policy. it's supposed to be center around the national security council. the national security adviser brings everybody to the table, they can he bait and speak the policy. there's a lot of freelancing going on. >> we have a republican lawmaker coming up, gentlemen thank you very much. bobby great to have you in studio. we're following a lot of news this morning so let's get right to it. president trump facing the most critical week of international diplomacy. >> we need to see definitive actions by china condemning north korea. >> it's hard not to interpret donald trump's statements as a warning. >> if it comes to the necessity to protect ourselves, we've always had all options on the table. >> wherever the russian evidence takes us in terms of the trump campaign is where we'll go. >> i would tell people whenever they see the president use the word "fake" it ought to set off alarm bells. >> neil gorsuch will be confirmed. how that happens depends on our

democrat democratic friends. >> mitch calls it the filibuster. we call it the 50-vote standard. >> president trump facing the most critical week of international diplomacy, off to a provocative start with a warning to china. the u.s. could act alone on north korea if china doesn't help. >> so today president trump meets with egypt's president and jordan's king to discuss the war against isis, all of this as another type of showdown looms over the supreme court nominee. day 74 of the trump presidency. we begin with cnn's joe johns live at the white house. >> good morning, alysin. president trump meeting this week as the new administration takes some of the most important steps yet on the world stage, the first of the meetings occurring today, trying to reboot the relationship with

egypt. meanwhile the administration continues to dealing with allegations of collusion with russia on capitol hill. president trump kicking off a critical week of high-profile clip dip llomatic talks hostingl sisi at the white house ahead of a sitdown with king abtoula of jordan on thursday. on friday president trump will host president ji jinping for one of the most important meetings of his ten tour thus far. key point of contention, north korea's nuclear ambitions. president trump offering a vague but head-turning assessment to "the financial times" saying he might act unilaterally "if china is not going to solve north korea, we will." the president tweeting last week that he expects that high profile meeting with china will be difficult, particularly after all of his tough talk during the campaign. >> we can't continue to allow

china to rape our country, and that's what they're doing. china is responsible for nearly half of our entire trade deficit. >> reporter: the president's son-in-law and senior adviser, jared kushner, expected to play a key role in the two days of meetings. kushner rapidly becoming the president's foreign policy point man, making a surprise visit to iraq over the weekend. all of these diplomatic meetings come as the cloud of russia continues to hang over the trump administration. the president continuing to stand behind his unfounded wiretapping claim, insisting he does not regret any of his tweet. while attempting to downplay the connections between campaign advisers and russia as "fake news." >> i would tell people whenever they see the president use the word "fake" it ought to set off alarm bells. >> reporter: the top democrat on the house intelligence committee telling cnn he's treating the immunity request from trump's

fired national security adviser michael flynn with healthy skepticism. as senator john mccain calls the request unusual, and continues to push for special investigation. >> every time we turn around, another shoe drops from this se centipede. if we're going to get to the bottom of things it has to be done in a bipartisan fashion. >> reporter: the administration also sending signals the president will not press very hard on the issue of human rights violations with egypt and china, but he will take a private and discreet approach to these issues, something very different from the way the obama administration handled it. alis alyson? the north korea nuclear program is at the top of the meeting with the president of china. will ripley reported extensively from inside north korea and joins us live from beijing. what is the reaction there,

will? >> reporter: well, certainly publicly chinese officials don't seem to be fazed by the comments president trump made over the weekend. the ministry of foreign affairs put out a statement saying there was a conversation between china's top diplomat and rex tillerson. it was a pleasantly worded statement saying they're looking forward to this very important meeting between president trump and president xi. look, this is not the first u.s. administration that has tried to put pressure on china to solve the north korea problem. the bush administration tried it as well back in the mid 2000s after north korea's first nuclear test. there have since been five and could be a sixth nuclear test, imminent according to those who analyze sat is lite imagery. clearly china has not proved reliable in the past being willing to sanction north korea too much. china wants a stable north korea which is why they do business with them, why they trade with them because china doesn't want to see the north korean regime implode and see millions come across the border and more

important strategically they don't want to see a korean peninsula controled by a u.s. lie, and so it's a very complex situation as those two presidents meet later this week in florida. chris? >> thank you very much. appreciate it, will. breaking news as well trump senior adviser jared kushner just landed in iraq. the president's son-in-law traveling with the chairman of the joint chiefs. we've got cnn correspondent barbara starr live from the pentagon with breaking details. we're told he was invited by the chairman, what do we know about this trip? >> good morning, chris. jared kushner landing in baghdad, iraq, a short time ago. the pentagon general dunford's office putting out a statement about why he is there. let me read you part of it, the statement saying about mr. kushner, "as well as receiving braefr i briefings and updates mr. kushner is traveling on behalf of the president to express the president's support and commitment to the government of iraq, and u.s. personnel engaged in the campaign."

