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morning, america hill. and i'm john berman. great to see you this morning. likewise there is a growing legal clouds or clouds swirling around the former president this morning. we are watching for a possible indictment to be handed up in manhattan in connection to the hush money payments to porn star stormy daniels. that really could happen any minute. or not, we just don't know. well, that is going on another significant development, this one in the mara lago documents case, sources say that a federal judge has seen compelling evidence that donald trump used his attorney to help further a crime . we have the latest on these developments as a federal appeals court decides if trump's attorney will be forced to testify. plus, we should soon have an answer to the question that everybody is very murky. crystal ball cannot answer. what the federal reserve will do with interest rates. this as you know, directly impacts your bottom line. so what is chairman powell weighing ahead of this big decision to take a look at those details and also the pomp

and circumstance of this high stakes meeting? well the photo ops are now over, announced the true test but actually comes of this. what will this deepening friendship between china and russia mean not only for the u. s, but for the war in ukraine? and, frankly, for the global balance of power. discuss we do want to begin this hour. with that major ruling by a federal judge in the boj's investigation into how former president trump handled classified documents, cnn political correspondent sara murray joining us now live so, sarah, this is the first time i understand the justice department is arguing that it has seen evidence that there may have been a crime committed by the former president. what more do we know about what was told to the judge? that's right. i mean, we are learning that judge borough howell last week in a sealed ruling, so we're learning this from our sources decided that prosecutors provided enough evidence that the former president donald trump may have used his attorney to potentially commit a crime that because of the evidence they provided, which includes surveillance tapes. essentially attorney client privilege doesn't apply here anymore. prosecutors provided enough evidence to

pierce that shield and the lawyer at issue here, evan corcoran, should have to testify before a grand jury. now this is really important. evan corcoran could be a very important witness to prosecutors. he was someone who helped search for these classified documents of mara lago. he's someone who attested to the government. we now know inaccurately that all of these classified documents had been turned over. so obviously, prosecutors really, really want his testimony. the trump team was very quick to appeal this decision they took to the appeals court and what we saw last night. somewhat unprecedented. it was the appeals court essentially saying , okay, we are going to weigh in on whether this essentially should be put on pause whether corcoran's testimony should be put on pause, prosecutors had overnight to file trump's team had overnight to file everyone managed to get their filings in and now we are waiting to see what the appeals court says about this if they decide to pause even corcoran's testimony or if they say it can go forward again. this is really far into the progression of the classified documents case and could be potentially one of the last witnesses that the

government needs to you're from at a minimum, he's a key witness . as i pointed out, he was really in the thick of all of this guys. yeah and now we know again, much more about what exactly a judge. a federal judge thinks of what he might be able to testify on sara murray. thank you so much for that development this morning. also new cnn exclusive reporting. we are learning that emails between stormy daniels and one of donald trump's attorneys have been turned over to the manhattan district attorney. the emails are from 2018 when daniels was looking for an attorney and reached out to joe tacopina. this is again from several years ago. joe tacopina now represents donald trump. current attorney tells us that his client shared confidential information about the case and its role in trump's team well poses a conflict of interest. cnn's paris canal joining us from new york live outside the courthouse there where we're waiting on that potential announcement. of a decision, possibly on an indictment. so bring us up to speed on the latest with this character. well, erica and john

it is wednesday and we know that the grand jury has met on wednesday, so it's likely they will be convening this afternoon, but it comes as we're still awaiting a decision by the manhattan district attorney, alvin bragg on whether he will seek an indictment against former president trump for his alleged role in the hush money scheme. sources tell my colleagues that some of trump's advisers have said that he has resigned himself to the fact that he could be indicted. he thinks he will be indicted and that he's already mentally distancing himself from that possibility. but meanwhile, as you say, um stormy daniels attorney has turned over to prosecutors investigating this case, communications and emails that she had with one of trump's current attorney, joe tacopina, and these communications are back in 2018 when she was seeking representation during the federal investigation into the hush money payments scheme, her attorney, clark brewster, told our colleague kristen homes that he believes that this information is confidential and that could pose a conflict of interest and it could potentially disqualify tacopina from representing trump in whole or in in part in this investigation, particularly if

