mj, what's the white house saying about how the summit went? >> well, you know, anderson, as we wait for president biden to come out any moment now for this solo press conference, i think it is abundantly clear that when he comes out, he is going to herald this summit as having been a success. it is clear that he is going to point to a few of the deliverables that the administration had laid out, leading into the summit, namely the re-establishment of the military-to-military communications between the two countries. and then this significant announcement on cracking down on fentanyl. i think in the bigger picture, the president is likely to say that he has achieved, sort of, the overarching goal of hitting a reset on u.s./china relations. both leaders, when we heard them speaking at the top of the summit, making very clear that they agree that, even though these are two countries with serious conflicts and areas of disagreement, that what they do agree on is that the two countries must be able to have diplomacy, that there must be communicatio

. >> natasha, mj, oren, thank you. incredibly significant reporting. stay with us, we're going to continue to follow this. ♪ >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. ♪ >>> and it is the top of the hour. we have significant breaking news in to cnn. a hostage deal between israel and hamas could be imminent. it could be announced as soon as today. that is what multiple sources tell cnn. mj lee is at the white house with the breaking details. and this is not just a couple of hostages. we're talking about potentially 50 here, right, mj? >> reporter: that's right. we are talking about initially 50 hostages. that is women and children being released in exchange for four to five-day pause in fighting. and also in exchange for three palestinian prisoners for every one hostage that is released. the hostages we are told are of various nationalities and u.s. officials are hopeful that a 3-year-old american toddler, who is being held hostage, would be in the mix of that initial 50 hostages that is released. it is unclear at this moment, though, whether there are go

mj, thank you so much.e'll be awaiting president biden's remarks here in a bit. >> we just heard mj talk about what the president has been saying as he's meeting with pacific nation leaders standing by his refusal to call for a ceasefire in israel's war on hamas. it's left more than 11,400 people dead in gaza. that is what the palestinian minute city said today, citing medical sorrurces in the enclav. defense forces were asked to relief proof of the command center they say is behind -- underneath rather, gaza's largest hospital. idf troops raided the facility yesterday and a spokesman says israeli forces remain active in and around the hospital. the idf released video from inside the hospital saying it shows military equipment used by hamas. gaza's government media office which is run by hamas says israel is lying. cnn cannot verify either side's claims. let's bring in oren liebermann on this. what is happening right now, oren? >> reporter: israeli troops are inside the hospital complex. this has been since

mj, stay with us.o bring in oren lieberman in tel aviv and natasha bertrand also joining us from washington. we were talking about the anger and frustration we have seen from so many of the families just yesterday in israel speaking with officials there. what is the reaction this morning? what more are you hearing in israel this morning, oren? >> reporter: well, what's interesting is one of the key questions of course we had for the families of the hostages who met with the war cabinet is that you get information that a deal was imminent, that this was about to take place? certainly you have to believe that prime minister benjamin netanyahu would have known it was this close to happening. but there speaking to several of the families who were in that meeting, they gave us no i indication they were told some sort of deal for the evacuation or release of 50 hostages were about to happen. that will add to the frustration they were already feeling. they say they got no new information in the meeting with t

>> i don't want to get ahead of where we are, mj. i know that everybody is interested in the numbers and to they're going to be. we are working that through literally everything in time with both sides. so, i think it's better if i just don't speculate about what that is going to look like. obviously, we are laser focused on the american citizens that we know are being held hostage. we want all of them out, everybody should be out now. here we are in the negotiations. we're getting closer to the end, we believe that negotiation. so, i'm gonna be careful. >> any of the potential american hostages is their confidence that they are alive i know that you addressed lack of proof of life videos and such in the past. >> obviously, we have no indication. >> john, just in terms of how tenuous these negotiations have been, sources told me and alex that in recent days, hamas had actually gone dark and put the negotiations on hold, one of their many objections apparently was israel's of al-shifa hospital. obviously, the negotiations did eventual

>> i don't want to get ahead of where we are, mj. and, i mean, i know that everybody's interested in the numbers and who they're going to be. we're working that through literally in realtime with both sides. so, i think it's better if i just don't speculate about what that pool is going to look like. obviously we are laser focused on the american citizens that we know are being held hostage, and we want them out, all of them. everybody should be out now. but here we are in a negotiation. and we're getting closer to the end, we believe, of that negotiation. so, again, i'm going to be careful. >> are any of the potential american hostages, is there confidence that they are alive? i know that you addressed the lack of proof of life, the videos and such in the past. >> i would say we have no indication otherwise. >> reporter: and john, just in terms of how tenuous these negotiations have been, sources told me and alex that in recent days hamas had gone dark and put the negotiations on hold. one of their many objections was israel's raid