we are told jared kushner as a senior adviser to the president will attend many if not all of the same meetings that general dunford will be in. he will get a chance at least to see what happens in the complex that houses the u.s. embassy and the u.s. military mission there. whether he actually gets out in the field to see troops, where they are living and working and fighting remains to be seen. we have not yet been given general dunford's full schedule. jared kushner, as the senior adviser to the president, will have had a bit of a chance to see something very unique for someone in the position and experience he has had so far. he will have landed in a plane and gotten into armed helicopters to travel to the complex. he will be under the same tight security as general dunford, the entire time they are there. alysin? >> thank you for the breaking news. joining us is lee zeldin from new york, congressman thank you

for being here. you're on the foreign affairs committee, a lot of foreign affairs to talk about. let's start what president trump said about how to deal with north korea. it's short and sweet, "well, if china is not going to solve north korea, we will. that's all i am telling you." how do you interpret that statement? >> well, part of what we can do is, our leadership in that region a more stable south korea, they're going through some challenges right now at the top of their government. we have the ability through economic sanctions to be able to leverage that. diplomacy is something that is hugely important. ideally for us, we would have the regional powers in that area exerting their leverage. >> meaning china. >> absolutely. >> but they haven't shown any real interest in doing that, and so i guess the question is, what's different? what's going to happen this week? what can mr. trump possibly do

to cajole china to do that? >> no one's been able to crack the code on this. we've had one administration after another, this is going over the course of decades. when you're laying out your options to deal with north korea, you have to have china as an option there, but no one's really been able to figure out how to get them motivated enough to deal with this the way we need them to. >> it sounds like what president trump is suggesting or threatening is we'ring if to do something different. we're going to not rely on china and we're going to go it alone. it's hard not to read it this way, a military action against north korea, so be it. >> well, as you're laying out your options, i'm someone who believes that, having the military option on the table is something good to have there, doesn't mean that you should be using it, so all across the map of the world, it sometimes doesn't make sense to unilaterally take it off. sometimes the threat can help crack the code on it a bit.

>> yes, unless you're dealing with a madman. we're dealing with such an unpredictable king jong-un and his father, nobody's been able to stop the madness and unpredictability of them and i'm not suggesting that president trump should be able to do something that previous administrations have failed at and not been able to do but sounds like he's talking about it in a different way. i wonder if that causes you concern or optimism? >> it's important to have all of your options on the table. there's no reason to take it off. >> it doesn't make you nervous that he's talking about military action against a nuclear unstable country with a madman at the helm? >> a lot of different countries, all across the globe, in complex challenges, i don't believe we should be unilaterally taking it off the table. it would make me nervous, whenever we get to that point where you have to actually use it, because of the cost of lives, of limbs, the dollar costs as we saw in conflicts

that we're engaged in, in the past, so i don't want to us ever have to go there with any country, but i think option number one is our ability to, as a leader economically, north korea is in a very difficult place and anywhere we can exert additional leverage, they're in a tough time right now and anything that we can do to squeeze that tighter, i mean, what other options are we being left with? >> what leverage do we have with china? that's the other option. what leverage do you think the u.s. has this week with china? >> there's a lot of leverage as it relates to our relationship between the two countries, a lot of trade, a lot of complex diplomatic issues with neighboring territory and other countries around china, so there's a lot to talk about, and wherever you can find common ground and exert the right tension and make china become more of a lead we are north korea leader with north korea,