it leads to an indictment. now to campina told us that there is no conflict, and he says he has no confidential information belonging to daniel's john erica . alright paris canal. this could could be a very busy day for you. please keep us posted. if you see her hear anything down there, we appreciate it. we're joined now by cnn anchor and senior legal analyst laura coates. we're lucky to have you here to be here because there's kind of a ton of stuff going on there. yeah i don't even know where to start. let's just start very quickly with that. last bit of cnn exclusive report. that joe tacopina, who is now representing donald trump. there was communication between tacopina and stormy daniels years ago. what's what's the measure there? if it's too much for him to be involved in this case? well, here's why it's important. you've got attorney client privilege. and anytime somebody is communicating with their attorney, then you're supposed to hold sacrosanct that particular information for confidentiality reasons. you want people to be forthcoming. but perspective clients may also be able to have that privilege

because we want people to have the ability to be forthcoming with the potential lawyer. and so if i handle over information to somebody in the hopes will become my attorney. i expect them not to be able to then use it against me down the line or not to have to play the role of a witness in a case and advocate for the person that i may have been going against. it really does serve to protect also, donald trump. you don't want to have your attorney having to hold back or pull punches because there might be a perceived conflict or do i know this or do i not know this and then not fully represent, but right now to campinas, saying, look, i don't have any substantial or prospective or actual client relationship. therefore, it should never apply, and i'm not conflicted out. so now we have to wait on the answer on that. yes we do. we'll wait on a lot of answers. lot of answers. it's true. so let's look at another attorney client privilege issue, which has also come up overnight, and this is in a separate case as we try to keep track of all of these investigations, in cases that we're following here, so this is about the classified

documents that were found at mara lago and the doj. as we just heard from sarah murray basically saying, hey, we have the judge ruling, the dog presented enough evidence to show this to make sure i don't screw it up. i'm not the lawyer. trump did use his own defense attorneys in furtherance of a crime or fraud. i know that language is important there and they're saying so we need this attorney to testify. you need to hear from him. there is enough here. how does that work? this seems to me you're a former federal prosecutor as well not only rare, but the fact that this would happen. what does that tell you about what could be there? well, it tells me first, the prosecutor has made what's called a prima facie case. it doesn't mean they've proven beyond a reasonable doubt. it doesn't mean they have the probable cause for even a grand jury, but they have told these judges through the testimony they had given her evidently presented that look, there is something there. and what was there is not allowable to allow him to say, look, is this my lawyer? all privileged communication? we don't want the attorney client privilege doctrine to be used to further a

crime or to be used as a vehicle to say i'll do whatever i want. as long as i tell my lawyer i've got to get out of jail free card forever. we don't want that to happen. it's privileged for a reason. so this court believes that whatever was planted to them was enough to say we're going to pierce this and not just pierce it for anyone. this is a former president of united states how many discussions that we all had about the idea of having a president have a kitchen cabinet conversation have a white house counsel conversation had the idea of an attorney client conversation. you want them to have the same protections as everyone else would be forthcoming, but the judges here said, look, there's enough here so far to tell me you don't get to have that protection to have a attorney. testify it doesn't mean that it actually, you know, um implicates donald trump. it could mean he says, look, i certify that we got everything over to you. white house and to you national archives. excuse me

the doj on this issue, and that's it, but we have to still know that and whatever the trump side is given so far has not been enough to convince the judge that this testimony is not crucial from an attorney and the part of the syndicate. abc news was first to report this and then cnn confirming different parts of it. it's that trump. the judge believes that she saw enough evidence that trump committed a crime through the lawyer, and i know some people may think that sounds obvious here. but that needed itself was murky in the documents case, because, oh, good. the lawyers have done it good others that this was no trump did it. that's so important because we keep thinking, first of all, how operation the president of states carry boxes, right or classified documents somewhere, everyone thought. well how do we know that he handed over everything who would have been the conduit in the liaison to the national all archives to have all this be done, and there is speculation at the time about the him being distanced enough in delegating responsibility. this suggests the courts are saying it's not about delegating it might be about using an

