cnn national security reporter natasha bertrand has been following this for us today. natasha obviously deep concerns about access to american data by the chinese government. did the ceo did he say anything to calm the security fears, which are bipartisan, by the way? well guess he certainly tried whether or not lawmakers actually believed what he was saying is another question entirely, but the main argument that he was making during this hearing today is that tiktok has essentially started the process and nearly completed it moving all us data from tiktok onto us based servers based in texas. they are going to be overseen by the company oracle, which has its headquarters in austin, and so his argument was that that will create a firewall between any us data and parent company, the chinese company, bytedance. now he explained that this process has project that they are conducting. it is referred to as project texas, and he believes that that is going to really assuage a lot of the key national security concerns that lawmakers expressed today. here's what he said. the b

of concerns about china having access to that data, cnn national security reporter reporter natasha bertrand is covering this for us. we expected a grilling and i would say out of the gate that the lawmakers did not disappoint natasha. out of the gate arca. they have been really grilling the ceo about privacy concerns, data protection concerns and, of course about the concerns about bytedance, which is the parent company, the chinese parent company of tiktok. but look, the ceo made a lot of points there to try to rebut these national security concerns in chief among them is what he described as a project called project, texas. now that has been tiktok main apparatus through which they have tried to convince lawmakers and the american public at large that the user data that tiktok is collecting on us users will not be routed outside the united states. and what he said is that tiktok has built a firewall to shield us user data from unauthorized foreign access, and that that data is now being stored on servers in the united states hosted by oracle, which is an american company, and so basically

john natasha bertrand forest live at the pentagon and nick robinson's i bring you in. let me follow up on that point, natasha just made a lot of americans. maybe forget about this. but american serviceman and those contractors have been in syria. for quite some time. it's a dicey situation and listen to admiral kirby's the president's top spokesman, national security issues saying that this is an issue the president respond forcefully. the united states hopes it doesn't mushroom into something bigger. we don't seek a war with iran. we're not looking for an armed conflict with that country or another war in the region. we do seek to protect our mission in syria, which is about defeating isis. so that you've covered this for quite some time. you hear john kirby saying we're not looking for war, but because these troops are there because the situation in syria remains so dicey because you have outside players like russia. like iran. it is a place where if you have a point to make, you can make it you can. it's one of those pressure points that iran picks upon. it has lots

. >> and this is from the pentagon this morning, and natasha bertrand is in the pentagon, and walk us through what we are seeing in this video? yes, it s yes, erica, it is remarkable video. we are looking at the russian fighter jet coming close to the drone and spraying fuel on to the drone, and then the video cuts out, and this is the moment of impact when the jet has impact. and then coming out of it, you can see that the propeller that is there at the beginning of the video, you can see it is damaged, and that is a result of the direct hit, and this is contradicting the russian account of events. this is over recent days that the fighter jets did not make physical contact with the drone, and acted in a professional manner, and this video is backing up the u.s. version of events that the pilots were acting viciously and dangerously and harassed the drone and directly hitting it. it is unclear at this point what is going to happen to the wreckage of this drone which did fall into the black sea. we are told that the russians have arrived at the site of the crash, but it is unclear whe

we go to natasha bertrand about this trip, and what specifically about the conversations. >> erica, secretaryn was in jordan this morning on a trip to the middle east to take him to israel as well as egypt. he said that the broad message of the overall trip is the threat to the region by iran. he is discussing the violence that has broken out in west bank with jordan, and he is going to discuss it was ith israel, and is going to want to discuss it with the new relationship with russia and eiran that is so disturbing to many. >> and so, we will ask them to help with some of the backing they have received. if you are in this country, you would be very concerned about it, and they are. so this relationship is very troubling, and one that we need to keep an eye on, and discourage it from going forward. >> so he wants to watch this partn partnership, and discontinue it from going larger. >> we understand that there is a pair of ukrainian pilots here in the u.s. for a familiarization event, and regarding the f-16 jets, and is that under the consideration with the possibility of sending f-16 jets to

natasha bertrand, great reporting.u. >>> also this morning, new york state is asking major pharmacies to commit to dispensing that abortion pill that comes after what you saw happened in california. we'll tell you how they're pressuring them. >> and governor desantis says that djokovic should be allowed to play in miami despite being vaccinated. and effortlessly responds to o both of you. our smart sleepepers get 28 minutes more restful sleep per night. proven quality sleep. only from sleep number. that run with the champ was magical. i mean the tender chicken, the peppercorn ranch... i love my rings but i'll chesh that lunch... forever. the subway series. the greatest menu of all time. out here, you're a landowner, a gardner, a landscaper, and a hunter. that's why you need versatile, durable kubota equipment. there's a different way to treat hiv. it's every-other-month, injectable cabenuva. for adults who are undetectable, cabenuva is the only complete, long-acting hiv treatment you can get every other month. cabenuva