difficult. >> our senior white house correspondent, mj lee, is joining us now. today was biden's birthday but it also comes amid falling poll numbers for the president. how is the white house responding? >> president biden turns 81 today. the white house says the real celebration will take place in nantucket this week with family. but you're right. his birthday coincides with a series of tough polls that have come out about the president, showing that his age remains a real vulnerability for him. questions have been raised about his stamina, health, sharpness, and whether he is too old to effectively serve out a second term. then you asked about the israel hamas war. we saw this new poll that showed his approval rating is falling among younger voters. i raised some of these concerns with the white house press secretary earl yier today. >> what i'll be clear about is we're not going to govern by polls here. we're going to, or poll numbers. we're not going to change the minds of americans. i get that. americans are going to feel how they feel. >> a bit of a surpri

obviously, there's been a lot of questions about that claim so far. >> mj, thank you so much. appreciate it. >>> joining me now is jim sciutto. let's go back to the discussion about china. because the response, and you know this far better than i, so i want to get your take on it, inside chinese state media was really key. this is from the meeting was positive, kcomprehensive and constructive and has charted the course for improving and developing china-u.s. relss. san francisco should be a new starting point for stabilizing china-u.s. relations. i just want to add, you heard mj talk about the reporting there about the president standing by the term dictator. they said this is extremely erroneous and irresponsible, which china firmly opposes. it sounds like it's pretty tough, but it's nothing compared to when president biden actually said he's a dictator in june, where the chinese said it was violated facts, diplomatic protocol, called it a political provocation. >> the difference between how chinese state media is portraying this relationship today, going back to june, but ba

cnn's white house correspondent mj lee is at the white house and, mj, the other question here for thehite house certainly has been whether or not americans are going to be included on this list because the white house believed there were three total who could be released as a part of this initial group of 50 hostages released so, far only one, abigail edan has been on that list. >> reporter: that's right. three total americans, we were always told, were expected to be among the first 50 women and children that are released and, yeah, yesterday we saw the release of abigail edan, the 4-year-old israeli-american citizen and so now the question is what happens to the two american women that we have been talking about. kaitlan, given that today is the last day of that four-day truce agreed upon by israel and hamas, presumably what we should see happen is have those two women, american women, be a part of that list, the hostage list that is supposed to be released today, but as you were just laying out, what we are told at this moment in time is that all of the parties are still sort of fu

>> mj, what do we know about the role of the u.s.negotiations right now for more hostages to be released? >> reporter: well, the hostages release has been such a focal point for this white house and basically, the reason that u.s. officials have been pushing so hard for this current truce to be extended is because a longer truce means more hostages getting out. we were just talking about the second american citizen woman, whose condition we don't know anything about, not to mention there are at least seven other unaccounted for americans, who are still in captivity, who are still believed to be held hostage by hamas. that would come in the next stage of negotiations for additional hostages to be freed. where we are right now is that women and children are being freed. our reporting is there could be two additional days at least hostages from hamas that could get two days of additional pause in fighting. but then after that there are discussions, the men, idf soldiers sort of the next category that u.s. officials and israeli officials

mj, thank you so much for that reporting. i really appreciate it. >>> and now i want to talk about what happened -- more about what happened with this agreement. it was announced by qatar and it was announced just a couple of minutes ago. at this point, israel, as we've been told, has not yet mentioned anything about it. hopefully our next guest will be able to. he's the senior adviser to prime minister netanyahu. thank you so much, mark, for being here. can you tell us the details as you understand it inside the israeli government of this extended truce. >> so i think we have to say the following, before we talk about extending the deal, we have to implement the current deal and we're waiting for the last batch of hostages, of women and children who are supposed to be released this evening, and until a israeli soil, we can say that the four-day agreement for the 50 hostages has been implemented. having said that, my prime minister spoke publicly last night and he was -- his remarks were reported on cnn. he said that we are o

thank you very much, mj. >>> and the news comes as netanyahu faces growing pressure from the hostageslies. there was a clash in the parliament last night, as they deup and downed the government do more. oren liebermann is in tel aviv, and becky is in doha. what the more are you learning? what are we expecting from these meetings? >> reporter: there's a process in place until israeli law for what it takes to approve a deal like this and approve the release of palestinians from israeli jails. from what we're seeing from the prime minister's office, that process is said to begin in a couple hours. it's 4:00 p.m. local time. the war cabinet, a small circle around the prime minister, will meet at 6:00 p.m. then shortly after that, the security cabinet will meet an hour later. the full government at 8:00 this evening. we would expect prime minister benjamin netanyahu would make a statement making clear what this is all about, but given the topic, the issue, what we're seeing in the schedule and what we're hearing from multiple officials on the u.s. side and israeli side, this could be the b