attorney, possibly to commit a crime or fraud or to make sure they didn't have the information that they actually could have. two certified that what the doj on this issue in the national archives so this is very telling and very specific. we don't yet have information to suggest that the lawyer is implicated and having done the wrong thing. but trump is and that's very telling in all of the different we should almost color code all the investigations that i love that idea. we should do it have red green blue. yes. do it all because we have to keep it all straight today and other days. okay well, i think in the break, we should plan this out, and we will inform the entire network of the plan that we've come up with. and they will say thank you. laura coates, green blue does that red, white and blue is let's be a little odd that i think it's a good chance. you may be very busy today. yes. thank you for being with us. so other busy events happening this morning. we're waiting to hear from federal reserve chair jerome powell a key decision on raising interest rates. this will affect everything from home prices, car payments, savings accounts, you name it, cnn chief

business correspondent christine romans joining us now. so christine, this has been pegged as one of the most important fed decisions in years. there's already a lot riding on it before the last 10 days or so. even more so today. do we have a sense yet of what we can expect ? the mission here is for the fed to slay the inflation dragon and not singe the banking system in the process. can they do both of those things at the same time? and what does what does the fed chief say about it? i think what he says to reporters after this decision is made will be very, very important. how he explains a lot of things, including how they miss miss silicon valley bank and how that may be hampering their attempts to bring in haitian back down to the 2% 2% level they've had they've been raising interest rates for a long time for a year now, and that is revealing creeks in the banking system. i think today the expectation is that you could see 25 basis points when we look at this sort of fed guessing tool in the

futures markets. it's showing a 90% chance that the fed will raise 25 basis points. remember just a couple of weeks ago, the fed chief had signaled that they would need to have interest rates higher for longer because inflation was such a problem and look economy is strong since the last time the fed met you guys, the economy and almost every indicator has proven to be stronger than many people had expected, and the narrative has shifted from inflation peaking until we could get a soft landing to maybe no landing. the economy is really hot and now banking crisis, so it's just a lot to manage and balance here. it will matter for you if they raised another 25 basis points in a lot of ways on credit cards, mortgages, auto loans, any kind of borrowed money will get a little bit more expensive as it has been over the past year. it could help cool the housing market even further, but the big worry is that it doesn't roil the banking sector. and so that's that's that fine line. the fed has to walk here today. we'll be watching for that decision. christine appreciate it. thank you. let's keep the conversation going. joining us

now, gina smiling. she's federal observing economy reporter for the new york times. you always good to see you here. you know, it's interesting when in christine, i think lays out so well what the fed is grappling with here. the fact that we still toward the end of march of 2023 have a lot of competing headlines. i think we're also confusing for people. when we step back for a minute. we have the strong economy. we have all of these indicators. even consumer sentiment was actually fairly strong last week. granted those numbers were from prior to the fall out with silk. valley bank and others. depending on what the decision is. people are still going to take all of the rest of that into account, and that's going to influence their decisions. and really, for the american consumer. it's more about how they feel right now. yeah, and i think there is a huge question hanging over this decision, which is? is the bank turmoil actually going to hit main street? you know, is it going to make consumers feel worse? is it going to disrupt credit provision and make it harder to get a mortgage? and i think you know, a lot of that

