we are following breaking news, kate cox, the pregnant woman from texas who asked the court to allow an emergency abortion has left the state to obtain the procedure, that's according to a statement from her attorney. her faded that's my fetus has a fatal condition and doctors told her continuing her pregnancy threatens her ability to have more children. the texas supreme court has blocked her from terminating the pregnancy. ed, what are we learning about her decision to leave? >> reporter: well her lawyers say that because she has been caught in this legal limbo for specifically the last several days and much of the last week, because of that, she has decided to leave texas, and get the abortion elsewhere. her lawyers are not saying exactly where she's going but in a statement they did say that she had offers of help from places in colorado, kansas, even canada as well. let's get to some of the statements that her lawyers released, where they said that her health is on the line. she's been in and out of the emergency room and she couldn't wait any longer. and it says judges and politicians should not be making healthcare decision for pregnant people. they are not doctors. women are forced to beg for urgent healthcare in court and that echoes the theme that we've heard from lawyers for the center for reproductive rights, the organization that has been representing kate cox for the last week in her case. the lawyers also said throughout most of the last week, she's been asked several times, why not just leave the state originally and her lawyer said she wanted to have the procedure here in texas and this is where her home is and she wanted to be close to family but clearly, what has unfolded in the last several days, it has changed that calculation. and we now have learned that she has left texas to get this abortion procedure. we have reached out to the attorney general's office, republican ken paxton who over the weeken d submitted another motion to the texas supreme court saying, they did not believe that kate cox and her condition rose to the level of reaching the medical exemption in texas and we been waiting for the texas supreme court to make its ruling since friday night but so far no movement, legally, so obviously this legal limbo is what lawyers have said has forced kate cox to leave the state. >> on the question of getting clearance to obtain the procedure and the level that legally, it has to reach for it to be defined as life- threatening, i'm wondering, if this fatal fetal issue is not life-threatening, for texas officials then, what is? have they given a clear definition? >> reporter: well, that definition of what reaches the medical exemption is at the heart of all this. it's not just a part of kate cox's case but also there's a case of involving 20 women and two doctors that's also sitting with for the texas supreme court as well. these organizations have been very critical of what they consider to be the vagueness of the medical exemption law and they say more clarity is needed. >> thank you so much for that reporting. here to add perspective is dr. ramsey, she is an emergency physician and dean of the yale school of public health. let's dive into this. we are learning that kate cox has left texas to get an abortion in another state amid this ongoing legal battle. that wouldn't necessarily be an option for every person in her position, correct? >> that's exactly right. that is one of the many parts of the story that concerns me so much. first and foremost, there's the fact that a decision that should be between a woman and her doctor, has been taken out of her hands. the second thing that deeply concerns me about what is going on is that because of the legal rigmarole, she's had two delay needed procedure by weeks and with abortion, getting it earlier is often easier and has less risk, and so every week that passes has put her future family as well has her current family at greater risk. in the third part about this that make me deeply concerned, is that kate is so lucky to have the resources and the support and the time to be able to travel. that is not true for most women. they don't have the money, they can't get time off work, they may not have childcare to watch their kids at home, so she is, as much as she is in a horrific situation, she's also in a somewhat privileged situation compared to other wome n where abortion is restricted. >> she was 20 weeks. you have a tight timeline between that and when the baby could be considered viable outside the womb and that limits your options even more if you want to get an abortion if your state doesn't allow that. texas is one of the most strict on the books and you have ken paxton, who is a lawyer, not a medical doctor, we should emphasize, he is arguing that this woman's situation does not fit the definition of light -- life-threatening at her future fertility is not impacted anymore from this pregnancy then another pregnancy. basically he is saying because this fetus has a life- threatening commission that's my condition that doesn't impact any other pregnancy. what do you say to that? >> just as i can't weigh in on the nuances of the law, similarly, it's not a lawyers place to weigh in on the nuances of medicine. if this doctor is saying that carrying this pregnancy to term is threatening her future health, we need to take her doctors word. moreover, as an emergency physician, what worries me even more is all the folks that are coming into emergency departments across the state of texas and in other states with similar laws, who don't have the time to wait, who are literally facing life- threatening conditions. the physicians carrying for them are being forced to go through this same legal rigmarole in order to care for the patients in front of them who are facing incredibly time sensitive life- threatening conditions. not to say that kate's case is not time sensitive, each week that passes puts her and the rest of her family more at risk and if i can say one more thing , i get deeply worried about what would happen to the united states, and folks had to travel outside of the u.s., in order to get this