clare sebastian is standing by with details.nt to go to cnn's ivan watson who joins us from central ukraine. good to have you both with us. ivan, russia continues to strike civilians in ukraine. what have you been seeing? >> reporter: right. well, the ukrainian juvenile prosecutors office has counted at least 353 ukrainian children killed since russia launched its invasion of this country on february 24th of this year, and more than 600 of those children, additional children injured. among the fatalities are 4-year-old lisa. she is one of at least 24 people who were killed, civilians, on thursday of last week when a russian cruise missile slammed into the central ukrainian city of vinnytsia. her funeral was held on sunday. that attack taking place mid-morning when kind of life was operating and people were going around their daily business. the ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy, he announced that the ukrainians have counted more than 3,000 cruise missiles strikes from russia on this country since the launch of the russian

let's go to london now, i want to bring in clare sebastian. good morning, clare.ike a classic recession trade. oil down, stocks down, just the most brutal first half since 1970. but it is anybody's guess where it goes from here. >> yeah, and i think the recession fears out there, they are valid because the question that everyone continues to ask is, is the fed and other global central banks going to be able to pull off some kind of soft landing, bring down the record high inflation numbers that we're seeing without slowing economic growth too much and tipping the economy into a recession. the historical odds are not on their side when it comes to doing that. but not all recessions are equal and i think even if there is a recession and many analysts are predicting that at some point perhaps in 2023, there is a school of thought that that might even be helpful and sort of thrush out inflation and stop the cycle of interest rate tightening which is frankly even perhaps more of a concern on wall street than a recession itself. but this will continue to cause volatilit

clare sebastian is live in london with more. bout supplying drones for russia to use in ukraine t? >> well, it is not clear 100% that that is what they are talking about but not implausible. the commander says that iran has been able to develop the most advanced uavs, also known as drones, used in cross border reconn reconnaissance. and they say that it is possible to provide weapons to other friendly countries. and so i think friendly countries to iran is not a huge grouping. and perhaps not a surprise because we knownknow iran has previously supplied drones to other countries. and u.s. intelligence reported just a week ago that they believe that iran is getting ready to supply russia with up to several hundred drones, including weapons capable drones. any also said that they believe that russia delegations have also travelled to iran to view those drones. and so obviously on the surface officially iran and russia have dismissed those reports. they are not commenting on that officially. but it does add weight to that intelligenc

clare sebastian is tracking this live. as much as people want him to go now, it seems that he will stay because mechanics of removing him are dirlfficult so they wil try to speed the process up. who do you think is the frontrunner? >> mp tom tugan who has never served in cabinet, he is a former british military official who wrote an op-ed saying that he wants a new start for the country, a cleanup he called it. and the other is the attorney general who said that she would run. but there are a lot of other figures who are perhaps potentially about to announce candidacy ranging from sunak whose resignation was one of the most prominent and set off this cascade of resignations that ultimately led to boris johnson's own announcement that he would resign on thursday. ben wallace the defense secretary, even liz truss, there are a lot of people muted to be joining. but of course as you say, uncertainty that was lifted by the prime minister announcing his resignation has added on several layers of uncertainty and even anxiety in t

and clare sebastian is joining us live from our london bureau. iner. she writes of being totally alone without the protection of her wife, her family, her accomplishments. just alone. and she is pleading directly to the president. >> reporter: yeah, this is a very raw, very emotional effort coming of course just days after we saw brittney griner appearing in court in the first appearing of her trial in russia for drug charges. charges that could carry a maximum ten year sentence. you can only imagine her mental state is extremely fragile right now. listen to some of the other words that she wrote in this letter. she said i realize that you were dealing with so much, but don't for get about me and the other american detainees, please do you will and you can to bring us home. i miss my wife, i miss my family, i miss my teammates. it kills me she says to know that they are suffering so much right now. i'm grateful to whatever you can do at this moment to get me home. she says that it hurts how she would be suffering fourth of july. and as you said, s

. >>> and steven jiang is standing by live in beijing, but we begin with clare sebastian here in london. clare, we were expecting a prisoner swap to be in the works for brittney griner at some stage, but i think the announcement that the u.s. were prepared to swap victor boot came as a massive surprise to everyone. how potentially risky is this? >> extremely risky. victor boot is one of the most -- he was when he was arrested one of the most prolific arms dealers in the world, world most wanted man. striking things will this, one, that it is him that the u.s. is willing to go there, the reporting is that president biden essentially overruled objectives to this from the justice department. and the second thing is that the time lag that this was first presented to the russians in june according to a senior administration official. they haven't responded to it yet. and i think that there is some surprise on this from the u.s. administration officials telling cnn that they had thought that this was a substantial offer that it would be accepted based onhistory of conversations with the russi