update from the pentagon on this drone strike by american by america back with us, now cnn's natasha bertrand from the pentagon, natasha what's the latest that you're learning? so a couple of new details that we got from the pentagon press secretary there specifically that the fighter jets carried out this airstrike on these iran and iran backed facilities in syria, where two u. s. air force f 15 e fighter aircraft and they actually stuck to facilities and we were told earlier today that those facilities were aware of iranian proxy groups were housing some munitions and also using as a base to gather intelligence. now we're also told by by rider there that the pentagon is still assessing the number of militant casualties that actually resulted from that air strike is unclear. how many people actually died there, however, uk uk based human rights monitoring group says that there were at least eight killed as a result of that u s airstrike. but look, there were a lot of questions here about why that couldn't have been that that, um that iranian drone strike could not have been prevented right?

natasha bertrand at the pentagon for us. thank you so much. turning to our other world lead, ukrainians are unwilling to let go of bakhmut, the eastern city is now home to a population of just 3,000 ukrainians after once boasting a population of more than 70,000. as cnn's david mckenzie reports, russian-backed leaders say ukraine's grip on the city is becoming more difficult as one of the city's main roads faces significant and constant fire. >> reporter: this is the moment a ukrainian soldier downs a russian jet near bakhmut. according to ukrainian authorities. as both sides are publicly confident in their battle to control the city. with fewer than 3,000 civilians remaining, bakhmut has been effectively destroyed amid the ongoing russian offensive. but ukrainians are unwilling to let go, despite their heavy losses. >> translator: there was a clear position of the entire command, strengthen the sector and destroy the occupiers to the maximum. >> reporter: to counter the onslaught ukraine needs equipment and ammunition. president zelenskyy has

cnn's natasha bertrand is following these developments for us in natasha. what more do we know about how all of this unfolded and how that drone was able to get through that airspace? jessica what we did get a bit more of the timeline from the pentagon press secretary last hour he laid out what happened here, which is that around 6:30 a.m. eastern time on thursday, and iranian, a suspected iranian drone, i should say did target a u. s and coalition military base in northeastern syria and then later on thursday, about thursday night the u. s retaliated and launched an airstrike that targeted to facilities in syria believed to be used by iranian proxy groups to store munitions and also gather intel. teligent now we are told by by the press secretary there that they're still assessing how many militants were actually killed in that u. s airstrike. it is still unclear, and he declined to elaborate actually on how this drone the suspected iranian drone actually got to its point its location in the first place and was able to kind of breach the us based there and

classified documents first, though the deadly flare up of hostilities in syria overnight scene as natasha bertrand at the pentagon following this for us new information, natasha. yeah, john. so we are told from a u. s official that this suspected iranian drone strike was conducted using a one way attack drone that intentionally crashed into its target, killing that u. s contractor and wounding several other u. s service members as well as an additional u. s contractor there now, this is not the first time that the us has launched air strikes in retaliation for these kinds of attacks by iranian proxy groups . the u. s has about 900 troops currently in syria. largely as a part of that anti isis coalition . and according to general carrillo, who is the commander of us central command, which is responsible for this region, u. s personnel have come under attack by those iran backed groups at least 78 times since 2021 gorilla did tell lawmakers in testimony recently that the us has made its posture is changed its defensive posture in the region essentially to better protect us personnel against these ki

let's go straight to cnn's natasha bertrand, who's at the pentagon for us, natasha? what do we know about this latest attack? we are just hearing this within the last few minutes that iranian backed groups have launched yet another attack on u. s forces in northeastern syria. now it is unclear whether there are any casualties or any damage. at this point. we are told that the us is still assessing that, but it comes as local residents did tell cnn they had heard multiple explosions and we are told that this attack was carried out using rockets. now the big question, of course, is whether the u. s. is going to now retaliate against this attack because this is the third attack in two days. by proxy groups associated with iran. and that is, of course, really, an escalation here of what iran has been doing just earlier this morning. we had heard that you run back groups had also launched 10 rockets and yet another us based in syria. now that caused no casualties, but it did wound two women and two children. and then, of course, yesterday the iranian backed militias. they

cnn national security reporter natasha bertrand joins us now from the pentagon. is video. just walk us through it. >> yeah, victor. so what we're seeing is this video taken from the drone's perspective. we see the fighter jets kind of rushing up to the drone suddenly, releasing a whole lot of jet fuel on top of the drone, and then the camera kind of cuts out. and that, we are told, is the moment of impact. that is when the jet actually collides with the u.s. drone that was operating over the black sea. after that camera footage comes back, we can see that the propeller on the back of the drone has been damaged. that is proof according to the u.s., all of this is proof, i should say, that that russian fighter jet did physically hit the u.s. drone. it is important to note here what the russians have been saying about this, which is a denial, essentially, for the last three days, we have been saying that they did not physically hit this drone. and that their pilots acted in a very responsible and professional manner. well, the u.s. has released this video now, accord