life-saving healthcare because abortion is part of reproductive healthcare. luckily right now, there are places within the u.s. that kate can travel to. >> you know, there's so much focus on the physical aspect of this and whether it could be life-threatening or not but what about the emotional distress for this woman, you know , she's obviously decided to travel outside the state but just going through all of this and being forced by the state to carry a baby against her well and as a pregnant woman i can say pregnancy itself is stressful and hard in all of this on top of that, the emotional distress. >> yeah, pamela, i think that such a great point and in fact, there are lots of studies that show that when women are able to access safe and legal abortion, and improve their mental health compared to women who are forced to carry a pregnancy to term against their will. it's even more true in a case like this. i am not a maternal fetal medicine physician but friends who have had to deliver that news to their patients that they are carrying a fetus that has a severe chromosomal abnormality, it's one of the most devastating pieces of news that a woman and her family can receive and to be told that you don't have the choice about what to do next, knowing that you are carrying a fetus that's unlikely to survive to birth much less, after birth. that adds another layer of loss of control, of trauma, and of stress. nevermind for her little kids who are watching their mom be pregnant and have confusing that must be for the rest of her family on the emotional stress they are under. it is a horrible situation all around. >> that's an important point. do you worry that this could also endanger the lives of millions of women and their children because doctors could simply choose to leave texas or refuse to practice there, given the legal limo that they could be faced with? >> that is one of my biggest worries. certainly, the single case is upsetting and heartbreaking but we already face one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the developed world, here in the united states. we already have millions of women nationwide, who are living with limited access to high-quality obstetric care, that's part of the reason we have such high mortality rates, and we have studies showing, already, that the states that pass restrictive abortion laws are less likely to attract new obs, new physicians are less likely to pursue their training in the united states. that is worsening that problem. it is then going to continue to worsen, access to high-quality healthcare, it is just a really bad situation, from a public health perspective and of course, it's a situation that is preventable if we just recognize that abortion is part of healthcare. >> thank you so much. boris? >> the number of harvard faculty members backing their university president is growing by the hour. to put it into context, clotting has been under pressure to quit along with the presence of pen, mit, for their testimony last week to congress, they failed to unequivocally say that calls for the genocide of jewish people violates their school's code of conduct. on saturday, pens president resign but on sand saturday, harvard faculty circulated a letter declaring that the university should keepand resist pressures. more than several hundred people have signed it. who else is in favor of gay staying on? >> last week there was an intense backlash against harvard leader. we heard from donors and ceos and lawmakers demanding that harvard cut ties with claudine gay, now there's been this impressive show of support for gay within the harvard community. here's the latest, black alumni have gathered more than 800 signatures in support , arguing that no one understands better than her, the need for harvard to be against hate, and they point out that claudine gay is the daughter of haitian immigrants. and we've heard from the harvard alumni association committee, they put out a statement saying that claudine has there unequivocal support and saying they have full confidence in her leadership during this time and all of this is on top of the now more than 700 harvard faculty members, who are pleading with harvard officials, not to get into political pressure by parting ways with , and what is interesting is some of the harvard faculty members who are coming out in support of her, they've actually been quite critical including harvard legal scholar, lawrence tried, he slammed her testimony as deeply troubling but now he's telling her that he signed the statement and he said external pressures from wealthy donors or politicians, we are on the road to tyranny. so boris, will all of this be enough to save gay's job? it's not clear yet but what is clear is that unlike liz magill, she does have a significan t amount of internal support. >> still to come, an extraordinary move, special counsel jack smith goes directly to the supreme court to resolve whether donald trump has immunity from prosecution. the latest attempt by smith to keep the election subversion trial on track and on time. intense fighting continues across gaza as casualties mount and the humanitarian crisis grows. the southern city is now the epicenter of hostilities with a live report coming up in just moments from tel aviv. later one of putin's harshest critics appears to have simply vanished. alexeiei navalny's's team saidi haveve not had c contact witith in six dayays. that anand muchch m more on cn central.l. we are following breaking news, special counsel jack smith has asked the supreme court to decide whether or not donald trump has immunity for alleged crimes that he committed while in office. it comes as we are getting new polling out today with five weeks until the iowa caucuses. >> a poll shows trump holding a significant lead of 51% and a new cnn poll also shows trump with an edge against president biden into battleground states, michigan and georgia. paula, let's start with you, and this extraordinary request by the special counsel, i've got to say when this popped up in my phone i thought wow, that is significant and it's a pretty aggressive move. >> you are