depends on how quickly it blows over or whether it sort of metastasizes into a full size crisis. and i don't think we actually know the answer to that question yet so they are really in between a rock and a hard place today in the sense that they've got, you know this very high inflation. an and solid economic momentum on one side, and then on the other side, they do have to worry about the possibility of further instability in the financial system. so jerome powell needs to sail through this skill in caribbeans needs to sail through this issue of the banking problem on the one hand and inflation on the other. the decision to raise interest rates, whether it be a quarter point or half a pointer. i guess not at all. that will be the sort of tangible thing we get out of this, but what about his actual words? what are you listening for? from him today? that is such a great point, because i actually think what he says is going to be so much more important than whatever they do with interest rates. this is really going to be a decision. that sort of hinges on how they sell it, how he chooses to talk about it. and so i think we could see him do a couple of

things. we could see him talk about the need to balance these two risks, or we could see him really sort of played down the risks to the banking sector and talk about how focused they are on inflation. when i talked to economists about what's likely they are all over the map on that question, you know? i think this is a point of real uncertainty, which is going to make it a really interesting thing to watch when he gets his press conference at 2 30 the other questions he's going to be asked at one would imagine would be about whether the fed missed any signs when it comes to silicon valley bank. um what are you listening for? in that answer? yes so this is a very tough one for him to navigate because it's pretty clear that something went wrong here. you know, this bank was under federal oversight. it should have these problems where you know, growing in plain sight, and so theoretically, the fed should have been able to stop them. but it clearly did not. you know it killed the bank in the end, and so i think that he's going to have to talk a lot about why the fed didn't act more decisively. it's clear based on my own reporting that the fed new. well you know, more

than a year before all of this blew up that there were serious problem. problems at silicon valley bank. so what was the problem? you know? where did things break down? why wasn't this dealt with more rapidly and those are those are really tough questions. i don't i don't know what we'll hear from him. he may search punt the question and say, we're reviewing it. we're still trying to figure out but it's clearly a pressing matter on the minds of the american people at this stage in terms of what's on the minds of the american people. some of this seems so confusing if you're sitting at home as a regular consumer what should you be rooting for today? that's a great question. you know, we're in a very weird environment where good news can be kind of bad news, and i think that can be really hard to parse. but i think at the end of the day what the fed is rooting for what the sort of economists are rooting for what maybe we all should be rooting for it's sort of a gentle slowdown in growth that mabel's things to sort of steady out more sort of sustainable path ahead for the economy. that doesn't necessarily throw a

bunch of people out of work. you know, i think the dream is to have a slowdown that doesn't equal a lot of raised unemployment. um but one that allows inflation to slow down so slightly cooler demand a little bit less robust economy, but not so much that it feels painful. i think that's the best possible outcome. at this stage. that sounds like 25 basis points. if i'm translating, but we'll see. we'll see gina. always good to have you. thank you. alright and just moments, lawyers for fox and dominion will be back in court as both sides try to convince the judge to skip a jury trial. how likely is that to happen? and could we see the murdochs themselves forced to testify? plus cnn is with ukrainian troops getting a crash course in using us missile defense systems and inside look at their training and how crucial these weapons might be encountering russian aggression and more than half a million students in los angeles, home from school for a second day amid a worker strike. we'll get you caught up to speed on where

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dental. anything to make you smile schedule your appointment today. minutes from now. a high stakes hearing resumes in the $1.6 billion defamation suit brought by dominion voting systems against fox news. both teams are arguing their cases. they say they're so strong, the judge could rule in their favor in skip a jury trial altogether so, the judge on tuesday asked some very pointed questions. specifically the fox attorneys, including have a network would say it was neutral in its reporting on the 2020 election if they were putting guests on the air who they knew were spreading false information. joining us now to discuss defense attorney former federal prosecutor shan wu shan. always great to see you. so in terms of what we heard there, the judge actually called him one of facts arguments, saying it doesn't seem to be intellectually honest and the questions specifically blue dobbs, who had engaged that he had engaged in legally protected neutral reporting, as they were saying, how that could be. accurate when he was also signing his tweets with a maga hashtag, and they also pointed