natasha bertrand cnn at the pentagon. president biden is back in the u. s after world wind trip to canada and meetings with prime minister justin trudeau. and shared hope to shared prosperity into the shared peace and security that binds canada and the united states together as allies. his neighbors. and importantly, that's true friends. so the family. canada and the united states. yeah. it was a friendly and productive visit that addressed a range of issues on ukraine. prime minister trudeau said the u. s and canada are partners that ukraine can count on president biden signaled he's not concerned about the growing ties between russia and china, saying it's the u. s and canada that are expanding alliances. mr. trudeau also said both the us and canada will work towards peace and stability in haiti as gang violence searches there. new developments in the investigations into donald trump . a federal judge has ordered several trump aides to testify before a grand jury as part of the investigation into the january 6th attack on the u. s. capitol. the directiv

cnn's natasha bertrand joins us now, natasha, the by administration learned about this yesterday. we're told they only just put out an official reaction. so what are they saying about this arrest? yeah, alex, we are told that the state department actually learned about it from the wall street journal who informed the administration that their reporter had been detained by russian authorities. but we are getting kind of a flurry of statements now from the white house from the state department about the detention of this journalist i saying essentially that they are deeply concerned about it that they have been in touch both with his family and also with the wall street journal on this and also importantly, that the state department has been in touch directly with the russian government about his detention. and of course, that is directly contradicting something that the russian government has said, which is that they had received no inquiries from the u. s government. the us now directly pushing back on that, saying that they have submitted multiple inquiries through the consular s

don natasha bertrand. thank you very much and straight to heaven to tell you that the white house john kirby is going to fill us in on the latest developments. meantime lawmakers on capitol hill just grilled the ceo of tiktok yesterday. tiktok, sir. veils us all. and the chinese communist party is able to use this as a tool to manipulate america as a whole platform should be banned. i expect today you'll say anything to avoid this outcome. that was congresswoman cathy mcmorris rogers, the ceo of tiktok. he chewed testified before the house energy and commerce committee for hours yesterday tried to ease those concerns from lawmakers in both parties over the company's ties to china . he stressed their ongoing efforts to protect user data. by dance is not owned or controlled by the chinese government. there are more than 100 and 50 million americans who love our platform , and we know we have a responsibility to protect them. the bottom line is this. american data stored on american soil by an american compan

that's what we've found two helicopters, so we turn now to cnn national security reporter natasha bertrand tracking this story for us from the pentagon. natasha hello? the army set to hold a news conference this morning. and what else do you know? yes we are expecting to hear from them at around 10 a.m. eastern time, but what we know right now is pretty limited. we are told that it was two blackhawk helicopters with 101st airborne division operating in southwestern kentucky that crashed around 10 p.m. on wednesday night, and they were undergoing a routine training mission, according to a statement from the fort campbell military based on facebook. we are learning. in addition to that there were several casualties. that is what the army is saying they are declining to say at this point, whether there were any how many i should say injuries or even fatalities there were and that is something that we're expecting to hear more about in the coming hours, but the governor of kentucky, andy bashir, he is also weighing in this morning, and he said on twitter that he does expect that there will be

that's what we've found two helicopters, so the national security reporter natasha bertrand is tracking this story for us at the pentagon. good morning to you, natasha. the army is set to hold a news conference this morning. that's right, don, and hopefully we'll get a little bit more information. but what we know now is that a pair of black hawk helicopters did crash on wednesday night near southwestern kentucky. they were with 101st airborne division, and it resulted in several casualties. now we do not know whether there were any fatalities at this point, but we are told that the helicopters were flying a routine training mission. that's according to a statement on the four campbell facebook page, and actually, the governor of kentucky has weighed in on this. and he said, quote. we've got some tough news out of fort campbell with early reports of a helicopter crash and fatalities are expected again. we do not know how many people were injured or killed. all we know at this point is that there were several casualties in. he of course, said that we will share more information as availa

done natasha bertrand, thank you this morning straight. ahead here on cnn this morning. we're going to speak with former defense secretary mark esper. a huge development in the case of stephen smith, authorities are now ruling his death a homicide nearly eight years after he was found dead near the home of alex murdoch. on top of that, also coming out of florida, there's news for to go to ron desantis is now weighing in on the trump nickname he likes best. is your favorite nickname that trump's given you so far as it run rhonda, sanctimonious or meatball rock on rather recalled. instead that's next. the only thing i regret a abouty life was hiring local talent. if i knew about up work, i wouldd have hired actually talented people from all over the world instead of talent, less people from all ovemy house. when it comes to reducing sugar in your family's die choices, the better. that's why america's beverage companies are working together to deliver more great tasting options with sugar or no sugar at all. today nearly 60% of beverages sold contains zero sugar. different