with all due respect to this president, the last one, the next one, no one has been able to figure out how to crack the code on this. >> as you sat down, you heard barbara starr reporting the breaking news that jared kushner, the president's top adviser and son-in-law has landed in baghdad in iraq. jared kushner is also, we expect him to be involved in these discussions between the president and the president of china. what is jared kushner's role on the world stage, and how does it differ from that of secretary of state rex tillerson? >> jared kushner is clearly a senior adviser to the president inside of the white house. i think it is important for everyone who is surrounding the president right now to be informed on these issues. this trip can make jared kushner a better adviser to the president. you know, it was a trip that i took to iraq in december of 2015 for christmas where i didn't realize just how much has changed positively over the course of just a few months

before i had made that trip, where you realize that the government of iraq, and i just met with the prime minister last week, when he was in washington, d.c., how much has changed, where they are, the iraqi counterterrorism service, their ranks are growing, they're bringing the fight and taking back territory, they're battling for hmosul and pushing isis out of their country and trying to form a coalition government. for jared kushner for anyone advising the. the to go to iraq to make the relationships and for them to be able to put a face to the name from their end but most importantly is to get that update. >> there is no substitute, you're right, for being on the ground and seeing it with your own eyes. how do you think what he's doing differs from that of rex tillerson? >> he's not the secretary of state, but he is a senior adviser to the president, so when you're at a table and discussing what the right policies should be to battle iraq, battle isis in iraq, or battling isis in syria, or

you're talking about isis' moves in the command and control noelds popping up in libya or the other terrorist groups looking around the map and you have groups like the hakani network or al qaeda, al shabab, talking about latah bombs earlier in the show. it's more and more interconnected and the more informed you can be. there's a benefits, it says a lot for the leadership of the other government and our foreign troops to see those surrounding the president firsthand but you also get a lot out of it as that adviser. it's just something different about the briefings seem to be more candid and productive, great questions. it's an important experience. >> great context, congressman thank you for being here on "new day." chris? following breaking news explosion at a metro train in st. petersburg, russia. there are definitely injuries. matthew chance is live in moscow with breaking details. what do we know, matthew?

>> reporter: at this stage clhrs not very much. it's been confirmed by the russian state agency there's an at least one explosion in st. petersburg in a metro station there. social media is filled with what you might expect horrific images of the aftermath of that explosion. it seems like the doors have been blown off a metro train, what we believe to be it was reported to be the sunia square metro square, which is in the middle of st. petersburg, right in the center of that big russian city. there are casualties on the platform, emergency services there, according to russian state media, the only source we've got at the moment apart from the social media postings, people are being evacuated from the subway station. we don't know whether it's affecting one or two stations. there seems to be some concern it could have been either taking

place between two metro stations or at two metro stations, but obviously we're going to try and get some clarity in the hours ahead, chris. >> matthew, we know it's very early here. we're looking at cell phone video from there. they still haven't even put out information about whether or not this came from the actual train or it was just in the station. the early pictures are tough. certainly injuries. we'll check back with you, let us know when you have information, st. petersburg, second largest city known as the cultural capital. lot of consulates and banks and transients as well in that population of some 7.5 million. >> watching that video is obviously just eerily reminis reminiscent of the other attacks we've seen in belgium, here, our own world trade center. that's a target and we're seeing it again in st. petersburg. >> we'll stay on that. our next guest says he's going to force a filibuster on the supreme court nominee, we'll speak live with senator richard blumenthal.

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nuclear showdown, that is the loaded phrase that we hear, what is really going on in the senate around president trump's supreme court nominee neil gorsuch. the senate judiciary committee is going to vote today. by all expectations, gorsuch should make it out of that committee. there are more republicans there than democrats. now, what happens next? joining us is democratic senator richard blumenthal, he sits on the judiciary committee he says

he will vote no on gorsuch's nomination, supports a democratic filibuster or what now senate minority leader chuck schumer calls not a filibuster, the 60-vote rule. what is this now, this change in vocabulary about? >> the change in vocabulary or rules would really be profoundly destructive to the traditions and practices of the senate, and the idea that a supreme court justice appointed for life to the nation's highest court ought to be approved by more than a razor thin majority. it ought to be an overwhelming bipartisan consensus so sometime later this week, the republican leadership will have to decide whether it is going to embark on this profoundly historic destructive step, and i think a lot of my republican colleagues are having misgivings and my democratic colleagues are increasingly determined, because