mj lee is at the white house. i want to start with you.t was pretty remarkable moment from the president of the united states to lean that far into where he thinks that this negotiation is right now. >> yeah, that's right. you heard the president saying that we are very close to a deal and that echoes what sources have been telling cnn all morning. that the u.s., israel and hamas are on the cusp of announcing this deal and it could come as early as today. i was in the room when the president made those remarks. i did try to ask him at the end how many americans he believes maybe among the 50 hostages. he said i'll have plenty of time to talk, but declining to go into any of the details. and i'll let him speak to the contours of the potential deal, but at least for the biden administration, this has been an you are priority trying to get the hostages out because they believe there are at least a handful of american citizens in the mix in gaza being held by hamas. and now what u.s. officials are saying is that they are hopeful that 3-year-ol

let's pick up where mj left off.there any sense at this hour that hamas will be willing to extend one more day, under the current guidelines, which means ten more hostages in exchange for 24 more hours of a pause in fighting? >> thanks, dana. what i can say is we are taking it one day at a time. we're looking at how we are progressing, how we are achieving our goal of bringing people home. the sense today, and i can tell you for several hours already like every night for the last seven days is israelis are glued to the televisions, glued to their sets, watching in anticipation to see who comes home, what their situation is and seeing how the idf and health services are accompany ing them from border area to the medical assessment ask through to the hospital services that are later picking up and conning to embrace those families. this is a reality. we are instructed by the government to hold our fire. to conduct and implement an operational pause. that actually enables the freeing of the hostages by hamas. >> so the

now cnn's senior white house correspondent mj lee joins us from san francisco. what's the latest on this? >> reporter: look we did get the fiery response from china's foreign ministry overnight, saying the president's comment was extremely erroneous and an irresponsible political maneuver. we knew, of course, this is a label that chinese officials are extremely sensitive to. and i gather that chinese officials are going to want to move on from this, if they can, and try to sort of point back to all the progress that both chinese and american officials were trying to herald yesterday after this four-hour summit where they said there was real progress made in trying to take some tension out of that relationship. and, of course, one of those key deliverables we saw get announced yesterday was the restoration of military to military communications between the two countries. that had been severed last year by beijing when there was a lot of conflict and disagreement, especially on the issue of taiwan. and president xi, john, for his part, he is spending a lot of time

mj lee starts us off with the summit. she was there at the press conference last night. this is the first time biden and xi have spoken in person since bali last year. walk us through the major take aways. >> the last time that president biden and president xi met on the sidelines of g-20, u.s. china relations had deteriorated so much so that heading into that meeting, u.s. officials had said they simply wanted to establish a floor in that relationship. this time around, washington and the white house lay ing out a i deliverables they hoped would come out of this summit. an historic summit between presidents joe biden and xi jinping marking a new chapter in u.s.-china relations. the leaders meeting in person for the first time in a year at a sprawling estate south of san francisco. the summit aimed at deescalating tensions between the two countries. >> it's paramount that you and i understand each other clearly leader to leader, with no misconceptions or miscommunication. >> translator: for two large countries like china and the united states, turning a back on each othe

mj lee live for us from california, thank you. pamela? >>> we are tracking a day-long raid at the biggest hospital in gaza. israel says the controversial military operation in al shifa has provided them with, quote, concrete evidence that hamas was using the hospital as a command center. as images of damage and panic inside the hospital emerge, the israel defense forces have begun friending their case in the face of harsh condemnation from the u.n., the world health organization, and medical officials in gaza. earlier today hamas said the hospital complex is now fully in israel's hands. the w.h.o. said it has lost contact with the facility. let's bring in cnn's nada bashir in jerusalem. any more details about the evidence the idf claims it has? >> reporter: the idf has long held they believe hamas command and control center was positioned in the basement of the al shifa hospital following that overnight raid, israeli defense officials have released further details around the evidence they believe they have uncovered at the al shifa hospit

let's start with mj lee. good morning to you. you also asked the crucial question of the president yesterday in all of this. but they sat down person to person. did they accomplish enough? >>. >> reporter: since the two presidents last met a year ago, tensions had really flared between the two countries on issues like taiwan, the chinese surveillance balloon, prompting beijing to cut off military communications with the u.s. and restoring that had been one of the few deliverables that u.s. officials said they hoped to get out of last night's tsummit. an historic summit between president biden and xi jinping, marking a new chapter in u.s.-china relations. the leaders meeting in person for the first time in a year at a sprawling estate south of san francisco. the high-stakes summit a aimed at deescalating tensions between the two countries. >> it is paramount that you and i understand each other clearly, leader to leader, with no misconceptions or miscommunication. >> two large countries turning their back on each other is not an o