out that maria bartiromo had also pointed out had misled her audience, making it sound like she didn't know either way of some of these claims were inaccurate, but that she knew that fox knew ahead of time before they went on the air when you hear those questions, and we know what that line of questioning is, what does that tell you? well it points out, erica just how unusual of a case this is because at this stage, there is so much evidence factually out that the million lawyers feel that they could actually make a good faith assertion that the summary judgment standards met. that's a very rare standard to successfully win in the complex case like this. because that's standard requires that there be no issues and material facts in dispute, and one side or the other is entitled to judgment on the law, so they feel that they have so much evidence already that they can say to the judge. hey, nothing in dispute here in no need for a fact finder. you

can make a ruling on the law, so it's an unusual situation. so in defamation cases, truth can be an absolute defense. fox isn't even really trying that, though, shan, they're just going with first amendment. what's the difference here? well i think we should be thankful they're not trying that because we'd be relitigating the entire election at this point, john, so the difference is fox's arguing that legally speaking, let's pretend for a moment judge that you think there are no facts in dispute here. but legally speaking, the first amendment completely insulates us from being sued for defamation here, their argument being look, these allegations were reporting on don't mean that we believe them or that we were pushing them. we were just being news gatherers, and they were newsworthy. so they're trying to basically use the first amendment as a complete legal defense to defamation case. which which really harkens back to a phrase that one of their hosts excuse

all the time, which is you know, i'm just asking the question. does that really hold up? it could hold up and i think that's probably why the judges in the second day of the hearing, which i think was a little bit unexpected. usually summary judgments fail because everyone says look, there's lots of facts here. we have to figure out it's going to be a credibility, determination, so i think the judges giving this some serious consideration. there's an interesting further kind of bifurcation here, which is the question of whether the parent company that murdoch is the chair for would be liable or not, or whether they could potentially say hey, that's a factual issue here. maybe we all know that they can prove we knew what was going on there if, on the other hand they win on that point, and the judge agrees there wasn't enough knowledge for the parent company, then they can be out of the case and sort of leave fox news defend for itself. and that might pertain directly to the murdochs . correct because the plaintiffs here they said they want to put rupert and lachlan murdoch on the standard fox corporation is

separated here. would that be less likely to happen? i think would still be likely to happen. i think they would want to use the murdoch's testimony to possibly kind of undercut the credibility of some of the fox defenses that they were just reporting on allegations versus knowing that was a falsehood. so although i think the murdochs might have their corporation might escape liability, i don't think they're going to escape the witness stand. there's a lot to watch here. alright day to we'll see how it plays out. shan appreciate it as always. thank you. good to see you. dozens of ukrainian soldiers are in oklahoma, the wrapping up training on the u. s patriot air defense system just ahead. we're actually in take you inside that training at fort sill as ukrainian troops. ah go through this 10 week crash course. the only thing i regret about my life was hiring local talent. if i knew about up work,, i would

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803 9 to 7600 or visit coventry direct .com. well in new york, and this is cnn. right now. 65 ukrainian soldiers are being trained in oklahoma on the u. s patriot air defense system. cnn gotta look inside as the troops work through an expedited 10 week course. cnn's talking natasha bertrand is at fort sill in oklahoma and natasha. this training comes as we learn that the us is going to speed up delivery of the patriots and also abrams tanks to ukraine. that's right, john. the u. s really making a concerted effort here to get the ukrainians the equipment they need in order to effectively pushed out the russians. and while the abrams tanks are not necessarily going to be in ukraine until the fall at the earliest the patriot systems they are likely to be in ukraine within the next few weeks. the united states fast tracking key weapons for ukraine's fight against russia

heavy us tanks now set to be deployed to the country faster than originally planned in close coordination with ukraine has made the decision to provide the m one, a one variant of the abrams tank, which will enable us to significantly expedite delivery timelines and deliver this important capability to ukraine by the fall of this year. patriot missile defense systems, also due to arrive in ukraine in the coming weeks, defense officials told cnn much sooner than anticipated, they're wrapping up training on things like the patriot air defense system. i mean, we're doing everything we can to make sure that they're ready as best they can be for these critical weeks and months ahead. cnn was invited to observe the patriot training here in fort sill, oklahoma. where 65 ukrainian soldiers ages 19 to 67 have been undergoing an intensive 10 week training course on the patriot systems. here you can see behind me a decommissioned system much like the one the ukrainians will be using once they get back to their home country. our