clare sebastian has information for us. this information comes from declassified u.s. intelligence. is in that intel? >> yeah, recently declassified u.s. intelligence. jake sullivan making it clear that this is happening pretty quickly, training sessions beginning this month. and he says that training lmgt shows that this is not just a business deal, that this is actual military cooperation between iran and russia. russia of course has struggled to find anyone willing to provide that kind of cooperation. even china has shied away from that. but he said it is unclear how sophisticated these drones are. we don't know how bad the news is for ukraine which of course is using turkish and american madr drones on the battlefield. but it is clear that the u.s. is doing this strategically to try to reinforce that russia is sustaining heavy losses on the battlefield to reinforce that military hit that we know in terms of reputation the russian armed forces took essentially at the beginning of this conflict and timing worth noting as well coming on the eve of president biden's first trip to th

clare sebastian is here in london monitoring those documents.ut first let's go to scott mclean who is live in kyiv for us. the battle for the donetsk continues. >> reporter: that's right, max. one quick update on the situation in the donetsk region, officials say now 34 people are confirmed dead after that missile strike or series of mice still strikes on an apartment building there leaving people trapped under the rubble.micest apartment building there leaving people trapped under the rubble. nine have been pulled out alive. those confirmed dead include a 9-year-old boy. they say about three quarters of the rubble has now been removed. in the southern part of ukraine, those strikes you mentioned were on a town about 60 kilometers east of kherson. ukrainians say a cache of ammunition and other weapons was hit. initially russian state media says it was actually part of the hydroelectric power station. but they were contradicted by a local official who said that this was a cache of chemicals for fertilizer, potassium nit nitrate. also what caused

clare sebastian is live in london.they be arguing as they push for that lenient sentence? >> yeah, they will try several different tacts. one is the fact that she pleaded guilty, so standing up and accepting responsibility for this. the fact that she said that this was a crime without intent. she said that she didn't intend to pack these vape cartridges, they was just packing in a hurry. an they will also talk about her character and her contribution to sport both in the world and in russia where she has for a number of years played basketball in the wnba offseason like a number of her colleagues. so that is one thing. they will try to push for a more lenient sentence, very important of course when charges carry a maximum sentence of ten years. the bigger issue is how to get her out of russia. russian officials have said that don't think any next steps could be discussed until the trial is over. we don't know if there will be a verdict today. her lawyers have said they expect to be over by early august. and then perhap

clare sebastian is in london for us tracking this story for us.ng about why it is pulling out of this arrangement? >> not a whole lot interestingly. this announcement was made by the new head of the russia space agency, he's been on the job for less than two weeks. he made an announcement in a televised meeting with president putin and the only explicit reason that he alluded to was the fact that he said by 2024 when russia is saying that it will pull out of the iss, it will have started work he thinks on their own orbital space station, so sort of going out on their own. nasa caught off gauard, while te u.s. has committed to extending the life of iss from 2024 to 2030, russia had not signed on yet and the previous head had been making threats in recent months given the obvious deterioration of relations between russia and the u.s. he had been making threats to pull out of the iss. some have doubts about how it will work, the different countries in the iss perform different roles, it is difficult to keep it going if you separate them out. but if i

. >> we'll speak to clare sebastian wheno has a lot of experience in russia.o you think she has a point, that we're seeing a lot of propaganda play out here? >> reporter: yeah, i think that is something to bear in mind as we see how the really unfolds. certainly russia has very tight control over the media, much more so now since the start of the war in ukraine. and obviously the war in ukraine very much complicates this case. but i think if you look at the precedent for trials like this, most important are of course trevor reed who has been released from prison, returned home, and paul whelan, another american citizen who is still there. they were both subjected to trials. the trials were largely behind closed doors. we didn't really see the evidence that was put forward to support their eventual convictions. in the case of trevor reed, u.s. ambassador called it theater of the absurd. paul whelan's trial had secret evidence according to u.s. officials. so i think that it is understandable that the family are very worried about this trial and how it will go. b

clare sebastian, thank you very much. >>> tiktok has announced a new feature that will help users filter content that may be problematic for young users. a company spokesman says it will limit topics on things that focus on things like dieting and extreme sadness. social media platforms have been criticized for their impact on young users. >>> and coming soon to your netflix streaming service, advi advisements. they are partnering with microsoft to provide a cheaper service that will include ads. the timing for the launch has not been announced but "new york times" reports that it could come by the end of this year. net fligs flix says the move is in the early days. >>> that does it hear for "cnn newsroom." i'm christina mcfarland in london. coverage continues on "early start." hey, i just got a text from my sister. you remember rick, her neighbor? sure, he's the 76-year-old guy who still runs marathons, right? sadly, not anymore. so sudden. um, we're not abt to have the "we need life insurance" conversation again, are we? no, we're having the "we're getting coverage so we don't have to

