there for us covering this. how is president biden approaching the ukraine issue? >>reporter: bryanna, cautiously. president biden said this weekend he does not believe now is the right time for ukraine to become a member of nato and it appears the alliance feels the same way. it was said that while one hurdle has been dropped for ukraine there are still many that remain, mainly conditions that ukraine still has to full full and nato unanimously has to agree that it is the right time for ukraine to join before they can actually become full fledged members. now he did not actually say what those conditions are. and he did not lay out any kind of concrete timetable for

ukraine's membership noting for other allies, they've not had timetables either. obviously this is not what zelenskyy wanted to hear. earlier today he tweeted he heard from allies they were discussing ukraine's member without representatives at the table and he was angry about that and said that ukraine's future and pathway to membership has to be decided with ukraine at the table. he also called it absurd that nato was not willing to extend an ini have -- invitation. he re-emphasize ukraine may have a lot of bullets in its flag right now but it's still

standing showing nato it's a military prepared to be a member of the alliance. >> yeah. that tweet might have begin a lot of nato members heart burn but certainly this is a leader who is very desperate. thank you. now to a cnn exclusive and the other major headline so far of this nato summit. knewer than 24 hours ago turkey agreed to back sweden in its bid to join the military alliance after the president of turkey opposed the move for more than a year crying multiple reason as. this stunned many. i asked sweden's prime minister about it moments ago. here is part of our conversation. >> this is a historic moment. what does this mean for sweden? >> you're right. we were not aligned for 200 years. and obviously all within a close

cooperation with the u.s. and with other western countries. sot where we belong was obvious anyway but after the invasion by russia into ukraine, we suddenly overwhelming majority of sweden and finland came to the conclusion that our right place is in nato and so we applied and i think we took a very decisive step yesterday with this agreement between sweden and turkey and the nato secretary-general. >> and you mentioned turkey. there were significant concerns from turkey over your membership. take us inside the room. what was your conversation like with turkey's president >> it was a good conversation. i mean, it's no secret that sweden and turkey have different

views on a few topics but we tried to concentrate on the common ground and the common security fighting terrorism and fighting financing of terrorism and organized crime. that is mutual concern, interest, so we have decided really to continue cooperationing on these issues and i think that's a very good -- that's a very good common ground for our two countries for sweden is very -- everybody realizes that sweden, we seek common protection by becoming a nato member but i think it's also important for us to tell the world and other nato countries that we also want to provide security. we have capabilities which we bring to the table and we think these are important to other countries and i hope to be able to prove that very soon.

>> we have more of our conversation focusing on president biden's role in thes e two major new members in finland and sweden. we're joined now by the canadian minister of foreign affairs who has long supported sweden's membership. can you tell us what its member in the alliance means in terms of strengthening the group? >> hi, jim. well, of course it is important that sweden joins nato because first and foremost, it's an

added value. they have a strong military. they have a lot of knowledge about russia. they are -- so we were the first ones to ratify sweden and fin lan's accession and we've been there as a steadfast supporter of their accession within nato. >> can you help us understand what brought turkey over the line on sweden's membership because until a few hours before that announcement it was not clear that was going to happen. >> well, of course, the secretary-general has been heavily invested in the accession of finland, the accession of sweden. he's developed a very strong relationship with turkey and all of us have been working very hard to make sure that the unity within the alliance is even

stronger and that is why i think we can thank the secretary-general for his work but also the work that the swedish government, past government and recently elected government have been doing in this context. and so the appliance was -- now we're 31 strong. soon to be 32 strong. and we will continue to show strong unity. >> of course the alliance has made clear that now is not the time for ukraine while it is at war with russia. i wonder do you worry that that then incentivizes russia to prolong this war because of course russia doesn't want ukraine in nato. if they know there won't be genuine discussions while that war is continuing, why not just continue that war? >> well, first and foremost, it's written in the communique

that ukraine's future is in nato. a war is raging in ukraine. we need to make sure that we continue to support ukraine. at this point canada has invested $8 billion in financial military and humanitarian support to ukraine. but even when the war ends, russia will still be a very dangerous neighbor and iat sense we need to be thinking about the long term security needs of ewe xran. and offering long term security is definitely important because we need to make sure that there is strong deterrence and self-defense on the part of ukraine because we don't want russia to eventually leave, rearm, and reinvade ukraine and sop that's why we've been a stead supporter now but also in

