by the president. >> unbelievable, this is such this is an unforced error that is really causing big problems, this gets back to when you guys talked about core inflation rate, yeah, that -- ask excludes energy and food when pricing goes up that affects everything. maria: sure does, all right great conversation, everybody, markets have turned mixed dow industrials up 41 nasdaq down 4 1/2 s&p up 6 louis navellier steve moore joen bily, faranello, charles payne have a blessed easter to you all i will see you next week ashley: thank you very much, good morning to you, maria, and good morning, everybody. i'm ashley webster. yes indeed in for stuary varney on this good friday. the withdrawal from afghanistan was not our fault. it was trumps, that's what a new

accountability report from the biden administration says, and if that's not enough to try and wrap your head around, they also claim they didn't see much chaos. really? did they forget we all watched this video of people running for their lives, trying to jump on those planes as they took off from kabul. we'll talk to general keith kellogg about all of that and the results of that report. meanwhile, israel has launched air strikes in lebanon overnight the attacks in retaliation after palestinian militants in gaza fired rockets into southern israel. this is the most serious escalation since the 2006 war. we're going to bring you the very latest developments as they come in today. markets by the way are closed today, in observance of good friday. futures, however, open right now as you can see the dow up 45 points s&p up two-tenths and the nasdaq is flat. the spike in gas prices though that continues. the national average up three cents overnight to $3.58.

by the way, ohio seeing biggest jump now at $3.67. that's up just $0.25 in one week meanwhile, an event on free speech at a college in new york quickly turns into a full-blown meltdown by liberal students. protesters shouting profanities and one destroyed the bible of an attendee but they did break into a room where the food was being kept and enjoyed themselves to some free pizza. how wonderful. you can't make it up, can you? well, this isn't made up. it is friday, april 7, 2023. "varney" & company about to begin. let's get it started here, let's get it started ♪ ashley: so "let's get it started " says the black eyed pea

s and let's get to that jobs report. 236,000 jobs were added in march good morning, susan li, to you. take us through the rest of the report. >> yeah, so good morning to you , i thought they were pretty good as well so slightly less than estimates, still strong. 236,000, so that's 3,000 less less than forecast but i would say that shows the economy is still resilient. revisions upwards in february. down in january, and the jobless rate also lower as well. down to 3.5%, matching the lowest in more than 50 years now the inflation gauge in this report average hourly earnings. those gains are also slowing as well, only up .3% and most encouraging number and statistic i saw in this from payrolls the participation rate at 62.6% and you know, that is the highest since covid started, which shows more workers are coming back into the workforce and that's always good when there's more labor around. as you mentioned futures are

trading. they did go up in reaction to this payrolls report and now 56% of traders expect another 25 basis point hike next month from the federal reserve before this report card and before today, yesterday that probability was below 50%, so you can get higher rates but still if more people are coming to the workforce that is positive. ashley: yes, it is. susan, thank you very much. as you pointed out the futures are on the positive, modestly so for the dow and the s&p and nasdaq essentially flat. let's bring in our good friend kenny polcari, i was going to call you penny kolkari. good morning to you. [laughter] okay let's begin with the jobs report. i think that it's pretty robust. okay, we know that hiring is slowing down, but overall, maybe not what the fed wanted to see. they wanted to see more of the pullback, perhaps. >> well, i think they want to see more of a pullback. they also want to see the unemployment rate go up and not down. it went from 3.6 to 3.5 which is

the wrong direction because we all know that, you know, lots of economists and analysts are suggesting that in order for the fed to succeed we've got to see unemployment rate above 5 % so that's going to throw a little bit of a wrench into it but i think it's going to keep the fed right on the narrative. they are going to raise in may. get the rate up to 5-5.25 and then they will potentially pause , because remember the terminal rate has to be at or above the inflation rate in order for it to really start to work, so we're right there. ashley: it's interesting though because you have low unemployment still, you have rising wages, they are slowing down but still rising and you know look. consumers are out there still spending, and remarkably resilient economy. i mean, yes, we're seeing rate hikes maybe one more in may from the fed to your point, kenny, and then we're done, but this is going to take a while to work through the economy, so what does that do from an investors point of view? >> so i think you have to still remain cautious as an investor.

