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minutes we expected the state department will give an update. and on capitol hill republican submitters will give their first response to president biden's pitch to save medicare by raising taxes. all of that coming up this hour. plus ... >> we bought the elites! we ignored the chatter. we did it our way. the florida way. we won't back down, and i can promise you this. you ain't seen nothing yet. speak to governor ron desantis has his critical rivals on notice there is a whole lot more his team says where that came from the governor gave his state of the state address, spring training swings into florida, baseball lovers but "washington post" columnist has a major problem with that he is now calling on them to take a stand against ron desantis' attack on diversity. the governor's team responded, we will have that coming up with will cain.

>> john: welcome back as "america reports" rolls into our two in this busy tuesday i'm john roberts good afternoon. >> gillian: good to be with you on gillian turner in for sandra smith state this is "america reports." >> john: compactin competition this is what china says will happen if the united states does not get out of their way. china's foreign minister accusing the u.s. of trying to contain the communist nation as it aims to be the world's top superpower. >> gillian: military analysts are predicting the possibility of a war with china is on the rise. this is communist party officials just warned the bite and administration if the u.s. won't play by the rules, they are ready to fight. >> john: meanwhile they may be stepping up in surveillance, they told "the wall street journal" they are worried china's potentially using not balloons, but cargo cranes to spy on the u.s. >> gillian: those cranes are essentially giving a bird's-eye view of what is being shipped in and out of u.s. ports. looks kind of like the saga of chinese espionage is alive and

well after this bible end. >> this is part of the most comprehensive penetration of the united states in our entire history. we have to wake-up call here in terms of what is really happening. >> john: let's go to fox business' kelly o'grady she has more on this, how is china responding to this idea it is spying on us with those cranes behind you? >> well on surprising me, john, it is deny, deny, deny, right? i want to give you a look at these cranes you could see them behind me they are used to transport containers from the ship to the shore. and the concern is that some of these made by a chinese manufacturer called z pmc are actually being used to spy on us very reportedly some natural stomach national security has gone so far as to compare these cranes to a trojan horse while inexpensive they contain sophisticated sensors that can register and track containers. for some contest cranes are

imported all over the world come the company says it controls around 70% of the globalmore thy assembled. you can see in this video there is actually one being brought into the port of l.a. they are operated remotely through chinese software and that is a design the industry does executives they could make it possible for beijing to siphon intelligence or worse, disrupt our supply chain. responding to those claims a ccp spokesperson says "that claim is entirely paranoia and meant to mislead the american public" yesterday the white house pointed questions on the concern it does well. >> on the cranes, don't have any comment on that specific reporting carried over for you to department of transportation and the department of defense which was test with congress to study for this particular issue. >> some g.o.p. members are playing offense proposing legislation that would ban purchasing these chinese cranes

representative how meant i was telling fox business that communist china saying that i will continue to spearhead efforts to decouple and ensure the capabilities, no word on whether that legislation will be passed yet but certainly a lot of concern on some and that may be hiding in plain sight, john. >> john: all right, kelly kelly o'grady for us. it is hard to hide a crane, but as you said, in plain sight. thank you, gillian? >> gillian: as chinese government continues espionage on here u.s. soil the foreign minister is ramping up threats of direct military conflict warning the confrontation between the two superpowers is "inevitable." this unless washington improves its treatment of beijing very quickly. senior affairs has more from the london bureau, hi, greg. >> hi, joni. only a few more than two months on the job and the new foreign

minister is wasting no time in beating up on the united states. in a two hour long press conference, kim yang warned the u.s. it should change his attitude or conflict and confrontation would follow. he described u.s. relations with china severely distorted. following a speech by his boss president xi jinping where he named us enemy number one, they said we are leaving the west and its impression of china which has brought unprecedented and great challenges to the nation. now, some analysts claim this tough talk is for domestic consumption, china has been through a few bad years with the total covid lockdown, protests, economic slow down and appropriate opening, it said they had to find a villain somewhere and the u.s. is the best ram but that doesn't mean that china doesn't remain a global threat. they denied close ties with russia in its fight with ukraine and it brought up another conflict asking why the u.s.

complained about russia when the u.s. was helping taiwan bolster its defenses, claims by beijing the self-governing democratic island is there is just one of several china hot spots the u.s. is dealing with right now. by the way, gillian, still not rescheduled that vi visit to beijing, rumor that was rescheduled after the spy balloons, back to. >> back in london this afternoon, back to. >> john: let's bring bret baier executive anchor of "america reports," they say we are going through or we are not equipped to fight from the airport when he was in overseas duty of the u.s. did not do well against china. he said to "the wall street journal" "my response was holy crap we will lose if we fight like this. i annoyed you how to resolve them.