the future and we've been making sure we're part of these very important diplomatic conversations that are happening. >> prior to the summit, canada made a significant upgrade to its support for the eastern facing nato nations as you know i was visiting estonia recently, leaders of those nations describe the threat of russia attacking nato in the east as very real. is that one reason that canada stepping up in support? do you consider that threat genuine? >> of course we consider that threat genuine. but not only that, jim, when nato calls, we answer. and so we agreed at the past nato summit in madrid last year that we would be bringing up many of the eastern flanks to bring grades. we wanted to make sure our presence in latvia was in

conformance from last year and that's why we decided to up our presence. this is the biggest commitment that canada has had in decades outside of course of our country. and it is important that we continue to send that strong message as other also host nations are also increasing their investments and increasing their presence. this is a new commitment that is $2.6 billion and we stand by that and we're proud of it. >> and twice the number of troops there on rotation. before we go, canada one of several nato nations opposed to cluster munitions. was it a mistake for president biden to approve the transfer of those munitions to ukraine? >> well, we don't agree with it. we've said it to american officials. at the same time, canada has a long standing history when it comes to the protection of human

security and in that sense we'll continue to -- our own international obligations. that being said, we know, jim, that there is an issue in ukraine with a lack of am in addition so we need to enhance our defense capacity. that's really important. we need to do so in canada, the u.s., and across the alliance and that's a conversation that we continue to have and meanwhile we're making the right investments. >> we appreciate you joining us this afternoon. >> it's a pleasure, jim. take good care. >> it's a big step toward another potential indictment. how what is happening inside this georgia courthouse could bring new criminal charges to former president trump in connection to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. plus, he's a so-called whistle blower who claimed to have dirt on the biden family.

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in august. we have sarah murray who has been following all the twists and turns of this georgia case and there have been so many of them. the jury has been selected. what are they expected to do? >> these are the two normal grand juries that sit in fulton county and they're going to hear all kinds of cases, murders, carjackings, and then at some point we expect later on the district attorney will go into a grand jury and say okay today you're going hear a different kind of case and then we expect that they will hear the case against donald trump and his allies assuming she still plans to move forward with the indictments. it's been a long road to get here. this is a grand jury that can issue indictments after that special grand jury spending months and months investigating, hearing from witnesses, and offering their recommendations under seal to th e they raised a

the issues about the amount of discovery to go through and the fact that donald trump is running for president and they said there's no convey for him to get a fair trial and have the time he needs to prepare for trial while he is a presidential candidate. so of course it's not unusual fer defendants to ask for more time especially in a complicated case like this where there is a lot of discovery but there are broader constitutional cases about about this -- if he's the president of the united states again you can envision a situation where this case goes away quickly. >> even if it's a simple case, it's not simple when you look at

the circumstances surrounding it. sarah marie, thank you so much. so some top republicans have described this man as a possible key witness in the hunter biden investigation. yet the justice department says he's actually a global arms trafficker who also acted as an unregistered agent for china. he has been on the run since he skipped bail while awaiting extradition from cyprus. what else do we know about luft, his status and the charges he's facing? >> as you said, it depends on who you ask. yesterday the justice department unsealed an indictment where the grand jury charging luft with eight criminal counts including acting as an agent for china and not registering with the department of jus sis.

brokering elicit arms deals involving the chinese and acting as a middleman in attempted sales of iranian oil in violation of u.s. sanctions and mr. vieding false statements when interviewed by prosecutors and the fbi but some house republicans say that he is potentially an informant because he has information about the biden family. senator ron johnson has also said he's an important witness. we know the republicans are interested in investigating the department of justice's handing of their investigation into hunter biden. hunter biden is emptied to plead guilty to two tax misdemeanors later this week. gal luft has been on the run and was initially arrested in february on this indictment but then jumped bail. at the time, he did tweet denials and here's what he tweeted. i've been arrested on a

