the breaking news of a deal to release dozens of hostages held by hamas, and that deal could happen today. new details as the israeli war cabinet is about to meet. and will an appeals court side with donald trump on the gag order or narrow the restrictions that he has to follow. the decision is expected soon. and thanksgiving travel and the severe storms this week that could cause major problems for tense of millions of people. i'm kate bolduan with omar

jim jimenez. sara and john are off. the israeli war cabinet is announcing that they will be gathering this morning, and voting on a deal to get the israeli hostages released by hamas in exchange for palestinian prisoners in israel. an announcement could come as soon as today about the culmination of this. and the number of hostages could be significant. a u.s. official says this is the closest they have been to a deal since the terror group kidnapped the innocent civilians in the october 7th attack. two israeli sources tell cnn is the names of who would be released, but regardless, it does appear that it will be a significant number, and potentially 50 women and children currently held in gaza in exchange, three palestinian prisoners could be released for every one hostage set free. on top of that, the swaps would be coming in a four to five-day

pause in fighting. that is just some of the details of what this potential deal is starting to look like. we will get over to the white house, and mj lee is looking at the details. what is the sense this morning? >> kate, what the sources are telling us this morning is that israel, the u.s. and hamas are on the cusp of reaching a deal, and that deal could be announced as early as today. hamas would release 50 women and children hostages in exchange for four to five days of pause in fighting, and also in exchange for three palestinian prisoners that israel is holding for exchange for every one hostage. in the pause, israel would stop flying the surveillance drones over northern gaza for six hours a day, and what we are told about the identity of the hostages is that they are a various nationalities, and u.s. officials are hoping that one of the hostages that is released in

initial tranche is 3-year-old abigail adan who is the youngest known american hostage and her parents were killed by hamas, and there is hope that she is one of the initial 50 released if this deal were to come to fruition. among the other hostages, the thought is that the hamas would use this pause in fighting to gather up, to see if there are any more hostages that they can gather and then if that were to be successful, then that pause in fighting could potentially be extended for extra days so that more hostages could come out. now, of course, we have seen u.s. officials here working around the clock to try to get this across the finish line. everyone from the president on down traveling to the region making phone calls, having meetings, and the caveat here still is that at any moment the deal could breakdown. it is incredibly tenuous in the

past, but more optimism than ever before this morning, kate, that a deal could be announced and come as early as today. kate. >> thank you, m.j. omar? >> in about an hour, israeli's war cabinet is to meet at benjamin netanyahu's request to begin a multi step approval process for this process. and what are you learning about what is happening at this cabinet meeting? >> well, it is fascinatinging, isn't it? if this comes off, it is the biggest diplomatic breakthrough since october 7th and those massacres of the israelis on the kibbutzes and at tha this point we heard earlier from officials who have been mediating these negotiations, israel and hamas are not in direct contact, and hamas' political office is here

in doha and been an agreement that doha has had with an agreement and so they have been negotiating to describe it as a truce agreement in the gaza strip, and they say they have been closer than they have ever been to an agreement, and that is saying something, because i have been talking about diplomatic sources for weeks. there have been times when it is, you know, been explained that we are close, but at this point, the diplomatic source is telling me that qatar is hoping that there is an announcement on a truce agreement in the gaza strip later today and as m.j. reported the truce agreement is for 50 hostages over a four-day pause, of pausing the ground hostilities, and periods of pauses for the israelis who are flying drones over the gaza

strip and to allow and up to 300 trucks of aid a day into gaza. that would be an agreement on behalf of the israelis, of course, which is a real bone of contention, and real issue for humanitarian agencies to get this aid in. but as things stand, 50 hostages in the first stage, women, children, possibly foreigners in the first stage, and we can't stand that up. the second phase if it is successful in the days to come should allow for as we understand it, up to another 50, and that would be looking for all of the civilian hostages and women, children and foreigners released from captivity in gaza in exchange as we have been reporting for palestinian prisoners, women and teenagers held in palestinian prisoners, and there are 380 teenagers under a age of 18 in israeli