right. it is significant and aggressive because here, the special counsel is trying to ensure that this case, the election subversion trial goes before a jury before the november election. so they are asking the supreme court to just decide, whether trump has immunity from criminal prosecution or, if you barred from prosecution because of double jeopardy. now the special counsel doesn't think either one of these apply but they want to resolve these questions, so this case can go to trial, in march, as scheduled. trump, we know, the key to his strategy is delay, delay, delay. these are legitimate constitutional questions that had never been resolved and he is litigating them. but now the question is supposed to go to the court of appeals but the traditional path could take months, even potentially over a year, that's why the special counsel is saying look, we need you to decide this now because it's in the public interest for this case to go to trial before the election and interestingly, they are relying on precedent from the next era, from the watergate investigation where the supreme court was able to resolve key issues quickly. now the question is, what is the supreme court going to do? >> and as paula was saying, this cuts to the trump strategy of delay, delay, delay. >> we are still waiting for an official comment. by think this is the most important aspect of this which is that trump's legal strategy is exhaust every possible legal avenue that you can and delay, delay, delay. they want this to be pushed until after the election. so this is part of a larger strategy and that's what we've seen. as paula said, this could have taken months and months had gone through the appeals court and up to the supreme court instead, they're saying let's just cut to the chase and essentially calling their bluff, putting them on notice that they are go going directly there to cut out the middleman and obviously we don't know what that means, we don't know if the supreme court will even take it up but it is definitely an aggressive maneuver. >> and we know that these legal cases have not heard trump's popularity among republicans, right, and the new cnn poll is illuminating what some of these gop primary voters think when it comes to her -- his fitness for office. >> 64% of republican primary voters in michigan say if true, they are not relevant to his fitness for office. 70% of republican primary voters in georgia say that. the vast majority of these voters in both states, which have pretty early primaries after the initial four states, say this should not be a relevant factor in their vote if proven true. >> for trump, it's engaging with voters that historically have shied away from the battlegrounds. he drove them out in 2016. for biden, it's getting folks that showed up for him in 2020 that don't seem that enthusiastic this time around about voting for him. >> sure, i would argue that trump drove new people out in 2020 as well. he got 74 million votes, more than he got in 2016. he has a unique ability to bring new people into the process. 63% of first-time caucus goers are with trump, that's 50 point ahead of anyone else on that score. that shows his ability is there to bring new people into the process and you are right to point out that there is a enthusiasm disadvantage for biden. you see the enthusiasm gap, actually both in michigan and georgia, where, likely republicans, republican leaning independents, 72% of them say they are extremely enthusiastic to vote in 2024. that is true of only 59% of necrotic leaning independents. that is a gap that the biden team will have to close between now and next november. >> we know how narrowly biden wounds with those key states. >> you know, we've seen a recent youth poll, sort of disengaged, saying there less interested in voting and 2024 and they were in the 2020 cycle but, we have a long way to go before its full activation time. the parties have until next november but at this moment in time, republicans do have an advantage. >> what about, you talk about the young voters, how is the isreal-hamas war impacting this? >> we asked in michigan how that is impacting the race and you see that overall, it's actually a pretty equally divided kind of electorate there. the plurality thing that the united states is doing about the right amount but there are significant portions of the electorate that think the biden policy is going to far and others think that it's not going far enough. >> we covered a lot of ground here. >> we did. coming up, intense fighting today in gaza as israel's military drives deeper into the palestinian territory. the number of israeli soldiers killed in gaza is now 100. the death toll topped 18,000. the us state department announced that more than 1200 americans and her family members have safely fled gaza but they are still working to get around 900 others out of the enclave as israel's war with hamas intensifies. there are massive explosions across gaza today. there was a blast lighting up the sky as night fell. the palestinian red crescent showed this rescue of a husband and wife who were trapped under rubble following a blast in central gaza. aid, it's still not getting an, and enough quantities. israeli authorities mouth of say they will use two crossings to help but they emphasized that no supplies will be entering gaza from israel. 