heading to south korea. his first trip to asia as president while pyongyang watches closely. and the taliban continues to roll back the rights of women in afghanistan. now forcing a choice between covering their faces or losing their on-air jobs. live from cnn center, this is cnn newsroom with john vause. a bill authorizing $40 billion in u.s. aid to ukraine is on its way to seoul, south korea, for president joe biden s signature. the aid package easily passed the u.s. senate on thursday but does not take effect until it is signed. another $100 million worth of artillery, radar and other e equipment headed to ukraine. and more than 1,000 cars have been blocked at a russian checkpoint for four days. the convoy is trying to reach ukrainian-held territory. with reports many making that journey are running low on food and water. in mariupol, more than 1,700 ukrainian troops have surrendered at the steel factory. cnn cannot verify that report, but an unknown number of sold
and by these other foreign hot spots. he s traveling here much later than his predecessors might have and really sort of thrown into question the idea of this whole pivot to asia. that s something that president 0 bam many talked about, that president trump alluded to, as well. now it s president biden s turn to turn his attention and renew what he s said what is the defining challenge of the 21st century, to counter china. when you see him here in seoul the first couple of hours, his first stop will be at a samsung plant that manufacturers these semiconductor chips that are so important to critical technologies, including cars. there s been a shortage of those because of plant shutdowns in china and one of president biden s main initiatives is to wean the united states off of chinese microchips and trying to find other sources of them, including in the united states, but also among allies in the region. so, that s something that you ll hear president biden talk about when he first get
think that s exactly right. you have to remember that carter page is sort of one of the first investigative issues in this whole russia question, going back to the summer. so, he s one of the people that the fbi is interested in first and he is also one we ve reported previously that there was a fisa warrant, intelligent surveillance warrant out on his communications, because of this concern that he may, essentially, be in regular contact with russian officials who are maybe steering him in some way, or manipulating him in some way. all of which he deny, by the way, but that was the concern, and i think, frankly, the questioning in march shows it was still a concern then. interesting. thanks to everybody. coming up, the white house saying another washington post article makes it clear there was no collusion between russia and the president and his society yates and that the 0 bam maobam administration knew there was no collusion. fwou put it bluntly, that s not what the article
is right, it is arguably worse for him than if he is wrong. the president of the united states barack obama cannot unilaterally order a wiretap. if there was a wiretap it was because the law enforcement officials in the 0 bam that administration were able to convince a judge that there was sufficient grounds, sufficient reason of concern about collusion with a foreign agent to justify the war tap. as lindsey graham said yesterday, that would be a source of great concern if it were true at all. but certainly today you re seeing the former officials saying it never happened at all. i don t think we know the answer yet one way or the other within but it is a strange place for the president to be in, essentially where if he is valid in what he s saying, it says that the charges are more sirius than we have known to that point. and additionally now the trump administration, president trump and even by way of his spokesperson today saying we want a congressional
it has not occurred yet. during the transition, i asked general flynn whether or not any there any other conversations between the ambassador, and he said no. reporter: spicer said the subject of those calls, general flynn told him that they just spoke about a handful of things. one call that he referenced there, between trump and putin, which hasn t been arranged yet, but also holiday pleasantries. trump team says they did not discuss the sanctions, and keep in mind, that s key, because december 29th, when we know one of the calls took place, that was the very same day the 0 bam many administration imposed sanctions. regardless of what spicer and flynn are saying, there s clearly enough here that u.s. investigators consider this an important question to look into, not just the calls themselves, but again, the content of the calls. jim, thank you very much. and now, our national security commentator, mike rogers, and the former coordinator for count counterterr