mj lee is there. just set the scene for us. >> reporter: yeah, you know, u.s. was just transported from san francisco to woodside, california, just south of the city. which was a location undisclosed to even members of the press corps under a few minutes ago, for a variety of security reasons. you're right, months and months of planning have gone into what we'll see today. in a few moments, we'll see the official meet and greet. really a series of meeting between the delegations, and that rare solo press conference from president biden. now, u.s. officials, we are told, encountered a remarkable amount of anxiety and attention to exactly how president xi would be treated during his brief visit to the united states. every piece of choreography, we are told, was something that the chinese officials were very attuned to, from where the chinese leader would sit, what he would see out the window at any given moment. while this is not at all unusual for any foreign trip for a chinese leader to be this closely cite niced, we were told that u.s. officials this level of

so please welcome mj. thank you, everyone. that's here for being here. i think we all are grateful that you care enough to be here. i have the honor of officially introducing fred and tom, but i wanto share something with you guys first, since seven years o today, may 17th, i had a lovely lun with son jerry ght here at fred leanness by the miracle theater. it was the end of a wonderful days head come down to spend my rthday and mother'day with me. we'd seen a musical together. we had had a lot of extended family time. and that lunch i remember we talked a lot about his plans and how excited he was about his job with disney. i drove to the airport, helped him with his bag, gave him a really tight hug, and we exchanged i lovyears. it was the last time i saw my son. it was the last time i hugged. less than a month later, the weekend before father's day and his next visit home, he was shot and killed at the pulse nightclub in orlando, along with 49 other people. i wanted to share this with you because whenever discuss gun violence, it seems like there's a lo

cnn's mj lee joins us now from the white house. first, give us some background about how the deal itself came together and what the president's role was. >> reporter: yeah, we know that there were weeks and weeks of pain staking negotiations that ultimately got us to this point. what we have learned is that shortly after october 7th, there was a top secret channel of communication that was established, including just a small number of white house, israeli and qatar officials to essentially negotiate with hamas about the hostage situation. of course, what we saw last months was the release of those two american citizen women from gaza, and when that was successful isly executed, it essentially signalled to u.s. officials that they had a bit of a blueprint in place to effectively negotiate with hamas over these hostages as slow going that communication was at times, but there were many, many challenges that u.s. officials and the israeli counterparts and qatar officials confront ed whe trying to negotiate with hamas. we learned that

mj lee at the white house, thank you all for this. we are watching so closely to see what does happen here and whether or not this temporary truce that has been in place for several days now is now about to come to an end. the youngest hostage taken we know has become a symbol of the cruelty of this entire ongoing ordeal. the world has been waiting for the release. tonight, hamas is claiming without any evidence, i should note, that he has been killed along with his 4-year-old brother and their mother who were taken hostage on october 7th. we are learning more from israel tonight on how they are assessing that claim. we will speak to a member of the bibas family right after thihis. >>> perhaps one of the most glaring parts of today's list of hostages who are released is who was not on that list. the youtyoungest hostage. hamas is claiming, without providing evidence, that he and his 4-year-old brother and their mother were killed in an israeli air strike. it's a claim that israel says it is assessing. there's no word on their father w

more from mj lee. >> reporter: a big disappointment for the white house that no american hostages were released on monday. the white house had said that three american citizens were believed to be among the initial 50 women and children hostages to be lereleased during a four y truce period. abigail edan was one of them, released on sunday. and two additional american women, but day four of the truce coming and going without those two women being released. we can't say anything at this point about the condition of those women, their whereabouts or if and when they may end up being released, but this is a part of the big reason why the white house has been pushing for this truce to be extended beyond those initial four days. the longer the truce obviously means that more hostages can hopefully get out. and what we're told is that seen your white house officials on monday made a whole bunch of phone calls to the qatari prime minister to work to getting the truce extended. bill burns we're told was involved and also jake sullivan keeping the president apprised the entire time. so we are a

mj lee, cnn, white house. >>> in the occupied west bank, they say confrontations have been escalating there. they've been escalating for years. frequent israeli incursions have caused palestinian lives according to the palestinian ministry of health. cnn's ben wedeman takes us inside one of the flash points, the refugee camp and a warning, the images in his report are graphic. >>> >> reporter: israeli forces with bulldozers and jeeps and turn the camp under the cover of darkness, this has become a routine. and this is the usual aftermath of, wreckage and rubble asphalt roads plowed down to the ground. once the damage is repaired, there's another raid, and it is the same thing. all over again. for almost two years alone density war has been raging in the occupied west bank, residents here in jenin refugee camp say that there have been more than 30 israeli military incursions since august of this year. the camp is home to militants who israel has accused of involvement of attacks on israelis, but here those whom israelis call terrorists are seen as fighters against a decades-long milita