prisoners and some 80 women as we understand it from the palestinian prisoner groups, so you can see where the prisoner numbers are stacking up, three to one deal. this is important the point out. it is described as a truce both by hamas and by the mediators here, which is suggesting that it is no means a cease-fire, and hamas has said it will not release all of the hostages, all 240 hostages including soldiers, and individuals of military age until there is a cease-fire. on the flipside, the israelis have said they will not go close to the cease-fire until all of the hostages are released. there is a standoff there. that is certainly not part of this agreement, because this is a truce, a pause in hostilities on the ground and some air activities until at least in

principle the first of the civilian hostages will be released. look, it is not perfect, and nobody is saying it is, and it is certainly not including the soldiers or the military personnel or the people of military age, but it is a start at this point, and certainly as i said, the biggest diplomatic breakthrough since the conflict started, and it is not a done deal, omar, until it is a done deal. >> and that is the significance here that over weeks we have been looking for threads to see what could break through, and what is still in the initial phases, and what could be the significant breakthrough. we have to leave it there, becky anderson, and we will come back to you. joining us with more on this is senior international analyst peter bergen. what do you see in the contours of the deal that is coming together, and what do you think of it? well, set showing the central ti of qatar to it. and the fact that the hamas leadership is in qatar, and the

leadership in qatar and they are acting like in the cold war where the united states can talk to people otherwise we might not be a ebble to talk to directly through the qataris, and that is an essential channel this we have seen it work before with two american women released earlier in the conflict, about two weeks into the conflict, and so the qataris are essential to this, and some people who said, well, why the mass political leadership in qatar, and suggesting they should be expelled, and i don't believe that is a good idea, because they would go to syria or iran, and at the end of the day, we need to be able to talk to them, and we need to continue to talk to them. clearly, if 50 hostages are released, that still leaves 190 still there, and amongst other issues that we want to talk to hamas about in the future,

including what the day after gaza will look like and how that is going to be arranged. >> you said it perfectly, it is a tangled complicated nature of any hostage negotiation, and especially the one we are looking at knew. i asked the reporter from axios last hour who was on with us what he is hearing from the sources about what got them, the collective them to where we are in this moment, and especially when it is coming to hamas, and let me play for you what they said. if hamas agrees to the deal, how much pressure are they under from the idfn operation, or does it say something about how much hamas can benefit from the contours in the deal. >> i think that it is the former, and at the end of the day, when hamas gets out of the deal is a breather. that's it. they get four days, and maybe six days, and maybe if they manage to bring a lot of other

hostages and release them to get eight days, but they are not going to stop the war. >> peter, what do you think they do or get in that breather? >> well, presumably a chance to regroup slightly, and wounded hamas fighters with medical treatment and as the war has gone on with the intense rate, and so, you know, clearly they do benefit, but, you know, when the hostage families met with netanyahu just yesterday there is so much anger directed at him and his government, and this is a big issue in israel for the israelis, this is not something that you have to do, but it is something that people in israel feel strongly about, and of course, the mass will benefit, but it is four days or eight days if it goes on. this is not, you know, this conflict clearly could carry on for months if indeed the aim of israel is to destroy hamas, it

is a big aim. these kinds of urban wars that we saw in mosul that we saw against isis, it went on for nine months. i am not saying it is going on that long, but if the aim is clear to end the hamas military capability, that process could take many more weeks. >> it is great to see you, peter. thank you so much. >> thank you. we are following a lot of news here in the united states including will a federal appeals court restore the gag order in donald trump's case. we are also hearing that speaker of the house mike johnson stopped by for a meeting with donald trump at mar-a-lago, and why. and now, thanksgiving plans this year could be upended by some nasty storms. we'll explain.