61 trucks carrying humanitarian aid went through the crossing into gaza today, that's the smallest number in roughly a week. israeli authorities are saying they will start screaming trucks at the crossings. what impact is that going to have? >> hopefully it'll have a big impact , boris, the israelis are saying it could double the amount of trucks going into gaza, which is good news but it's not just the trucks going and that is the issue, it's also what they face once they get onto the other side and those are chaotic scenes that have been driven by this war. you have quite a few countries, egypt, the u.s., israel, and others plus the aid organizations that are all involved here. it's a complex puzzle. there's a lot of finger- pointing, a lot of blame to go around and a lot of people are playing the blame game but essentially what will happen now is that a lot of the shipments that are coming into port, they will now go to the other crossing for inspections. they have a strict inspections regime, and i once the trucks go through, as we've seen, the situation is just extraordinarily desperate. there are hundreds of thousands of people that are packed into the southern part of the gaza strip that a lot of the trucks are getting overwhelmed and people don't have enough food or water, not enough medicine and then the trucks aren't able to go further north, because the fighting, they can't get to people who have been displaced from the north, can't get to the hospitals. so what we've been hearing from the u.s., in a very soft language towards israel is israel and the humanitarian organizations me to the conflict as secretary blake and said, in order to better establish plans and routes and times, so that these trucks can go in and better distribute that aid. it's a very complicated situation but no doubt, this is good news that this crossing will be open, not to get get -- aid in but to inspect the aid. >> alex walked us through some of the challenges. what do you see as the biggest barrier to getting more aid in? >> we have a lot of issues here. you've got trucks coming in, and they are kind of being overtaken, you have mobs apparently coming at them because people are desperate of their hungry and you also have the difficulty of just being able physically, when you've got rubble and destruction, it's physically difficult but the thing that is so important here coming from the government, when they are asking israel to d conflict. the thing is, this is not new, and war. and israel should be able to do that, they should be able to work with the united nations to ensure that there are humanitarian zones and that's where the aid goes. but i will say one of the biggest challenges that we see is not only that hamas might try to take the aid for themselves or take it and sell it to their people, but hamas would also try to use those humanitarian zones to launch missiles and so on because they would know that those are supposed to be safe from being targeted by the israeli government. this is not uncommon in war and it can be achievable in war to send this aid in areas that are being targeted. >> the u.s. over the weekend vetoing the resolution calling for a cease-fire. we have heard from u.s. officials that israel needs to do more to ensure civilian safety. what's the latest that you heard from officials about getting aid in? >> boris, clearly, the u.s. is in a unique spot where it's increasingly lonely on the world stage, and it is the loan defender of the council vetoing that resolution for an immediate cease-fire but at the same time, it's really the only country in the world that can oppose any kind of real pressure on israel, so, you are hearing increasing alarm from the united states, perhaps not as much criticism as many would like but you are certainly hearing the u.s. putting this pressure on israel, to both increase the amount of aid coming into gaza, and we saw the israelis but and they started allowing more fuel in but also in terms of the fighting, and we heard secretary blinkin say there is still a gap between israel's intent to keep civilians safe and what is actually happening on the ground. clearly the u.s. is upset by the number of civilians being killed, so there's a lot of pressure from the u.s. behind the scenes and there's a hope in washington that this heavy phase of the war only last a couple more weeks. the on that, i can imagine that american patience is going to start running out pretty quickly, boris. >> there's new reporting that i want to get your thoughts on. details of this arrangement that was endorsed by prime minister benjamin netanyahu, that helped fund hamas for years, qatari's would essentially deliver between 15 million and $30 million in suitcases, to hamas in gaza, benjamin netanyahu defended the program saying that it would help her that humanitarian disaster but now as critics are incensed, they think the payments actually made hamas stronger and made october seventh more brutal. as the criticism of benjamin netanyahu valid in your eyes? >> yes, to answer quickly, the answer is yes. we've known about these payments for a while and the fact is there is no doubt that they would have helped support hamas. money is fungible. some of the aid is going to fuel. and so if hamas is not spending its budget on fuel and energy, that frees up money for them to spend on military capabilities. hamas has a number of ways that they finance themselves, they have charitable donations, they have investment funds, and so they have other ways of growing their assets but that is a significant way, the part that so ugly about this, is that it is a policy directly endorsed by the benjamin netanyahu government, where he says that it may allow israel to ensure that the aid goes for humanitarian purposes but he also added it would allow hamas to remain strong in order to divide palestinians to pit them against the palestinian authority. and that is critical. i think this is one of several of benjamin netanyahu's policies that created the opportunity for hamas to pursue the horrific terrorist attack on october seventh. >> thanks so much for the discussion. >> thanks. he was due to appear in court today but the imprisoned russian opposition leader alexei navalny is now missing. the state department and white house are concerned for his well-being. the latest on this story, coming up. an alarming situation right now in russia, the chief opposition leader to putin alexei navalny, has reportedly gone missing. he's been in prison since 2021 serving a more than 30 year sentence but his legal team says they haven't been able to locate him for six days now. and there's concern that he may be in poor health. steve, do you think this is just a case of alexei navalny being moved to a different place or is something else going on here, what do you think? >> we just don't know because at this point it so difficult to get reliable information outside of russia