how our long-held doctrines about warfare were being obsolete. they are building their military at breakneck pace, they have tentacles all around the world, greening buffer zone on the coast of china through these other islands. are you ready for this? >> well, i mean the people you talk about at the pentagon and the intelligence field same they are worried china has gotten a lot better very quickly. they are spending a lot on their military. a ton. about 7% increase just this past year. not only on weapons but also on training. it used to be a pretty rural not trained force and now it has stepped up significantly as far as its training and ability. speaking of that working and there was another one at the center for strategic international studies that simulated an attack on taiwan and the u.s. side ran out of long range antiship cruise missiles in a few days. so there is a real concern as they are getting closer and closer to what may be a

confrontation. >> gillian: as you mentioned with the war games it is not just a question of if china is making moves to improve rapidly, it's also that the u.s. military readiness is deteriorating. you see that not only with weaponry but with the fact that recruitment across all five branches is down pretty dramatically. space go significantly and that is a major issue for the pentagon. one in which they are really focused on to try to figure out how to get numbers back up quickly. you know it would be a different confrontation, obviously, but they are concerned about the numbers. they are also concerned about the ammunition and the weapons that we are sending in big numbers over the ukraine. if something happened on the other side of the world. the american public at the very least appears to be getting this, a gallup poll of who is the greatest enemy to the united states now 50% of people say it is china. that is after 22% back in 2020. yet our economy is still indelibly tied to china.

and this administration keeps getting accused of being weak towards beijing. >> it's amazing. the whole back and forth and the fact that the chinese foreign minister says that the u.s. is maliciously confronting china. arguably, china is maliciously confronting the u.s. on a number of fronts including a spy balloon over our continental u.s. i think there is also a sense that maybe china is built up a lot and how we talk about it. they have significant problems. they get 70-80% of their raw materials from supply chains from elsewhere. if we put the clamps on them financially, it could make a big, big difference. >> gillian: i will ask about mexico this breaking news that two americans allegedly kidnapped by cartels in mexico have been killed. two of them survived, there were four of them traveling together in total.

we are hearing now or put it this way we talk a lot about how the mexican cartels kind of decimate u.s. border towns along the southern border. we don't talk a lot about how the cartels also make the mexican side of the border completely inhospitable to americans which may not sound like a big deal but if you are someone who lives in the real rio grande a. >> the police control, the federalists from all accounts and people along the border and in mexico, there is a real problem, growing strength of cartels to the point where there are some on capitol hill who would like to see more action. against the cartels specifically, and we just haven't seen that yet. >> john: according to the state permit the two survivors, detail via tay mcgee and eric james williams are back on u.s. soil. but the big question is what to do about it? last night former attorney general bill barr said

let's declare the cartels to be terrorists but texas congressman dan crenshaw is of a different mind. he gives us the reason why, let's see what they both said here. >> they are terrorists, the mexican government is being held hostage by tens of thousands of paramilitary members of terrorist organizations that effectively control mexico. we are sustaining the same damage as we would in a major war from these groups operating right beyond our reach. but you don't want to designate them as that, why? because now you just made millions of people in mexico valid asylum-seekers. you just massively increased our immigration problem at our border if you call them terrorists. >> john: farces call them terrorists, crenshaw says don't but authorize no trade force against them. >> either way you're cartels that are moving a product that is killing tens of thousands of americans. every year. the number is only going up. and fentanyl is come across in

huge numbers let alone a number of illegal immigrants coming across. the cartels, bar makes a really compelling point that the u.s. must defeat the drug cartels, it is now imperative it is essentially an attack. on our country. that is what we are seeing on the border. >> gillian: the other big thing here is that the biden demonstration is coming up hard and fast against the expiration of title 42, we see them making increasingly sort of restrictive moves at the border. one thing they are reportedly now considering as a policy option is bringing back family detentions meaning when families crossed of u.s. side of the southern border and are apprehended, they get taken into detention together presumably. but that is something that has not been in effect the last two years. >> and that is a big change for this administration that has not wanted to change or get anywhere close to trump era policy because it was trump era policy it seemed like. but some of those ideas like remain in mexico did drive the

