russian terror, that's how ukrainian president zelenskyy is describing an attack on a grocery store in ukraine that killed at least 50 people. we'll take you there live as rescuers continue searching through the rubble. after promising there will not be another foot of ball built under his administration, the president is doing just that and waiving 26 laws in the

process. what he's now saying about that decision. and the house always wins, or does it? with no speaker, no consensus on who to lead, work in the house of representatives is still on ice. we'll have more on who is gaining support to become the next house speaker. we're following these stories and many more all coming in right here to "cnn news central." ♪ an inhuman terrorist attack. that's how ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy is describing a deadly russian strike against a small village in the country's kharkiv region. the ukrainian leader is warning world leaders russia's aggression will continue to grow if aid runs dry. today's brutal strike left at least 51 people dead. officialsly sat's one of the deadliest attacks against civilians since the conflict

began. cnn's fred pleitgen is live on the scene of the attack. fred, walk us through what you're seeing. >> reporter: hi there, boris. it certainly is a scene of utter devastation. i'm right in front of the building that was hit. as you can see, it's been completely innye lated. you can see there's this giant block here which appears to have been some wall or structure that was completely taken off the building. if you look at the rubble itself, it's been really decimated into very small pieces. you mentioned, boris, this was a supermarket, but it was also a cafe and also seems to have been a small event center as well. in fact, when the missile struck, there was a funeral wake going on for a soldier who was killed about a year ago, and he was supposed to be reburied here. this is an area that was under russian control and is now under ukrainian control. they say the people at this funeral wake, none of them were

military. i have to say, there were some pretty graphic scenes when we got here earlier, still a lot of bodies laying around, many in a devastating state. they all looked like civilians from what we can see. definitely no sign that any sort of military was inside here or inside this small village as well. you can just see the container that seemed to have ice cream. all that completely annihilated. they say one of the reasons the devastation is so bad is because the russians used a skunder missile. that's a powerful medium range missile, about a thousand pounds. it's something you would use against troop concentrations or armored vehicles. if you use it against a building like this, obviously you can see what happened. rescue crews were here searching

for survivors but they say they're pretty much already done. they don't believe there's anything that could possibly still be alive underneath all of this. a lot of bodies have been cleared away. needless to say, there were some devastating scenes we had to witness here. there was one gentleman who was weeping over a body bag, was just refusing to go away. we later found out it was his wife who had been killed here and sort of the last thing he could do for her is with the cleanup crews, lift her body into a truck that was bringing the bodies away, of course, many of them for idea case. the ukrainians are saying because the strike was so powerful, because these people were in a building with a very soft, not very thick roof, it will be very difficult to identify a lot of the bodies because, quite frankly, there isn't very much left of a lot of people that were inside. you were mentioning the condemnation coming from ukraine's president volodymyr zelenskyy. he's saying this is one of the reasons, what you're seeing

here, why ukraine needs better air defense capabilities and obviously pointing to the united states for the weapons deliveries to continue as well, boris. >> heart-wrenching details from fred pleitgen in eastern ukraine. thank you so much. we want to dig deeper with former nato supreme allied commander general wesley clark. general clark, thanks so much for being with us. what do you estimate is vladimir putin's calculation here, this missile going into an area that's full of civilians, not really a military target, and it's not exactly on the front lines? >> it's punishment, pure and simple. it's the russian way of war. the ukrainians are resisting, they should be killed, and that's the intent of the strike by the esconder missile. general, the timing of this is interesting, too, because it comes as support for the war in

ukraine from the west is appearing to wane. there are doubts about whether congress will pass more funding for ukraine in the united states. zelenskyy right now is in spain, trying to court support from european allies. what do you make of the timing of this? >> i think it's a calculated gamble by putin. he believes, and i think this is wrong, but he believes that showing strength like this and punishing the ukrainian people will discourage western support. he believes that the west is weak, that our support will crumble if we see ukraine is helpfulless and losing and we'll cut our losses. i think he's wrong and i think firing up western opinion. here is the thing. when this war started, no one expected, at least in the west, ukraine to be able to survive and resist and push back on the russians. it would have been a fait accompli over a couple, three