mj lee, skcnn, the white house. >>> an american pediatrician was among those able to leave through the rafah crossing after 26 days. she was on a relief mission to treat children when she became stranded after the war broke out. erin burnett spoke to her husband. >> she was put on a list, my sister-in-law who is palestinian read on the rafah facebook page that my wife and ramona was 15th and 16th on the ngo list to be evacuated. so they got up early and went to the border. they said that it was -- indirectly again, they say it was fairly orderly, people calling out people's names and they would come up. there was some fighting. i'm not sure what they were fighting about. she said that she saw only two fist fights. but then once she got to the palestinian border crossing, she was there for like four or five hours in passport control. and that is when i was starting to get discouraged because she texted me that and i was like what is going to happen now. but i think conjecture is that they were removing the injured and maybe letting the ambulances through. so once she started to go throu

mj lee, cnn, the white house. >>> it is the u.n.'s annual climate change summit, documents are the host country, the uae, may be planning to use its role as host at the cop 28 climate talks to strike new oil and gas deals. documents published by the center for climate reporting appear to be briefing notes for soldin elder, bahrullah reside over the u.n. event which begins on thursday. among the documents is suggestions to offer oil and gas projects with a state owned abu dhabi oil company which is headed by, yep, algebra are. the cop 2018 spokesperson says the documents are inaccurate, when not used in meetings. still to come, cnn marks its third annual called earth day. we'll take you live to schools in beijing, hong kong, as well as seoul where students are raising awareness and taking action to o try to prorotect thr enenvironment.t. >> today is cnn's third annual called earth day to raise awareness with environmental issues and to promote conservation education across the globe. this year's theme is our share at home, focusing ou

mj lee, cnn, the white house. >>> still to come, u.s. officials say negotiators are nearing a deal to secure the release of some of the hamas -- the hostages that that hamas is holding. >>> and as top officials in the u.s. and germany make critical stops in kyiv, ukraine says russia missile strikes have killed two people in donetsk overnight. we'll have details. (car engine revs) (engine accelerating) (texting clicks) (tires squeal) (glass shattering) (loose gravel clanking) >>> welcome back. if you are just joining us, let me bring you up-to-date with our top stories. a federal appeals panel appears inclined to restore the limited gag order in former president trump's federal election subversion case. a three judge panel is hearing the case on an expedited schedule and are expected to issue a ruling soon. but the exact timing is unclear. family members of some of the hostages being held by hamas are pushing the israeli government to do more to bring their loved ones back. and there were intense exchanges when they met with benjamin neta

. >> we want to go to mj lee at the white house.ou have been doing some remarkable reporting on the contours of this deal, including just in the past couple of hours what we're hearing from inside the administration as they are waiting for this deal to be finalized, hoping, of course, that that happens. >> yeah, keep in mind there's no playbook for how everything would unfold once a deal is agreed upon. there's no precedent for how everything would unfold, but the white house has laid out some of the broad strokes of how they be believe things would unfold once the hostages are released. first and foremost, there would need to be safe passages that are established so that people can physically get out safely. you can see how a pause in the fighting would have everything to do with that. and then the hostages would need to get medical attention. that goes without saying that we cannot imagine the conditions that these people have been under for many weeks now. we don't know about the status updates, the status of their health updates

. >>> and for more on the white house reaction, mj lee is joining us live. what more are we hearing from the white house? >> reporter: the white house says the deal is still on even though final logistical details are still being figured out. spokesperson saying that we are hopeful that the implementation will begin friday morning. what a senior u.s. official tells me is that more time was needed to iron out details like leaks location of the hostages and also moving those hostages. and i'm told that the u.s. consulted and agreed with the decision to delay the release by at least a day. with regards to the idea that hamas has yet to produce a list of the first ten or so hostages to be released on day one, i'm told that that is not a serious issue as of right now. but that it would be more worrisome if wasn't a list produced by tonight. >> and you have new reporting this morning on the working list of hostages, what the white house believes is going to happen the first round of ten. >> reporter: yeah, i'm told the u.s. has a working list of sorts for the host

mj lee is live for us this morning at the white house with some of that new reporting. mj, walk us through a little bit more what you have learned the last 24 hours about how the deal came together. >> you know, all day yesterday we were talking about abigail, the 3-year-old american citizen toddler and the hope that she could be among the first 50 hostages that are released. but now u.s. officials say that they know of at least two other american citizens, two women. so the hope now is that there could be three american citizens that are in the mix of the women and children that are first released in this first phase of the process. but as you say, there are ten miles per hours that are unaccounted for right now. and what is not clear is could there be for example adult men in the mix who wouldn't be counted in that first phase and how would the u.s. government try to get them out. and what they have said is that they believe that this deal is in in-cent advised in such a way on so that hamas would have incentive to continue releasing more hostages. obviously this is a