neil gorsuch was so evasive in his responses. >> but they're always evasion dances in these hearings. this is one of the most tolerated farce in politics, this expectation that these men and women have no personal inclinations at all, and they never answer questions. this really wasn't that different. is your no vote on gorsuch about who he is as a jurist or what this is politically and the reaction to merritt grland? >> my vote on neil gorsuch has everything to do with him and almost nothing to do with merritt garland because i want to consider his merits and qualifications and chris, you're right, that there is a practice of nominees being somewhat evasive, but nowhere nearly as non-responsive and nonforth come as this nominee. i asked him repeatedly to say whether he agreed with core constitutional precedents, brown v. board of education, the

desegregation case, roe v. wade, on the right to reproductive care. griswold v. connecticut, the right to use contraceptives, interracial marrying. every one of these precedents he refused to say whether it was correct or not, unlike some of his predecessors, roberts, alito, kennedy, all said they agreed with these precedents. so we're left with no conclusion except that's greez with the trump litmus test, he would automatically overturn roe v. wade, he would stop gun violence prevention. >> said he'd walk out of the room if president trump put it to him that's why he was picking him, he expected him to go the other way on roe v. wade, he said "i would have walked out of the room if i were told that." you don't take any salolace tha that? >> he came across as the jimmy stewart aw shucks, i followed the law and i'd walk out of the

room. the fact of the matter he was screened by the heritage foundation and other right wing groups that suggested his name, and donald trump outsourced this decision to them, so he didn't need to answer that question, and the fact of the matter is that he has a record of taking rules that protect workers' safety and consumer rights, as well as an aversion to stating unequivocally that donald trump should never have attacked the judiciary in the way he did. >> what do you think happens in terms of votes. this is whether or not you get testimo democrats to vote for gorsuch. we've had several no coincidence they're mostly democrats, coming up for election, several in red states. do you think we'll see 60 votes or no? >> the path to 60 votes i think is very, very, very slim. in fact, i think doing the numbers now, there are nowhere near 60 votes, but the debate will go on this week, and i

think what is most important is that neil gorsuch has doubled down on his evasion, as recently as late last week, when he responded to a number of my written questions. i give him every opportunity, wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt and enable him to state unequivocally he agreed with these precedents. >> you're replacing scalia right now, and there is a little bit of kind of light math where it's, well, you are replacing a conservative, this guy is a conservative. maybe it's a wash, not even as forceful as scalia was on the court, that's a very high bar but then you have the political calculation. if you go all in on xwor such, what about when anthony kennedy resigns, what if ruth bader ginsburg runs out of gas? now you're going to have a key decision and you may have already set precedent allowing for there could be a slim majority vote. >> first, principle and conviction are important, and protecting these core precedents

is supremely significant, but second, i know from having been a law clerk on the court, from having argued cases before the court, every vote is important, and every vote is potentially a swing vote. every justice potentially can sway other justices, and so to say this nominee because he seems bland and nonthreatening is less important than the next is a mistake. >> appreciate you as always, sir. >> thank you. breaking news there are two explosions in a mow to restation in st. petersburg, russia. our reporter will bring us a live report, next. energy is amazing. how we use it is only limited by our imagination.

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we are following breaking news right now. cnn has learned there are fatalities after an explosion at a metro train station in st. petersburg, russia. the first cell phone video that we have for you, cnn's matthew chance is live in moscow with the breaking details.

what have you learned, matthew? >> reporter: well a few details trickling down to us now, and none of it unfortunately is good news. we're learning at least ten people according to russian state media have been confirmed as dead as a result of this blast, this explosion that's taken place in a metro station in the center of st. petersburg, russia's second biggest city, its cultural capital. it took place, you know, we don't know when but within the past hour or so this blast. investigators are on the scene. emergency workers are there. there's video that's emerged and this still photograph painting a dreadful picture of the scene on the platform outside this sennaya square. train doors blown off, you can see signs of blood having been splattered on the walls, and the situation is still developing quickly because russian prosecutors in the city of st. pete

petersburg are investigating reports of a second blast in a neighboring metro station, the next stop along the line. there have been some confusing reports about this over the past few minutes as we've been getting developments but they are investigating the possibility of a second blast on the next stop along, so this is something that is still developing. we know at least seven metro stations at this point in s petersburg which has a busy metro station have been closed as a result of this. we'll keep on trying to get some more information on that. >> matthew, thank you very much. metros in russia and elsewhere areas of known vulnerability. we bring in former deputy secretary of state and former deputy national security adviser tony blinken and cnn terrorism analyst paul cruickshank. we know it here and abroad these are places for targeting.