doesn't mean you are going to sell everything and go to all cash. i don't think that's the right answer. i think you have to remain cautious and build a portfolio that's more defensive and it might be the stuff that is boring, utilities, healthcare, consumer staples, the good dividend payers, the big mega cap names in those spaces, so the big mega cap names in tech but i'd reign in some of the risk around the edges, and maybe put some money into short duration treasuries just until we kind of ride the storm out to see exactly what happens. we get second quarter earnings season starting next week. we're going to hear what the banks have to say about loan loss reserves. are they raising those even more than they did in the first quarter in anticipation of what they suspect could be, you know, tough times ahead so it's going to be all very interesting next week. ashley: it always is, and especially when you're on, kenny polcari. kenny, thank you very much for joining us on this good friday. have a great weekend, enjoy all of the feast i'm sure you're making. >> you as well: ashley: thank you so much. i will. a new poll from c into f shows

that two-thirds of americans do not think president biden deserves to be re-elected. and, 54% of democrats want a different candidate in 2024. interesting. sean duffy is here to talk about it. great to see you, sean, this morning. is it a real possibility that joe biden just won't run again, what do you think? >> sean: no, listen, i think he's going to run again and take his time because there's not a real challenger out there, ashley, so he's not being pressured into announcing too early. by the way once you announce the cash burn really kicks up so the longer you can wait the longer you can preserve that cash and use it really in the heat of the campaign, but i find these numbers fascinating. the democrats don't love joe biden. he has been a wonderful progressive liberal radical leftist president, and they don't love him and i think the issue there is that they think it's joe biden's fault that the leftist policies aren't working. it's not joe biden's fault.

it's the fault of the policies, right? i mean, they are curious as to why we can't spend a ton of money, borrow money and why we have inflation or we can have a weak foreign policy and the world burns. they don't like that, we can try to defund the police, or have criminal justice reform and violence goes up. now, they are perplexed by that and they don't understand and again it's joe biden, it's not joe biden's fault. it's their stupid policies fault so you might change up joe biden , but if you don't change the policy you'll have the same results. they don't get that. ashley: florida congressman byron donalds coming out publicly endorsing president trump for 2024. he says there is only one leader at this time in our nations history who can seize the moment and deliver what we need. to get us back on track, provide strength and resolve and make america great again. that is why i'm honored to endorse president donald j. trump for president in 2024 and i ask my fellow americans to

join me. and sean, donald trump's campaign urging donors of ron desantis to "demonstrate loyalty to the former president." what do you make of all of that? >> sean: so byron donalds, a newer member of congress, usually newer members don't have a lot of sway. byron donalds is a young rock store in the party and by the way he's also from florida. the same state that ron desantis is from, so i think it's a meaningful endorsement coming from byron donalds, and again, i think donald trump is putting pressure. it's smart to put pressure on the desantis donors to say listen. there's going to be one guy that's going to win the primary, show your loyalty today, get on board with donald trump, get on the trump train, because the desantis train is losing. now, again, the donors who are going to ron desantis, they want an alternative to trump. they don't think trump can win and so i don't think the pitch is going to really work to those folks. they want an alternative. but again, donald trump is going to push them. that's smart politics, ashley.

it's a good thing to do to call them out and encourage them to come back home to his campaign. ashley: the big question i'm going to ask you, sean, very quickly. does desantis officially announce? >> sean: i would have said before the indictment and arraignment yes. i think after the indictment and arraignment to navigate that through the republican primary waters is going to be a little more challenging. there's people who didn't like donald trump that want an alternative who are so angry, ashley, that to pushback against alvin bragg and liberals they want to support donald trump when before that they might have been with ron desantis, so this could have shaken the field and that's going to make ron desantis think twice before he decides to get in this race because the question is can he win and beat donald trump and if you're sitting there today the answer is probably no but that can change in three, four, six months from now. ashley: yeah, a day is a long time in politics for sure. sean duffy thank you so much for joining us on this good friday. thank you very much. all right staying on 2024 as we

just said, florida's governor desantis not yet declared his candidacy for 2024, but he has been getting the ball rolling no doubt about that. susan, does desantis have a plan to overtake donald trump? >> so it's a long term plan, a long-haul plan, that focuses lesson those quick splashes in iowa or new hampshire or focus on states that are starting the ball rolling when it comes to primaries. what they are looking at are states that have a lot of delegates in the later winner-take-all contest so take a look at the desantis travel map as i call it. more than a dozen events so far outside of florida this year, only three out of the dozen. so only 25% focusing on those first four state primary contests. he already has two visits to iowa, one was in nevada, new hampshire next week, but that's only after two speeches in ohio and then michigan on thursday, but you know he's already visit ed here in new york, california, as well. blue states with large delegate

