accusations and pressure to resign. you're in "the situation room." where is the mountain of debt facing the united states coming from? let's break it down penny by penny with our own time foreman. a. >> this is the rubick's cube that they're trying to sort out on the white house or capitol hill. 6% is interest on the debt over here. 20% is discretionary spending. 55% is mandatory spending. it's money we have to spend because legislation says we have to provide these programs. this is where the entitlement programs are. medicare, medicaid, social security. you get close to 74%, 75%. but over here in the nondiscretionary defense spending, social services, transportation, veterans benefits, things like that. and then 44% other. so figuring out how you squeeze money out of this is all part of the equation, our deficit rises like this. it gets higher and higher. that adds to the collective debt, which right now is at $14 trillion. i want you to look at the most important part of this. this is where the dollar is going right now. the simple truth is 40 cents oit of every $1 we're spending right now is borrowed money. this is what has washington scared. 40 cents is borrowed. and if we see in the coming years what we expect to see, which is an increase in those entitlement programs because the population gets older and older, what you're likely to see as a result, over here, even if we lower the debt by increasing the ceiling, it's the same debt, but we've given more head room on it, if we keep spending the way we are and don't come up with another way to produce revenues, we close in on another debt ceiling. the fear is this becomes even a bigger portion of this, which means the interest in the previous graphic gets bigger and bigger. this is a bit of a rubic's cube right now. no matter which piece you move, another piece is going to move accordingly and there will be backla backlash. >> almost everyone agrees it's a very, very bad situation. the debt limit battle may be seriously tarnishing the united states's image around the world as well. let's find out a lit bit more on what's going on from our foreign affairs correspondent. >> h i can't stress it enough, not only are americans watching, the whole world is watching. one diplomat said to me, concern and disbelief. looking at the brinkmanship going on here in washington, d.c. listen to what michael bloomberg, the mayor of new york city says. friends are watching the spectacle wi