alright natasha bertrand with that update for us a critical update. thanks so much. let's continue the conversation now with john wolfstahl. he's a nuclear expert who formerly served as senior director at the national security council. this under president obama. john good to have you on this morning. thanks for having me. alright so help us understand where we stand now because there's been a gradual watering down of nuclear agreements that pulling out of the new the intermediate nuclear forces treaty, pulling back from some of the notifications as required under start, but also open threats to use nuclear weapons right in and around ukraine. what actually remains of the notifications and the other parts of the start treaty right now, in the wake of this so very little. unfortunately both russia and the united states have said that even though they won't be providing the notifications every six months of how many nuclear forces they have, where they're located, and movements of those forces that both sides will stay under the limits established by the treaty. under

natasha bertrand cnn at the pentagon.coming up a positive impact from california's relentless rain and snow, easing fears of a dire water shortage after years of severe drought, and now some water restrictions can finally come to an end. with unitedhealthcare. my sister has a whole team to help you get the most out of her medicare plan. wow advantage me can't wait till i turned 65 advantage with an aarp medicare advantage plan only from unit healthcare from early birds turn eight hours. s many ways to save life ady wallet happy that's 3 65 by whole foods market empire today's biggest sale 50 50 50 sale 50% off carpet and flooring 50% off padding and materials and 50% off installation. that's right, half off your entire project. you can save thousands empires. 50 50 50 sale won't last long. don't mess 50% off carpet and flooring 50% off padding and materials and 50% off installation 132 300 by today think about the best night's sleep you've ever had a temper pedic were dedicated to helping you sleep like that every night.

natasha bertrand reporting from the pentagon. thank you so much. let's bring in daryl kimball. he's a nuclear expert and executive director for the arms control association , sir. thanks so much for sharing part of your afternoon with us, um, just walk us through the implications of this decision because obviously a mix up over a nuclear test. could be disastrous as i said a moment ago, but there are far worse things that could happen here. no. well this is yet another very troubling development in the deterioration of us russian nuclear risk reduction dialogue as natasha said the news to sheikh arms reduction treaty of 2010 requires that each side provide information on missile test launches and you want to do that because you don't want the other side. to believe that a test missile launch is a actual launch of a missile in in hostile action. the treaty also requires exchange a detailed exchange of data on the number of warheads bombers that carry the warheads and missiles so that each side can then inspect at their facilities each other's facilities. whether those declaratio

the battle in bakhmut, and what natasha bertrand played for us, and the general saying it is more sip boll ik battl-- symbol than strategic value. and what do you see? >> it is more symbolic. and by the way, talk about how long we have been discussing it. it is more than seven months that we have been discussing that city, and strategically, the russians have said they are about to surround it, and the ukrainians are fighting it. and i wake up everyday to a new text message that says t ss tha bakhmut holds. so it is not a strategic site, but it is a psychological site. and the russians have drained such a cauldron of blood there. >> and so we have heard from the analysts over and over the bloody toll that the progress of the russians are taken to get to where they are in back khbakhmu what price have they paid to pay for the russians to get to where they are. >> i am not a big body count guy because it is not an indication of who is winning or losing. but last week, russia said they were losing seven soldiers for every one soldier in the defense of that city. that is unbelievable from

. >> natasha bertrand and jim have been following the developments closely, and what are the officials revealing, natasha? >> well, erica, what we are told is that the u.s. is conducting an assessment with the drone and the russian fighter jets to see how they can deconflict in the future, and looking at the routes and the cost/benefit analysis of these flights, and waking the intelligence value here against the risk of potential escalation with the russians, because it was of course a major incident of the collision of a drone and russian jets since the beginning of the war. they are looking at it, and however, owe just seeing this morning yet another drone flying over the black sea showing that the u.s. is not deterred from conducting the missions since that happened. we are learning that the russians have collected some of the debris from the crash site. they have gotten to the crash site first, but the u.s. is saying that they are not overly concerned about what they can retrieve, because the wear is so deep, and the drone broke apart when it hit the water, that there is very littl