numbers down. maybe they're coming to a realization that some of those things work. >> john: for the bite demonstration to consider going back to a trump era policy, that is a big reverse. great to see you come we'll see you it it "special report" >> you bet. >> gillian: southern california residents remain trapped in their homes by walls of snow, this following back-to-back powerful storms out west, now the situation is becoming more dire by the hour. wherever live report next. >> john: plus could it be a case of deja vu for our major league baseball? yogi berra thinks perhaps. "the washington post" now asking them to try to turn a double play and get involved in another political dispute with a republican southern governor. "fox & friends" we can cohost will cain on whether the league will cave to the left this time around.pt is o good getrefunds.com musicar of up to $26,000 per employee. all it takes is eight minutes to get started.

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>> john: california governor gavin newsom says the golden state is going to boycott walgreens after the pharmacy chain reported it would not sell abortion pills in at least 20 republican led states. where attorney general radler have threatened to sue the state currently back that up. threatened to sue if the company dispensed the pills through the mail. newsome says his state will not do business with any company that "cowers to the extremists" and puts women live at risk. list of the white house, peter doocy is asking about the cartels and the situation metamorphic. >> have you been able to record a number of personnel working to secure the border because of what we have been able to do seizing that fentanyl we've done it in a historic way that is because of what this president

has done, i talked about 23,000 federal agents that have been able to be that we have been able to hire and put the border. on top of that historic sanctions going after traffickers and other financiers are helping disrupt a fennel supply chains throughout their flow to the u.s. and we are really expanded access to treatments like that are saving lives if you think about it which prevent overdoses expanding as our fennel test strips and through the removal of the x waiver anyone who can prescribe it can prescribe life-saving medication to treat addiction so again we are seizing fennel at record historic levels because of what the president has done to secure our border. and look, we have also coordinated, major we are coordinated our relationship with mexico to deal with what we are seeing as it relates to buy violence, the cartel, that is

something relationship we have continued to build with mexico, and incredible important partner, we saw that when he went down for the summit in mexico city so the president is dedicated to this and is dedicated to the work we are actually seeing at the border again when we think about fentanyl. >> but the violence aspect now americans are being slaughtered. would president biden be taking the same approach if it was al qaeda or isis operating just across the border from an american city? >> the president takes this very seriously great he takes his very seriously. the fbi and other agencies have been on top of this from day one. and so this is what he is going to continue to do. when it comes to americans lives and the safety of americans, the president is always going to make sure that is a top priority. >> would president biden ever consider using the u.s. military to disrupt cartel operations? >> i'm just not going to get into the military and how does being used. okay? >> and about the fcc, gigi sohn

has a statement. >> john: peter doocy asking karine jean-pierre some questions about the killings at the fentanyl and with matamorod that he takes it very seriouslyt every day she's asked when it comes to what the president will say. >> gillian: on foreign policy anyway. it seems to be her go to playbook answer. nobody seems to have yet pressed her on what that means to her, to the president, i mean, it's not a sufficient answer if we are being honest. >> john: it is unclear what this administration is doing about the board of islands and the fact that americans who grow across the border can be mistaken for somebody else and end up dead. we have members of congress who are trying to do things about it, dan crenshaw has introduced a bill, he is building bipartisan support for a bill that would put together basically a and a omf authorization for the use of military force to go across the

military force but when we may be problematic is using the u.s. military in a place like mexico that's foreign. >> gillian: it's a start and a way to flush out a conversation about this that it is a real and persistent problem. more than the president takes it very seriously. >> john: you can take a lot of saying dumb i think seriously is doing something about. >> gillian: executive. when we run th here, i say this at least every week. >> john: 40 we can for everybody. >> gillian: there is also this major league baseball trying to stay out of politics since they faced major backlash for pulling their all-star game from atlanta after the state faced accusations of voter suppression, but if the league listens to "the washington post" now, they should try to turn a double play. columnist writes "baseball can no longer ignore ron desantis' culture wars and must threaten to move spring training from the center and state as punishment so let's bring in will cain