politically motivated extradition request by the u.s. claiming i'm an arms dealer. would be funny ift were not tragic. i've never been an arms dealer. doj is trying to bury me to protect the bidens. his lawyers also saying these charges are a vicious attempt to silence a witness. obviously a lot of attention by republicans on hunter biden and the biden family. fbi director christopher ray will be testifying tomorrow before one of the house committees. >> and several republicans are looking for his impeachment over this. thank you so much. vermont ravaged by historic rainfall and extreme flooding. authorities reminding residents there the emergency is not over yet. we're going to take you there live coming up. visuals that ine pride district-wide. ♪ fastsigns. make your statement.t. (vo) if you have grgraves' disease, your eye symptoms could mean something more.

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>> don't know if or when an indictment will be filed. we have cnn's crime and justice reporter joining us live from outside of the courthouse. what is this signal if anything? >>reporter: if anything, it

signals there's grand jury activity today in the special counsel investigation around january 6th. so there has been grand jury activity for many, many months but the reason why this is notable today is that these two top prosecutors have been working on some of the most significant aspects of this investigation around donald trump getting testimony secured around the white house, what was happening in the white house even testimony from mike pence, the former vice president himself, about trump. and then they had not been around for a few weeks. there were too parts of -- other parts of the investigation that the grand jury appeared to look into such as the fake electors scheme that donald trump was using to try to overturn the vote in some states. we see prosecutors coming back today. it is not totally clear what that means but it's at the same time that the witnesses and the investigative activity where prosecutors are asking for information still and gathering evidence it seems to be winding

down. and so there is a big question now of what is this grand jury still up to and exactly when, if at all, will an indictment emerge in this case. >> we'll be waiting to see that. caitlin, we appreciate it. jim. right now the capital of vermont is pleading for more swift water rescue teams. this as dangerous flooding reaching critical levels in the cities main dam. there was only one foot of storage capacity behind the dam left an hour and a half ago. right now levels are inching toward the spillway. more than 100 rescues have taken place and the new hampshire governor just deployed blackhawk helicopters to assist those trying to reach higher ground.

>>reporter: most people are staying off the road, certainly the one i'm on. this is downtown montpelier. state treat is down here. this is our unofficial indicator of how high the water is. that car is completely under it. the river that runs through town here has come down so if that water -- if the reservoir north of here overspills that spillway there's somewhat less concern because they have a little bit more breathing room now that the water in general is coming down everywhere. but it is just still just a massive massive amount of water that came up frp the south and then moved north so there's

still concern -- i can tell you that most people that we talked to are okay. they have either on higher ground or moved to higher ground. a lot of those rescues though are people who cannot get out of where they are. they need medical attention. and they have lots of water rescue craft and personnel moving to those areas to help those people get to an ambulance or get to loved ones on the other side of streets like this. jim. >> so important to listen to those travel bans because folks can often be surprised by how quickly the waters rise. miguel, thank you so much. now to some of the other headlines we're watching this hour. the centers for disease control and prevention have a new leader. dr. mandy cohen greeted employees in atlanta this morning to begin her first day in office. she of course replaces the director who stepped down in june. and the surfing community is

mourning the loss of one of their own. he died after a surfing accident in indonesia. details of the incident are still unclear but he was known throughout the surfing world for the photos and videos he took while riding inside of waves. he was 44 years old. meantime, overseas, in israel, demonstrators march in the streets for what they're calling a day of disruption. you can see massive crowds gathered there waving flags and blocking a highway. dozens so far have been arrested according to israeli police. the protests come as israel's government moves forward with its controversial plan to overhaul the country's judicial system. prime minister benjamin netanyahu says it's needed to rebalance the powers. opponents say it will ultimately undermine democracy. coming up, white nationalism

and what hit means. a matter of opinion as far as senator tommy tubberville is concerned. we'll discuss that right ahead.

other. republican senator tommy tubberville is not backing down today despite credit similars from some in his own party for refusing to denounce white nationalism out right. his colleague telling cnn there are is no place for it in the republican party or in the military. here's what tubberville said last night to cnn.