>> a lot of awareness in russia. they know they're under threat, isis and al qaeda have made clear russia is basically their number one enemy, even higher enemy now than the united states because of the russian air strikes in syria, as vladimir putin himself has said up to 70,000 russian nationals, nationals from former soviet bloc countries have traveled to syria even iraq, joined groups like isis and the concern is they're coming back now into russia to launch attacks, and these fires that have come especially from the russian caucuses i believe are some of the most effective fighters within isis, there's been a string of plots in russia over the last couple of years, notably november 2016 a major ambitious plan to carry out a paris style attack in st. pe petersburg and moscow, which was thwarted by russian authorities. they've been on high alert and known this is coming and as you say impossible really to protect against bombs getting onto

subway cars. that seems to be what's happened here, if you look at the images. those subway cars you can see that terrible damage the loss of life there. >> what do you see here? >> the images are horrific and our hearts go out to the people who have been injured, their families, and we also don't want to jump to conclusions but i think paul is right. we of course had a seires is of attacks in russia, check nia, da dagistan. rush in syria is alive with hezbollah and responsible for horrific violence against sunni muslims predominantly in syria. russia's population about 15% muslim is mostly sunnis. this may be blowback from people including veterans against the war in assad in syria coming back to russia. >> putin is supposedly addressing the country. we'll see what information he puts out. to tony's point, paul, the idea of what is the unique dynamidyn?

why st. petersburg, the second city in russia, an interesting population in the northwestern part of the country. they'll put it at about $7.5 million, but about $2.5 million according to their own estimates are noncitizens. what could be unique in this situation? >> whoever is behind this, this does seem to be a coordinated terror attack, will want to exert a cost for this russian intervention in syria, if that is indeed the motive here. >> are there home growns in terms of the list of concerns, you know, do you have political protest on the list? do you have the caucuses as you said, do you have your own internal strive that may also wind up being at the top of the threat assessment list here? >> i think they'll be looking at jihadi terrorism given what we've seen take place. most of the plots we've seen in russia the last couple of years have been isis inspired plots, haven't been plots by people who have come back with skills from

syria yet, but they have known that this is a real potential problem coming down the pipeline, that all those thousands of foreign fighters that have come from russia to syria and iraq may come back and ignite a new wave of terrorism in the country, a lot of concern about those fighters particularly from the caucuses. it was fighters from the russian caucuses behind the istanbul airport bombings in june of last year. really a huge threat to russia right now. >> so tony, obviously looking at the video brings up all the raw memories for us here in the u.s. of attacks. obviously london, brussels, paris. we could go on. it feels as though when you see these things it feels as though it's everywhere, that this threat is everywhere, but as our law enforcement told us a million times, this ey only havo be right once. one guy in st. petersburg has to be right once and all of our international law enforcement efforts have to be right every day. >> two things. if this is in fact the islamic

state in one fashion or another, people coming back from syria, it puts a premium on finishing the job, and there is real moment numb that effort in iraq, as well as in syria. but it also puts a premium on doing something effectively about the syrian civil war. as long as that goes on, as long as assad is there it will remain a magnet or extremists including from chechnya and dagistan. president putin was supposed to meet with the belarusian president lukashenko. it's possible they're trying to send a message directly to president putin supposed to be in st. petersburg as we speak. >> gentlemen, thank you very much for all of the reporting and insight. we will stay on this breaking news of this new deadly bombing in st. petersburg, russia, throughout the program. first, president trump taking some hits over health care and immigration. rocky start in the first 70 or so days. how does he overcome it? this week to be a big part of that answer.