natasha bertrand has the details for us, and she is joining us now. a how and why are they doing? >> yeah, kate. we are learning that in multiple instances the u.s. has seen the russians capture the u.s.-provided weapons including the javelin missiles and stinger missiles on the battlefield of ukraine and send them to iran. this is part of the partnership that we are seeing between russia and iran which has intensified over the last year, and essentially with each of them doing favors. russia is supporting iran in the war of and then they are to reproduce them, and so this is not we should note not a widespread issue, and the u.s. officials can widely track when the weapons fall into the ukrainian hands, because the ukrainian contact the pentagon when they are forced to leave them on the ground or if they are overrun. so this is how the iranians get a lot of the equipment, and how they are able to resource it. they are very and this is what allows them to run in close proximity in the region. kate. >> thank you. and now joining us is retired air force

let's bring in natasha bertrand and melissa bell live in kyiv, ukraine. melissa, what are we hearing today from ukrainian and russian officials ans about this inciden the black sea? >> reporter: what we are getting from the russian ministry of defense is a direct contradiction to what the united states has said so far. what the russians are saying is that there was no contact at all, and that drone went down into the black sea as a result of sharp maneuvering, moscow accusing that drone of flying without transponders that allow a drone to be tracked, a violation of the temporary measures that were put in place for the special military operation in that area. the euphemism that russia uses for its invasion of ukraine. what seems to have happened is that drone was destected off th coast of the crimean peninsula. russian jets scrambled to get up there, and we have seen, as you say, a lot of tension around the black sea. there is a lot of military hardware up there as a result of what's going on in ukraine. what we heard in the united states is that we have s

let's bring in natasha bertrand. little chance russia makes any progress in year two, so that's a plus, but it's not necessarily a full plus. >> that's right. because the intel community apparently believes that vladimir putin thinks that he can outlast the west. the west will essentially get tire d and he will be able to continue his operations in ukraine until he the gets what he wants. now importantly, the director of national intelligence did say that russia will probably need to initiate a mandatory mobilization and identify other sources of ammunition if itments to continue its offensive operations. it's running low on pretty much everything it would need to take significant amounts of territory. however, the same depose for ukrainians. she did caution that depending on how many forces the c ukrainians will have to draw down, and how much casualties they are expending, they could have a tough time this spring too. >> a lot of discussion about the china challenge. some of it about economics. some of of it about

natasha bertrand at the pentagon, thanks so much to both of you. >>> still to come, despite cool signslation may be cooling and markets looking down this morning and not quite as far down as they were earlier and still close to 1.5%. coming up, i'll speak to the former president of the atlanta federal reserve bank as to what's going to happen now on interest rates and more. >>> plus, extreme weather from coast to coast. the first nor'easter of the season just hammering new york and new england with snow. three feet in some cases and maybe even more today. hundreds of thousands of customers in the dark. out west, it is the recordbreaking rainfall in parts of california that we're watching. the threat there far from over. we'll speak to a hurricane hunter who has been inside these storms collecting data, and he'll join us live. a "let's dig in" day... mm. ...a "chow down" day... a "take a big bite" " day... a "perfectctly delicious" day.. - mm. [ chuckles ] - ...a " "love my new teeth" da. because your clearchoice day is the day everything is back on the menu. a clearchoice day changes e

cnn national security reporter natasha bertrand is joining us live over at fort sill, oklahoma, whereare training on the patriot air defense missile system. natasha, what's been happening at fort sill to help speed up this critically important delivery? >> reporter: yeah, wolf, essentially the 65 ukrainian soldiers that have been training here at fort sill over the last ten weeks have proven extraordinarily capable at learning this very complex system in a way that u.s. trainers did not necessarily anticipate. so now what u.s. defense officials are telling us is that because the ukrainians have been able to learn this system so quickly and so in-depth they now believe that the u.s. will be able to send that patriot system to ukraine in the coming weeks. now, these ukrainian soldiers who have been training here are prepared to graduate essentially from this course in the coming days and what we have heard just nonstop all day here from defense officials is just how impressed they have been with these ukrainians who many of whom have a lot of air defense system experience from their tim

let's begin at the pentagon this hour with natasha bertrand. what now? >> it's a great dwe. we're not seeing any etcscalati rhetoric from the u.s. vowing consequences, but this video really is a response in is and of itself to the statements that russia has put out over the last several days denying those russian fighter jets ever came into contact with that u.s. drone over the black see sea. as we can see clear ly from the video, the pilots do actually make contact with the drone causing that propeller to be damaged. u.s. officials say really that damage could have only happened by a direct impact from that fighter jet. however, russian officials still denying their pilots acted recklessly. the u.s. is saying thaw do not believe that they are going to be able to recover the wreckage of this drone because they do not have any naval assets in the area that would be readily available to actually collect the debris. the russians, meanwhile, we're told have already arrived at the crash site. unclear whether they are also going to be able to pick up that debris just because the w