we are wait for a federal appeals court to decide whether or not a gag order is going back in place in the court case of donald trump, and this is in an often intense case of a three-panel judge hearing case. and how do you walk a fine line with a case involving him is unclear. now, elena, what did the judges say, and take us inside. >> well, kate, you are exactly right. it does look like the judges are

poised to keep this a limited gag order in the federal elections subversion case, but they may loosen some of the restrictions so he can go after the special counsel jack smith more directly, and the distinction of political speech they said and speech designed to subvert the legal process. now, donald trump's lawyers have been arguing, and they argued this yesterday that gag order like this issued by dr. tanya chutkan is categorically un ununprecedented and that is what judge sauer said yesterday, and that is something that the judges did not entirely embrace. take a listen. >> the order is unprecedented and it is setting a terrible precedent for future restrictions on core political speech. >> it is only affecting speech temporarily for a criminal trial

process for someone who has been indicted as a felon. no one here is threatening the first amendment broadly. >> now, kate, we are waiting to see how that three-judge panel is going to rule on this, but taking a step back and looking at the big picture, vi spoken to the trump team about this, and the reason they care so much is because donald trump and his team do not want to necessarily fight these legal battles in the court of law, but fight it in the court of public opinion and in order for him to do that, they want the speech not to be limit and have him say whatever he wants on social media. they look at his, his team is looking at the legal strategy the same as the campaign strategy, so having a gag order in place limits him from doing that. >> thank you, elena. and now, donald trump is getting a show of support from the top house republican. house speaker mike johnson went to mar-a-lago last night to meet with the former president

according to a gop source. the sit-down is coming days after the trump re-election bid, and he says he wholeheartedly supports trump. david chalian is joining us now, and just start with how significant is this meeting between johnson and trump here? >> well, it is significant in showing a unified republican party around donald trump's dominance in it should not surprise anyone as you noted, because the speaker has made his endorsement of trump quite clear. he was one of donald trump's most vociferous supporters in the congress when donald trump was in office, including in his efforts to subvert the legitimate 2020 election results. and so, you know, the speaker is a trump ally, and he "fis as such, but it is worth noting here that since he has become speaker, he has passed a government funding bill without spending cuts, and sort of a

clean continuing resolution, and did it with democratic help, and now he has gone to mar-a-lago to make sure that donald trump knows that he is indeed the leader of all of the republicans, and it is sounding like the old speaker kevin mccarthy. >> and at least his debut as speaker is a little different than mccarthy's was, but agreed, it is a situation where it is going about as smoothly as you could have hoped for the establish the lead as the republican leader. now, i want to jump to something elsewhere the presidential debate calendar was released and the debates ending earlier than they have before the election, and what do we know about this? >> this is the commission on presidential debates hosting them going back to 1988, omar, but debates don't happen unless both of the candidates aggree to debate, and so, we are far away from that.

this is not set in stone, but they have revealed the dates and locations. and september 16th is in san marcos, texas, and that is the first presidential debate, juan of the first demands. the national republican national committee has been a feud with the presidential debates, and one of the sticking point is should the nominee agree is that the debates were too late and missing the early voters. a lot of the people are voting early now, and another note is that in the announcement, the first ever hbcu down in virginia is hosting a debate, and we have never seen that either. >> we don't know what the picture is that you point out aptly, we don't know what the picture is candidate wise when we come to november, and for one, white house is saying it will not govern by polls leading up to that as biden's approval ratings have not been great

according polls, but what is the reality here for team biden? >> well, obviously when careen jean-pierre was asked about it, the stepped up effort of the campaign and the white house is this contrast campaign with donald trump. i thought that this nbc poll coming out this week explains perfectly why that is. they asked among biden voters, are you more casting your vote in support of for joe biden or against donald trump? 2/1 and 63% of the biden voters say they are voting for biden to be against trump, and 31% say they are voting for biden, and so trump is the motivation to vote for him. and if you flip it, trump is the

motivating factor there, too. 56% of his supporters say they are voting for trump to be for him, and not opposed to biden and 37% say that. so while the biden campaign is keen on making donald trump the central factor in the race, because it is a motivating force for its supporters, the downside is donald trump being central in this campaign is a motivating fact for his supporters. >> we will see what happens, and david chalian, i know that you will be covering it all. >> thank you, omar. a potentially huge moment in the israel-hamas war, a deal to release some of the hostages could be released as early as today. we have new reporting from sources we will bring to you. and the supreme court is striking down a key tool to enforce the voting rights act, and in striking that down, it is striking a big blow to the voting rights act altogether, and the practical impact in this

fight. and millions of americans are gearing up to head out for thanksgiving, and this weekend is a always a busy time to travel, but why officials believe this thanksgiving could be off of the charts.