assessment is that the ukrainian soldiers are impressive and absolutely a quick study due to their extensive air, defense, knowledge and experience in a combat zone. it was easier, though never easy for them to grasp the patriot system, operations and maintenance concepts. but the stakes are so high that cnn was not allowed to film or photograph the training and effort to protect the ukrainians who will be back on the front lines in just a matter of weeks and to shield the us from blowback from moscow, us officials emphasizing that the patriots are purely defensive and not a threat to russia. it's a point defense system. it's got to be placed in a location that is defending a target like, uh, capital city, kiev or ports city like odessa. so it this is not a weapons system that can be moved around on the battlefield based on changing threats. the systems will, however, help defend ukraine against near daily missile barrages by russia. and

will now likely beyond the battlefield in time to support a looming ukrainian counter offensive. what is the lansky say when i met him in kiev, he said, help us win quickly. it's exactly what he said when he visited, uh, washington, d c recently and it's even what secretary hostin said. uh he said. ukraine doesn't have time this spring offensive is coming. so john, eric, i really can't underscore enough just how impressed the u. s trainers have been with the ukrainians who have been here over the last 10 weeks training on these patriot systems, really allowing the us to then expedite the process and allow those patriot systems to be sent to ukraine within the next few weeks much earlier than they had anticipated. but look, a senior defense official did tell us that the patriots are not going to be able to defend entire cities in ukraine, right . these are going to be placed at very strategic locations throughout the country, and ukraine is only getting two of them, but ukraine's air defense systems that they have right now

are really not cutting it. they can't protect, for example, against ballistic missile attacks in russia has been deploying those more frequently . so these patriot systems will be a game changer. the ukrainians do believe. john erica. natasha really appreciate the reporting. thank you. this morning. chinese president xi jinping is back in china following a three day summit with russian president vladimir putin. despite being pages of peacemaking journey, their meetings didn't produce any breakthroughs when it comes to russia's war on ukraine. joining us now max boot, a senior fellow at the council on foreign relations columnist for the washington post. max good to see you this morning certainly did produce plenty of photo ops, which was good. i think for both sides in terms of what they wanted out of it when we look at those oh, where this puts the world john kirby, saying we can't reasonably look at china is impartial in any way earlier this week. this relationship he was noting is more about pushing back against the west, particularly pushing back against the us what's your level of concern about this deepening

relationship between china and russia? i am concerned, but i'm not panicked. i might start to hit the panic button of china or actually just start providing munitions for russia and particularly our artillery shells and missiles. russia is running low on both of those types of munitions. they desperately need them from somewhere. if china were to provide them that could really tilt the balance of power in the war in ukraine. that is not happening so far, china is providing economic support to russia in the form of microchips and cell phones and other things that are now embargoed by the west. and of course, china is benefiting from oil that russia sells to china. but it's still very much a limited partnership, and it's something that is a certainly of concern, but it's not. what china is doing is not a game changer in the war in ukraine. what about on a broader level? are there specific signs that you'll be looking for in the coming weeks and months? in

terms of this relationship between the two beyond the orange, where it warned ukraine i think that's the big one. is china going to step forward and provide weapons to russia? which is something that the been administration has warned about . but you know, china has been reluctant to do that. and i think what we're seeing is that , although before the war, china and russia proclaimed this limitless friendship, there are actually sharp limits on their partnership, and you didn't see them talking about limitless partnership. during xi's visit to moscow. in fact, it's a very limited partnership where they both want to triangulate against the united states. they see them what the us has their common enemy, but they also have a lot of divisions, and one of the big ones is that china is economically dependent on trade . it's the largest trading nation in the world, and it needs to trade with the united states it needs to trade with europe. it does not want to become as isolated as sanctioned as russia is, and so there are sharp limits so far on how far she is willing to go to buddy up