weeks. but as it's dragged on, as we've become more and more engaged in support, it's become more embedded in the fabric of western diplomacy, and this means that mr. putin has got to understand that the conflict in ukraine is coming closer and closer to touching u.s. vital national interests. whatever agreement was set up in the beginning about red lines, about not hurting russia, about keeping nato out of the war, mr. putin is causing so much damage, there's so much escalation potential here, that he should understand he's moving into a very, very dangerous place. >> general, what's your message to members of congress who are hesitant to send more aid to ukraine on the basis of there being allegations of corruption, on the basis of there being a different set of priorities for some of them? they're more interested in funding domestic projects, some of them argue.

what would you say to them? >> well, i'd say first that, first of all, ukraine is taking very strong measures to deal with the allegations of corruption. secondly, the state department has recently concluded there's no evidence whatsoever that any u.s. military assistance has been diverted or gone anywhere but to the people who need it in ukraine. third, i would say it's a major point of russian disinformation that ukraine isn't deserving of western support because it's corrupt. imagine this coming from moscow. that's the way the information works in this case. the fourth point would be to the members of congress, it's in the vital interests of the united states, increasingly so, that we provide assistance to a democracy that wants to align with the west, that's fighting vicious, anti-humanitarian aggression. if we don't stop this russian attack here, it will go elsewhere. we cannot trust mr. putin.

he is untrustworthy. he has shown it time and time again. so this is a remarkable stand, courageous stand by the people of ukraine. we're fortunate it's not our u.s. soldiers in here. they deserve our support because they're fighting for us. and congress, every member, should recognize this. >> general wesley clark, very much appreciate your perspective on these matters. thanks. >> thank you. all right. let's go back to capitol hill. congressman jim jordan who recently announced he's running for house speaker has spoken with former president donald trump about his speakership bid. trump has floated the idea of coming to the capitol next week. let's go to cnn's melanie zanona. you have new information about jordan's pitch to house moderates. what can you tell us, melanie? >> reporter: moderate republicans will be a key constituency in this speaker's

race. congressman jordan just wrapped up a call with the main street caucus, business-minded members, more center right of the party. during this call jordan pitched himself as a team player and someone who is best positioned to unite this fractured republican party. he also promised he would protect moderates, he would not put them in tough positions. he was also asked about the motion to vacate, that tool that was used to oust kevin mccarthy as speaker. this group has actually been demanding that any candidate for speaker explain how what happened on tuesday will never happen again. they want to reform that tool to make it harder for any single member to be able to call for a vote to remove the sitting speaker. during this call jordan said it's going to be a conference decision, they will need 218 votes from republicans to change those rules. he sounded open to the idea of changing it if that is what republicans ultimately decide to do. you get a sense of what his pitch is as he's tried to win over these moderate members. the fact is, he could still have some problems winning over these members. this is a person who is a

co-founder of the freedom caucus. he used to be quite a flame thrower, used to note vote for spending bills. there's a lot of concerns about elevating him to the stop spot as speaker. not the mention, there's a lot of emotions, raw emotions, frayed relationships particularly with moderates about the fact that their speaker was ousted. jordan was asked about the eight republicans who took down kevin mccarthy. here is what he had to say. >> i disagree with what took place, but those guys are friends of mine. that's the message i've been talking to colleagues about. who can bring the eight into part of the team -- who can unite our team? i think i can do that. if i didn't think i could do that, i wouldn't run. >> reporter: steve scalise, the number two republican, who is also running for speaker, is also expected to address the main street caucus later this afternoon.