for more, i'm joined in studio here with clare sebastian.hat evidence are they referring to with the investigations? >> this comes from skron kirby w, he says that they have intelligence which has been recently sort of downgraded so they were able to declassify it that shows that russia is planning various aspects of what he calls and an nextation playbook. it is not implausible. we've seen evidence that they are already start doing this. if you look at kherson, officials have said that they were planning to hold a referendum on joining russia. and already started planning or even started already issuing russian passports, trying to adopt the ruble. in other cities we've seen pro-russian mayors installed. so this annexation play book looks like it is already under way. and in terms of the referendum, we couldn't know -- u.s. intelligence doesn't know when. they say not only donetsk and also kherson that they will look to annex. >> and threatening stronger retaliation because it is a violation of the u.n. charter. and two that summit that is

clare sebastian is here with details. what do we expect to hear from griner today? >> yeah, really important day as you say, she is expected to testify in her own defense. i think the sense we're getting from the case given that she's pled guilty which was her decision alone, taking into account the fact that very tiny percentage of criminal cases in russia end in acquittal, she decided to plead guilty and potentially to try to mitigate her case to try to improve the sense that she deserves leniency. this is a charge don't forget bringing drugs across border into russia that carry as maximum ten year sentence. take a listen to what her lawyers had to say tuesday. >> we are still saying that she involuntarily brought them here because she was in a rush as she said packing and this medication she just forgot to take it out of her luggage. >> we have a lot of mitigating factors, so we do hope that the court will take it under consideration. the court in russia in fact has broad discretion with regard to the sentence. so we'll see what will happen. >> so they are arguin

cnn is covering this story from all angles, ivan watson is in ukraine, clare sebastian is in london andite the attacks we saw over the weekend moscow is saying that this grain is still going to be exported. what more do we know? >> reporter: yeah, and the ukrainians say despite their anger at the russian government for the missile strikes that they, too, have planned to adhere to the agreement but first i want to draw your attention to this growing phenomenon we are seeing in some ukrainian cities and that is these battlefield trophies, burned out russian tanks, armored personnel carriers placed on display in city centers. there's a similar kind of display in the capital kyiv and this was just put in over the weekend here in the southern city of kryvvi rih and it attracts onlookers, pedestrians who take selfies next to these symbols of the russian invasion and in general take a look at it. i think in that spirit we heard more defiance in his weekly -- daily, nightly video statement from the ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy. take a listen. >> translator: after all that our people

and i want to bring in clare sebastian in london.ia of actually using energy as a weapon, russia flexing its petrol muscle. >> reporter: absolutely. they are saying that there is no reason to reduce capacity and politically motivated step are the words used this morning on the subject. and this takes the nord stream 1 pipeline which up until the point at which russia started to cut the capacity of it, it was really the biggest artery supply of gas into europe from russia. right now it will go down as of wednesday morning to 20%. but the strongest language that we got on the issue of this latest cut came from ukraine's president volodymyr zelenskyy. take a listen. >> translator: all this is done by russia deliberately to make it as difficult as possible for europeans to prepare for winter. and this is an overt gas war that russia is waging, this is exactly how it should be perceived and they don't care what will happen to the people, how they will suffer from hunger due to the blocking of ports or from winter, cold, and poverty. or fr

clare sebastian is joining me now.us through the change in strategy that we're seeing already in eastern ukraine for the russians. >> this week we've seen russia basically declare that it has control now over the luhansk region, which of course is one of the two regions which makes up the donbas. now, we know that that is the stated goal after that shift that we saw after the first month of the war where we thought that they might try to take the whole of ukraine. now they are focusing on the donbas. so this is a victory that russia can clearly take to the bank. have a listen to what president putin said about it. >> translator: units that took part and achieved success and victory in the luhansk direction will decidedly have to rest, grow their combat capabilities. other units including the eastern and west formations will have to continue their mission according to the previously suggested plan according to one purpose, and i hope all will continue to succeed just as luhansk units have been successful. >> when he tel

. >> reporter: i'm clare sebastian in london. the u.s. has revealed it's ready to trade convicted russian arms dealer viktor bout currently serving a 25-year sentence in the u.s. to secure the release of wnba star brittney griner and paul whelan, another u.s. citizen convicted of espionage in russia, that's according to people briefed on the matter. despite the offer being on the table since june a senior administration official subjected russia has yet to officially respond. the u.s. secretary of state antony blinken says he expects to speak to russian foreign minister sergey lavrov in the coming days to discuss the potential swap. >>> i'm selina wang in beijing. president joe biden and chinese president xi jinping are having a phone call today as tensions are running high. beijing is furious over a potential visit by house speaker nancy pelosi to taiwan. china has urged the u.s. to cancel her trip, threatening powerful retaliation. this is a high stakes moment and the call is a chance for both sides to lower the temperature and manage t