about what is going on inside russia especially if it has to do with anything concerning navalny in general. there was a rumor he was going be moved to a higher security prison, reserved for people who had committed crimes after being released and who were potentiall y violent types of prisoners, so he could be in process of going to that location in russia, typically if you move from one person to another, it's not a flight. they will put you on a train. he might be in movement to a new location or, because of concerns about his health, we can't rule out the possibility that he is either completely incapacitated or perhaps dead and the russians don't want to raise that, at this point. >> i was going to ask about the illness. you mentioned it's hard to get information from the state department and they said they are deeply concerned about this. is there a way for the u.s. or other countries to gain intelligence about you know, where he could be? you mentioned that he's being moved from one place to another, i mean, is there anyway for the u.s. to track that? >> yeah, it's really, really tough, pam. there's obviously ways we can try and do it and of course the people on navalny's team are going to try to continue to get information but we will have to see if anyone can locate him but you have to remember that the kremlin and putin would like nothing more than four navalny simply to disappear not only on the russian stage but on the international stage. he remains a threat to putin as long as he is alive and publicly out there and able to somehow communicate with the outside world. >> do you make anything of the timing of this? do you think this is a coincidence with zelenskyy coming to washington, what do you think? can you hear me, steve? i think we lost the connection. all right, that was steve talking about the fact that alexei navalny, opposition leader to putin hasn't been seen in six days according to his team. it's one of the richest contracts in professional sports worth hundreds of millions of dollars. how the dodgers won the race to sign baseball's biggest star, that is next.. the speculation is over, it's official, two-time american league mvp shohei ohtani is costing the l.a. streets and turning dodger blue. the former los angeles a no angel, shared the news with fans on instagram, his deal is making a lot of headlines, 10 years, 700 million years, that's a major-league record. pretty much a record and any leave. joining us now, don rendell, great to see you. a lot of angels fans, feeling blue right now. >> yeah, i think that's a $700 million understatement but look, it didn't work out with them, did it, he never even won a playoff game in his career up until this point there thinking he will be more successful with the doctors and playing on a fabulous team with freddie freeman and mookie betts. i agree with you, the number is the story, $700 million, it's eye watering. you think about patrick mahomes, he's at $450 million, this is shattering all of that, the other thing that's interesting is he's not going to get all of the money straightaway, and it's not even 700w10 years, a lot of it will be deferred and that is so that the doctors can invest that money in building a team because he really does want to win the big prizes and he hasn't been particularly successful in that regard in his career. that's what it's all about. it's all about the money for us, for shohei ohtani, he just wants to get out there and play on a good team and win some titles. >> a big weekend for lebron james, he was named the mvp of the inaugural season tournament and his son, brawny, making a big debut, at times, looking a bit like the old man. >> this was the perfect weekend for lebron james, he would be the first to say, this new in season tournament, the nba cup is in the most important thing, it's always nice to win trophies of course and have more accolades on the resume but his team played well and they wanted to win, lebron was the mvp but probably the most important thing this weekend was seeing his son, bronny, play his first ever college game. i think the parents among us who have kids who play sports can relate to just how special this would be but of course it's not just that, remember, bronny have a cardiac arrest five months ago when he was in a preseason work out with his team and there was so much concern around that time, and so, to see him bounce back from that, have his dad courtside, it must've been so special for the family and he has taken one step closer towards the james dream of lebron and bronny one day playing on the same team in the nba. >> watching that block by bronny, i feel like somewhere andre is shedding a two. thanks for being with us. he's the cnn hero of the year, a dedicated veterinarian that gives free medical care to the pets of people experiencing homelessness. details, when we come back. i'm a little anxious, i'm a little excited. i'm gonna be emotional, she's gonna be emotional, but it's gonna be so worth it. i love that i can give back to one of our customers. i hope you enjoy these amazing gifts. oh my goodness. oh, you guys. i know you like wrestling, so we got you some vip tickets. you have made an impact. so have you. for you guys to be out here doing something like this, it restores a lot of faith in humanity. 10 worthy candidates took to the stage with a chance to be the cnn hero of the year last night in new york and in the end, stuart took the honor. his project street that provide it's much needed veterinarian care. >> i returned with a sandwich for myself and for him, he tore off the sub sandwich, he turned does my tore off just the corner and gave the rest to his dog. and, they've taught me a lot, too. i will close by saying this, an act of kindness can change your day, change someone's day, an act or gesture of kindness, can change somebody's life. thank you. >> wow, it's making me teary- eyed. such a powerful moment. well earned. he also dedicated his award to the other honorees, just a powerful moment there. >> those pets, they mean everything to everyone and it's incredible what he does. the lead with jake tapper starts now.