nice footwork. man, you're lucky, watching live sports never used to be this easy. now you can stream all your games like it's nothing. yes! [ cheers ] yeah! woho! running up and down that field looks tough. it's a pitch. get way more into what you're into when you stream on the xfinity 10g network. we are now minutes away now

from the israeli war cabinet gathering for a meeting. in the last hour prime minister benjamin netanyahu announced meeting and also in doing so said that the nation is quote making progress on the potential release of the innocent hostages held by hamas in gaza. sources do say that a deal could be approved as soon as today. oren liebermann is live in tel aviv with the latest on this. oren, what are you learning about this cabinet meeting, and what could be coming in the next hour for us? >> well, first, the war cabinet meeting itself which starts in half an hour, and likely the take place in the defense ministry behind me is the first in a series of steps to get a deal approved to allow for the release of the palestinian prisoners for the release of the hostages in gaza and israeli and other nationalities as well, and we know that there are nepally

and thai prisoners as well. we know that then there is a security cabinet which is slightly larger, and then the full cabinet, and each gets a vote. there can be argument and discussion in each of those, but the crucial process is looking like it is moving and moving quite quickly. then there is a 24-hour period where there can be appeals to the supreme court to try to stop this process. and then after that maps, if we get to agreement, that can lead to the release of palestinian prisoners, and the freeing of the israeli hostages in gaza. we have heard that there is a critical indication that the entire process is moving forward and maybe expect an announcement soon is that the minister office from a short time ago says in light of the release of the issue of our hostages, the prime minister geoff shelley is releasing the forum of the government of the ministries to

preparing and dealing with the civilian aspects. although it does not tell us exactly what is happening, but it is more statements and indications that the government is preparing to handle the release of hostages and everything that entails, kate. >> and there a lot that this deal entails, and we don't know the full contours of what is it going to be until it is announce and the hostages are freed, but one aspect that we have heard and learned about this morning is that it could and would include three palestinian prisoners in israel being released for every one hostage being released by hamas from gaza. what do you know about the prisoners in israel? >> there are obviously thousands of palestinian prisoners in israeli prison, and that the overarching goal of hamas, and they said, we will release our 240 in exchange for all of the palestinian prisoners held in israeli jails, but that not what

is happening here. from our understanding of the framework, it is 50 women and children in exchange for 150 palestinian women and children, and if that works over the four or five-day pause in fighting, then it could be extend and more hostages for another 150 women and children that we believe at this point. how it works for israeli prisoners is 10 a day. we will see how it works on the palestinian side of prisoners and whether it is all at once or the same three to one. and ten israeli prisoners released from gaza, and 0 relees released -- and 30 released. it is worth noting that those from gaza, there will be no israeli soldiers released, because with the full release, hamas is going to have to release the israeli soldiers who were attacked on october 7th.

but isrhamas believes that the israeli hostages believes they are more beneficial to the israeli government. so it is likely that the hamas believes they can get many more prisoners released if they were to release the israeli soldiers held in gaza, so that is, too, something that we have to keep a close eye on. >> are you also hearing that one of the aspects of the deal that stuck out is in the long days that israel would agree to stop flying surveillance drones over gaza for a six-hour time period. that stuck out period to me, and are you hearing something about th that? >> very much so. ma m one of my colleagues and i also heard that, and what we heard is that israel looks at the drones the look at their own troops in

gaza to see in advance if they are coming in attack, but it uses surveillance drones to monitor the hamas movements. now, under the framework, hamas did not get what they wanted with the complete ban over the course of four days, but they are going to get six-hour windows each day where israel a agrees not to fly the drone, and they won't be able to see the battlefield from above which is critical for anyone tries to manage the battle, but for hamas, they can move their own forces around and crucially to move the hostages in secret, and we know that they have said they are not holding all of the hostages so they have to round them up from factions, and they need a window to move them around the six-hour window without the israeli overflight, and likely when they will try to do that and that is why it is critical on hamas' side, and what israeli risks by not flying. >> oren, thank you so much. a lot to come.