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at least ten people are dead in an explosion at a metro station in st. petersburg, russia. what we know so far is thin. you are looking at cell phone vid videos, the air filled with smoke. it seems clear something blew the doors open. there are a lot of photos we're showing you of victims. we'll stay on top of this story and bring you the latest. there's certainly been casualties, there have been deceased as well. president trump's week all the more important, he'll have high stakes diplomatic meetings. how will he handle this week and about the tweets he sent out this morning about come distractions. former george w. bush political director and chairman of the american conservingive union matt schlapp, ana navarro and senior advise other for priorities usa action paul begala. nice to have you. we weren't expecting the breaking news out of st. petersburg. we'll keep an eye on that.

ana, it calls into stark attention the world is a complicated and dangerous place and this week president trump will be addressing a lot of it. he's meeting with egyptian president al sisi, wednesday king jordan and thursday chinese president xi thursday and friday. what do you think will come out of these meetings, ana? >> it's hard to say what will come out of the meetings. the international community is flocking to the united states to meet with president trump a lot of them frankly to learn about him because he's a new protagonist on the stage, on the world stage. people don't know much about him or what his real base of knowledge or policies are. i think what we're seeing today, whether it's the national disaster happening in colombia, or the explosions happening, the deadly explosions happening in russia reminds us all that countries need real leaders. countries need leaders in times of cries kiss step up and be

presidential and unifying and be the consoler in chief for the country and i think president trump really needs to work on that. it's important that all of us have a president that we think we can trust and believe in a time of national crisis. >> paul, obviously democrats do not think many of them that he is equipped to deal with this level of things but what he says and what the white house says is it's time to shake things up and he's going to do things in a more unpredictable manner and maybe that's good on the world stage. >> well it's not just democrats if you look at the polling, among independents it's in the 30s. this with an unemployment rate of 4.7%. not 10% like barack obama, who by the way was much higher in the polls with 10% unemployment than trump is with 4.7%, but pick up on ana said. first my heart goes out to people in st. petersburg, a terrible tragedy. this president thank god in his 70 or so days has not had any massive external, thank god there hasn't been an earthquake.

there are terrible fires in the midwest killing ranchers in kansas and some of the neighboring states. i hope our government does more to help the guys. in the main we have not yet had a crisis and yet he seems unequipped to handle the day-to-day stress without cracking. i want my president to succeed. i really do. i'm not rush limbaugh with obama, but he doesn't even handle the day-to-day well and i tremble when i think what's going to happen when we have a real crisis. >> matt what do you think will happen this week? >> i think the meetings with the chinese leader is big. we have massive problems obviously with north korea on the korean peninsula, but also we have these major economic questions and so much of the economic questions with china kind of morphed into questions of national security, but i think we are going to see from the president is doing what he's done in all these areas, he'll do what he said he was going to do and i think he's going to hold china to a tough line.

china has taken advantage of the american worker in countless ways and i think donald trump is going to make it very clear that that day is over. >> what does that mean, matt? what leverage does he have against china? >> oh, lots of leverage against china, in terms of i'll give you one example, currency manipulation, china is a known currency manipulator as are other asian countries and i think he's going to make it very clear that he's not just going to rubber stamp these questions. i think also on the question, i think all types of ways in which our countries deal with each other economically through trade relationships, i think as well, he's going to make it very clear that he wants reciprocity. he wants fairness. >> okay. >> and so i think look, it's a critical meeting and i think the chinese are realists, and i think they're going to be listening. >> ana, how is that going to go? >> i think it's going to be, it could be, it's got the potential of being a fairly good week for donald trump. he's going to be standing

shoulder to shoulder with some major world leaders. he's also probably going to get his supreme court justice nominee out of committee and you know, going to get a vote. neil gorsuch will be confirmed. the only question is how much pain will it be? will it be a little pain or will it be extremely nuclear type pain. now, if donald trump can only resist the urge to tweet stupid things and get into fights with little people, big people, world leaders and domestic partners, you know, department stores, plays, anchors, if he can only resist that urge and maybe be disciplined for seven days, he might have a good week coming off of a terrible week, where you know his folks are getting investigated for ties to russia, where he had a horrible defeat on health care, where he's fighting with everybody, d democrats, republicans and everything in between. maybe if he can be disciplined and stick to message and stick

to what they put in front of him, sign the executive orders instead of fleeing the room like a cat who just saw a big dog, maybe, maybe, maybe he can have a good week. >> paul, ana, matt, thank you. we'll leave it on that note. thank you very much. all right, we are staying on top of breaking news, at least ten dead after an explosion at a russia metro station in st. petersburg. russia's president was scheduled to be there for a meeting today. does that play into motive? we have the latest from russia, next. also, president trump says he's willing to go it alone on north korea, if china will not help. one of the men behind the interview that is grabbing all the headline this is morning is going to join us for more context. that's the bottom line, next. aleve with direct therapy