"fox & friends" weekend cohost, well, before we get into it, let's set the stage a little, take a look at this from "the washington post." it is 15 franchises that started to spring training last month in florida should consider the annual exercise and all cactus league affair as well as desantis has an attack on diversity. after all so many of the issues desantis has made noise standing against are the same issues baseball has made noise standing for in recent years. what you say? >> i say what we just read or what you just read to us -- >> is full of absolute pure dishonesty. kevin blackstone the columnist for "the washington post" who wrote this is asking major league baseball to be yet even more politically left-leaning and an advocate. it is someone who always sees sports as a conduit through which to push leftist ideology. leftist politics. every single week, he is dishonestly asking people or rather asking but forcing

major league baseball, the nba, sports stars to adopt his radical, political point of view. and i would say to you or anyone in this to the point of dishonesty, what is the definition of diversity? do you see? because kevin blackstone says anybody who dares to question material being read to 9-year-olds with. >> gillian: the liberal orthodox. >> which he put a stop to but they can't define diversity and won't define diversity. i think it's very, very important and fascinating you say the clip with bernie sanders and bill maher were bernie sanders couldn't define equity purity couldn't tell you the difference between equity and equality. they are trading on these words as br buzzwords as a trojan hore for the entirety of their political ideology. >> john: the word i've heard equality and equity ascribe is that inequality gets everybody to the same place at the starting gate, equity makes everybody finish the same and

holds back high achievers so that lower achievers can look like they are doing better. this really smacks of what happened with stacey abrams when she put pressure on major league baseball as we said at the top of this to move the all-star game out of atlanta because of georgia's new voting law under which of november 2022 they said voting records. >> that's right. so i don't expect, i don't think major league baseball will make the same mistake twice. and don i don't think it's because they have had a come to because they have seen the principal view of what di are largely's which is a neo-racialist segregationist movement in the united states of america partner primarily focused skin color. i think you'll see the light for trick or. yet to see people like kevin blackstone and stacey abrams will never be satisfied. it's not enough to move spring training out of florida, it's not up to move the all-star game of georgia. it's only a moving bar until the next thing. is a litmus or purity test, a

cult of wokeness. you did a story, john, of governor gavin newsom saying the walgreens won't be able to do business in california. why? because they defied the local orthodoxy. as walgreens. so i will say you have to realize at some point this is a test that can never be passed. but the second reason, and it's also cynical, but the second reason major league baseball will not make this mistake again is because ron desantis made disney pay for walking down this path. it is a game, look, if you will be held hostage by these radical activists on the left and you will pay a price in the market that they will make you pay, ron desantis made disney pay a price and the other direction. if you want to be political, treated as a political organization and that warning should ring true to major league baseball in the state of florida. >> john: i should point out the reason i flubbed telling the story about the walgreens in california was because the entire time i was thinking well, what happens if somebody on medico has walgreens as their

local pharmacy and california subs doing business with it? they will have to find another place to get the medications from. >> purity is more -- purity is less -- john i'll make my way through it as well. parity is more important on this litmus test don't test then the residents on california. >> john: will get cut up thinking about that paragraph c, will thank you. >> gillian: good to see. >> thank you both. >> john: president biden laying the groundwork for 124 bid which includes leasing details this week on what could be an election year budget. >> gillian: part of the president's plan will be focused on medicare as he keeps reiterating his claim that republicans want to make major cuts that would hurt americans. the public and he sites that claim, florida center risk scott is here to join us and will respond next. loanh-payment car with an affordable home loan from newday and save hundreds every month. there are no upfront fees to apply.

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>> john: part of the budget

the president biden has set to unveil includes plans to keep medicare a float until 2050 without cutting a penny and benefits making this claim in an op-ed. he says if problems get their way that seniors will see the programs/perry let's bring in rick scott to bring this and at present medicare looks like it's going to go bankrupt in 2028. the president says let's keep it taxes and he would raise taxes on people making more than $400 $4,400,000 a year from 8% to match our present what do you say? $400,000 a year. >> i will make sure that we favor that we will do whatever we can. biden is a hypocrite here. first off when he was in the senate he proposed cutting medicare and social security veterans benefits medicate all of these things. last fall he cut $280 billion

out of medicare. now he used a loophole i put up when he went into florida not to pay half a billion dollars worth or half million dollars worth of medicare taxes and now he wants to eliminate the loophole, so this guy is a hypocrite. he doesn't sit down to try to solve any problems he just goes out and you know has platitudes but there is no proposal. there are ways to make sure we preserve the benefits of social security and medicare, but you don't do it by raising taxes, spending out the kazoo. he has no idea how to balance a budget and take of these programs. >> john: on that point on this op-ed where he said about those he said the wealth gap is much different today than it was back when medicare was created pure and he says "when medicare was past the wealthiest 1% of americans didn't have more than five times the wealth of the bottom 50% combined. it only makes sense that some adjustments be made to reflect that reality today barry what do you say to that?