>> just to be clear, you agree that white nationalists should not be serving in the u.s. military. is that what you're saying in. >> if people think that a white nationalist is a racist, i agree with that. >> it's someone who believes that the white race is superior to other races. >> well that's some people's opinion. and i don't think -- >> that's not opinion. >> pardon? >> what's your opinion? >> my opinion of a white nationalist to me is an american. if they're a racist, i'm totally against anything that they want to do. >> and today while surrounded by reporters on capitol hill, tubberville doubled down. >> explain why you continue to insist that white nationalists are american. >> listen, i'm totally against racism and if democrats want to say that white nationalists are

racists i'm against that too. >> the definition of a white nationalist -- >> that's your definition. my definition is racism is bad. >> the definition is that. >> next question. >> that the right. >> next question. racism is totally out of the question. >> do you believe white nationalists are racist? >> yes if that's what they are, thank you. >> with me now to talk more about this is former republican congressman adam kinsinger, he is a political commentator and also honorary chairman of country first pac. congressman, thank you for your time this afternoon. it's obviously not a n

>> white nationalists are americans if they're racist, i'm against racism. but, you know, that's only your opinion that white nationalism is racism. he's trying to create a situation where everybody can hear what they want to hear because honestly, there is a constituency of white nationalists that you don't want to tick off evidently in some of the republican primaries because they're allowed on -- they're loud on the internet or have the ear of certain people and so i think he is trying to twist his words and does not want to alienate -- it's a lot of what you saw with donald trump where he did not want to alienate the proud boys and stuff like that. it's a really concerning thing. let's be very clear. white nationalism is not just racism, it's deep racism and it has no place in my opinion in any political party and it's

certainly got no place in the united states military. >> historically, the gop likes to embrace that it is pro military and the pentagon itself has said, yes, there is a problem with white nationalism. there is a problem with extremism in its ranks. what does it do to the republican party's historic support of the military for it to the be home to a senator who is saying something like this? >> by the way, i want to be clear, it's true that there is extremism in the military. it's not necessarily at a greater rate than the country but i've seen people, i've seen people tell me i've had people tell me qanon theorys wearing the uniform in the military. we have to weed that out. just like when i joined the military i had to say i am not a member of the combineist party or any party or group that seeks to overturn the united states government. and so wait does for the historical pub dan support, they

can pretend like they are the pro military party as they oppose u.s. support to ukraine which actually is preventing the united states military from having to get involved directly against russia. as they hold up nominations because of the difference on abortion opinion. and have these members of the military that are reliant on their promotions for better pay and better leadership. the military that needs theme fill these positions holding them up for politics. look, there's plenty of criticism that can go around in terms of politicizing the military in this case it is the the republicans or more specifically tommy tubberville that's doing exactly that. >> so all of this is spawning sort of spinning off of the fact that he is unilaterally holding up these military nominations right over the pentagon's abortion leave policy. how problematic sit and witness-3 seeing this affect the nomination for the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.

how problematic is it for republicans that this gop senator who cannot condemn white nationalism as racist is holding up the nomination of an african-american general to be chairman of the joint chiefs? >> i think it's quite problematic. now, i've kind of come to believe that when it comes to base politics there's really nothing somebody can do that's going to change the support among the base unfortunately. but you can chip away at it and people i think especially alabama's got a significant military presence. there's going be a lot of people that are actually personally affected by this. i don't even think anybody like rand paul who is very antimilitary quite honestly has taken it this far before so this is damaging to the republican brand and damaging to tommy tubberville. i guess he can win over some of the -- he's probably already won over the antiabortion folks but maybe he can win them over even

hoarder. but even the republicans in the senate are saying this is insane. this is insane. i mean, we can't talk about competition with china and blame president biden for some lack of competition with china and then hold up the nominations in the military that is actively every day preparing for hopefully not actually engaging in competition or conflict with china. that's the only way to prevent it and tommy tubberville is doing great damage to that. >> and those are some of the nominations -- especially the navy and fleets dealing with the china threat. thank you so much for your time. we appreciate it. >> you bet. take care. >> jim. >> still ahead, as we speak, senators grill lead hers of the pga tour over the proposed partnership with the saudi arabiaen government backed live golf. while some say they're quite concerned about saudi arabia's growing influence in the sport. that's coming g up.