hauls and some mega donors with deep pockets. desantis has already been to georgia, pennsylvania, so he also wants to play for the long game with the general election and those battleground states. desantis has a war chest as you know, he's raised more than $200 million during his 2022 re-election campaign and that's the most of any gubernatorial campaign in u.s. history and he is expected, still, to have the largest war chest in the 2024 gop primary field. i would say that trump would probably argue that i've raised what? almost 8 million since the indictment here in new york city? so we'll see. ashley: yeah, sure looks like he's running but we shall see. susan, thank you very much. all right, coming up, biden's immigration policies will definitely be tested when title 42 ends next month. the question is, are we prepared for a surge? it's easter weekend, and how are sunni protesters celebrating the

holiday? well by destroying a bible at a free speech event. yup, can you believe it? we'll have the details on that. also the biden administration releasing that report on the deadly afghanistan withdrawal and you're never going to guess who they blame. the trump administration of course. lt. general keith kellogg will react to that report and he's coming up right after this. ♪ you can't buy great conversations, or excuses to unplug. you can't buy possibilities, and you can't buy moments that matter. but you can invest in them. at t. rowe price we believe your investments should work harder for the future you imagine. and that's where our strategic investing approach can help. t. rowe price, invest with confidence.

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for 2 lines of unlimited. just $30 a line per month. i should get paid more for this. you get paid when you win. from xfinity. home of the 10g network. so many people are overweight now and asking themselves, "why can't i lose weight?" for most, the reason is insulin resistance, and they don't even know they have it. conventional starvation diets don't address insulin resistance. that's why they don't work. now, there's golo. golo helps with insulin resistance, getting rid of sugar cravings, helps control stress and emotional eating, and losing weight. go to golo.com and see how golo can change your life. that's g-o-l-o.com. ashley: now this. the biden administration finally releasing the long-awaited review of that afghanistan withdrawal. susan, come back in here.

they blame trump, right? >> yeah, so they said that trump, the white house is saying that trump embolden the taliban by engaging in peace talks without consulting u.s. allies & partners in the region, while at the same time that he was decreasing the u.s. military presence in afghanistan with a series of drawdowns throughout the year so that was a weakened position for the u.s. withdrawal, which they say led to the chaotic exit that left 13 service people dead listen here. >> you gotta look at when he came into office what he was walking into. he didn't negotiate with the taliban. he didn't invite the taliban to camp david. he didn't release 5,000 prisoner s. he didn't reduce force levels in afghanistan to 2,500, and he didn't have an arrangement with the taliban that they will attack our troops. he came in with a certain set of circumstances they had no ability to change. he had to deal with it, based on what he inherited. >> now john kirby did face pushback from the white house press. they voiced their frustration at

this last minute release and just before a holiday with no warning. >> this was sent to us 10 minutes before the briefing began, with little notice, and it's the very definition of a modern major holiday, so why today, and is this all we get? >> this is the result of months and months of work by individual agencies who are participating in the withdrawal to voluntarily review that withdrawal. these documents are classified, and we felt it was the responsible thing to do. >> so a late thursday afternoon release heading into a long weekend, wouldn't you say, ashley, that's classic definition of a holiday news dump. ashley: yes, it certainly is, susan. no doubt. even if they won't admit it and it didn't end there, by the way. fox peter doocy also questioned john kirby. listen to this exchange. reporter: john, whose going to

get fired over this? >> peter? the purpose of the document that we're putting out today is to sort of colate the chief reviews and findings of the agencies that did after-action reviews. it's not, the purpose of it is not accountability. there were some pieces here that weren't accurate, and we're being nothing but honest with you. reporter: and you're saying that you guys are proud of the way that this mission was conducted? >> doesn't mean, proud of the fact that we got more than 124,000 people safely out of afghanistan, you bet. proud of the fact that american troops were able to seize control of a defunct airport and get it operational in 48 hours? you bet. proud of the fact that we now have about 100,000 afghans, former allies and partners living in this country working