>> the income inequality is caused by big, big, bigger government, all right question my group and a former semi poor family i grew up in public housing growing up i know people like that are going through bece i wash my mom go through. we have to do is how do you create income equality? you give people the opportunity for good paying jobs peer you don't cause inflation by doing this. you don't because bigger government where the rich and wall street in all these people make a bunch of money off the government. that's not the way you do. you create opportunities coming bring manufacturing back into the country, you get good paying jobs here. but he doesn't understand that because he has never done those things. he has never said how do i grow this economy? we have to balance our budget, we have to grow the economy and create more opportunities for everybody. that will deal with income equality. >> john: it's pretty much a fact of life we will never get this deficit and our debt under control unless we reform these big programs like social security, medicare, and medicaid. and yet, nobody on either side

of the i owe unilaterally wants to touch this. i mean even under your plan for america when you talked about sunset in legislation after five years all federal legislation, you amended that to say oh, excluding social security and medicare and medicaid. is a third rail of politics that no one wants to touch. >> i mean i'll be glad to talk about anything up here people want to talk about. but what i said my plan is let's tell the public we have a problem and how we will preserve medicare and social security pay what i want to go after is the unbelievable waste appear. the first thing ever but he says is no, let's change the programs. how about the first thing we do is get rid of the waste we have appeared? i mean we don't pass budgets, we pass on nevis bills 7500 earmarks. that is what we ought to start with. hopefully we will figure out social security and medicare but we have to start with balancing our budget. >> john: i don't how many presidential campaigns i have covered, senator, where the phrase has been we have to get

rid of abuse and yet we are not seeing it. the indian wells tennis tournament is coming up, no vector glitch the world number one will not be there. even though he has had covert twice and a big study says natural immunity appears to be as effective as vaccination, the biden administration is not giving him a waiver for a visa. you and senator rubio sent a letter in which you said it seems both illogical and misaligned with the opinions of your own administration to not grant him the waiver he req requests. president biden declared this pandemic to be over months ago, the emergency ends in may, why not give him an exemption? >> i have no idea why biden is the way he has nothing about this. this is one of the healthiest people in the world peer one of the top tennis players if not the top tennis player in the world. he is very healthy, all right? biden said covid was overcome okay? even couch he has said natural immunity is better for you, so this doesn't make any sense.

this is just continuing this crazy policy these democrats have. likely the bill called the free bird act that will tell you let's end this and let people come into our country great americans didn't come back without a vaccine they can do that i can go to europe without a vaccine, what are we doing here? why are we hurting our own economy? i want to go back to being able to play so no back and play in the miami open, and indian wells. why not? this doesn't make any sense. >> john: and you bringing up free word reminds me we lost gary rust and a few days ago, sad moment for all of us. senator good to talk to you as always, thank you. >> see you, john, bye-bye. >> john: julian question must be to house the biden economy working for the whole relinquishment that the big question held not in washington but a field hearing in oklahoma today. >> john: we have two of the business owners who testified there coming up next. ♪ ♪ girls, pets are a big expense. aww. [ audience cheers ]

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>> it is difficult to find workers. >> it was hard for me and other business owners to understand how the federal government could incentivize americans to stay home. ever week we see the purchasing power of our dollar continue to decline. >> let's not compound the problem with more regulations. >> gillian: small business owners in the heartland are painting a pretty grim picture of the economy during a house hearing today. labor shortages, supply chain bottlenecks and inflation are all hitting oklahoma's farming and energy sectors hard. two witnesses from that hearing join us now, brian jackson is the cofounder of route 66 meat processing, chuck mills is the owner and president of mills machine company, tuttleman, thank you so much for being with us today. >> thank you for having us. >> gillian: chuck let's start with. the house committee says they

are holding a whole slew of these hearings to highlight a disconnect between the way the e biden administration portrays the economy, which is rosie, and the expense of farmers and small business owners, working-class americans in the heart of america. do you feel like that objective was bent today? met today? >> we got to tell you how it really is and it's terrible. this is the worst. i've been running this business 44 years. it's the worst i've ever seen. it's the most difficult, the supply chain is broken globally. you know we continue to struggle with escalating prices making it difficult to sell our product to make a profit. and even if you can get the material, all of this ties back to the workforce because all up and down the supply chain there is a lack of workers. people are just not coming into

the workforce either from the education system out of school or they have been paid to stay home where they can make more money sitting at home then they can on a job. so we have got to stop that incentive that congress is sending money to these people to stay home. that's the bottom line where workforce is the root of this problem. >> gillian: brian, do your experiences match up with what chuck was lining up for us? speak about the family right and it goes beyond the crisis of groceries at the store. it affects supplies, quitman costs, everything is doubled in the last two years and as a person who started a small business not too long ago it has made it very hard for us to be successful in this environment and to add to that the challenges of labor and having people come to work who are motivated, who can better their life. it is tough to find people who are willing to show up. those that do are ones we really have to hang onto.