and oren is going to be close, and we will have lots more developments in the next hour. thank you. back here in the united states, it is a countdown to turkey day, and millions of americans are keeping a close eye on the skies as the busy week heats up, and live look at atlanta international airport where a long line of storms is moving in. it is not the only major airport facing the weather delays, and whitney wild is live at chicago o'hair airport, and what are you seeing? >> it is relax and we have a weather system coming through the chicago area, and omar, i know you lived here and know what it is like when the rain hit, because it is traffic problems and car accidents, but it has been smooth here. so we have seen the crowds, and people are getting through

security lines here. it is slow and been like this for an hour, and some of the security lines don't have anybody in them, and you can walk up to tsa and so when you are thinking about how many people are coming through o'hare as well as midway and thinking that 5.6 million travelers are expected to come through the airports this week, this is looking good. we spoke to one man who is traveling with seven adult children and 13 grandchildren and he was beaming with the big family here at o'hare, and he knows that it could be very chaotic, and this is how he planned his day. >> i was here with three older boys yelling saying that we have plenty of time, and i was just nervous, because i did not know that i would get to the airport. a year ago when i picked up my daughter from mexico here, it took two hours just to get into the terminal with the car, because it was backed up. so i was concerned that it would be really backed up.

>> reporter: again, things are looking good at o'hare, and between 7:00 and 11:00 just one cancellation. today, there have been 946 delays, and 587 cancellations. this is into and out of the united states as far as the cancellations out of the united states, 518, and the 587 is a wider swath. but here in united states, just 19. so things are looking good. as we are looking forward, omar, this is expected to be a very busy travel season, and 950 million travelers expected over the week, and so big week, and get here early and prepare to wait if you want a smooth ride. >> i am still stuck on the man who is traveling with the nine adult children and

grandchildren. that is a full flight. >> and the fact that he is still smiling. >> that is a real warrior. >> he is a man to love. all right. coming up for us, a federal appeals court is striking down a key tool used for decades to enforce the voting rights act, and whatat is going g to happen in t the new figight.

it is really seen as a huge blow to the core of the voting rights act. a federal courts ruling is

affecting any private citizen or federal rights group bringing a suit from section two of the law of a crucial part of the voting rights act based on race. so this is going to set up a showdown before the supreme court. before then, cnn political commentator and former democratic member of the house of representatives bakari sellers is here. i wanted to r5ed you something that was cited in court that has stuck with me. over the past 40 years, there have been at least 182 successful section 2 cases and of the 182 cases, only 15 were brought solely by the attorney general. this is part of the dissent. >> right. >> so what do you think that the practical impact of this ruling is? >> well, the practical impact currently is that those states

in the circuit, the 8th circuit now have to rely on the attorney general to bring the claims, and as you said, the attorney general rarely brings the claims. i want the viewers to think about if there is a president trump or president haley or whomever it is, you cannot rely on their attorney general the bring those claims. it is important, because it is not access to the voting box, but it is redistricting acts around the country, and whether it is the naacp legal defense fund or the cohort of legislators or the naacp or whatever it may be, and if they are unable to bring the claim, then the voting rights act has no teeth. the only thing that we can do, because a lot of people were caught off guard on this, and back pedalling, and the only thing that we can do now is to hope that justice barrett and justice roberts vote with the liberals and strike this down. >> it is not just private

citizens, bakari, because we are talking about limiting the reach of naacp, and the aclu and what do you see as the impact of these groups that over time, they have been able to have when it comes to voting rights, and what it is going to mean essentially when their hands are tied? >> that is a great question. i want to go back further, because people forget the price that was paid for the voting rights act. there a lot of blood on the ballot box, and a lot of people arrest and a lot of people beaten, and thinking back to the edmund pettus bridge, and the montgomery sit-in, and there is a lot of blood in the country and a high price paid for the voting rights act, and one thing that happened with the voting rights act particularly in southern states with discrimination is the organizations, the aclu, and the naacp, and the naacp legal defense fund able to come in to fight for the right and access