toward citizenship, you bet. does that mean that everything went perfect in that evacuation? of course not. i've talked about it from a different podium, the after- action reviews are now being reviewed by members of congress which will layout things that could have gone better. nobody is saying everything is perfect but there's a lot that went right and a lot of afghans are now living better lives in this country and other countries around the world because of the sacrifices and the work of so many american government officials so yes, there's a lot to be proud of, peter. ashley: yeah, it wasn't perfect and i'm not so sure the word " proud" should be there. lt. general keith kellogg joins me now. so should we be proud of what was accomplished in that withdrawal and who should be fired? >> yeah, ashley, thank you for having me this morning. look, let me start at the very beginning here. we, the constitution of the united states, article ii section ii, the president is commander-in-chief. everything that happens on his watch, in the military, is his responsibility and for somebody

to push it back to the last administration that's absurd. i think that i ruined a tv set last night when i threw something at it after hearing what was going on in the press conference. look, it was pretty clear what we did and i was in the white house for four years and i saw what we did. i'm trying to do the drawdown, and when we came up with the agreement signed on the 29th of february 2020 that began the final drawdown, and we did it with the taliban and it was a very clear document. people can pick it up and look on it online. four parts to that and part three it said very clearly that the taliban will, will, that's a declarative verb, will negotiate with the government in power to have a coalition-type government and then we would have forces on the ground until that was complete. we never would have given up bag rahm air place, or walked away from it until there was a peace plan in process and it's frustrating for me to hear that coming from the white house podium. are we proud, no. am i proud we left 10% of the

americans in afghanistan behind? that's not keith kellogg saying it, ashley. that came out of secretary blinken who said well we've got 90% of the americans out. that's absurd. so am i proud of that, no. am i proud we lost 13 great americans, no, and where did that bomber come from? he came out of the prison at bagrahm that once biden turned bagrahm over to the taliban they released all of the prisoners. that can be found in john sapko 's report, a special i g for afghanistan reconciliation. that's a public report and so for people to say they are proud of it i'm not proud of it it at all and then you said well who should be fired? i said months ago i think the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chief, bear responsibility for their recommendations and if they weren't followed they should leave, voluntarily leave. ashley: and if i'm not mistaking , this administration said, well what's "the talk" of all of this chaos? you know? and what makes me so mad is you just have to look at the video. the absolute, you know, collapse

of any law and order. hundreds of afghans trying to jump on a plane that's taking off. i mean, that's the very definition of chaos. >> yeah, ashley, look. here is the other thing that's very important to understand is joe biden never picked up the phone and talked to the taliban negotiator. we got them out of a pakistan prison because president trump negotiated with imran khan in pakistan and why was it so important? he was the designated success successor who led the taliban, and i was on the phone call listening to the phone call in the oval office when president trump talked to both ghani, in afghanistan, to get on board with the negotiation negotiations and when he talked to berarder, he made it very clear that if you harm a single american, the deal is off. in that one year, until we left office, there was not a single american killed in afghanistan and there was 13 killed during

the chaotic debacle moving out of afghanistan at abbygade. ashley: wow, we're going to have to leave it there lt. general keith kellogg but you know what, general? i feel your anger, you're fuming as are many other people at the result of this report. hopefully you can have a deep breath and enjoy this holiday weekend but thank you so much for joining us this morning. >> thanks, ashley. ashley: yeah, it's absolute, very frustrating. thank you very much. coming up, 236,000 jobs added in march. we're going to breakdown what that means for the state of the economy, so, as always, stay with us. ♪ ♪ and i remember kind of thinking like, "oh my gosh, i think we could be sisters." because i think we looked...

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for a variety of reasons. the biggest one is what causes us kind of increased concern which is the companies cloud business called amazon web services or aws continues to seed market share growth continues to slow and margins are under pressure. that's what led us to reduce estimates recently and lower our price target. there's a clear market share winner in cloud that's emerged over the last kind of year, maybe two, and that's microsoft with its azure business so that's the big challenge for amazon. stockholders, we think that amazon can work through that, but that's the overhang, and explaining why this stock is essentially underperformed for about two years. ashley: very quickly, the consumer still spending out there. wages are rising, slowingly so, but the consumer is still strong , which is good for amazon , right? >> yes, it is, and you know, amazon is probably one of the broadest plays like walmart. those are the two broadest plays on the strength of the american and global consumer, and trends seem to be relatively in line