. >> so cnn reporter mj lee asked president biden about xi being a dictator, that is the key word here. take a look at what president biden had to say in response. >> mr. president, after today would you still refer to president xi as a dictator, a term you used earlier? >> well, look, he is. >> chinese foreign ministry called the comments extremely erow e called the comments extremely ero erroneous and irresponsible political maneuver. how is it viewed? >> i think that chinese spokesperson is extremely erroneous. article one of the chinese constitution says, and i quote, the peoples republic of china is a socialist country. and xi jinping is president of the republic so he is a dictator. so the constitution enshrines him as dictator. so they shouldn't be thin skinned about that. >> but clearly they are peeved about it. >> well, of course. china, i mean -- many of the chinese announcements coded the word. china say the world is big enough for two countries to co-exist. and so basically don't bother what we do. what china defines as domestic affairs could also mean china's work in taiwa

cnn's mj lee is at the white house with details. >> reporter: a senior u.s. official tells cnn that the parties involved in the ongoing negotiations to try to secure the release of the hostages being held by hamas in gaza are working towards a deal that would entail a days long sustained pause in fighting, in exchange for a large group of hostages being freed. i'm told that if a deal were to be struck, the hostages would leave gaza over the course of multiple days in stages with the first priority being given to the most vulnerable populations, including, of course, children and women, but in a sign of how delicate and how challenging these negotiations are, this senior u.s. official saying that a deal has been close before but there's no certainty at all. i'm also told that many, many details still would need to be worked out and that even in the best-case scenario, that deal would still be at least days away. israel, of course, has been unrelenting in its gaza offensive, and israeli officials have made clear in recent days that they believe an aggressive of

mj lee, cnn, the white house. >>> a group of former hostages from thailand back home after surviving seven weeks as captives. >> and they landed a little over an hour ago at an airport in bangkok. hamas has released 23 thai citizens who were taken hostage on october 7, most are believed to be migrant workers who went to israel in search of a better life but they ended up being caught up in the conflict between israel and hamas. have a kmanisha tank has been following this story for us. i understand this release was negotiated separately from the exchange that we've been seeing between hamas and israel. do we understand how it came about? >> reporter: we don't have the details on it yet, but one of the countries that thailand has been very grateful to has been qatar for its role in its role of helping with this second agreement that you speak of. i'm sure more details will come out in time, but obviously the thai government is celebrating to some extent. the prime minister has been speaking at a press conference. i'm actually getting the reports second by second coming in from bangkok

>> mj lee at the white house for us. thank you very much. >>> i want to go back to nic robertson in sderot, israel. how has the situation on the ground changed since the u.s. secretary of state's visit? >> reporter: it's deteriorated significantly since secretary blinken's visit several weeks ago. there was a sense in the air when he was here that a ground offensive on gaza could be avoided, that there might be an off-ramp in the situation. the united states was giving that absolutely strong and clear and loud support for israel, saying that it had every right to strike back. privately, though, urging caution. now, these urges of caution to avoid civilian casualties, because the casualties now in gaza, more than 9,000 civilians dead, according to the hamas-led palestinian ministry of health there, more than 22,000 civilians injured in gaza, they say. this, now, is changing the narrative from the white house, so when secretary blinken arrives here in just a few hours' time, perhaps we're going to hear a more public messag

let's go to mj lee who was at the aipac. lots around this. what can we be hearing from president biden shortly? >> reporter: well, pam and brianna, now that the xi summit is behind us, the president is really focused today on this apec summit takes place any time now. we should hear him making remarks to a group of ceos, and the white house says there should be new announcements made about investments that the united states is making in some of these apec countries. this coming on the heels of the biden/xi summit is in contrast, really, because it really represents the ongoing efforts the biden administration has been making over the years to really try to nurture and strengthen these alliances that they have with a number of asian and indo-pacific nations. and u.s. officials have said they're doing everything to try to contain china and remain competitive with beijing. at the same time we are seeing this huge effort to try to ease tensions between u.s. and china, we are also seeing on this parallel track the biden administration continuing t

mj, what are you learning? >> reporter: well, erin, first of all, apologizes for the delay in this press conference. members of the media were just moved indoor for what was supposed to be an outdoor press conference. but we started getting some rain drops. i think if u.s. officials wanted to see a reset in u.s./china relations, i think we just might've seen that happen in real time. there has been a reset in u.s./china relations at least insofar as the bigger goal that u.s. officials had wanted, which was to re-establish diplomacy and re-establish a communication channel that had been severed, particularly important to the u.s. officials was the re-establishment of this military-to-military communications. we've heard from a senior administration official that there was an agreement that that was an important part of their communications that had to be built again. there was also this agreement that we saw from the two countries on china agreeing to take actions to crack down on the chemical substances that ar