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breaking news, a senior russian official now calling the explosion at that metro station in st. peet etersburg, russia, terror attack. russian president vladimir putin talking with security services as they begin the investigation. you can see the aftermath of the cell phone video of this explosion, killed at least ten people, happened in a subway car. russian media are reporting at least 30 are injured. we are staying on top of this very fast developing story. we'll bring all of them to you as soon as we get them. president trump has yet to weigh in on this attack in russia, but he is making waves

this morning, he's saying he's going to go it alone on north korea if china does not help. that came as part of an interview with "the financial times." how is this going to change trump's meeting with the chinese president? let's get to the bottom line with one of the three reporters who interviewed mr. trump, dimitri sevastopulo. let's talk about thin assistant case. part of the context of your interview with our president was about how he's going to deal with international relations and now we have russia very much in the news here, but we have a terror attack. this all feeds in to how i lead and now a new challenge for our president. >> he sits down with president sisi today and meets the king of ordone and end of the day a two-day summit at mar-a-lago with president jinping.

the america/china relationship is the most bilateral relationship in the world and there are many areas where they disagree and areas with they want to cooperate and one of those is north korea, what we were asking president trump about. >> we have the basic headline of what president trump told you that's gotten a lot of attention. he said well if china is not going to solve north korea, we will. that is all i'm telling you." how did you interpret that? >> the u.s. essentially needs china to put pressure on north korea because china supplies food and fuel to the regime in pyongyang. if china is not willing to turn the screws on it a little bit more, then the u.s. has to start think being other alternatives, because u.s. intelligence believes that by the end of the first term of donald trump, north korea will be able to hit america with a nuclear armed long range missile. that's a change that america has to deal with. now the chinese are reluctant to put too much pressure on north korea because they don't want refugees pouring across their

border and also worried you would end up with unification of the two koreas on the korean peninsula and the prospect of american troops which who are right now in south korea moving up closer to the chinese border, so i think ultimately to be able to solve the north korea crisis, many people say you need a kind of a grand bargain, some way to get everyone to sign up to something and then china will be willing to put on more pressure. without that it's hard to see how china will take very, very tough action. >> demetri, let me ask you something, part of the discussion you had with the president came down to leverage and you were trying to get his sense of what he thinks he can do with china. there is, you know, a reason why they've been somewhat intransigent when it comes to north korea. they have 7 billion in trade, they have an extensive physical and cultural connection with north korea. what did you make of his responses? >> well, he essentially said everything boiled down to trade and that is the stick he would

entice the chinese to do on north korea but the trade relationship is very complicated, and interesting thing is, we know that some of his officials want to equalize tariffs between the two countries. they say that the u.s. has much lower tariffs on products than the chinese apply, so we asked him whether he was going to try and do something about that and he said that's not going to come up in the meeting this week, with xi jinping. it might come up in the future. the chinese have a lot of leverage, too, they own a huge amount of u.s. treasury bonds so it's not a one-way street here. >> and did you, demetri, get the impression he had his arms around the complexities of all of these things, you know his critics sometimes think that he is not up to the task of dealing with international diplomacy. what was your impression in the room? >> i think it's very difficult to know whether he does. you know, when ask you him for details he says "i'm not going to telegraph what i'm going to do because that's what owe ba many george w. bush did, it's

not a smart way to negotiate." without seeing the detail and what's put on paper behind the scene it's difficult to know. what we do know is the national security council accelerated a review of north korea policy so he'd have options at his disposal before he meets xi jinping. >> demetri, thank you for sharing all of your great reporting in "the financial times" with us. stay with cnn, we have breaking news for you, the latest on the metro station bombing in russia. poppy lar low and john berman will bring you the latest after the break.

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this is the new success story. and at t-i-a-a, we're with you. start today at t-i-a-a dot org. we welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. we have breaking news this morning, a metro blast killing at least ten people in st. petersburg, e looking at new vim the scene. we learned some 50 people have been injured as well. let's go straight to matthew chance, covering all of this for us from moscow. i know that it is early hours, but what can you tell us? >> reporter: horrendous scenes emerging from this metro station in the center of st. pete ursburg, russia's second biggest city, where as you mentioned ten people have been killed in a blast that took place at 2:30 local time, it's now