bottom line, pam, the battle for the moderates is on. >> it sure is. melanie zanona thank you so much. let's bring in cnn's kristen holmes. it's interesting because former president trump stayed out of everything when it came to the ouster of mccarthy, now he wants to get engaged when it comes to who the new speaker will be, it appears. >> reporter: i think that's the most important part of all of it. he said he didn't want to wade into the drama or at least advisers close to president trump said he didn't want to wade into the drama. clearly he didn't want to wade into the drama on mccarthy's behalf. now he's floating the idea of going to congress while they're trying to determine a new speaker. we're told some gop lawmakers have floated this idea of trump himself being an interim speaker and that trump was intrigued by that. sources that have been with

trump the last several days tell my colleague alayna treene, that it's not something he's seriously considering, that he's solely focused on running for president. but he's inserting himself into the story, clearly an effort to make himself part of whatever the story is when it involves republicans, but also, if you look at what happened with the speaker's race, with mccarthy being ousted, he did not get involved in any way, not even a single post on mccarthy's behalf. now he's talking about showing up on the capitol. clearly there's a reason he didn't get involved then. >> clearly. kristin holmes, thanks so much. i want to talk with republican congressman kevin kylee of california. congressman, thanks for coming on. jim jordan just spoke with republicans from the main street caucus. what did you hear from him?

will you support him? do you have any reservations? walk us through what your mindset is right now. >> i have the highest regard for the folks who have stepped up to run to be the next speaker. i've worked very closely with congressman jordan. he's the chair of the judiciary committee which i'm also a part of. he's an extraordinary leader, and i have the highest level of confidence that the conference will be in very good hands and the house will be in very good hands with whoever comes out as the next speaker among those declared candidates. >> who right now -- are you supporting jim o jordan? what about steve scalise who has also thrown his hat in the ring? >> i haven't come out in support of anyone. i'm still having conversations. as i said, though, i think we have great choices in front of us. if there's any silver lining to any of this, it's the fact that we have such tremendous people who are so widely respected, who have stepped up to run.

but, you know, the reality is that who the speaker of the house is isn't really a top-of-mind issue for most of my constituents and for most americans. the things that are top of mind are why are we paying over $6.00 for gas in california, grocery prices, electricity prices, the continuing to squeeze family budgets. fentanyl taking more and more young lives in every community in this country, rising crime that's making people feel unsafe. the important thing is we need to get the new speaker, we need to unify and then we need to get back to addressing the challenges that americans are facing. that's what's most frustrating about all of this to me, it's been a bit of a distraction, a bit of a delay. we need to get through this and get back on track delivering results. >> i think you'd green it's a problem for your constituents if the house can't pass legislation on issues that directly impact him. i want to talk about former president trump, about what

kristen holmes just laid out, he's considering coming to capitol hill to speak to your conference about the speaker fight. do you think that's a good idea? >> more perspectives are certainly fine. i think this is ultimately something that will be decided by the conference. back to your first point, about not being able to move legislation, that's what's so frustrating about this. it took us several days to even get swarn in and get started. now, while this is still being litigated, we don't have the ability to move legislation. to give you one example i'm the author of a bill called the press act. it provides protections for freedom of the press and protects your ability to not reveal your sources. the co-lead is democrat jamie raskin of maryland, a bipartisan bill, passed the judiciary unanimously. we can't move that legislation even though it's teed up for a vote on the floor which is why

it's so important that we get through this and get back to the work of delivering results for the american people so bills like this or another bill i have, a bipartisan bill with representative bonamici of oregon to address the fentanyl crisis, to promote awareness and outreach in schools across the country. this is legislation that will save lives but it can't move while all of this is going on. i'm very hopeful that whoever ends up being nominated by our conference next week will quickly be ratified by the house and then we'll get back to work. >> we shall see if that is indeed what happens. i want to turn to ukraine. we see this brutal attack on civilians as support for funding for ukraine appears to be waning, especially among republicans in the house. how important is it to you that the next speaker supports funding for ukraine? >> i have a tremendous ukraine american community in my district and around the sacramento area. this is an issue where there are