mj lee, great questions there.o during this press conference, there were questions about what is happening in gaza tonight. the al-shifa hospital, the idf forces entered it last night. they released new video that, they say, shows weapons, ammunition, and a radio that was the largest hospital in gaza. it was not this evidence of the extensive tunnel system and underneath the al-shifa hospital. the israel defense forces talking about hamas, using this hospital as its headquarters. it was 3d animation that they're used throwing here, showing these tunnels. it was this intelligence now, and colonel leighton, when you see these questions and what is underneath this hospital, is it what israel said it is? we know from a senior adviser to prime minister netanyahu, and from the days, and weeks to come. can they show the difference for today though? >> there might be several reasons for that. there is still efforts trump of the hamas fighters on their, and with pockets of resistance. what is one possible scenario. there wa

== the first time since mj collapsed in 2005? ., the first time since mj collapsed in 2005? the midlands rail hub infalland pounds to deliver the midlands rail hub in fall and i pounds to deliver the midlands rail hub infalland i know pounds to deliver the midlands rail hub in fall and i know that decisions about kings norton are to be made later this year which would be made later this year which would be good news to him and the extension of the forthcoming camphill line services between birmingham and kings norton and longbridge will be assessed in due course as well so i hope the prime minister will keep you date on progress. minister will keep you date on rouress. �* , progress. i'm sure the prime minister will _ progress. i'm sure the prime minister willjoin _ progress. i'm sure the prime minister will join me - progress. i'm sure the prime minister will join me in - progress. i'm sure the prime minister willjoin me in the i minister willjoin me in the community they represent in sending heartfelt sympathies to the families and friends grieving the loss of four young m

i want to go straight to our senior white house correspondent, mj lee.j obviously, these are in several crucial states, very specific races, but ones that could be hugely significant. so how closely is the president watching them. all right, obviously, i'm sorry. i wasn't sure if it was just me. sometimes it's just my ear, but obviously we couldn't hear it when we get mj back, we'll go to her. but i do want to go to jeff zeleny because he's been following the republican presidential candidates and what they're looking at tonight. so, jeff, on that front, how are they responding not only to tonight's votes as we are watching this come in, but to the poll that we've been david chalian has been going through bit by bit here through the night that cnn just came out with, which frankly is very dismal poll for president biden. >> well, aaron, a year before the 2024 election, not all republican fans are celebrating president biden's low approval rating and those headwinds that are facing him on inflation, on the economy and more. and here is why. a central part

you can apply at mj study at ucsf dot edu in the newsroom.a sogomonian kron. 4 news. >> up next, we have breaking news, israel and hamas have just reached a deal for a short-term cease-fire in gaza and the release of dozens of hostages. we have the latest developments there. also, we're just over a week away now from that debate between governor newsom and florida governor ron desantis each man is saying about the other tonight and then the latest on the investigation after a double hit and run incident that killed a person in the that killed a person in the my dry eye's made me a burning, stinging, 5-times-a-day,... ...makeup smearing drops user. i want another option that's not another drop. tyrvaya. it's not another drop. it's the first and only nasal spray for dry eye. tyrvaya treats the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease fast by helping your body produce its own real tears. common side effects include sneezing, cough, and throat and nose irritation. relying only on drops? not me. my own real tears are my relief. ask your eye doctor ab

you can apply at mj study at ucsf dot edu in the newsroom. i'm ella sogomonian kron. 4 news. >> the holidays aren't always the most wonderful time of the year. for many people. the thanksgiving weekend spending time with family can actually be pretty stressful. disagreements can happen and there might be some conversations around the dinner table that could be triggering a therapist say that the first step is to recognize when your body is responding to the stress. >> you get that pit in your stomach your heart will start lettering. you start shallow breathing. those are your indicators. and if you notice that's happening in your body, you actually have lived a few microseconds really small amount of time. but you do have some time that you can decide to get out in front of it. >> for those who are spending the holiday alone, therapists say take the to do something you've always wanted to do, make it special. she also suggest taking the initiative if you don't want to be alone to see who has another plate setting set to go. the white house sa