officials tell me and my colleagues, oren liebermann and natasha bertrand that the u.s.s reassessing its drone operations over the black sea, this after russia harassed that mq-9 reaper drone earlier this week, forced it down. we are told the u.s. has not stopped these flights entirely, the military, in fact, sent the same type of reaper on a mission in approximately the same area over the black sea shortly after that collision, however, the u.s. military is, quote, taking a close look at the drone's roots and assessing how to better deconflict with russian forces. there is concern among some in the u.s. military that limiting routes will impact intelligence gathering related to the war in ukraine. joining us now to speak about all of this, cnn national security analyst, steve hall, former cia chief of russia operations. steve, good to have you on this morning. >> good to be here. >> so, first, i want to ask you how serious you think this collision was between this drone and after the deliberate harassment by two russian jets here, clearly there's concern in the pentagon

we're going tostart our coverage with cnn's natasha bertrand as national security spokesperson john kirbyout lying. >> reporter: this is the moment just before a russian fighter jet collided with a u.s. drone over the black sea. the thick plumes of smoke, jet fuel being vented by the russian su-27 as it passes. we don't see the moment of impact. but here's the propeller of the mq-9 reaper drone undamaged. and here it is later, clearly damaged. >> there had to have been some kind of an impact. i don't think a -- while the fuel spill on top of the aircraft, on top of the mq-9, would have been significant, i don't think it would have caus

cnn's natasha bertrand is at the fort sill army base in oklahoma. that's the only place in the u.s. currently training ukrainian soldiers. what's behind this accelerated tyl time line for these powerful patriots? >> reporter: yeah, jake, so essentially the ukrainians have just proven extremely good at learning this patriot defense system. according to defense officials who we spoke to here all day, the ukrainians were able to learn the system on an expedited time line in a way that the u.s. did not necessarily anticipate. so for that reason because they have been able to take full advantage of this ten-week training course here at fort sill, oklahoma, the u.s. now believes that it is prepared to actually deploy a patriot system to ukraine in the coming weeks. now, that is much sooner than we had anticipated. but again, it is because the ukrainians, the 65 ukrainian soldiers who have been training here at fort sill for the last nine, ten weeks have proven very capable because they are among the most experienced soldiers in ukraine with regard to air defense systems. they are highly e

natasha bertrand, thanks so much. >>> also following developments in florida today where governor ront that would ban nearly all abortions in the state. >> in the coming weeks the republican leader gearing up to show floridian as he molds a potential presidential run and how far he's likely to go on several conservative issues. leila santiago is in florida with more. give our you viewers of what he lining up here. >> let's talk first about the abortion bill that erica was talking about and what the governor said yesterday during his state of the state address. he said we are pro-family and pro-life in the state of florida, absolutely speaking to support this bill and let's talk what that would change. currently in florida it is 15 weeks. this would change it to six weeks and does have exceptions for rape or incest, but democrats will be very quick to point out that at six weeks don't even know they're pregnant. so they are calling this sort of an all-out ban and call it very extreme and dangerous. so abortion is one thing that's on the table that governor ron desantis is signaling his

our national security reporter natasha bertrand is covering this developing story. the u.s. says the interceptions happens all the time. the way this happened, this contact between the russia and the u.s. militaries, first we've seen of something like this. this grave. what else do we know? >> of course it comes at a very sensitive time between the u.s. and russia. obviously, they're both operating in the region and the potential for escalation and miscalculation is very high. so what we're learning is that the russian fighter jets kind of tracked this drone for about 30 to 40 minutes over the black sea, in international waters, before coming close to the drone and actually dumping fuel on it. and then going behind the drone and making contact with the propeller causing the drone to essentially become inoperable, forcing the u.s. military to then take it down over international waters. the u.s. is saying the pilots lacked confidence and they were reckless. was this an unsafe maneuver by the pilot itself or something that came from the kremlin? the pentagon is not saying at t

natasha bertrand is watching this one for us and she join us now.s really just getting going and what are they saying so far? >> a lot of this has been focused so far on china which the u.s. intelligence community does view as the united states' biggest threat at the moment and the director of national intelligence, avril haines, she actually said in her opening remarks that china remains the u.s. intelligence community's unparalleled priority. take a listen. >> the people's republic of china which is increasingly challenging the united states, technologically, politically and militarily around the world remains our unparalleled pri orit. president xi jinping will continue to achieve xi's mission of making china the preeminent power in east asia and a major power on the full stage. to fulfill xi's vision the ccp is increasingly convinced that it can only do so at the expense of u.s. power and influence. >> there have been a lot of questions so far about things like tiktok which is, of course, owned by a chinese company. the origins of the covid-19 p