there, and profits are starting to come back for that business. they got hit with a series of cost surges last year whether it was fuel, shipping, labor, at least not the labor part but the other parts have really moderated so you should start getting nice profits out of the retail business and a good reason, amazon is a nicely diversified business and in the plus camp for the stock. ashley: we have to leave it there. thank you for being here, mark, it was short and sweet but we wanted to get that in about amazon. thank you very much. now this , 236,000 jobs added in the month of march. edward lawrence is at the white house this morning. edward? you've been going through this. what are the key takeaways? reporter: yeah, it's interesting the last time the economy, ashley, lost or added fewer than 236,000 jobs was december of 2020. you mentioned the 3.5% unemployment rate that ties a 50 year low. one of the big numbers that the we look in this report is average hourly wages, and right now, it's up 4.2% year-over-year , but cpi inflation at 6%.

that means americans still struggling to pay for things. >> i think a lot of policy mistakes have actually restrained what should have been a mighty expansion by now in the economy. if you look at all of the forecasts, the congressional budget office, the blue chip forecast, they are for 1% to 2% growth for the next four, five, six years. that's terrible. we should be growing much faster than that. reporter: so president joe biden touting manufacturing jobs at every stop on his investing in america tour. for the second month in a row, manufacturing lost jobs. this month it was down 1,000 jobs, the same as last month. now, construction lost 9,000 jobs. retail lost about 15,000. warehousing and storage talk about amazon lost about 12,000 jobs. leisure and hospitality added 72000 jobs, leading the way for the growth in this report. now, also significant growth in healthcare and social assistance. as the federal reserve fights inflation with interest rate hikes, employment will slow.

this is happening around the globe. the international monetary fund is warning the global economy is facing years of slow employment and growth. >> last year, we had been saying look, there is simply no way that interest rates would go up so much after being low for so long and there be no vulnerability, so i think it's going to go boom. reporter: so, here, in the u.s. , the job cut announcements are up 15% this year. if you look year-over-year, those lay off announcements are up 319%, so this jobs report came in as expected, and as we expect, we will see slower job growth as the reports go on in the months ahead, because of what the fed is doing. back to you. ashley: exactly, edward lawrence at the white house, edward, thank you very much. now this. tesla cutting prices again. come in, susan. tell me more. >> yeah, so we're looking at the fifth price cut this year, and it's the second price cut

for all u.s. models in 2023, so now, you'll get model 3 and model y for at least a thousand dollars cheaper. $5,000 off for the higher end model s and model x, and they also, this is surprising, announcing a new model y base model that only starts under $50,000. now, it's not for everybody of course, but this does mean that if you're looking for a tesla, you can now get price cuts of up to 11%, all the way up to 25% off for all u.s. tesla models. that's better than what you had before the start of this year. now musk says he's willing to sacrifice profit for growth and you really saw that in the first quarter. record deliveries 422000. they made 440,000 cars, but i think profit will be a question heading into earnings, and wall street might not react so well to profits falling with these price cuts needed to drive demand. especially with the cash burn that's taking place to ramp up in austin and berlin so quality of profit will be interesting, but another news item here for

tesla. musk wants the former tesla chief technology officer jb stru bble to join the board. shareholders meet may 15 and also there's a lot of musk news in a holiday friday, here, ash. there are limits, now proposals to limit how much elon musk can borrow against his tesla shares which we know he used to buy twitter for $44 billion so according to these new proposals he can only borrow less than $3.5 billion of his stock, or roughly around 25% of the value of his shares. that's not going to get you a twitter in these conditions, is it? ashley: [laughter] no, it certainly isn't. >> not even at 20 billion. ashley: musk headlines everyday. also, susan, this is interesting what's this about netflix spending millions on korean dramas? >> actually billions. up to $1 billion. netflix just came out with a report and bloomberg says at least 60% of netflix's 230 million global subscribers have watched at least one korean

drama last year. now remember that netflix has up ped their spending in korea to $1 billion on korean content especially after the hit show " squid game" and this is really started a trend because other content studios have followed suit, so think of disney and hbo disney also in the news because they just announced a new chief brand officer which means that iger can now focus on other things like cost cutting and raising that stock price from that 30% down year last year, and also remember that they elevated the hulu president to oversee all of disney's stream ing so there's some executive movement here which indicates that iger is serious about turning around this company and he doesn't have a long time to do that. also peri- ubs month in the news they are looking to offload their children streamer, and they will either sell it to paramount plus which is their own streaming platform, or to pluto tv, so you know, paw patrol and peppa the pig, so i don't have children but friends that have children say they are addicted to these shows so this be a great purchase for any of those streamers out there.