to this indicted war criminal in the kremlin, looking specifically ukraine ukrainians have said they are trying to organize a call between she and president zelensky. if that call were to happen. do you see anything coming of it? very little, but i do think it would be a way for china to pretend to be quote unquote, a peacemaker, which is something that is part of ge's kind of diplomatic offensive right now. just recently, china brokered a deal between saudi arabia and iran to restore diplomatic relations, which i think was a positive step forward. and that's been sort of the cover for ji and his visit to russia is that he is advancing this chinese peace plan. i don't i don't see any real there's no real evidence that the chinese peace plan is going to produce peace, but obviously it would be a pr win for g, and it will at least create are some some. you know

some fodder for propaganda so that he can claim he's not just sticking with russia. he's actually trying to act as a peacemaker. and so i hope he does talk to president zelensky . i think that would restore a tiny bit of balance in that relationship. it would be interesting to have that readout to in terms of what is actually discussed because obviously the peace plan that has been that we've heard about in terms of ge's police plan. there are some very clear dealbreakers there for ukraine. yeah. i mean, basically, the chinese peace plan would freeze positions in class, which would allow russia to continue occupying 20% of ukraine and definitely, and obviously, that's a deal breaker . from the standpoint of ukraine . i think the actual the one thing that china is actually done for pieces that she has made clear he does not approve of putin's nuclear saber rattling. and since she made that clear last fall, you really have not heard putin engage in those kinds of nuclear threats. so that is the one positive thing that china has done. um,

but otherwise ah, it's been largely on the side of russia, although in a limited kind of way, not not offering putin everything that he wants. did russia get enough out of this visit? i you know, it's certainly not as much as putin wants. i mean, he desperately wants china to come forward with artillery shells and other munitions that help the war effort, and he's not getting that. but what he is getting is a big hug and embrace at a time when he has becoming recognized as an international criminal and a pariah. you know, last week you had the international criminal court, actually indicting putin, and so they're not going to be any western leaders who are going to be joining the moscow but this is a way for putin to signal that he is not isolated, but he has an alternative to the west, and he is he is cozying up to china, but he's doing so in a very subservient position, you know, at the beginning of the cold war, russia was the big brother in china was the little brother and now that position has been reversed and as a result of his aggression in ukraine. putin is

more and more dependent on she jinping. good to see you this morning. thank you. for having me. the death of a young man who knew at least one member of the murdoch family is now being investigated as a homicide. why investigators are taking a fresh look at this case. think about the best night's sleep you've ever had a temper, pedic. we're dedicated to helping you sleep like that, with breakthrough solutions that help relieve pressure and pains. keep you cool if you sleep hot and even automatically detect and respond to snoring, so you get the deep, comfortable, undisturbed. rest you deserve for a limited time. save $300 on select temper pedic mattresses and experience your best sleep. every night. more temper pedic .com wn it comes to reducing sugar in your faly's diet choices, the better. that's why america's beverage companies are working together to deliver more great

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is following this story for us, so this is the first time that the state has acknowledged diane that they don't think this was a hit and run. but i think for a lot of people, what's confusing here is what is any of this have to do with the murdochs. how is it tied? so exactly what you just said there law enforcement in 2021 june of 2021 state, law enforcement officials said that they were opening a state investigation into the death of stephen smith because of information they gathered during the investigation into the murders of paul and maggie murdock now of state investigators have not said what that information is. and in 2015 win, stephen smith was found dead in the middle of a road in collecting county. it was originally said to be the result of a hit and run. but look, we have gone through those investigative files from the highway patrol. back then those investigators did not think it was a hit and right. they said that there was no debris in the