first, natasha bertrand is at the beng. what are you hearing from u.s. officials? >> u.s.ching this very, very closely. they have been extremely concerned about the growing partnership between russia and china over the last year. this growing military partnership where we have seen china provide technology as well as equipment to the russians. they have not yet provided that lethal aid. that is the big piece of this that u.s. officials are watching for. russia and chinese did declare a no limits partnership at the beginning of the war. the partnership has grown ever since. xi and putin, the president of russia, they have spoken many times since the war gab. ping has not yet spoken to ukrainian president zelenskyy which is something that the u.s. has been urging him to do. the chinese also introduced a 12 point peace plan for the war in ukraine that u.s. officials are extremely skeptical of. they believe that the chinese have already picked their side in this conflict. kaitlan? >> natasha, i'm going ask you a question. yesterday the big breaking news is drone interception a

cnn's natasha bertrand joins us now. obviously that's a very strong response from china. such a big move from president biden. >> reporter: that's right, kaitlan. look, china is not mincing words this morning. they're saying they believe this is going to stimulate an arms race and that this represents a new, quote, cold war mentality by the u.s., uk and australia. but look, u.s. officials did expect this because this is a deal between the u.s., uk and australia that is essentially aimed at countering chinese naval dominance in the indo-pacific and will see the u.s. provide australia with three nuclear-powered submarines by the year 2033 and also use british and american technology to create their own submarines by the 2040s. china clearly not happy about this because it is also aimed at deterring a potential chinese invasion of taiwan. u.s. officials, of course, expected this reaction from china. there have been a number of irritants in the u.s./china relationship recently from that spy balloon that was shot down over the united states. of course, to warnings by the unite

cnn's talking natasha bertrand is at fort sill in oklahoma and natasha. this training comes as we learn that the us is going to speed up delivery of the patriots and also abrams tanks to ukraine. that's right, john. the u. s really making a concerted effort here to get the ukrainians the equipment they need in order to effectively pushed out the russians. and while the abrams tanks are not necessarily going to be in ukraine until the fall at the earliest the patriot systems they are likely to be in ukraine within the next few weeks. the united states fast tracking key weapons for ukraine's fight against russia heavy us tanks now set to be deployed to the country faster than originally planned in close coordination with ukraine has made the decision to provide the m one, a one variant of the abrams tank, which will enable us to significantly expedite delivery timelines and deliver this important capability to ukraine by the fall of this year. patriot missile defense systems, also due to arrive in ukraine in the coming weeks, defense officials told cnn much

natasha bertrand, thank you for that. let's bring in now. retired air force. colonel cedric leighton, cnn military analyst. so let's talk about the retaliation. some are disappointed with the degree of retaliation from the u. s. this is senator lindsey graham, he says, letting america down the president is he tweeted america has only one path available when attacked, respond swiftly and vigorously with overwhelming punishing force. what's your assessment of the u. s response thus far? victor i think the u. s response has been actually pretty proportionate to what we've seen now. of course we never like it when anybody has killed like the u. s contractor was killed, and that's that's a tragedy that didn't need to happen. but in the response that we made, you know against the iranian proxies reports are that several have been killed. several of them have been killed in these acts. so, uh, you know, the response was definitely proportionate to what happened. and in the laws of war. you go with a proportional response. that really is the right thing to do . propor

cnn's natasha bertrand is at the pentagon for us, natasha what more are you learning? brianna will we are learning that those wounded u. s service members are now in stable condition and we are told that this drone the suspected iranian drone that targeted that coalition military base in northeastern syria, it was a quote suicide drone. it was used as a one and done type drone just to attack and then depart. and we are told that the us did retaliate. of course they did target facilities inside syria that they believe that the iranian proxy groups were using in order to store munitions as well as gather intelligence. and this is not the first time that the us has targeted iranian proxy groups in the region. it has been done many times before , including as recently as august of 2022 when president biden ordered yet another strike on iranian groups in syria, but this is happening with with well this is happening very often now and that is what is really concerning to the united states because the us has about 900 u. s troops in syria, who are part of the anti isis coalit

cnn's natasha bertrand is covering all this for us has the latest information now, natasha, what are u. s officials say? johnson. we're being told that that are suspected iranian drone that attacked a u. s based in syria and killed a u. s contractor and wounded several other service members. u. s service members was a one way suspected iranian attack drone that intentionally crashed into its target. we are told, of course, the us did retaliate. they targeted facilities in syria that the u. s believes were being used by iranian proxy groups in order to support those groups with munitions and intelligence secretary of defense lloyd austin saying that this strong right. this airstrike was carried out in response to several recent attacks by these iranian proxy groups. president joe biden ordering a u. s airstrike in eastern syria thursday after us intelligence assessed that an iranian origin drone killed an american contractor and wounded five u. s service members and another u. s contractor, biden authorized the straight quote against facilities used by groups affiliated with iran's is