a wide variety of views in our conference. i think there's quite a bit of agreement on the idea that we need a lot more oversight and accountability and a strategy for the funding that is there, but i'm not sure that any one issue is going to be determinative here as far as who the next speaker is, i think it's going to be a broad judgment that each of us makes as to which person is in the best position to lead the house in tackling these huge challenges where there is so much dissatisfaction in this country. so many americans, overwhelming majority believe the country is on the wrong track. i was sent to d.c. by my constituents to to get results. the biden administration has reversed course on the border. we've been focusing like a laser on that issue, we've held field hearings, passed the security act, brought in secretary mayorkas and it's getting results. now the administration is

reversing course and putting in some modest border security measures. we're getting some results, a check and balance that we need to be. we need to get back to doing that. the country has a lot of issues and we don't have time to waste. >> president biden said basically he had this money, his hands were tied, if he didn't use it for the border wall, it would go to waste. he ended up saying today that he doesn't actually think it will make a difference. it seems like from what you're saying, you disagree with that. congressman kevin kiley, appreciate you coming on and offering your perspective. thank you. >> thanks for having me. coming up, as the congressman just mentioned, president biden is paving the way to build a border wall even though he just said border walls don't work. how he is explaining that. multiple industries are getting hit with strikes. why unions are bargaining more and more. later, there is no stopping the g.o.a.t. how simone biles led the

americans in breaking yet another record. those stories and more coming up on "cnn news central."

center of the ongoing fight for the speakership among house republicans, and it's at the top of the white house agenda today as president biden's senior cabinet members meet with the mexican president, biden cleared the way for 20 new miles of border barriers in south texas, this despite making a promise during the 2020 campaign that he would not preside over any new border wall construction, not one more foot he said. cnn's kayla tausche is live at the white house. kayla, it appears to be a flip-flop, but the white house says it's more complicated than that. >> reporter: boris, the white house is trying to make a very

nuanced argument here saying that, in fact, the president tried to allocate those funds for something different and that congress disallowed that to happen, also saying it was the biden administration that sought to move forward with comprehensive immigration overhaul and congress that prevented that from hpg. even so, it does go against the campaign promise and the general spirit of the immigration policy that the biden administration has promoted up until this point. so earlier today reporters asked president biden to explain this decision and to say in his words whether he believes walls work. here is his response. >> i'll answer one question on the border wall. i tried to get them to redirect that money. they didn't. they wouldn't. in the meantime there's nothing under the law that they have to use the money for what it's

appropriated for. i can't stop that. >> do you believe the border wall works? >> no. >> reporter: the authorization was made in a filing with the federal register late last night, a six-page filings in which the secretary of homeland security described in his words an acute and immediate need to prevent illegal entry at the southern border. earlier today, asked to defend that rationale for the authorization of this construction, the press secretary today said she hadn't seen that filing. boris, it does include the waiving of more than two dozen federal laws to allow this construction to go forward. it, of course, comes against the backdrop of the bitter funding fights on capitol hill where republicans have been pushing to restore some trump-era immigration and border policy. boris. >> just based on what dhs has put out there, it doesn't seem like the white house and dhs are seeing eye to eye on this issue. we're joined by cnn

political director david chalian. david, as is so often the case, you have what the candidate says on the campaign trail and then when they're in office, something different happens. that really sums up what the situation is with biden. let's revisit what he said on the 2020 campaign trail. >> trump campaigned on build that wall. are you willing to tear that wall down? >> there will not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration. >> reporter: the president also said today that former presidents have said to him that they wished they had built a wall. do you recall -- >> not a single one -- i can't think of a single one who said that. we need border security, but that's not the border security we need. >> reporter: so candidate biden says no new wall. now we learn today the white house is clearing the way for new wall construction. yet president biden says walls don't work. the dhs secretary says there's an acute need for the wall. how do you explain the mixed