ashley: cannot underestimate the power of peppa the pig. let's talk about charles schwab being in the headlines. what's the latest with this company? >> again, they reassured investors but on a thursday heading into the long weekend which i found surprising since markets aren't really open today , but you have charles schwab saying they took in $53 billion in new assets last month. that is encouraging especially after the silicon valley bank collapse, and don't forget that charles schwab the stock dropped about 37% in the first quarter of this year. that's the worst quarter since 2008, the financial crisis for schwab and there are concerns about their balance sheet, especially as it looks pretty similar to svb. remember they have these longer- term duration treasuries that they have to hold to maturity, and the yield when they bought them was only at 1.7 % and now the yields are at 5 % so you're losing out there, and now jamie dimon also with a new interview this morning on cnn reiterating he says look,

it's not 2008, but these banking collapses and crisis does increase the risk of a recession ashley: all right, fantastic run -through as always, susan li, thank you very much. now, this coming up. pastor corey brooks is known for enduring the extremes of the windy city's weather. how about living on a roof for 345 days? he did it and now, he's speaking out against chicago's new mayor- elect. he says "i think the police force is kind of dishartened. my prayer is they just won't sit back and not take action as a result of the mayoral election", pastor corey brooks by the way is here with his prayers for less and then there's this. china vowing forceful measures after speaker mccarthy met with taiwan's president. china expert michael pillsbury will be here on that right after this. ♪

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ashley: china is now vowing to take resolute and forceful measures after taiwan's president met with house speaker mccarthy in a group of bipartisan lawmakers in california. michael pillsbury, he's the perfect person for this story joins me now. michael, those are strong words coming from beijing. we've heard them before. they say the u.s. is playing with fire. how far could they go to retaliate in your opinion? >> well, they've got a wide range of options to retaliate, ashley, from just these tough words to words saying we're playing with fire, all the way to the use of force. they've been talking for several years about how the taiwan straight, about 100 miles wide, but this is chinese territorial waters so they have the right to stop and search any ship that goes there. they claim that our aircraft carriers when they pass through

need permission from china. we don't ask for permission, so there's a very wide range of options china can choose from on the american side, our range of options is very limited, very narrow, given our past policy. ashley: you know, its always been the u.s. has said we will defend or help defend taiwan. we've sent billions of dollars worth of weapons and help. as china watches what's going on in ukraine, and the response to russia, what does that tell china? are they more embolden right now with regard to taiwan? >> well, their view is that ukraine is a mistake by putin, because of the nato alliance. with taiwan, there's no alliance no other country has a military obligation to taiwan than the united states, and even our obligation is quite vague. it's that we will be prepared to come to their defense. we don't actually have a defense treaty, so on-balance, it looks

like the chinese believe that the americans are too tied down, too bogged down with the ukrainian effort and therefore, they might not come to the aid of taiwan in the event of a limited attack, and it's not the same thing as an all-out chinese invasion, you know, normandie in 1944 style, but some kind of use of force against taiwan. i think beijing is not afraid of that. they see taiwan more as a duck that's waiting to be attacked. not a really strong power and certainly not yet a porcupine. ashley: and what happens, if xi decides this is the moment we're going to fulfill what we believe is rightful it ours anyway and take back taiwan. i mean, how do you respond to that? i mean, and where does it go? >> well, the chinese greatest fear is that we will go ahead and announce that taiwan is not a part of china. we've come close to that, over the last 50 years. japan gave it up in the san francisco peace treaty of 51 but

no one has ever been assigned taiwan. china says it belongs to us. we say we hear you but the united states has never said that taiwan is a part of china, so that's the real issue. if there's an attack and use of force, taiwan says it will announce we're independent, and provoke an even greater conflict , so this is a dangerous game that the biden administration is playing by not forwarding these weapons to taiwan, that taiwan has paid for the delegation in taiwan right now from congress, bipartisan delegation, they are making this point. where are these $19 billion worth of weapons that taiwan paid for but never been delivered? part of it maybe the drawdown because of ukraine. ashley: yeah, interesting, but tensions definitely are high. michael pillsbury, thank you so much for lending us your expertise this morning on this good friday. thank you so much, michael. do appreciate it. now this. the new ambassador to moscow met