natasha bertrand is monitoring this hearing for us. she's live in washington, natasha what stands out to you from this testimony so far? well as you just showed the hearing started out very fiery with the chair of this committee, the house energy and commerce committee, telling the ceo outright that the tiktok platform should be banned and that it is surveilling us all. now there have been some contentious exchanges between the tiktok ceo and other lawmakers as well, including democratic members. this is not a partisan issue. it seems especially on this committee, and during that exchange, the ceo was asked specifically whether china can access any of the data that is currently being collected and stored by tiktok, particularly whether bite dance the chinese parent company of tiktok, whether any of those employees can access any user data here is that exchange. yes or no do any bite dance employees in china, including engineers currently have access to user us user data. today. all us user data is stored by default in the oracle cloud i

our coverage starts with cnn's natasha bertrand, who dove into today's high stakes hearing for tiktokwmakers grilling the ceo of tiktok today, accusing the social media company of spying on americans for china avails us all and the chinese communist party is able to use this as a tool to manipulate america as a whole platform should be banned. i expect today you'll say anything to avoid this outcome. the ceo sho chu, rejecting claims that beijing has any control over tiktok through its chinese parent company by dance and insisting that americans data is now largely stored on u. s soil. american dance employees in china including engineers currently have access to u. s data. congressman would appreciate this. this is a complex topic today, all data by not that complex. yes or no? do they have access to user data we have after project texas is the done. the answer is no project. texas is tiktok's named for its ongoing effort to move all us data onto servers hosted by the american company oracle, which is based in texas that defends, however, falling on deaf ears have seen no evidence th

answer lawmaker's questions, the hearing was dominated by quote political grandstanding, jake natasha bertrand, thank you so much appreciated. the republican commissioner of the fcc federal communications commission. brendan carr joins me now. thank you so much for being here. always good to have you. so in order to ban the app from the united states, congress or president biden would need to prove tiktok is a national security threat. did you see any hard evidence presented that that it is? i think we have that evidence. now i think this hearing really couldn't have gone any worse. for tiktok the number one job i think they had today was to try to establish some level of credibility some level of trust that they use on a bipartisan basis. it wasn't there. but the evidence is clear. look they've been telling us that there's very limited if any data flows back to china, with internal communications now showing no, that's not true. everything is seen in china. they have denied reports earlier on that they were using the app to illicitly surveil the location of americans, calling the stories on r

that's what we've found two helicopters, so cnn national security reporter natasha bertrand is tracking this story for us from the pentagon. natasha we know we're set to hear an official update this morning. what else are we learning, though, about what's happened here? katelyn polantz into here from the army at around 10 a.m. eastern, and right now we have pretty limited information on what happened, but what we are told is that two blackhawk helicopters did crash last night around 10. pm in southwestern kentucky, and those helicopters were engaged in a routine training mission, according to fort campbell military base, which posted a statement on facebook earlier today. now the army is not saying at this point whether there were any fatalities that resulted from this crash, but they are saying that there were casualties and the governor of kentucky has also waited on this and he said on twitter but he does expect that there will be several fatalities that do result from this crash. now senate minority leader mitch mcconnell has also weighed in on this this morning. of course he is he

natasha bertrand cnn, washington. the chinese government says it will oppose any sale of tiktok. so let's get more on that now live to hong kong. cnn's anna coren. so what else are they saying? well a strong reaction john from the chinese government even before the tic tac ceo faced that five hour grilling from lawmakers hours before the hearing, china's commerce ministry spokesperson told the media that it would firmly opposed any for sale of tiktok, which is what the biden administration has demanded. if the social media app is to continue operating in the u. s the chinese government considers tiktok's algorithms and technology to be sensitive. and critical to its national interest. let's have a listen now to the china's commerce ministry spokesperson. champing pension, ignoring the products and services themselves and only proceeding from the identity of foreign investors, forcing the sale of tiktok will seriously damage the confidence of investors from all over the world, including chi united staw from that earlier package, ticktock ceo shows you choose repeatedly tried to al

natasha bertrand. i know you're covering this in depth for us. russia seems to be ruling out the prospect of a prisoner swap, at least at least for now. so what's the next step for the united states? yeah, well, what we've heard all day from the state department and the white house is that they are trying extremely hard. at this point. you get consular access to this journalist. that is their main priority. at this point they want to essentially make contact with him is that they can figure out what kind of condition he's in what the arrest was like what kind of charges he is actually being detained on because all we have heard so far from the russians. of course, is that this vague charge of espionage so getting that access to him is going to be really key, and that is the next step. the administration will have to determine whether or not he is considered wrongfully detained. and that is a special designation that the state department makes that once they do, it essentially opens up a whole lot of resources that the administration can then do t