vaccine shots in the first 100 days, being met today. the biden foreign policy challenge on front and center, after a testy day one of first biden talks with china. the american chinese trading insults, the same day a sneering back and forth from the russian president to team biden. this morning the president stressing what you might call a wait and see approach to both of these global challenges. what s your reaction to china last night? very proud of the secretary of state. are you going to take vladimir putin up on his offer to talk live with you? i m sure we ll talk at some point. have you on russia, sir? that will come in time. up first, though for us today a game changing move in america s covid back to school debate. the centers for disease control last hour changing its classroom safety guidelines. the cdc says three feet of separation is safe, cutting in half the current recommendation to keep students six feet apart. masks are still required but the
country as police investigate what may have motivated these murders. anti-asian attacks and hate crimes have been rising sharply since the pandemic hit. let s get the latest from ryan young live this morning in atlanta. good morning. good morning. eight people killed. that s a number that so many people are astonished by. we know police were able to use surveillance video which tied all these scenes together. it s an investigation that still is ongoing. a shooting rampage at three spas in the atlanta metro area tuesday leaving eight people dead and one wounded. police apprehending one suspect. 21-year-old robert aaron long of woodstock, georgia. video evidence suggests it s extremely likely the same person is responsible for all three shootings. georgia state patrol troopers performed a pit maneuver which caused the vehicle to spin out of control. he was taken into custody without incident. reporter: the first shooting took place outside of atlanta at young s asian mass
investigators say robert aaron long gunned down people in a spa in cherokee county. investigators say long travelled less than an hour south to atlanta and shot and killed two more people at massage businesses across the street from each other. today the sheriff s department said long is talking to investigators and telling them a sexual addiction drove him to violence. it s still early but the indicators right now are it may not be, it may be targets of opportunity. again, we re we believe that he frequented these places in the past and may have been lashing out, and part of that in your media packet as well. but it s a sexual addiction rather than a racial profiling? during our interviews we asked that specific question and that did not appear to be the motive. cnn s natasha chen is in atlanta. officials say the gunman was headed to florida when arrested and his family was critical in the arrest. reporter: yeah, the family of the suspect was critical in helping
the biden administration wants to see made permanent. so, i think this is part of building that for them. and the questions are whether or not they actually get there, but also how the execution of it goes. so, that s how you saw president biden say he s tapping gene sperling, this long-time democratic economic aide to oversee the spending here. he was talking about how when he oversaw the stimulus bill in 2009 amid the great recession, how crucial it was to just be on the phone, have these conversations at a granular level to make sure there is no fraud or abuse or mis-spending. i think that s the next big tactic for them to go after because, of course, republicans are going to be watching very closely for any kind of a misstep and if they haven t properly communicated it. be cautious, fullcourt press, that s number one. number two, what s the story out of the cdc today? we re getting new reporting that some of the covid guidelines put in place by the trump administration
meanwhile, the head of the cdc is pleading with americans to continue wearing masks, physical distancing and other precautions to avoid another covid-19 surge as more states open up. the cdc says that one in five americans has now had at least one covid vaccine dose. we re also following new developments here in washington in the capitol siege. two men have now been arrested and charged for assaulting police officer brian sicknick who later died. the men are accused of working together to spray police including sicknick with a toxic chemical spray. let s begin over at the white house right now, our chief white house correspondent kaitlan collins is joining us. the president wants the americans to know that the covid relief package is much more than direct stimulus checks. update our viewers. reporter: yeah, wolf, he does. that might be the most tangible given it was put directly in americans bank accounts over the weekend, but the white house is saying there s a lot more h