with russian officials yesterday to discuss the detention of "wall street journal" reporter evan gerskovich, and what's the latest there so mike tobin is in kiev. do we have any updates on this story? >> well the only real update is we got this rare bipartisan joint statement from the senate, the u.s. senate leadership condemning the detention of evan gerskovich but beyond that we didn't really have a lot of information because u.s. officials have been denied any contact with evan gerskovich diplomated ic efforts as you mentioned are underway. the u.s. ambassador in moscow had a meeting with russia's deputy minister. gerskovich is that "wall street journal" reporter taken into custody and accused of gathering information about russia's military industrial complex at the direction of u.s. officials, allegedly. he was taken to moscow, being held at the infamous prison, denied access. u.s. officials don't have good

insight to his condition. >> i wish we did. i wish we did. we still haven't been able to get access and that's an issue that we continually bring up through our embassy in moscow with the russians. i wish i had a good answer for that because it's inexcus able. we need to get access. >> the "wall street journal" says a charge of espionage is nonsense. president biden simply said let him go. a statement from russia's foreign ministry says the u.s. is fanning the hype about this case, intending to pressure russia but called the effort hopeless and senseless. russian news agencies report that gerskovich has a hearing now april 18. ashley? ashley: mike tobin, mike thank you very much for the latest o in that story. let me bring back in susan li here. susan? is there a word that perhaps ukraine preparing to launch a major offensive? >> yeah, so we're looking at the largest mobile offensive and efforts since the war started

last year, according to the military experts. we're looking at twice the size of the fall surge from the ukrainian side and this time , the focus will be on the eastern front, which is near the areas of the russian strong hold and now the ukrainian side they value these parts of the eastern region, because there's a nuclear power plant there, also home to much-needed essential minerals and also they need access to the black sea, but of course they also need billions of dollars in weaponry to continue these offenses, right? ashley: yes, they do. all right, susan, thank you. coming up, we told you about the changes to the little mermaid but now the woke mob is taking aim at the movie "greece ." roll tape. >> we're not girls, we're ladies. >> the pink ladies. >> ♪ >> we're going to need some jackets. ashley: [laughter] the cast is getting a woke make

over, and they are adding a song about why supremacy, why not? we'll get into that story, can you believe it? americans meanwhile set to shell out more than $3 billion on candy this easter. yum, and for just born, the maker of peeps, this is the time to shine. fox got an inside look into the peeps factory. what a deal. we'll bring you that report, next. ♪ asking the right question can greatly impact your future. - are, are you qualified to do this? - what? - especially when it comes to your finances. - are you a certified financial planner™? - i'm a cfp® professional. - cfp® professionals are committed to acting in your best interest. that's why it's gotta be a cfp®. your best defense against erosion and cavities is strong enamel- nothing beats it. new pronamel active shield

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ashley: all right, now this. it's easter weekend and guess what?

americans are set to spend billions on candy for the holidays, including of course the iconic peeps. madison alworth joins us now. all right, madison. you got to visit the peeps factory. you got the golden ticket. tell us how the sausage or in this case the marshmallow gets made. reporter: hi, ashley. so in six minutes this little peep is created. when they started 70 years ago it took 27 hours to make one peep. now, because of the speed the factory pumps out around 5.5 million peeps a day, around 2 billion made each year, so just born is a family-owned private company but they invited us into get a look at the process, which we're showing you now. what we found the most surpris ing about the whole process is that many of their lines still have a component of manual labor. peeps tells us that its been a large part of their success as a local company. like others they have struggled in recent months and years with a tight labor market but they

have been committed to bethlehem , pennsylvania for decades and the local town appreciates that investment in the community. being made in the usa also helps them with sales, as others struggled to deliver during the height of those supply chain issues, peeps were more easily accessible to stores. that consistency continues to pay off. >> peeps are the number one non-chocolate candy, and last easter, we actually were growing and out pacing the category and so peeps demand continues to increase and we're expecting another record sales this year. reporter: you know, inflation might actually help because these little guys are made out of a couple of ingredients, sugar, corn syrup and gelatin, so they are cheap and iconic. there you go, ashley. ashley: all the major food groups, six minutes to make, great stuff, madison. love the hair net. still ahead texas land commissioner dawn barkingham, kim strassel, steve hilton, tomi

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