to the ballot box when they felt that the right was being infringed upon by laws that were passed by the state legislatures in the south. so now it is a gut punch, because you now simply have to rely on the attorney general of the united states, and we will see how that plays out. vi faith in merrick garland, and don't get me wrong, and more faith in kristen clark who is over his civil rights department, but it is not about this simply period of time, but it is about what happens in the future, and what happens if there is a president trump and what that means for his department of justice and voting rights around the country. this is a really, really tough day for the black folk in the country. >> we will see where this goes, and we have to follow this legal fight obviously not over, but it is a big day on. this i want to ask you one thing about president biden while i have got you. yesterday was the birthday and he is making a practice now now of cracking his own age jokes, it seems. this is what he said at the

turkey pardonning. >> by the way, it is my birthday today, and they can actually sing happy birthday, and i wanted you to know it is difficult to turn 60. this is the 76th anniversary of this event, and i wanted you to know that i was not there at the first one. i was too young to make it up. >> and then on instagram, it says turns out on your 146th birthday you run out of space for candles. some self-deprecating humor is tried the and true, and you are very good at it in terms of the political strategy, but is that the way to go about it though? >> i guess so. you have to embrace it. the fact is that he is 81, 82 years old and he is not getting any younger, and he has to embrace it by using self-deprecating humor, and we will have twro near

octogenarians, and one is, and so he has to show the humor and vitality, and the humor is quick and witty and some level of vitality, and not everybody has the handsomeness of bakari here. >> i knew it. you should have been here for the commercial break, that apparently, i am so lucky to be standing next to and on tv next to two men who are so interchangeable. >> we are both bakari sellers and omar jimenez. >> and so here is the key, do you want to be bakari sellers or omar jimenez, and i am happy to be here with both of you as i delicately try to walk out of this minefield. bakari? >> i am choosing bakari, because he is a lot taller than me. >> he is extremely tall, and that is what i do know about bakari. >> we have a lot to follow going through the day, and this is what we are continuing to follow

the significant news in this hour, and there is a deal working to free the hostages held by hamas. and a deal is in crucial minutes as the developments are coming fast, and we are staying on top of it as we happen. and plus, a woman who has previously accused bill cosby for sexual assault has filed suit against him in a law that is set to expire this week in new york.

( ♪♪ ) welcome to big tobacco's fantasyland. the industry's idea of a healthier tomorrow. where vapes are deemed safer. nevermind that they'll increase your risk of lung cancer. and they're anti-aging. because you're more likely to die younger from a stroke. in big tobacco's fantasyland, the deadliest industry can rebrand itself as your friend. >> the woman who previously accused bill cosby of sexual assault is now filing a new lawsuit against him.

the lawsuit is from publicist joan tarsus, which is under the adult law which expires this week. let's bring in jean casarez. what is this about? >> well, it is a lawsuit that is hundreds upon hundreds of lawsuits, and six women have filed suit against bill cosby, and this is another one where she says that she was a comedy writer, and he asked her to meet with him to write some script for him. she alleges that she was given a beverages, and went out and was raped when she woke up, and was in the process of happening in 1970. she says she was back home with her parents. bill cosby calls her mother, and invites her to the westbury music show and says limo is going to pick her up. she spoke to cnn in 2014

describing what happened to her. this is joan tarsus then. >> i noticed that he had a big shaving kit, this men's shaving kit opened up with lots of pill bottles in it, and almost filled with pill bottles which i thought that was really odd. he made a drink, the red eye, and i drank it, and everything was fine. then, we went down to the limo. i passed out in the car. and i, the last time i came to, when i came to, it was the next morning, and i was in bed with him naked. >> and this civil suit is based on that story that cnn was told in 2014. bill cosby's spokesperson says not commenting on the case, these look back windows are like a pandemic to successful wealthy men in america, and when are the lawmakers are going to stop fueling the assault for likes

and clicks. >> and i am not thinking to put bill cosby in that general category. and now a deal to phone shally release roughly 239 of the hamas hostages. what we are learning straight ahead.