and we know, mj, the americans are to be among those held by hamas, and what do we know if any of the names, the names of the americans are on this initial list of hostages? >> kateitkaitlan, we had been t to get a sense of the reason for the delay, and the white house said that the reason was chiefly logistical and chiefly trying to get a sense of the location of each of the hostages and the movement of the hostages, and all of that does seem to be confirmed by this qatari spokesperson in the lengthy press conference. now we wait. 13 women and children are expected to be released in the next 24 hours or so, and kaitlan, what we don't know right now is if any of the three american hostages, and talking about two women, and also of course 3-year-old abigail aidan who is an american citizen, and if any of them will end up to be part of the first group to be released on day one with regard to how the families of the american hostages will be told by the government, we are told that it will be confirmed after they are departing gaza. so this is once a u.s. official has eyes on the officia

mj lee is in san francisco. obviously, the crisis at america's southern border is going to be key. >> reporter: that's right. president biden is the last day of a packed summit here. the meeting with the president of mexico and there are going to be a number of issues. some democrats expresed concerns about handling of the issue. it's president biden and the chinese president xi with that major announcement on efforts to crack down on fentanyl. so we expect this to discuss today. >>> president biden is going to take the gloves off. as he ramps up attacks against donald trump and that is according to campaign officials and democratic donors. it's part of a new story from cnn white house correspondent arlette saenz, who joins me now from the white house. >> reporter: president biden has really been sharpening his attacks against former president trump it was tweaking on policy and official speaks like climate change and liabor lieutenanton support. he's speak at these off-camera fundraisers. an adviser said presid

you want to bring in mj lee, frank poyer and margaret tolive. frank, i want to start with you. you have a book out on joe biden in particular, but i know you have done a lot of work on reporting on his family. what do you make of this new op-ed? >> so joe biden's interest in hunter biden's interests are not totally aligned here. they never really have been. hunter biden, in this split screen, set against everything else going on in the world is fighting this battle for his reputation. part of the reason he's not settled his case thus far is that he has his own set of interest. he doesn't want to be prosecuted. he wants to be rehabilitated in the public's eyes. and he is being smeared, but there are other choices he could make along the way that would help his case disappear. his instinct is to fight hard and fight back. >> his instinlt is to fight back, and my understanding is that he has been incredibly frustrated that he's being attacked because he's the son of a president, but because he's the son of a president, he doesn't feel like he can defend himself in a way that he. s

. >> that reminds me, i have to go see is mj.ether and danced. let's dance, not fight. >> yeah, let's actually work together. >> let's have some

straight to mj lee at the white house. why are some more upbeat about this deal this time? >> reporter: we have covered these negotiations for weeks now and we were told in the past at different points that a deal had been close, but we are sensing a different level of optimism now that an agreement may be within reach and possibly coming within days. sources tell me and my colleagues that according to a recent draft language of a potential deal, it would have hamas releasing some 50 hostages in exchange for a four to five-day pause in fighting. the gaps between the parties have begun to close, we are told, though there be furious deliberations about how actually the deal would be implemented and also on the question of aid. humanitarian aid that will be going in to gaza. the white house, of course, has been working around the clock on this issue, it has said. we've seen brent mcgurk the white house middle east negotiator crisscrossing the states and information about the american haumps in gaza incredibly ditfficult to ascertain. take a listen. >> potential american hostag

>> reporter: so my colleague, alex marquardt and mj lee are reporting they are closing in on a deal here. that would be essentially for a four hto five-day pause in the fighting in order to release a first round of about 50 hostages. now, what actually happens here and whether this deal actually comes together is another question. there have been a number of false starts in the past when it comes it these hostage negotiations. they are extremely delicate. there are a number of different parties involved, including the qataris, the united states, and of course hamas. that makes it extremely complicated. another sticking point here that we're told is that the dynamics of actually getting fuel, getting aid into the civilians in gaza during that four to five-day pause, that is a key sticking point in terms of the logistics. how is that aid going to get in? so there are a number of key points here that are still yet to be worked out. but all of the parties involved, including the united states, including the qataris, they seem to be very optimistic that there is a chance for a large number, s

mj lee, cnn, the white house. >> they still have no motive in the shooting of three palestinian college students but hate crime charges are possible. all three were taken to hospital according to one source the alleged shooter has been charged with attempted murder and and help. isabelle details now from jason carroll from cnn. >> i believe the families fear that this was motivated by hate, these young men were targeted because they were arabs. >> one of the victims uncles sharing a families fear about what they say could've been a motive for the shooting in vermont and saturday. >> hard to imagine in this time with everything that is happening that it was just a random act. >> the three victims, he sham are a tony, touching elliott mud and l and meet our palestinian. all our 20 year old college students in the u.s.. lifelong friends visiting one man's family in burlington on holiday break. the three were out for a walk saturday night shortly before 6:30. two were winning palestinian scarves when they say a man suddenly stepped off a porch, walked toward them and opened fire. >> they we