semiautomatic rifles used in many mass shootings and raising the age to 21 to purchase those weapons even though the killer in uvalde, texas, was only 18 years old and wielded an ar-15 style weapon. why not raise the age to 21 for people buying semiautomatic rifles? we re talking about a lot of things, and what we re talking about most are background checks, juvenile records, the areas where we can get consensus. why don t you have agreementd greement on that. we have a lot of people in the discussion. we have to get 60 votes, hopefully we can get 5. why do people even need ar-15s? the challenge you have on that is there s 20 million of them in the country already. they are a sporting rifle. and it s something that a lot of people, for purposes of going out, target shooting. in my state, they use them to shoot prairie dogs and other types of varmint. i think there are legitimate reasons peep want to have them. what also might not we be included, expanding backgr
not the last aid package for ukraine has been overwhelmingly approved by the u.s. congress. a rare and notable achievement given the deep political divisions between democrat and republican lawmakers. on thursday, the $40 billion aid package for both military and humanitarian assistance passed the senate, but not without opposition. 11 republicans voted against the bill in defiance of republican mitch mcconnell. anyone concerned about the cost of supporting a ukrainian victory should consider the much larger cost should ukraine lose. president biden is now heading to south korea and is expected to sign the bill into law once he arrives. but wait there s more. just as the senate approved that $40 billion, the biden administration announced another security package worth $100 million and the flood of money to ukraine comes at a critical moment. ukraine s top military commander claims his troops have broken the russian siege s at kharkiv and miykolaiv and says ukrainia for
live from atlanta, this is cnn newsroom with kim brunhuber. u.s. president joe biden is expected to land in south korea next hour to begin his very first asia trip as president. he ll spen most of the weekend in the country holding talks with the new south korean president before heading to japan, where he ll be meeting with japan s prime minister as well as indian and australian leaders. officials say the trip to asia comes later in his presidency than he might have liked, but biden plans to, in his words, quote, affirm the importance of our indo-pacific alliances. cnn s kivevin liptak is live fr seoul. it s taken a while for him to make his first trip in his presidency. he is certainly coming over later than his recent predecessor, and probably a little later than he would have liked to. president biden has tried to make asia a center of his foreign policy, just like president obama did. just like president trump did. but he has been stymied somewhat by these other
there. with china in mind. but as biden prepares to head overseas, there are concerns that north korea is preparing to test an intercontinental ballistic missile in the coming days, one more dose of saber ra rattling. the other major story we re following, the u.s. economy in flux, to say the least. wall street set for another rough day, dow futures already down. you see there this morning. after the markets worst day in nearly two years yesterday, ending down nearly 1200 points, 3.5% or so. inflation fears now depressing investor sentiment. many ceos are stating their concerns of a recession could be coming. let s begin at the white house, cnn s john harwood is there. so, first, john to this meeting today, sweden and finland, two countries that avoided membership in the alliance for years, for decades in fact, the invasion of ukraine changed that, the president showing his support today. reporter: that s right. and this is one of a series of consequences that have unfolde
even as the threat of a north korea missile test looms during this visit. all this is a balancing act as russia s war in ukraine hangs over the white house. today in another public show of support, the president met with leaders of finland and sweden as they pushed to join nato, a historic step as more countries unite against russia and condemn its invasion. the big question here is can turkey get on board? we are following all the headlines out of ukraine and the state of play there. first, let s start at the white house and we are joined now. arlette, tell us more about the president s message and his mind set as he s embarking on this. he s flying to asia for his first trip to the region as president. officials said he had hoped to get there earlier in his presidency, but was constrained due to covid-19 and other crises such as the war in ukraine. but the president will be traveling to both south korea and japan to meet with the leaders of each of the countries as well a