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- [announcer] do you have an invention idea but don't know what to do next? call invent help today. they can help you get started with your idea. call now 800-710-0020. >> today law makers grill pga exec five at thises after as the latest bid dollar attempt by the saudi kingdom to sports wash its internatial image. senators spoke out on their concerns about where this deal

may lead. >> i would like to have a commitment from both of you that the final agreement will not prevent players or pga tour executives from commenting on or criticizing actions of the kingdom of saudi arabia. will you make that commitment? >> it will be an objective we would seek, senator, and i would add that the framework agreement does not prevent our players from speaking their mind on any matters. >> it doesn't now but you can't commit that the final agreement will not require them to avoid any such disparaging statements? >> we do not anticipate it having that. >> let's dig deeper with sports analyst christine brennan. always good to see you. i want to start with asking you about the reasons being given for this deal between liv and

pga. this deal happened because there was real concern about players leaving and feeling pressure to join liv golf. he said the division and tension among players was unsustainable and it was starting to spread to fans and sponsored. do you buy that as a legitimate reason to strike this deal? >> no, no, i do not. it sounds like a great excuse for the pga tour to be defending its unconscionable decision to go into business with the saudis and allow them to be a part of an american sport, a worldwide sport. as everyone may remember, i'm sure you do. there was that initial rush of several players to join liv golf for unbelievable amounts of money. phil mickelson, bryson dechambeau, brooks koepka. that stopped. the timing had been stemmed. and people like rory mcilroy and tiger woods said no. no matter how much money, no way, no how.

american fans have been very antiliv and the liv golf tv ratings are terrible. the attendance is terrible. there is no cut. it is three rounds. it's basically a joke. so the notion that it somehow is building and if that's their argument, there are more people going and fans are more interested, all the stats, all the facts show the exact opposite of what he said today. >> and looking forward, there is the question of autonomy. ron price, the pga tour chief operating officer, he said the framework agreement includes clear and explicit permanent safeguards that ensure that the tour will lead the decisions and it will control operations. but the saudis are spending a lot of money. upwards of a billion dollars. if they control the purse strings, how much autonomy does the pga board ultimately have? >> exactly. that is the question. and we know from what the pga

tour was telling us a year ago how they were so concerned and so sympathetic with 9/11 families. so worried about the lgbtq rights and human rights and saudi arabia. how terrible liv golf was, and of course they did a complete 180, five, six weeks ago. so the idea that they're telling us this now. how do we even believe them? how do we know they're telling the truth? the notion that the saudis are buying in at that price of more than $1 billion as we heard today in the hearing, and they're not going to want to control things? that's ridiculous. it defies credulity and the pga's credibility is about zero right now. it might be under par, because of what has gone on in the last year. i don't know that we can believe any of this. >> the timing is also notable because this hearing comes a day after randall stevenson, the executive, resigned from the pga board. he said that he had specific serious concerns about the partnership with the saudis.

are you surprised there haven't been more resignations and more folks objecting on moral grounds? >> we would be holding our breath for a long time if we were looking for spying or a moral compass from the man who runs golf. this is a sport that the country club said, it is a sport for decades was comfortable with discrimination against people of color, black men, mostly, black women, too. and women. there are still golf courses today that women would be escorted to the curb and told to leave if they showed up. so they are so, they've been so consistently happy or content or at least willing to accommodate discrimination and racism and mysogyny that the thought that anyone would take a stand on something this important, as i said, i'm not going to hold my breath for that. but again, it's good that one person did that. i wish more would but i'm not

surprised that they have not. >> it is so important to remember the history and how it fits, and the contexof the current moment. christine brennan, always appreciate your insights. thank you so much for joining us. >> boris, thank you. >> of course. coming up, the georgia grand jury expected to determine if former president donald trump faces more criminal charges has been selected. we'll have all the details. stay with us. this is cnn news central. the first time you connecteded your godaddy website and your store was also the first time you realized... well, we can do anything. cheesecake cookies? the chookie! nage all your sales from one place with a partner cheesecake cookies? that always puts you first. (we did it) start today at godaddyom

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