messages here? >> first overall, if you have to explain something this has been appropriated and the money must be spent, you're already in a place where much of the country is not going to tune into that message. biden here is in a tough spot. he understands his approval ratings on border security and immigration are lower than his overall ratings which are historically low for a president at this point in their presidency. this is a very weak issue for him. so not a terrible idea to have some border security piece of this. his own base, the democratic base wants to hear much more about the humanitarian aid being provided to migrants that are coming over the border, how they're being handled and some path forward to a comprehensive immigration reform plan, not just one focused on border security. he's caught here between two different points. i think it's important to note how the politics on this have changed. first of all, take a look in a

recent quinnipiac university poll, you see 50% say they oppose building a border wall. 68%, biden doesn't have the border under control. biden is not getting good ratings on this, yet half the people don't want a border wall. he's got a needle to thread with his own party and the broader general electorate. >> as we know, washington has been gridlocked for decades when it comes to this issue. right now washington seems to be more polarized then ever. do you see any path to some progress on this politically? the reality is a lot of this falls on congress. the president can only do so much when it comes to immigration. >> first of all, we don't even have a functioning house of representatives now. >> that's true. >> i certainly see no political path for a true bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform that has buy-in from enough folks to address this problem. i don't see a legislative solution to that. you're right, everybody on all sides of this issue understands that the solution is to be

legislative or it's not going to be a real solution. that means we live on with the problem, and both republicans and democrats are going to take that problem to the campaign trail. >> they sure are. david chalian, thank you. >> sure. still ahead, health care, auto manufacturing and entertainment, all industries getting hit by strikes right now. why it's seemingly been the year of the strikes. from chrome to duckduckgo.

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the largest health care strike in u.s. history is now in its second day after more than 75,000 kaiser permanente workers began walking off the job on wednesday. the transcribing is supposed to last just three days, but the union groups involved say they'll plan an even longer strike in november if they don't get a new contract by then. meantime, members of the american actors union, sag-aftra, are still walking the picket lines nearly three walks in their strike against television and film studios. after a full day of bargaining sessions on wednesday, talks are set to resume tomorrow. as united auto workers continue their strike, general motors says the strike cost over $200 million over the first two weeks. ford and chrysler's parent, stellantis, have not said how much the strike has cost them.

let's bring in cnn's vanessa yourkevich has more. vanessa, what do we anticipate we'll hear? >> this will be one of shawn fain's signature facebook lives. he'll be giving an update on the state of negotiations between the union and the big three. however, what we do not know is if he's going to be announcing any expanded strikes against the big three. a person familiar with negotiations says that general motors and the union has made progress on key economic issues, and this is important, because over the last three weeks, we have seen the union announce strikes against general motors three times while just announcing strikes, expanded strikes against ford and stellantis twice. general motors also telling us that the first two weeks of the strike has cost them $200 million. according to analysis we have from anderson economic group, the total impact of the strike over the last two weeks has been about $4 billion.

that's including that impact to those automakers, to consumers, to dealers and to the lost wages that many of these employees have seen. also to note, though, the lost wages for people who are on strike and the layoffs that these companies have announced, more than 3,000, those individuals, boris, are eligible for strike pay. that's about $500 a week from the union. >> we'll look forward to that update tomorrow from shawn fain. vanessa, up v what's up with all these strikes? the auto industry, entertainment, health care, why is all this happening now? >> we were calling it the hot labor summer. as you mentioned, strikes across multiple industries. there's a couple things going on. one is that many of the people who are working in these industries worked over the course of the pandemic when many of us were working at home. at that time, especially in the auto industry and also in health

care, they watched these companies that they worked for make record profits. they also look at the pay of many of these ceos. mary barra makes almost $30 million a year, and she has seen her pay increase by a significant amount, and the folks working for these companies feel like they should be on that same pay raisin crease as these ceos. also, i think you have unions in some industries looking at unions in other industries and seeing the success of the writers guild who was on strike for many months, come to a pretty good agreement at the end of their strike. so a lot of unions paying attention to what other unions and other industries are doing and wanting their fair share, boris. >> appears to be a ripple effect. vanessa, thank you very much for the reporting. a fedex plane with a malfunctioning landing gear making a crash landing in tennessee. how the crew was able to pull off this spectacular landing. later, simone biles back on

the world stage like she never left. yet another first place finish, another broken record for team usa. we'll be right back.