>> gillian: per char, to your point a moment ago, today's labor force participation according to the budget office is 62.4% of what it was before the pandemic. i don't want to throw too many numbers at you because you can't see the screen but the cbo also found that inflation in rural communities is 130% that of urban communities. that's pretty outrageous. 130%. >> it is. part of that is probably because of the availability of produce and grocery stores, you have a lot of smaller areas. some of that is demographics, but i can see that being a problem. >> it sounds an awful lot, brian, like the government is asking working-class americans in the midwest to foot, really,

the covid bill for the rest of the country. >> yeah, and i will tell you from personal experience with what we see with ranchers, they are not feeding as long, the cost of fertilizer and feed has skyrocketed so they are bringing small animals and if they didn't do it all. we have had a lot of cancellations due to the fact it is too expensive for ranchers to feed their cattle out. so it made our business a lot more challenging in this environment. speak to the mike to mike >> gillian: thank you for your testimony, thank you for sharing stories with us at "america reports" we would love to stay in touch with you. we really appreciated. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> gillian: you bet, john? >> john: we have dramatic images out of california as folks there navigate the dangerous aftermath of major snowstorms. take a look at that. box weather is live on the scene out west, we will have more for you coming right up.ri 'sll musical

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when banks so “no” to a veteran, newday can say “yes.” >> when italy's first female prime minister was elected five months ago, her win frightened liberals across the continue now. now she faces her first major crisis after a migrant boat crashed off of italy's shores killing 60 people. amy kellogg has more from milan. amy, she's had good strong showing in the polls, but now

she faces this real challenge. >> right, gillian. many people have been saying that italy's first prime minister, georgia meloni has been riding away with success. some of the left that were worried that she would be too far to the right have been pleasantly surprised that her policy has so far not been particularly idealogical but perhaps those on the right have been voicing concern, it's been said, that she hasn't been vocally embracing enough. the traditional values that they uphold. her approval rating has been high, 52%. she's been solidly supportive of ukraine where she visited with president zelensky two weeks ago. a terrible human tragedy occurred off of the shores of italy last month when a flimsy boat full of migrants crashed

and fell apart and leaving 70 dead is drawing criticism with her government against irregular migration allowed this to happen. meloni has pushed back saying this is a tragedy, an accident that could not have been avoided. >> i wonder if there's anyone in this nation that honestly believes that the government deliberately let over 60 people die including some children? i ask you, looking into your eyes, if anyone of you think that the italian government would have saved 60 people including a child about three years whose body was discovered today and did not do so, please, let's be serious. >> gillian, this tragedy is still rocking public opinion. the corridors of power. it's all the talk in parliament and it has not yet been fully played out. gillian? >> thanks, amy.

live in milan. john? ♪ ♪ >> john: if you want it, come and get it. california highway patrol joking about free snow as some communities in southern california that usually don't see know get it. makes gordon is live in crestline, california. how are people doing there after all the snow? your in short least. a lot of folks still have snow shovels in their hands. >> yeah, absolutely. the snow buried this town of crestline. up to 12 1/2 feet in some places. a lot of people were trapped for days leaving them without supplies. we're at a food distribution point being run by world central kitchen. really important. a lot of folks don't have fresh produce leftover. you mentioned the fact that i'm

wearing short leaves right now. the temperature is about 41. the snow is now melting off and road are open. good news for folks living up here in crestline. back to you, john. >> john: all right. i was worried about a friend of ours a former top gun instructor. he's on the chair lift. four inches of fresh powder overnight. >> good news. >> john: thanks for joining us. i'm john roberts. >> "the story" with martha starts right now. >> martha: they need snow in the northeast. they haven't had any. breaking right now on "the story," this is an international incident. shocking news from the white house and the state department as we get new reaction from them to the four americans that were kidnapped, two killed, reportedly found near an area known as being a