ground. his shoes were still on his feet. the injuries on his body did not match with being hit by a car. what we're hearing from law enforcement at the state level today is that they agree with that assessment and that they have been investigating stephen smith's death as a homicide since they opened this case now attorney for stephen smith mothers. sandy tells us that the chief of sled the state, the state law enforcement division, told him that they were waiting until the murdoch trial wrapped up so they could basically devote more resources to this but also in case of the witnesses in the low country area people who had information about the death of stephen smith that maybe they would feel more comfortable coming forward. now we need to be very clear about something. there have been no suspects named in the death of stephen smith. there have been rumors and there are a lot of documentaries and podcasts and people on social media talking, but nobody in the murdoch family has ever officially been named

in connection with stephen smith death. in fact, look, they're still asking for information and tips right now, but buster murdoch's name did get thrown around in some of the interviews after stephen smith's body was found with highway patrol investigators again, not a suspect in buster murdoch released a statement this week saying that he's been trying to focus on grieving his mother and his brother while his father was convicted of killing them. but that he was unable to ignore the vicious rumors for any longer, he said. this has gone on for far too long. these baseless rumors of my involvement with steven and his death are false, unequivocally deny any involvement in his death, and my heart goes out to the smith family again. this is an nearly eight years old. voter at this point that they are looking into erica john, and they are asking anybody who may have information to please reach out to them. his mother hopes to be able to exume

her son's body to maybe get more information about his death. diane really appreciate it. thank you. the nation's second largest school district, forced to essentially closed for a second day, as thousands of school workers continue their strike. the white house has a message for negotiators on both sides. red lobster's finer points of fun. dining lobsterfest whether you're a seafood e or lobster newbie, there's something f for everyone try one of six dishes like new lobster and shrimp tacos for 17 99 and leave completely lop cesc . welcome to fu dining ego, the nuer one rated brandon cordless outdoor per brings you t world's first power load string trimmer with linear technology. so smart. it loads the line automatically keeps the line extended to maintain full trimming power. with line i q. there are no bus. so you work faster, powered by egos. patent at 56 fold arc lithium battery technology runs up to 60 minutes

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medicare, don, well. longoria searching for mexico premiere sunday at 10 on cnn. happening now, a second day of closed schools for half a million students in los angeles as nearly 30,000 school support staffers want the picket line cafeteria workers custodians, bus drivers staging a three day strike. this is of course, the nation's second largest school district. they're fighting for higher pay and better working conditions. now the white house is stepping in urging both parties to find a quick resolution. cnn's nick watt is live there. you're at the picket line. look, as you mentioned to us that you've been talking about is you've been covering this over the last few days. these negotiations have been going on for a long time already. is this strike lighting a fire? other side. well you're right, erica. these talks going on for nearly a year, but i heard from a the union side this morning and it's still very early here. i heard from the

union side, they say negotiations are in the impasse process right now is that the fact finding step where a third party looks into the remaining unresolved issues, so it doesn't sound like he's talks going well, one of the big issues money the union is asking for 30% raise right now. that district is at about 23% so again this morning from 4 30. the union workers were out here picketing at this bus depot. now it's not just this union. there are also the teachers union is out in sympathy and some kids. we've also seen joining the protest yesterday. take a listen to what some of them had to tell us. we love our students. we love our families. we want to be with our students. but this is a righteous fight. it's a righteous fight for living wages underpaid. they deserve to get more. have a teacher. that

doesn't even get enough money a month to pay off his rent. now of course, many kids many, many children, many parents impacted . a lot of parents seem quite sympathetic. they say, listen, this is a work environment for these people. it's a learning environment for kids, so it's good for everybody. if conditions are the best they can possibly be guys back to you. all right, nick. i know you'll keep us posted. appreciate it. thank you. big developments in multiple investigations into former president trump major ruling as the justice department argues former the former president may have committed a crime in his handling of classified material. and of course we are waiting, watching for a possible indictment in manhattan in connection to a hush money scheme, the latest ahead. my relationship with my credit cards wasn't good. i got into d debt in college and no matter how mucuch i paid followd

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