a rough landing in tennessee after a fedex plane skids off the runway and into the road. three people were aboard the boeing 757. thankfully no one was hurt. i want to bring in cnn aviation

correspondent pete muntean. this is a happy ending, everyone is okay, the packages are okay. what happened? >> what happened is good tv. that was an incredible landing. you see the sparks off that 757. that was a textbook belly landing. you see it sometimes in smaller airplanes and smaller airports, the landing gear malfunctions, they can't get it done. rarely do you see it on a transport category airplane as big as a 747. this fedex flight was leaving chattanooga, tennessee, going to fedex's big hub in memphis. quickly the flight crew realized there was an issue, they had an engineer unsafe flight. they were able to see the landing gear was malfunctioning on the crew alerting system they have in front of them, all the screens in front of them. they essentially took off straight, radioed air traffic control and flew around the chattanooga airport.

they did something old school, came in for a bit of a fly-by to see if the air traffic controllers could see if the landing gear was, in fact, down. it turns out it was not. you can hear this relatively calm and cool air traffic control transmission from the pilots on this fedex flight saying, hey, we've got a problem. listen. >> 1376. >> 1376. >> yes, sir. when we land, we're going to have to stop on the runway. we're not going to have clearing available. just to give you a heads-up, we'll be shutting down the runway. in that case we're going to declare an emergency at this time. i've got three souls on board. >> you tell air traffic control how much fuel you have on board, how many people on board and they said they're going to clog up the runway. that's a big issue, especially when you don't have wheels, no brakes. also the airplane comes in on its belly.

you can't use the engine thrust reversing system that usually brings airplane to a stop. they used up every inch of the runway and then some, went off the end of the runway. the procedure says get out as quick as you can. they've evacuated. even the firefighters in chattanooga said good coordination, the pilots did an excellent job. the ntsb is going to investigate and see what went wrong. pretty clearly a mechanical problem. >> good job by that pilot for staying calm under pre men douse pressure. pete muntean, thank you. the lines on alabama's congressional map are shifting after a lengthy legal battle. a federal court has approved this new map that significantly boosts the black population of a second district out of seven in the state. alabama republicans fought the change. their proposed map was twice rejected by the u.s. supreme court. also, friends and family of

ryan clin ken boomer are gathering to pay tribute to the fallen law enforcement officer t. l.a. county sheriff's deputy was shot in an ambush-style killing. a suspect in the killing has been arrested. a preliminary hearing is scheduled for next month. and the subject of the popular serial podcast is again arguing to keep his freedom. seyyed was released last year after more than two decades in prison for the murder of an ex-girlfriend. a baltimore judge overturned his conviction after prosecutors found flaws in the evidence. the state's high court is considering whether that decision violated the rights of the victim's brother to have adequate notice to attend the hearing. plenty more to come this afternoon including u.s. fighter jets shooting down a drone over syria that belonged to a nato ally. we'll discuss when we come back.

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all right. let's just be honest here. it is simone biles' world, and we're just living in it. the 26-year-old gymnast led the u.s. women's gymnastics team back to a team title. she's got me tongue tied. her 20th world championship gold. >> she is impressive. and it was this impressive floor routine that secured the title for the u.s. women's team at the world championships, their seventh straight gold. and it's not over yet. biles has a few more events coming up this week, including the women's individual all around final tomorrow. it takes your breath away watching her glide through the air like that. it's so great to see her back on the floor after some of the challenges she has gone through. >> what a comeback. she is truly inspirational. super human. best of luck to her. we'll be rooting her on. >> look forward to more in the very inner future. thanks for joining "news central."" pam, great too have you here.